Ben held his position, staring down the now vulnerable predator. She ceased the mewling sound being created from her throat and was now visibly shaking in terror. Who could blame her. She was now at the mercy of a six foot tall, five hundred pound, bipedal canine that just produced a roar that shook her to the very core of her being.
The female panther hopelessly tried to stand on her feet again only to fall back to the ground with a loud thump. Pain shot through her body, but the worst of it was located on the back right leg where cuts laid upon her calf. She got them when she hit against the rough bark of the tree and worsened when they grew larger from the force of Ben's donkey kick.
Ben laid his eyes upon her shaking form "I never thought I'd see a Panther look so fragile. Did I really scare her that badly?" It didn't really matter it's a dog eat dog world and being in a jungle rose that term to a more extreme degree. An animal injured in the jungle was basically a free meal to any other competitive predator
Ben was still Wildmutt and he licked his muzzle just from the thought of food. He rarely ever got meat of any kind, usually eating just fruit, the idea of using Ripjaws to catch fish was more of a blessing than anything. "it would be so easy, she has no where to go."
He began to slowly prowl toward the helpless animal, drool visibly showing his anxiousness to feast. She visibly tensed up watching the bulking mass of fur and muscle grow closer. Muffled thumps accompanied every step he took with his paws hitting soft sand. His shadow began to loom over her till completely blanketing her when he made his final steps.
The female panther tried crawling backward fighting back the pain and trying to avoid what she knew was the inevitable. It was now the panthers turn to have her heart beat wildly out of cold fear.
Ben was right in her face now, low growling reverberated in his throat and drool flowing from his mouth. That primal feeling was coming back, the need to consume for survival. He didn't know when he'd find a good source of food again it might even be days before he found something.
Ben was so close panther felt his hot breath against her face. To her it seemed like Ben was just toying with her before he ripped through her flesh with those razor sharp fangs. Fear for her life drove her to try a last ditch effort.
Ignoring the pain the jungle cat lunged forward with all her strength and swiped in a downward motion at his left shoulder. The attack successfully landed on its mark but only hit the shoulder plating containing the Omnitrix dial.
Ben was startled by the sudden attack and jumped backward placing him self in another defensive stance awaiting for more attacks. His actions were unneeded however as the panther fell to the ground now totally spent. He snorted, clearly not amused, and began trekking forward again to claim his meal, until a familiar beeping sounds gained his attention.
Glancing at his shoulder he noticed the dial flashing simultaneously from green to red. He shook his head back and forth as if he just woke up from a trance "whoa, what was I doing again?"
He glanced back at the panther instantly remembering what he was about to do to the helpless cat "Oh god….. Was I really about to?" Ben began to feel sick just thinking about consuming raw flesh and almost threw up in the sand. At least the Omnitrix snapped him out of it by working like his alarm clock at home by beeping like crazy.
He awaited for the watch to time out and transform him back into his human appearance. After waiting thirty seconds the beeping finally stopped but he was still Wildmutt and the dial was now half red and green. "This is the last thing I need, more problems." He groaned inwardly while messaging his head with his right paw.
He instantly stopped however after grazing one of his cuts, hissing in pain. He glanced at the Panther that was still immobile and staring at him. Feeling terrible about his actions earlier he dropped his head like a dog being scolded by his master. What he saw in her eyes broke his heart, even though he would never openly admit it.
Her eyes were like a window openly showing her emotions of fear, hopelessness, and betrayal. He was why she felt the first two but the third must've originated from the male panther since he was the only other logical candidate. She looked like she was excepting death as her only possible fate.
He started walking toward her, no longer with the intent to kill, and she visibly tensed up. Ben was going to help her though originally she was the one attacking him and injured him, badly at that, his hero complex wouldn't allow him to willingly walk away. He lowered his face down toward her right leg inspecting the damage ha had dealt.
