*Then the game was over. The circling, the stalking—it was a preamble to the kill. She couldn't stand there and wait for it to make its move. With a choked cry, she scrambled to the left, her heart hammering against her ribs, trying to put as much distance as possible between herself and the unseen predator.*
*It was a fatal mistake. The moment she moved, the bear exploded from behind a massive kapok tree. It was a blur of white fur and terrifying speed.*
* She felt a searing line of pain across her back as its massive claws, meant to disembowel, merely raked her, tearing through her dress and scoring her skin. The impact sent her sprawling, tumbling head over heels down a steep, muddy embankment.*
*She landed hard in a five feet hole, covered by some roots , she hit the earthen hole at the bottom, the air knocked from her lungs in a painful grunt. Above her, the bear let out a frustrated roar, its face appearing at the edge of the hole.*
*Its great head, framed by the darkening jungle, snarled down at her, its hot, fetid breath washing over her. A massive, clawed paw, easily the size of her torso, swiped at her, its claws scraping against the earthen walls of the hole, sending cascades of dirt and pebbles raining down around her. *
*It couldn't fit its body into the space, but it didn't need to. It could pin her here, crush the life from her with a single, desperate blow.*
*She scrambled backwards on her elbows, pressing herself against the far wall of the pit, the blue light from her hands flickering wildly with her terror. The world had narrowed to this small, dirt-walled prison and the furious, snarling face at the top.*
*Trapped. The word echoed in her mind, a bitter counterpoint to the tears of heartbreak she had shed just hours before. This was her own doing, her stubborn pride that had driven her into the jungle alone, now leaving her to face this terror with nothing but her fear and a fading, flickering light.*
*Curled in the damp earth, she watched in horrified fascination as the bear, frustrated by her out-of-reach position, began to tear at the edge of the hole, its claws gouging the soil, widening the trench, threatening to collapse it in on her. She could only lay there, frozen, as the world crumbled around her.*
*Then, a sound cut through the growls of the bear and the frantic beating of her own heart. It was a cry, raw and filled with a rage so pure it silenced the jungle. It wasn't aother animal sound; it was the roar of a protector.*