Aug 9, 2005

HR, 38

The Pack appeared from behind the wall, looking fierce and confident. They had scared the man away and we're ready to feast on the lesser creatures.

When Dorian saw Hubert some ten yards ahead of him, tripping and stumbling over unseen objects in the field, he merely laughed scornfully and made a mean comment about Hubert's long ears and floppy skin. His laugh was cut short as one of his paws stopped on something in the grass and he fell painfully onto his snout.

All around him, the rest of the Pack were unwittingly discovering similar traps and hitting the ground.

"They've rigged the whole field," the General growled, trying to regain his footing. "Think they're real clever, don't they? Take it slow, you lot. You'll only fall down harder if you run."

Jasper had just tried to overcome the obstacles by running as fast as he could and now lay stunned on the ground.

"Show them the mirror!" came a shout from further ahead in the grass. It was Harlequin. The dogs looked up to find the chipmunk, and saw a cardboard slab raised a few yards ahead of them.

"Arrgh!"Dorian squealed. He was the closest and received the bright flash of reflected night with no warning. The rest of the dogs looked away, blinking their eyes, but quickly became re-entangled in the wires.

The General snarled inwardly, rolling about to get his hindpaw out from under a copper-wire. The chipmunk and his gang were more resourceful than he'd imagined. He heard flapping just above him and saw a crunched up bottle of motor oil land beside him, splashing blackish ooze all over his face. The powerful smell drenched his sensitive nose, sending him into a coughing fit.

All around the dogs, birds dropped whatever smelly pieces of garbage Humboldt had found; a particularly aromatic package of spoiled, bloody meat landed on Hell's massive head. Hell thrashed about wildly, thinking some beast was upon, inadvertently tying himself up in lengths of copper wire. The rest of the Pack was in similar disarray, fumbling about in the wrong directions, tripping, sneezing and cursing.

Dorian's eyes had begun to recover and he pressed on angrily to bite whoever held up the bright light. Glancing forward under heavy eyelids, he thought he saw black silhouettes approaching. He sniffed to sense if his eyes were deceiving him, but he could only smell the bleach soaked rag a bird had droped in front of him. Suddenly, sounding from just beside his ear, he heard the chipmunk yell shrilly.

"Bite and run! Bite and run!"Dorian heard him say and felt something brush past his side. He snarled and yapped blindly; the cursed light kept him from seeing anything.

"Yeeeeoooww!" he yelped. Something had just bitten into his paw. He clawed at the ground, bot no one was there. He leapt in pain as something sank it's teeth into it's tail. He reacted quickly enough to send a mouse flying off into the grass this time.

He felt two taloned feet strike at the small of his back, knocking him to the ground. Sparrows pecked and scratched at him, black shadows against the blinding light. Dorian sprang to his feet, yelping helplessly. Again the birds came, this time from behind him. He heard the pained cries of dogs around him and saw nothing of the General or big, old Hell.

When he saw another black outline rushing at him, he didn't bother to snap at it; he ran as fast as he could the other way.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

sam... finish the story..

Sam Lively said...

3 pages left, I promise.