This was it she was going to die the large beast was probably just continuing to toy with her. She closed her eyes waiting for more pain to cascade through her body until a wet cool sensation was being placed on her injured calf. She opened her eyes and to her shock the beast was licking her wounds and by the looks of it he was cleaning the cuts.
"I cant believe I couldn't think of any better way of doing this." He ignored the delight he felt of tasting the metallic like flavor of blood and feeling disgusted with himself for enjoying it. There wasn't any thing else he could do to clean the wound besides his tongue, he had seen other animals clean their own injuries by using their saliva this was no different.
When he was finished she was giving him a wary look, fear still evident in her eyes. The sun was now totally gone and was now being replaced by the crescent moon and an explosion of stars. The only light being illuminated was the moons, but Ben didn't need it to see he had his sensory glands' eye sight that also worked as a night vision of sorts.
The fire he had was still set up a small distance away thankfully far enough too not spill blood by or on it. There was only a flicker being produce of what was left of the wood being burned, good thing too he didn't want to spend an hour trying to get it started again. The night was going to be getting cold, even in the tropical climate it still was freezing at night which made no sense to him at all. Now he was glad to be Wildmutt so his fur could help keep him warm.
He had to get her to the fire or else she would freeze to death so he did what he saw his neighbor's cat do with her kittens. Ben lightly latched his jaws on the scruff of her neck and picked her up and it was surprisingly working. He was having some trouble keeping his head held high to not be dragging her on the ground she did struggle a bit which wasn't helping at all, but that soon ceased since she was still extremely tired.
Ben gently laid the big cat on the ground beside the fire then threw in two pieces of lumber to feed the flame and increase its size. She was scared of the flames but had no energy to move away. Ben still had some left over fish and considered finishing his meal, but he soon decided to give them to the panther she was more than likely hungry and she needed nutrients to help speed up her recovery.
The panther looked at the fish then back up at the large beast in confusion. He was walking away back to were they were fighting and started digging up the sand covering the stains of blood that was already mostly absorbed. Her stomach growled so she instantly brought her attention back to the fish and delve head first into the free meal.
Ben sighed finally done with his personal chore of burying the blood in the sand. "Well that's finally done now it wont smell like blood in the morning." He walked back toward the fire and saw the panther stuffing her face with what was left of the fish. "At least she looks looser than earlier when I had her scared stiff." Ben noticed her leg was beginning to bleed again so he started giving it another cleaning, the panther too busy eating to really notice. After the cleaning, and getting sand on his tongue, he moved over to the opposite side of the fire and laid down.
The female panther watched him with a scrutinizing gaze after she finished the meal, confusion still evident on her face. The beast that saw her as a free three course dinner earlier was now tacking care of her in while in this weakened state. The events of the day were catching up with her now so she laid her head down and blacked out from exhaustion.
Now that she was asleep Ben began cleaning his own wounds with his tongue, except the one on his head for obvious reasons. While doing so he began sorting through the events of today in his mind. "This has got to be the most stressful day I have ever had."
He listed off all of his oh so good fortune. "I had to deal with that male panther again, got injured badly, am now taking care of that males ex girlfriend because he was to much of a puss (HA) to help her, the Omnitrix seems like its broken, and I'm losing control of my own mentality."
He inwardly sighed from force of habit "I bet it broke when she hit my shoulder plating containing the Omnitrix's dial." He only could hope that it would fix itself soon like Azumith, the old Graymatter, said it would. (If you don't remember Ben met Azumith in one of the movies when the Omnitrix was malfunctioning and would explode.)
He laid his head down onto the cold sand falling into slumber "I better get to sleep all this thinking is making me tired and besides I guess its not so bad I finally have some company around here."
Right before the darkness took him like it did the panther he began to go into a small fit of coughing till something black and fuzzy was spat from his throat "dam fur ball."
(A/N: I uploaded this early since I was a jackass and haven't updated in suck a long time. You people deserve better then that and I'm surprised that some people were actually disappointed when I had stopped. In advance I'd like to thank some people for being so enthusiastic about my last update, I'm looking at you Lyoko Barbossa .)