First Contact
.o0o.
"It saw me! Help! I can't look away!"
Falling.
Dragging.
Akela fought for consciousness with his lethallin's frightened cry still echoing in his mind. Outside? How? The ground swayed under his back; his vision blurred; he hurt all over.
A bear loomed over him – no, infinitely worse, a shem. A shem with a beard like demented swallows had been building nests on his face peered upside down at the stricken warrior.
"Can you hear me?"
Akela tried to roll to his feet, but at the ripping pain in his head could only manage an inarticulate hiss.
"I am . . ." The stranger's expression changed and he hastily moved so he was no longer standing on Akela's hair. " . . . very sorry."
Akela spiraled into oblivion, grasping at a last coherent thought.
". . . fucking shem . . ."