A Warrior's Redemption (The Warrior Kind)

The evening shadows were thick on the land as I had walked through the glen on my way home, not looking forward to my mother's scolding for not leaving earlier. Suddenly the hairs on the back of my neck had stood up straight, as some primal instinct alerted me to a danger I could not see. I had broken into an all-out run for home not caring if I was making a big fool of myself or not so convinced was I that something was out there intent on getting me.

I could see the glow of the kitchen light ahead of me dimly through the gloom of the forest. The darkness around me seemed to scream at me. When had it gotten so dark and why was that light so far away?

Crack!

I could now hear the danger; some forgotten instinct had alerted me to! Panting heavy, my heart beat sounding like a drum in my own ears I had glanced over my left shoulder and beheld a living nightmare closing in fast! A hulking marsh cat, easily weighing over two hundred pounds was leaping over deadfalls and around tree trunks headed straight for me, with no good intent toward me gleaming in its huge glowing eyes. My head whipped back around and I ran the race of my short life.

I don't know how I was able to keep my footing in the littered jumble of the forest floor, but I did somehow, leaping over rocks and almost slamming into trees several times. Suddenly a large familiar hand appeared out of nowhere and grabbed the front of my shirt and heaved me up through the air, as if I had been no more than a feather's worth in weight to land me behind a large sycamore trunk. Recognizing my father with a relieved gasp of air I watched as with one fluid motion he stepped out from behind the tree and unsheathed the old sword that usually sat above the mantle in our home covered in dust. With the grace of a cat my father quickly moved towards the approaching feline shortening the distance dramatically.

The marsh cat sensing the easy game of 'tag you're it', had altered significantly tried to stop, as its massive muscles clenched tight and its paws dug up furrows in the loose debris of the forest, but it was too late. My father's quick advance had closed the distance between him and the cat, and with one smooth overhand swish of the blade the big cat's head went rolling into the underbrush, as its body fell lifeless at my father's feet.