Friday Fiction Flash: "Nightstorm"

Join Dottie at Tink's Place for her flash fiction. Every Monday a new picture for the Monday Morning Flash Fiction Challenge comes up and if you want to join, post your FF on Friday. Check out her site for how to a participate. Enjoy!


Note: This flash fic takes place before the "The Fury of the Lost." 

"Nightstorm"


She didn't mean to get lost and get cornered in that order unfortunately; those two situations were staring at her face at that moment. 



Yarel slid back as loose stones continued to scrape against her palms while the snarling panther with its shiny, inky black coat inched forward. The panther wasn't letting this encounter roll off its gleaming back.   


She could almost feel the cat's breath warming her face and tried hard not to think what the big cat's the previous meals were. She fervently prayed she wasn't going to be eaten alive. Another big snarl punctuated any of Yarel  thoughts and she completely froze. 


Is this it? She cooperated with her instincts and gave brief side glances at the panther poised to pounce at moment's notice. 


The cat's ears flattened on the sides of its head. It was feeling beyond miffed but she didn't do anything that warranted the annoyance of the predator. 


Yarel was too fearful to reach for her sword, standing hilt first on the ground to her left. It got dislodged from its bindings when she slipped and tumbled off the face of the ridge. She landed unceremoniously in front of a cat on a prowl. She didn't know who was more startled, the cat or her. She contemplated on making another try for her sword but before she could form a tactic to distract the cat, it let out a bone-chilling snarl. 


"Oh, I'm certainly not going to fight you, big guy." 


It wasn't ideal to wait out the panther since she was feeling a cramp running up her arm. 


"Are we going to stare at each other here all night, big one?" 


"Certainly not," a male voice rang out and a figure emerged behind the boulder. 


Yarel dared to shift her attention to the newcomer then back to the menacing cat. 


"Until the Hollowfire leaves will do." He supplied. "Nightstorm was warding them away from you when you landed on their favorite spot.


"Hollowfire?" Yarel saw the poisonous vine drag its misshapen central pod out of the way toward heavy undergrowth to strike at a more unsuspecting prey.