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“Can we take a break?” I whisper through my gasps.
Lorenzo’s head snaps to his left, and I follow his gaze. There’s something in the distance that’s getting loud. Leaves rustle, but there’s more. It’s something big and it’s running toward us.
Lorenzo hops over a fallen tree and gets down, and I hurry to do the same. The thing running leaps around a tree ahead of us, and I make out a deer. Its hooves crash against the ground with every jump, disrupting the peaceful forest.
Lorenzo nudges me and points to his right. “This side of me,” he says. I crawl around him, and he puts a hand behind my neck and urges me to get lower.
The deer breaks left and makes it ten or so feet before something leaps through the air, an impossible distance, and snatches it. My eyes go wide, and my mouth drops open as the ferocious ‘cat’ sinks its teeth into the deer’s neck.
The deer stills, and its blood coats the cat’s mouth. Icicles form in my blood, and I freeze in place. Lorenzo smoothes his hand down my back, and I manage to move my gaze to him. His smirk causes my eyes to widen further.
He isn’t scared?
“What is that?” I mouth.
His mouths the word “mountain lion”.
Mountain lion. We were tracking a fucking mountain lion.
His smile widens at my bewildered expression, and he goes back to watching. I can’t look anymore, so I stare down at a piece of bark on the fallen tree and bite my lip. I can’t believe what I just saw. What Lorenzocame out hereto see.
The mountain lion’s growl settles, and I hear it start moving. I look up in a panic to see it dragging the deer off.
When it’s out of sight, I look at Lorenzo and he chuckles.
“What’s so funny?”
“You. You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“Why would you take me here to see that?”
Lorenzo shrugs. “You said you wanted to come.”
“Not to see that!”
“Shh,” Lorenzo hisses, looking over his shoulder toward where the mountain lion went. “It’s got great hearing, remember? It stays away from humans, but it’s especially protective right now. They try to catch prey near their cubs so they don’t have to drag the carcass so far.”
I blink at him and glance back at the piece of bark, covering a hand over my mouth. “I think I’m going to puke.”
“Why?”
“Because that was brutal!”
“It wasnature, Kitty. It’s a part of life. She has cubs who need to eat, do you expect her to let them starve?”
“I’m fully aware of carnivores. I’m not an idiot. But I don’t need to see it, either.”
“Hm,” he says, staring into the forest. “I think it’s beautiful.”
“Beautiful?” My lip curls. Lorenzo doesn’t respond, and I shake my head. “Can we go back, please?”
“You don’t want to see the cubs?”
“No, I do not want to watch little predators consume a carcass. I’m sure they’re adorable, but not right now.”
Lorenzo turns toward me with his brows knitted. “Are you really upset?”
I narrow my eyes.
