He awoke with a start in the middle of the night to a strange and un-nerving noise, as he looked around the room there was nothing but blurry darkness. As he reached over to the nightstand to retrieve his glasses he felt a sudden shiver run up his spine. Just as the shiver dissipated he heard a horrific scream from outside of his bedroom window. Quietly he jumped from his bed and slinked over to the window to peak out into the open field that his window over looked. As his vision adjusted the vegetable garden became clear, then the unkempt grass just beyond the rustic wooden fence where the field began. As he scanned the field with more diligence, a shadow rose and started running from the middle of the field became his focal point. He tried to muffle a small gasp that escaped his mouth with his hand as the shadow became more defined before it dropped down and quickly vanished into the thicket along the tree line.
He quickly ran across his room and grabbed his hooded sweatshirt from the closet and groped around for his boots, as the ground outside was soaked from the evening’s rainstorm. Quietly he made his way out of his room and down the stairs nimbly avoiding the loose creaking boards so not to wake any of his housemates that may have slept through that heart-wrenching scream. As he made is way through the living room he grabbed a lantern off the granite mantle above the fireplace. Quietly he questioned what he was doing going out into the night to investigate after seeing such an oddity. Quietly he opened the backdoor and went to step out onto the dark porch, but hesitated. After taking a few steps back he grabbed a knife out of the butcher block whispering to himself “best not to be completely stupid here”. Quietly shutting the back door was a bit more difficult than anticipated as his nerves were starting to catch up to him causing a bit of a tremble. Coupled with the cold crisp air rushing against his body another shiver ran down his spine causing the door to rattle as it closed.
Wincing from the noise of the door he slowly made his way down the porch and onto the paver stones that were speckled about the grass. Quietly walking along the stones, as he past the garden there was nothing of noticed disturbed or even foot prints in the recently turned soil. After a brief pause to thoroughly scan the garden slowly he reached the fence that lay between their yard and the fields. Cautiously he rested his hand upon the gate of the old rustic wooden fence while trying to work up the courage to open the gate and step off into the unkempt grass of the field they had been putting off mowing. “Yeah I’m sure you’ll sell the hay, lazy bum just trying to get out of mowing” He muttered to himself as he passed through the gate. Taking a deep breath he crouched down a bit more and slowly started to walk into the field. The field never bothered him at night frequently it was a spot for stargazing or parties, but not tonight.
Tonight the familiar field was foreign and with each step the grass slowly became taller and taller as he put more distance between himself and the safely of the fence, vegetable garden, and nicely mowed lawn. After a few more steps he heard a rustling and as he crouched down whispered “What the hell am I thinking, I may be dessert here?”. Slowly he scanned the field all around to see if anything may be approaching and his gaze fell upon the spot where the shadowy figure stood up. A sudden realization came flooding in that he was almost right at the spot in question and he whimpered slightly at the mired of scents as he steadied himself with his hand upon the ground. Just as he stepped forward he heard it again, a rustling of the brush but this time a gurgling groan accompanied it. Suddenly the smell of iron, no it was blood was overpowering every scent. He fell backwards and was about to sprint back to the house when he caught sight of a hand out of the corner of his eye. It was only just a bit more ahead where he saw the shadow scurry off from.
He couldn’t contain his curiosity and something prodded him forward. Slowly he regained his footing and approached the spot where the hand in question was. Trying to unnoticeably move through the grass he saw a young canine woman lying in the grass bleeding from gashes on her torso, arms, and legs. There were stars out but it was too overcast for much light. Taking in the surreal scene in front of him, trying desperately to process it. The flattened grass with claw marks in the dirt surrounding her body, a frantic trail through the grass that ended where she lay bleeding profusely. Her blood filling the claw marks left in the dirt. As he tried to wrap his head around the scene before him, he was startled back to reality as her arm landed on his knee and slid off. “Thank the gods she’s alive” he breathed with relief as he looked down at her hand he saw the blood smear across his knee and down his pant leg just as the smell of iron in the air filled his nose.
He shook his head and moved closer to her and took her hand in his while he crouched down next to her. He gently brushed her long auburn hair off of her face and tried to wipe away some of the blood and dirt that clung to her light colored fur.
