by Gabe Sluis
Chapter 23- The Shadow
“What, do you think it’s the shooter?” Chris asked.
“Donny, man. I know its dark and kinda creepy out here, but are you sure you aren’t seeing something? Are you sure its not your imagination?” Jake said.
“No. I swear I’ve been seeing the same thing every time the lightning lights up the woods. I think it’s a tiger, or some sort of big cat…”
“What makes you think it’s a cat?”
“Are you sure? Come on…”
“Yes, damn it, Jake! I’m sure. I know what I saw. It was just the shape of its shoulder blades and I saw a tail. Its eyes were like one of my dogs when you shine a light on them in the dark. There is a mountain cat out there. A cougar.”
The other two didn’t know what to say. If Donny had been seeing something out there, whether it was something or not, they might as well get out of this area as fast as they could. But, they had Chris to worry about, so he was their pace.
“Let’s walk together from now on,” Jake said. “If it is some kind of big animal, we should stay in a pack to look like a larger target.”
“Yeah, that’s smart. We wouldn’t want it picking off Donny, the lone zebra.”
“Thanks…”
“Do mountain lions even live in the redwoods?” Chris asked.
“Well, they feed off deer, which I could totally see living here,” Donny said. He had been a boy scout as a kid, so he seemed to be the expert. Lightning struck close again and the area was momentarily lit with a flash of white-blue light. The storm was still overhead and the wind had picked up. Leaves blew from left to right.
“There!” Donny shouted, pointing ahead. “I think it just crossed the trail ahead of us!”
“Shit… I think I saw it too. A tail. At least,” Jake said.
“I didn’t see anything!”
A second strike of lightning in the span of a few breaths again illuminated the area. They were on a downhill stretch of the trail, with big trees all around except off to their left, where the area looked as if it had been logged in the not so recent past. On a stump that was cut six feet off the ground, sat the backlit form of the cougar.
“Crap! I see it now! Its eyes are lit up!” Chris yelled over the wind.
It was big, bigger than any of them thought a cougar would be. It let out a throated growl that went from barely audible, to a full-vocalized scream. The noise was paralyzing, sending a shiver down the spine of each boy. “That sounds like a bigger version of a pissed off house cat,” Chris whispered to the others.
“Like a house cat on steroids… Lets just keep on walking like this, real slow. Maybe it will let us pass,” Jake said. Even in the dark, they could now see the unmistakable figure of the big cat perched on the trunk. Jake prodded his friends to move.
But, another few steps and the cat launched itself in the boys’ direction.
Lightning again struck, this time in a flurry, creating a strobe effect in the dark woods. The flashes of light gave the effect that the cat was almost teleporting closer and closer with each pound of the lightning. The cougar went from its perch to the road in one frame, and the next he was slinking down the trail in slow motion, legs bent, preparing for the assault.
Chris shoved his friends to the side and used his crutch like a helicopter prop. He began to yell at the top of his lungs, which was not much compared to the wind and thunder that stole his voice away. Regardless, the cougar kept to his advance.
The strikes stopped for a moment, and the boys were again left in the dark like insects in a shoebox. Chris’s heart was racing, seeing the big cat’s form within a few car lengths. He stopped swinging his crutch and was preparing to launch it like a missile at the oncoming attacker when the sound of Donny’s flute stopped him.
The sweet sound of the airy tones was all encompassing. The sounds of nature around them fell away and were replaced by a simple tune. Chris and Jake could, at first, not keep their eyes off Donny. He was captivating, playing his simple resolving tune, hair flapping around his face. It was like time froze.
And so had the cougar. They could see the bearded beast’s gaze locked on Donny, head cocking to the right. The wild look had gone from his face, and no one was afraid. Donny ended his tune, and the big cat gave out a huff.
With wide eyes, Jake and Chris watched the cat walk up to Donny and head butt his upper leg. With a flick of its tail, and an almost audible purring noise the big cat finished its inspection of the maker-of-sweet-noises. Almost as fast as it came, it turned around and was gone, back into the darkness of the woods.
The storm had broken while the boys’ attention was elsewhere and now the big, luminous moon was fighting its way through the clouds. The path deeper into the redwoods was now much more clear. Without a word, the three sons of John McCourtney traveled onward to the main goal of their quest, armed with a new confidence and resolve to see things through. They went.