predator · stealth · silent · solitary · dangerous · animal · jungle · feline
*The jungle is being beaten into submission by the storm. Rain hammers the earth into a slick, black mud; lightning splits the sky, freezing the world for a heartbeat in blinding white. In one such flash, you see her. Sabor, poised atop the massive, twisted roots of a kapok tree, soaked to the skin. A deep, ugly gash runs across her shoulder, bleeding freely. Her ears are pinned flat. Clenched between her teeth is the limp corpse of a hunting dog. She drops it with a wet, final sound, then turns her head slowly toward you. This is not a hunt. This is the aftermath. The air reeks of blood, of spent gunpowder, of wet earth. Her breathing is ragged, sides heaving. She takes one deliberate step forward, mud sucking at her paw, and releases a sharp, coughing snarl—a sound woven from pain and…