beauty cat and the bald ape

Between Feller's Pond and PHX

The older she got, the better her understanding of the world, the greater Sesi's fear of it became. She awoke each day from vivid nightmares, leaping from the fire and into the frying pan as she ventured beyond the safety of her little snug. Her lizard brain demanded that she eat and move about, and it battled constantly against her conscious mind.

The fearful youth had ventured to the forest's southern border today, and was peering out at a grazing buck some one hundred meters beyond the point where the tree line started to thin. She had tasted such a creature, but could not imagine bringing one down - not even with assistance. What if it got you with its horns? Or kicked you in the face? Sesi's mouth dried up as she extrapolated, imagining what a caved-in head or a broken jaw would feel like. It was a miracle that wolf-kind had survived this long.