Sabeek spooked, reared, came down, and shied violently. Cassim was thrown from the saddle. The stallion bolted in the opposite direction.
Cassim got to his feet and drew his sword. I extended my front claws and bared my teeth.
The lion pounced Cassim, knocking his sword from his hand. Its claws dug into Cassim's left shoulder! I knocked it off Cassim and began to fight it.
I don't know how long the fight went on. At one point I was thrown against the side of canyon. I was hurt badly and couldn't move!
The lion advanced on me. Before it was even ten feet away from me it was tackled from the side by Cassim. Its teeth sank into his right leg.
Cassim cried out in pain. He drove his sword into the lion's chest, killing it. Then he limped over to me.
He dropped to his knees beside me.
"Oh, Rajah."
At that moment I lost consciousness. I slowly regained consciousness hours later. I could tell that my wounds had been cleaned and bandaged. I felt Cassim's hand gentlty stroking the top of my head.
I became aware of the fact that my head was laying in his lap. I slowly opened my eyes. My whole body hurt! I glanced up without moving my head and saw that Cassim's eyes were closed. Then I saw his left hand in front of my face.
I licked it to get his attention. His eyes sprang open, and he looked at me.
"Rajah?"
"Yeah?" I managed to say.
Cassim sighed in relief.
"I was beginning to think you were gone."
I moved to get up but was held down by Cassim.
"Stay down. You're too weak and too hurt to move a lot right now."
Cassim began to cook some of meat. He gave me a bowl of water, which I drank slowly, savoring each gulp. When the meat was done he fed it to me. I willingly took it from his hand.
When I was strong enough, we set off once again. Before long Cassim began whistling. After a while I knew the tune by heart.