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It happened so fast I didn’t know what went down till after the attack. I was five and walking out on my own behind my house in the thick foliage that made up the bottom of the forest, the air was cool for spring, the animals made their daily chatter, and the sky was a clear crisp blue. I was out to get blue berries, though mother had told me that they needed a few more weeks until we could pick them, but I knew of a thicket that bloomed early and produced berries a month before the others. I was thinking about how full I wanted the small jack-o-lantern bucket that I had for my Halloween candy to be when I was done, when it happened. A monster, that I later found out was a lower class demon, attacked me. His eyes were a brownish-red not the blood or ruby red that most have, his tan mane was messy/straggly and ran down his spine, his lower half was that of an animals… a dog or cat I couldn’t tell, but his torso was cut up and scared with claw marks and other wounds. He didn’t even have to look at me after his first food or paw hit the small path to attack me.
He charged me and was about to make the only strike he needed to kill me when a black blur slammed into him. I saw the black blur become a large black cat, like the ones that papa loved to film but they were yellow with black spots or blotches, but he growled and a low hiss came from his mouth. The monster answered with a soft roar then looked passed the cat at me, it’s eyes narrowed and it crouched to attack me again. The cat roared loudly, nothing like what I had heard from papa’s movies or at the zoo, and I bolted back to the house dropping my bucket as I scrambled over dirt, rocks, small roots, and through short fat ferns and weeds. I reached my home, ran into the already opened door, and up the stares to my small room. I didn’t leave until mother called up that it was dinner and that I had to eat. I slowly left my room and eat my dinner, as my big sister giggled that I was jumpy. Well she’d be jumpy too if a monster attacked her and a zoo animal had gotten loose.
Mother asked me where my jack-o-lantern bucket was, so I told her that I lost it in the woods… Papa was about to leave the table to go get it when a knock came from the back door. I screamed, I was five, scared, and praying that monsters didn’t know how to knock on doors. Papa told me to hush as he opened the door, and looked out to see the setting sun and no one at the door. Peeking his head out to see if it was a kid, his foot bumped my bucket sitting on the only step smiling full with fresh blue berries from my thicket. Papa picked it up and set it on the counter for mother to clean in the morning, then wondered how there were berries at this time of year. We finished dinner and helped papa pack for his trip to South America, Careen always begged papa to bring her back some clothes or trinkets, mother asked him to be safe and not to take too many risks. They went to clean up as I stayed to keep papa company, he asked me if I wanted anything and I told him no… I was simple at the time… he told me that he’d take a good picture of a pretty bird or a funny monkey for me. I asked him if he had any pictures of big black cats, and he smiled. That smile told me everything I needed to know, he did. Papa walked over to his computer and pulled up a file from a trip to Africa and another from when he went to South America before. He clicked on a few and let me sit on his lap as he showed them to me. “These a black jaguars, and this one is a black leopard… a lot of people call them black panthers. Are these the cats you meant Xenny?” he asked
The jaguars didn’t look like the cat I saw, but the leopard did. I told my papa that the leopard looked small and fat compared to my leopard. Papa laughed and asked if I had a black leopard friend. I shook my head and hugged him good night.
I woke up as my papa left that morning to get on the plane, 3... 1... 2... 3:12 Careen was nice to teach me how to read and tell time… I could even write my name, phone number and street. Mother was told by some man that I was vary advanced for my age group, and at the time I didn’t understand what he meant.
I rolled out of bed and went down stairs to get some homemade apple juice, and saw my jack-o-lantern bucket smiling at me. That’s when I heard a low moaning growl come from outside, like ones that I had heard on papa’s tapes right before they saw a big cat. I opened the back door and saw the forest bathed in moonlight. I walked quickly out of the house, barefoot, in to the forest instantly finding the path I had been on yesterday. I followed the sound deeper, towards my thicket, and stepped in a cold puddle as I passed the area the monster had attacked me at. I reached the small tunnel like opening to the thicket and went in still following the moaning roar, but as I passed a low branch my night pants ripped a little and the sad sound stopped. Still I went on, only stopping when I reached the thicket cave as I called it I looked around the dark area not seeing anything. Stepping lightly to the center I turned around and started mumbling about stupid animals when I felt a hand cover my mouth and an arm pin my own to my body. Thinking that it was the monster again I tried to scream, and bite it’s hand.
