Nylia opened her eyes to see the night’s sky above her. For one moment she marveled at the glorious span of stars before her eyes widen and a look of agony skirted across her features. The pain was incredible. Bits and pieces of what happened flashed through her mind. The farmhands, too many of them came rushing at her. Solly fighting and clawing his way to protect her. She fell to the ground. The pitchfork piercing her right side, the rusty tines breaking a rib, bouncing off another to break through the skin on her back, pinning her to the ground. The pain had been more than she could handle and as blackness filled her vision, Solly coming into view, pouncing on the farmer, catching his neck with his fangs. The last sound she heard was the crunching of the farmer’s bones as Solly gnawed on him.

Taking a deep breath caused her side to hurt, Ny let out a whimper of pain. She closed her eyes and panted shallowly, willing the pain to ease. Suddenly Solly was there, licking the side of her face. Ny opened her pain glazed eyes to see her companion standing over her. She blinked at his appearance, gone was the proud spring paw, in it’s place was a torn and blood matted lynx. A piece of his ear missing, a cut across his muzzle.

“Oh, my baby..” Ny tried to speak but her words came out as a whisper, the pain taking her words away.

She turned her gaze to her surroundings, moving her head tentatively. From what she could see, she was partially under a tree. Solly must have drug her there. But where were they? How long had she been unconscious?

Gritting her teeth against the pain, she raised her right hand to feel her side. The head of the pitchfork was still in her side, but the shaft had been broken off. She wondered if Solly had done that. It has to come out, she thought. It wasn’t a life threatening wound, but if infection set in from the rusty tines, it would become one.

She brought both hands up to grasp the metal tines and tugged as hard as she could. It would not budge, one tine lodged firmly between two ribs and her strength too slight to move it. Ny let out a scream as she pulled, Solly roared at the sound of his mistress’s agonized cry. Ny’s arms fell back to her sides, her fingers grasping at the grass ,as tears ran down the sides of her face. The stars above her swirled together as she passed out. Her last thought was she needed help to pull.

When Ny’s head lulled to the side, Solly nudged it. He let out a plaintive whine at her, but there was no response. He walked circles around her, willing her to get up. Finally he came to lay down at her side, facing away from her. He could still smell the humans out there, but other animal scents were coming to him on the breeze. None of the scents were friendly ones and he had to protect her.