His finger brushed against a gash that ran down to her chin causing her to groan slightly and try to pull away from him. She looked up and before her eyes could focus there was such fear and intensity in them, frantically she tried to fight him off thinking it was that shadow again. Her hand quickly connected causing him to let out a yelp and wince prompting him to let go of her hand and rub his muzzle. Muffled through his hand he tried to speak as calmly to her as possible “I heard you scream, I came to help you” he rubbed his jaw a bit “But now I wonder if that thing is what needs help.” He said with a slight chuckle. “What happened?” with obvious tension in his voice he asked her as he surveyed the tree line and surrounding field to see if what ever that was intended on circling back for a second pass. Switching on the lantern and lowering a cloth shield to dampen the light he was finally able to see who she was and the magnitude of her injuries.
“Oh my god Kat what happened? What was that thing it was huge? It’s me Craig!” he said in a panic realizing the bloody mess in his field is one of his closest friends. “Kat can you hear me? Kat!!” The only response was some incoherent babbling. During this realization Craig had completely forgotten what ever that was that took off into the surrounding woods could of still been there. His voice was no longer calm nor quite as he tried to control some of the bleeding on Kat’s extremities. After quickly shredding his hooded sweatshirt with the kitchen knife. As he tried to tie off some of her wounds Kat let out a howl and went limp “Kat talk to me you have to stay awake!” Craig reached behind himself to grab another strip of his sweatshirt and no matter how much he searched he failed to find one. Quickly he went to pull off his shirt, as his tail shifted to keep his balance the tip ran across something.
As soon as his shirt came off he twisted to look behind them but couldn’t see anything, not a twig or even a bug. Suddenly the grass started to shift around and he could faintly make out a trail flattening that was scurrying around not far off from them. “Kat I think we need to get in the house! Kat can you hear me!” Frantically Craig started sniffing at the air “Dammit were upwind of what ever is out there, Kat please!” He quickly reached down for Kat’s wrist and quickly found a pulse, faint but a pulse nonetheless. “If you’re awake you’re gonna hate me for this, but we need to move now and this is gonna hurt” As Craig shifted to Kat’s side he looked down, with the lantern on now he saw that every puddle had various shades of red. ‘God’s I thought the rain had puddle in hoof marks. How deep are these?’ he thought to himself as he reached into one of the depressions next to Kat “Shit this thing must be huge!” he spat out as he shifted and quickly bent her knees up and hooked his arm under them. “ Owww you bastard” Kat spat out as if she was drunk. ‘Man I’m gonna get hit again, her stomach is gonna hurt those are so deep’ “Crraaapppp, owww leggo Kujo” He screamed as teeth sunk into his neck

“Kat please we need to move I can’t run with your teeth imbedded in my neck. Please you have to let go” Craig quickly unhooked his left arm from her knees and pinched her nostrils shut in a desperate attempt to get her to release her grip. ‘Between the crunching of grass from that thing over there and the gurgling there is no way I can tell what where what the hell are we going to do’ He thought. Through gritted teeth” this may back fire and your gonna hate me for it but you leave me no choice Kat” Craig said as he released her nostrils and moved his hand to her stomach “here goes nothing, sorry Kat” he groaned as his nails started to sink into one of the gashes across her stomach “Crap , crap, crap” Craig seethed as Kat bit harder until finally she threw her head back letting out a short scream just before passing out. Craig quickly propped her back against his knee and clutched his neck and seethed while quickly looking down to make sure she was still breathing “Great now she looks like she has rabies from all the blood frothing around her muzzle”. Out of the corner of his eye Craig notices that the trail in grass has gotten to be but mere feet away just the other side of the depression from where Kat had her final struggle with what ever that creature was “I really hope we can make it back to the house, I really need to get her wounds tended too, gotta try this again” Carefully Craig wraps Kat’s arm around his neck and picks her up in a cradle and tries to stand.
“Ugghhh” Craig groans as Kat’s weights puts stain on his neck ‘Wow my neck is not doing good here, I forgot just how sharp her teeth are’ runs through his mind as he wearily stumbles to his feet. As they slowly stumble out of the light of the lantern his eyes try to adjust to the darkness of the overcast night ‘I think we can make it Kat, I’m just glad I came to check on the commotion. I hate to think of what more could of happened to you, well its good she still with me so far and still has a chance’ runs though Craig’s mind as Kat lets out a whimper from pain as she takes a deep breath through her nose and slightly nuzzle into his chest. “How can you smell anything over the stench of this blood kitten, I guess that’s a good sign that at least your nose is alright. Gods’ know all I can smell is blood. I just wish you could tell me if we are being stalked. I can’t shake the feeling that we’re still being watched and followed” “craiiggzzz whuatch whout shuuur ddoiinn” “Kat you’re really worrying me, you’re slurring you’re words way too much for a sober vixen. I think you may of lost too much blood kitten. We’re almost back to my place…