Excerpt
The following except is taken from chapter where Pavion emancipates herself from her clan
Pavion stares are menacing as she prepares to engage the smaller clan member. Its purrs and coos are almost tranquil and quite soothing. She, however, is not moved by the infants actions. This is an unwanted advancement that servers as a challenge and an opportunity to quill her veracious appetite. In manner similar to defensive posturing, she quickly turns towards the infant-like creature and strikes a deliberate attack stance. With the quick shifting, her legs strike up loose twigs and dirt which finds their way into the face of the smaller female. The smell of the infants fear is overwhelming to her as she is lowering her chest close to the ground. She then raises her torso in preparation for the attack.
The approach towards the target is ever so slow, however as she is in the act of pouncing, actions are abruptly interrupted by an even larger and more muscular female.
Although she is young and virile, she is acutely aware that the injuries she sustained preclude her from any chance of ever being the victor in this situation. To this realization, she reluctantly lowers the rear of her torso and then her chest as an act of conceding in show of respect. She never looks into the eyes of the dominant member as she is aware that her glance may be mistaken for aggression.
To further show her unwillingness to fight, she then purrs thus showing submission and that she is no longer a threat.
To this subservient action the larger female bears multiple rows of serrated teeth before she nudges the child forward and secures it within her mouth. Pavion raises her head slightly to witness the member carrying off the child. The large female looks back over her shoulder and stares blankly at her once more, before turning and continuing on to eventually vanish within a thick wood line.
Pavion lowers her head once again but this time as a means to position herself to where she could continue to witness the remaining of the birthing ritual. After a few moments of restless movement, she finally configures her body in to a prone position and places her head onto her hands as she relaxes into her semi catatonic state.
She awakens a while later and within the moment subsequent to the culminating of the birthing process. Her senses are ultra-sensitive and the smell the last of the new births emerging is almost unbearable. One by one the newborn would make their way into the world and as the female lay in recovery a male would advance cautiously to retrieve the new born and usher it to safetyjust as they rehearsed.
This is the ritual that she is mature enough to follow, so she curiously limps forward in order to obtain better view at the new additions to the clan. She watches as the newborns sat before the males still covered in afterbirth with eyes still tightly shut. They appeared to shiver as they are being groomed and selected by the anxious male clan members. Their movements afterward the grooming are lethargic and their purrs are seemingly in unison. Pavion looks down toward her stomach as she felt her baby respond to the purrs of the others. At the moment when her curiosity is at its peek, she is startled by a loud Screeeel causing her to lose footing.
She quickly recovers from the mishap and sees that the others within the clan have also assumed a defensive posture. The tension in the group slowly subsides once the source of the warning call is found not to be an attack. The sound had come from a trouble mother who was experiencing a complicated birth. Due to the excitement associated with the event, her distress was over looked by the others.
Screeeel!!!! The distressed female is heavily bleeding as she stumbles forward into the birthing circle. In response the others within the circle scamper away as a method of shunning the distressed mother. Unfortunately, the other members will not intervene in the case of a distress during the birthing process...its not permitted. The distressed female must give birth to the infant without any assistance or they both will be allowed to parish.
In this particular instantboth mother and child do. In response to the death of a fellow clan member, there is a prompt out burst of slow pain filled moans which are perhaps an act of mourning for the group.
Pavion, however, is not moved by the demise of the birthing mother. Her attention is currently distracted by what appears to be balls of glowing lights dancing about to her left near the far end of the wood line. Once the lights dissipate, her attention reverts back towards the circle only to see that it is being abandoned. Next, she rises up into a seated stance and scans the environment curiously before above too began to leave the scene. The day is ending, the light from above is dwindling and she is exhausted. She looks over her shoulder and pauses as she sees several clan members cleaning up the discarded mess left from the ritual. In the center of the circle two large males heatedly guard the birthing area from the others would be poachers, but they themselves are soon engaged in a veracious battle for the carcass of the deceased mother and infants.
Pavion turns around bends down and sniffs the ground then looks back at the two bloodied males engaged in a carnivorous battle. She turns around sniffs the ground once more before she heads for the protective cover of the wood line.
It is nearly noon of the following day when Pavion returns to her safe spot. She closely watches a pack of males tarring their way through heavy foliage as they rip their way into a dense spot in the wood line. Although her external demeanor appears emotionless, she finds herself reeling from the experience she witnesses the previous night...after the ritual.
Due to her physical condition compiled with the steadily aggressive actions of the larger males, her safety is becoming compromised. She imagines that the clan is biding time with her, and is only waiting for a moment of opportunity. With this though, she is aware that her window of survival is shrinking exponentially. In light of these facts, she is also critically aware that she has to go at it alone. And, she would choose this day as the decided moment to separate from the clanthe moment none-the-less that may determine her continued existence.
The time of her departure is ideal as she is aware that such an activity as the current hunt would heighten the other clan members senses thereby easily distracting their attention as they become engorged within the spill of blood, carnage and the delicious stench. She carefully studies their habits from the elevated position; their movements were becoming both stealthy and deliberate. She trembles slightly as she watches the maniacal expressions of the males as they continue burrowing back the forth through the heavy vegetation.
They are helplessly linked onto the scent of what appear to be the urine of their clan leader. She moans as she too catches whiff of the buttery scent but is aware that she can not be distracted from what may be the only chance she has at a continued survival.
Immersed within the very thought of self preservation, she slowly crawl to a limp. She raises her gimpy leg in efforts to give it at least a brief moments rest. Next, she stands for a few minutes longer scouting both of her flanks before she takes a final scan to the rear of her position. Seeing that the coast is temporarily clear, she turn in a direction perpendicular to the hunting party, closes her eyes and with everything she has left within her, she darts feverously into that direction moving at her top most speed. The pain searing within her at this point is radiating into all her extremities as well into her stomach.
There are also the additional contractions she experiences as the passenger within began to express its dissatisfaction with the roughness of the ride.
The life within would kick her on several occasions during the sprint causing a series of stumbling. It is only through her sheer will to preserver that she is able to regain her composure and balance after each stumble and continue onward with her desertion.
Pavion continues to travel at top speed all the while enduring the crippling pain that has now wrecked every inch of her body. She maintains this pace until she can no longer sense the pack. Once she could no longer feel its presence or the presence other clan members for that mattershe lets up.
The abrupt change of speed causes her to stumble onto her right side and slide awkwardly for several feet. She would lay there motionless for sometime as she attempts to catch her breath and assess her thoughts.
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