Coalescence Book I - Chapter 19 - The Hunter
Chapter 19 - The Hunter
-W-
A sharp sensation went through my chest.. It felt hot, very hot. Then the pain began to hit. That too was new.. and it was far more intense than I was expecting, or ready for. Is this what all pain is like?
I looked down in surprise at the figure in the bushes.. they blended well with the brush and leaves but I could see them. I could smell them, hear their panicked breathing and gasp as they strained their neck to look up at me. They looked to be human, but it was hard to focus on anything but the pain. There was a ringing in my ears from a loud, horrid sound that had come from the long object he held. A weapon.. it must be, the way he pointed it at me. It didn't seem sharp but looks were deceiving, I felt the pain it had caused and even now I felt blood trickling down my chest.
The strange woodland man scrambled away from me in a panic, his eyes wide as he gripped his weapon tight and ran. My vision faded in and out a little, suddenly light headed.. my limbs felt heavy and I looked down to see how bad I had been stabbed. Just a tiny little hole.. I snorted, laughable.. but why did it hurt so much. There was a burning sensation radiating from the little wound and blood was steadily trickling out. My human.. was he alright?
He was trying to peek around me, his eyes just as wide as the woodland man's own. Craning my neck back to look at him, I could see concern in his face.. My vision was wavering again as we made eye contact. Oh.. my legs felt wobbly.. I sunk down onto my knees, balancing myself with one hand on the dirt. More pain.. it was growing stronger as I grew weaker.
"Fuck, fuck are you okay?.. No no no.. did he shoot you?"
I didn't understand but I nodded, surely he was talking about the little hole the woodland man had poked in my chest. My arm wasn't working so well, it felt dead, the small hole was close to that shoulder, punctured along the upper part of my chest.
Everything grew more blurry, I shook my muzzle trying to clear my eyes as my human frantically tried to shift his arms around me, to move his belt and hang over my shoulder and see what had happened.
"Oh God.."
I looked at him with a half-hearted 'smile', trying to replicate what his mouth did when he was happy. I was fine. It was just a tiny hole. The ground was suddenly pressed against my cheek.. Oh.. I had fallen. I was laying down on my side. My body and mind seemed sluggish, it was hard to think clearly around the pain. Connor was looking around the area wildly, looking towards where the woodland man had run off.. he was long gone.
"I can't carry you out of here.. I don't even know how I can help.." My human's voice seemed desperate and full of grief. "Can you go back? Go back in me.. Hurry.. There's so much blood."
He sounded worried, very worried.. but his voice was sounding further away. He wanted me back in him? We hadn't finished hunting.. Moving my head I tried to look around for the boar, the delicious looking pig had my instincts calling out loud when I had first caught scent of him.. but he was gone now. The woodland man's loud weapon scared him right off. There was a rough yank on my ear and neck scruff, I snarled out and looked back as my human tugged my big head to look at him.
"Forget the boar.. you need to go back.. do whatever you do to go back." He pushed his hands to mine, curling his small fingers through mine.
My paws slowly began to meld with them, slowly my arms pressed to his and disappeared. This was hard.. that pesky little wound was making everything sluggish and difficult. My chest burned and I watched as it began to sink backwards into the human's own, the blood seeming to fade back with it.. but that hole.. Something was pushing out of it as I sunk back into my old home. A heavy metal pellet pushed out in a gush of scarlet red and thumped to the dirt. Then my vision went dark.