“Hushhhhhhhhhh, little one. I am no demon, nor do I mean you harm.” a slightly ruff deep tenor voice spoke in my ear. I continued to struggle not wanting to be eaten by this guy, “ Child if you do not still yourself and stay quite, I will make you sleep… now stop!”
I stopped moving and started to cry harder, I still wonder when I had started crying, then the hands let me go but the warm body behind me didn’t go away. “There now… what are you doing out here at this ungodly hour?” I squeaked when the same hands that held me still turned me around to look at their owner. Amber almost molten gold eyes looked me up and down inspecting me. The man was young… mother and Careen would both say that he looked like a model from one of their clothing books… his face was pail but not sickly, and kind but playful. His long unbound shoulder length hair was slightly wavy and the deepest black I had seen, and barley touched his well toned shoulders. He was thin but not skinny like Randy, Careen’s boyfriend, but more like his body was made of compact muscle made for a runner and swimmer. He wore a black sleeveless trench, black louse pants that were ripped up at the bottoms but no shoes. His feet were bare and let her see his black toenails. There were odd patterns on his body in thin solid black lines, waves and swirls. He had a thick sliver band around his left ankle and his wrist, as well as a golden band around his right arm. I looked back into his eyes and saw a playfulness that had been on Randy’s and papa’s face a few times when Careen and mother looked at them. “Are you going to answer me young one?”
“I was getting some juice when I heard a big cat papa called a black panther.” I mumbled
The man smiled and chuckled, “I see, well you should have stayed back at home. Come,” the man stood up then picked me up like papa did, “Let’s get you back home.” He walked out of the thicket on to the forest path. His eyes looking forward, never at me, then I glimpsed something shiny under his thick hair. Reaching forward and under his hair, I pushed it out of my way to see the golden earring band glittering in the moonlight. I then looked at his ear fully and was confused as to why it was pointed and the tip black, it looked like black fur on a kitty so I did what all curios kids would have done, I touched it… it felt like one of mother’s dress jackets. Then I felt a rumble from the man as his eyes flashed to look at my face, “Don’t do that child.” My face must have shown him my confusion be for I could ask. “My ears are not something you should touch.” Pulling my hand a way from his ears I started to look at the black markings on him. While following the thin lines that dipped, curled, and rise I fell asleep. When I woke up Mother was drinking a cup of coffee in the chair across from me, I was on the couch with one of my blankets, and she saw that I was up. Asking me if I had had a bad dream I knew that she didn’t put my blanket over me, she puts her shawl over me when I come down stairs from a nightmare. I told her that I had, not knowing if what had happened early this morning was a dream or not, but it wasn’t bad.
I got up and pulled my heavy blanket back to my room, and got dressed for my first day of school. The day passed like Careen had said that it might, quick and slow at the same time. As I was leaving the school to meet up with my older sister at the bus stop between our schools, I saw him sitting in one of the big trees that had an old swing, the panther that had escaped the zoo. He was watching me with a playfully kind look, but he didn’t move when I spotted him, so I walked over and sat down on the swing. I looked up pretending to watch the birds that refused to land in their tree, but really looked at the big cat, and spoke. “You know, your going to get in big trouble if you stay there where the others can see you.” then I looked down, “And thank you for saving me yesterday from the monster.” then I heard the school bell chime and jumped out of the swing, “Ah! Sis’ isn’t going to be happy if I make her wait!” then I chanced a look at the cat that was almost one with the shade, and saw a glint of gold attached to his ears. Three simple bands of gold were in his ears, one on his left and two on his right. I smiled and whispered before I ran to meet up with Careen “I’m going to call you Kuron, Ok!” then I took off. I didn’t know that I would see more of my panther Kuron, or the man that had been in my dream, but I hoped I would.