His voice is familiar and foreign in one, the cadence holding the promise of a thousand pleasures. She knows it for a lie, deep within, but her feet do not and they lead her forward. Her vision is enveloped by the purring creature, the sinner and the madman, the dark god. She barely hears the voices of the others held captive with her. A cavernous longing suffuses her being. The expanse of her skin tingles and aches, and she feels terribly, wonderfully exposed.
A wretched creature, more monster than wolf, appears at her side and snarls. Liquid thick as blood and rank as decaying bodies drips from its teeth as it snaps, driving her from the others. Ahead of her a dark hole stretches like a yawning mouth. The frame of the opening is edged with teeth that seem to reach for her, cutting her sides with such efficiency that it takes a moment for her to recognize the trickles of blood for what they are. A heavy door slams shut behind her with an air of finality.
She is alone.
Minette wakes as if from a trance. She shakes her head, trying to physically rid herself of the strange desires that had gripped her. She is shamed by her fascination with the one who spoke. The gray stallion. His presence was an intoxicating blend of power and terror.
She can hear nothing. Not even the whimper of a hound, or the whisper of the dank wind penetrate her cell. For a time she is too afraid to move, but her eyes soon adjust to the darkness. The walls of her cell are thorned iron, cruelly sharp, like the teeth that have scored her. Beyond them, she can sense only a vast nothingness. For what seems like hours her world stands still. After awhile her muscles lose their tension and she succumbs to exhaustion.
Gentle breezes and the scent of lilies are what wakens her. Her eyes fly open. The hope she experiences in that first shining moment is heady, a richness that leaves her near breathless. Home. She is home. Great expanses of velvet grass sway softly in the wind. She can hear the bubbling of a river, the one she grew up playing in and beside. It is filled with migrating fish leaping upward to their spawning grounds. A great sigh leaves her chest, releasing a year's worth of anxiety and terror. She takes one step forward, and then another until the cool edges of the water lap against her fetlocks. Minette dips her head and drinks deeply of home's sweet waters.
It is then that she sees him.
Perhaps. Perhaps he will not see me. Oh gods, don't let him see me.
Her eyes widen, afraid to blink, afraid to breathe. She cannot move. He is tall, standing well over ten feet, with wickedly hooked claws jutting out from massive paws. A thick hump covered in shaggy brown-black hair is set behind his square shaped head. Muscles ripple through his powerful back legs and arms. A black dished nose leads to a pair of deep set shadowy eyes. There is no intelligence there, only animal rage. He is fully predator and she is fully prey.
A grizzly.
He has not yet noticed her. She releases bated breath, finally, shakily, and edges one hoof backwards up the embankment. Three hooves safely slip from the water to the land. The fourth looses a scatter of pebbles into the water.
He turns then, painfully slow, and his black eyes narrow with greed. His ghastly yellow teeth are so sharp they are obscene. Black lined lips pulling back in a snarl, he drops to all four and opens his mouth. A growl splits the air, a heavy chuffing that grows until it is a sound unearthly and demonic in its fierceness. A sob catches in Minette's throat. The grizzly does not hesitate. He lurches forward, splashing heedlessly into the water, avoiding the easier prey of silver scaled trout to pursue the frozen mare on the bank.
Move. MOVE! her body screams at her, and finally she obeys, turning to flee just as the bear reaches the halfway point of the river. She gallops. Always she can hear the pursuit of the creature, unnnaturally large and faster than any grizzly she has ever seen. For every stride she takes, his breathing grows louder. Great shuddering sobs shake her body. Tears blind her. It is this last that proves her undoing.
Only as she is falling does Minette sees the divot in the ground, a remnant of some small creature's burrow. Her leg snaps with a loud and sickening crack and she screeches. She can hear the lumbering steps of the beast behind her quicken. Panic drives her to her feet, but they cannot take her weight. She collapses once more. Her front feet scrabble for purchase in the grass but she cannot rise.
And now it is too late. He is upon her, the bulk of him overpowering her and masking the sun. Blind terror consumes her. One enormous paw presses down on her stomach, each hooked claw ripping through her delicate flesh. In a moment that seems to last forever the grizzly bares his teeth and roar. Minette can only watch with heart rending dread as his head descends and his jaw snaps closed on her neck. She screams until her windpipe is crushed and filled with blood, and the only sound she can make is a dying gurgle.
Minette scrambles to her feet, back in her cell. Her neck aches with the remembered wound, although her skin is unmarked. Her breathing is erratic. The pale gray mare cowers mournfully in the furthest corner of her cell, her ears pinned back and a soft whimper issuing from her throat.