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Chapter V

Unbeknownst to the girl Saure, a very large puma was stalking her in the tall grass. This act wasn't entirely difficult, as the wind had picked up and caused quite a roaring din in her ears. His ears, however, were laid back and folded (in half, longways) so as to protect his sensitive eardrums. Still, she was easy to track. Even with the whipping wind to tear at the long, green stalks of wild barley and oat, he could smell her distinct, sweet scent on the grasses that had brushed her. He saw the structure that was her house, the small green-shed, and the little stable that smelled of horse. He stopped to watch her go around the side of the building, and heard the report of a door slam harshly shut (with the aid of the wind, no doubt). Here, maybe a half a furlong away, he rose up on his haunches to survey the farmyard.

He had to focus all his effort on smelling the area, and thus opened his mouth slightly to assist in this. Few people know that cats (as well as snakes and some lizards) have a secondary nose just inside their mouths, on the roof right behind their front teeth. It has no nostrils, it's just a semi-circular nub that happens to aid the olfactory in a great way. His eyes narrowed to slits and crossed slightly as he concentrated on scents whipping by him with the wind.
He smelled the horse, but couldn't see it. He tried to extend his large ears to listen for it, and realized this was a mistake. The oversized things acted as sails and the wind toppled him backward painfully onto his tail. He flipped back onto his feet, grateful he was not seen, and slunk quickly to the far side of the farmhouse, giving the stable a wide berth.

Nag had gotten carefully to her knees in her stall when she heard the wind had started to blow harshly. She comforted herself with an old, crudely made blanket and a bale of hay. She was at least thankful her water trough would be filled shortly in the coming downpour- that girl had forgotten to fill it herself that morning. Nag was blissfully unaware that some large carnivore was slinking behind the farmhouse that belonged to her keepers.

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Saure had gone about closing storm shutters immediately upon entering the house. She locked every window and stood the kitchen benches against the larger ones. Thankfully, all the windows in the farmhouse were small and the panes were of crudely-made thick glass. She was grateful that the house was made of stone, and had stood strong through tempests like the one she was expecting. She feared, though, the great cone-winds she had read about, the ones that laid waste to small plains villages.

She hunkered down in her loft by the light of three lamps. She wondered if she had tied knots in the grass around the house recently (this was an old remedy to ward off harm), and wished she had brought in her plants. The best she could hope for would be that the stock of seeds in the underground would stay dry. The green-shed itself was made of wood and yellow glass, and it mightn't hold up under the violent weather. In fact, she began to accept, it would be the first thing to go.

Fred crouched in the dead air that the back wall of the farmhouse provided. He didn't think he would be able to find shelter where he was for long, because the first fat drops of rain had begun to fall. The nearby tamarind tree tossed to the point of breaking, but continued to bend to the wind's will. Fred decided then that no man would be out to see him in this weather, and slunk around to the front of the house.

Saure jumped and shrieked when she heard a loud scratching at the door. She righted the lamp she spilled, cursing at her clumsiness, and scrambled over to peer beyond the edge of her loft. She saw nothing, of course, because the storm shutters were drawn. The loud scratching came again. She took a deep breath, mustered her courage, and climbed down the ladder.

She lifted the large latch and pushed hard on the door. The wind was adamant it stay shut, it seemed. As soon as enough leeway was made, Fred leapt through the door. Saure screamed shrilly, the door slammed shut, and the lights blew out all at once.