In that fatal moment, the blood froze in Sean's veins, and his breath caught in his throat. The black panther was so close that drops of its hot, viscous drool fell onto Sean's bare shoulder. The beast opened its massive jaws, ready to sink its fangs into the fragile neck of its prey.
But Sean hadn't escaped the hell of slavery only to become dinner for an overgrown jungle cat. Instead of giving in to instinctive surrender, he made a crazy decision.
The moment the beast lunged to tear into him, Sean threw his body to the side in a desperate dodge. The panther's fangs grazed his shoulder, tearing his ragged shirt and leaving a shallow scratch, but that split second was all he needed. His heart fluttered wildly as he pulled the small metal pin from his curly hair. In a lightning-fast motion fueled by the sheer will to survive, he viciously drove the pin into the panther's glowing eye.
The beast let out a terrifying roar that shook the branches of the tree, thrashing in blind agony and losing its balance. The violent thrashing snapped the branch they were resting on, sending them both plummeting into the darkness below. Sean struck several harsh branches that scratched his skin before slamming into the dirt ground with a force that knocked the wind out of his lungs.
He didn't give himself a single second to groan. Hearing the blind panther thrashing nearby, he scrambled to his feet, stumbling through the dark, and ran away as fast as he possibly could. He ran until he tasted blood in his mouth, his lungs feeling ready to burst.
Finally, he found a narrow hollow between the roots of an ancient, giant tree. He wedged his frail body inside and muffled his panting breaths with both hands. His heart was beating like war drums, and the surrounding darkness hid the features of this cursed forest.
Minutes passed that felt like hours. His breathing began to steady a little, and he thought he had survived.
But... a drop. A sticky, warm drop fell onto the back of his hand. He slowly and tremblingly raised his gaze upward.
There, above the roots of the tree he was hiding under, stood the black panther. It was panting furiously, half of its face covered in blood, its right eye a deformed red hollow because of the pin. As for its intact left eye, it was staring directly at Sean with pure hatred. The beast had tracked its prey's scent.
There were no more pins, and no energy left to run. Sean squeezed his eyes shut and tightened his fists around the cold dirt beneath him, deciding to accept the coming pain with dignity as he watched the one-eyed beast bend its hind legs in preparation for the final pounce.
But, before the panther could spring, a terrifying explosion ripped through the silence of the forest!
It wasn't a natural sound; it was the warning shot of a powerful hunting rifle, followed by a thick flash of fire that illuminated the trees in the distance.
The beast's movement stopped abruptly. Its ears twitched, and it growled in severe annoyance. A panther is a highly intelligent creature, and despite its rage, its senses told it that the glare of blazing torches and the smell of gunpowder meant one thing: an army of armed humans was invading its territory. For a wounded panther that had just bled from its eye, confronting this number with their bright fires was not bravery; it was suicide.
The panther lowered its head, giving Sean one last look filled with menace through its intact eye, as if carving his face into its memory. Then, with wounded pride, it turned and slowly, cautiously retreated into the depths of the forest, melting into the shadows as if it had never been there.
Sean let out a heavy sigh, but his relief didn't last for more than a second. A familiar voice carried on the cold forest breeze reached him, accompanied by a barking that gradually grew louder, as if just awakened from a deep slumber:
"Search for him thoroughly! Shoot any beast that gets in your way. Wake the Master's hunting dogs from the red carriage and give them the antidote immediately! Let them sniff his abandoned shackle... Dog Number 9 won't survive in the Ramed forest; I want him alive to teach him a lesson in obedience!"
Sean realized the bitter truth, and any faint hope he harbored vanished. Throughout the journey, those fierce dogs had been locked away and sedated inside a special compartment in the noble's carriage so they wouldn't be agitated by the stench of the slaves, which was why he managed to sneak away at night undetected. Now that they were given the antidote and unleashed, he was trapped between the lurking beasts of nature and the merciless human hunting dogs.
He gathered the last of his exhausted energy and struggled to his feet. "I need to find a river... or any water stream to hide my scent," he told himself, dragging his feet away from the tree hollow.
With severe exhaustion and blurred vision, he continued to stumble among the trees. Suddenly, the air in the forest changed. The sounds of insects vanished completely, replaced by an unnatural chill and a smell resembling static electricity. He stopped in his tracks and blinked. Ahead of him, in a clearing between the trees, floated a circular portal of light, emitting a low hum and a reddish-purple glow that broke the gloom of the forest.
Sean wiped his exhausted face and muttered with a desperate smile, "Great... I've already started hallucinating from hunger and fatigue."
A cautious curiosity pushed him to approach. The light was real. He slowly extended his trembling hand and was about to touch the glow, but his survival instinct screamed in his mind. He quickly pulled his hand back and took a step away, shaking his head vigorously: "What am I doing? I don't have time for this madness! I have to escape before the dogs arrive!"
He turned to leave quickly, but at that exact moment... a rustle!
The bushes behind him moved violently. Sean froze in place as two massive, fierce hunting dogs belonging to the noble emerged from the shadows, wearing thick leather collars. Their eyes gleamed in the dark, drool dripping from their muzzles as they stared at him with terrifying low growls, baring fangs ready to tear his flesh.
Out of sheer shock, Sean took a quick, uncalculated step backward. His foot caught on a large rock hidden beneath the leaves; he lost his balance completely and fell hard backward...
But his back never hit the dirt ground.
The reddish-purple glow swallowed him entirely. In the blink of an eye, as soon as the portal consumed his frail body, it vanished as if it had never existed, leaving the two dogs lunging into the void and barking furiously at the empty, dark air of the forest.