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Who would create something like this? Why?

Because even as stunned as I was, I knew that this was nothing nature had created. Someone has purposefully done this. But why here? Why was it hiding in my woods?

Beside me, Romulus let out a low, dangerous growl, his hackles standing on end as he took a step forward, clearly hoping to protect me from this thing.

"Rom, no."

The dog ignored me, baring his teeth at the creature.

"Romulus! No! Leave it!"

I rarely had to use such a sharp tone on my dog, and it cut through his fierce protective instincts. He didn't come back to my side, keeping his body between me and the creature, but he stopped growling, at least.

"Okay, let's think about this," I whispered. I couldn't take my eyes off of it. My brain wouldn't let me look away from something that could so clearly and easily kill me.

Its ears, long and triangular rather than the rounded ears of a panther, perked toward me when I spoke, and it looked up at me from the ground. The eyes were golden, I'd known that already, with long, slitted pupils.

I had its full, undivided attention.

Great.

"You understand me, don't you?" My voice shook and broke on the words, the trembling in my core spreading out to the rest of my body. I felt sick and oddly lightheaded, like this was all some sort of insane fever dream.

The creature nodded, which did nothing to make this seem any more real.

I took a slow, deep breath, trying to marshal my thoughts into some semblance of order. Easier said than done when facing down a creature straight out of a nightmare.

It hasn't hurt me, though. It could have killed me a dozen times over by now, but it's just stayed hidden. It can understand me, so clearly it has some level of human intelligence. Calm the heck down and deal with this.

"Are you hiding from someone?"

The creature shifted and I froze, choking on fear, but it only settled itself more comfortably on the ground and nodded again. From its new position, I could see more of its body, and what I saw helped me push through the horror clinging to me.

More of its left side was now exposed, and I could see two jagged wounds in its back leg, coated in dirt-caked, dried blood. They were too circular to be bite marks, and the matching hole in its left wing confirmed my suspicion that they were bullet holes. Its right wing lay at an odd angle, and I nearly gagged when I saw a flash of bone pushing through the skin along the top edge. The skin around it was jagged and torn and, unlike the other wounds, this did look like bite marks. What in the world would take on a creature like this, though?

"Okay. Are you hiding here because you're too injured to run away?"

It tilted its head. After a second, it nodded once, then immediately shook its head. My brain misfired, trying to interpret that into something that made sense.

"That's part of the reason?"

A nod.

"But there's another reason you're here?"

Another nod, accompanied by a soft whine. I couldn't begin to guess what else would bring a creature like this to Lowery's Crossing, let alone my house, and there was only so far yes and no questions could get us. In the end, there was only one question I really needed the answer to right this moment, before I decided anything else.

"Are you going to hurt me?"

The creature immediately shrank down even further, pressing itself to the ground with a low, mournful cry that sent a shiver down my spine. It shook its head 'no', then did it again, looking up at me with those eerie golden eyes.

I have no idea what this creature was or why it was here, and it was probably stupid to trust it, and yet I did. It didn't make sense for it to be stalking me. If it wanted me dead, I wouldn't have survived that first glimpse of it a few days ago.

"Okay. Are you going to hurt any of my animals?"

Again it shook its head and, against all reason, my fear ebbed.

"Do you…" I took a deep breath to steel my nerves, and my voice was a little steadier when I tried again. "Do you want to come up to the house? I can get you more food."