Cassie Under Attack

Survival classes say to submit to a rape in the hope of living through the experience. But this man didn't look like he was going to permit Cassie to survive the experience so she might as well fight. The knife resting so close to her head told her clearly that her chance of survival was low.

As the horrid man kept one hand on her face with his fingers digging into her cheeks, his other hand tore her blouse away. The nails scratched her skin as he tore at the fabric and little droplets of blood oozed up to the fresh wounds. The new source of pain energized Cassie and she scratched and clawed at the man.

She would have liked to have gouged his eyes out, but he was taller and his arms were longer and he kept his face out of her reach. She contented herself with scratching what she could reach. If he came close enough she would bite. She attempted to buck him off her, but his weight was too great.

She screamed, as best she could, but the sound was muffled. "Who will hear me, no matter how loud I scream?" Her mind raced with thoughts of rescue and saving herself. But the man outweighed her by probably 100 pounds. Although she was strong, she wasn't that strong. The adrenaline was pumping and she knew she had to fight for her life, and so she did with the sickening realization that it was probably all for nothing.

This man's scarred face and calloused hands were her world now. She had to defend herself against this. Her mind was no longer focused on anything but her own escape with the secondary thought of harming this brute.

He suddenly cried out in acute pain and jumped to his feet. He turned and Cassie saw rivulets of blood streaming down his back. There were six red trails and his shirt was in tatters. And hovering out of reach was the golden bird.

Cassie now got a better look. It wasn't really a bird. It was golden with huge wings. The span looked to be more than five feet across, but the body contained two arms and two legs with sharp talons. There were three fingers or talons on each arm, now dripping blood with perhaps small bits of flesh on the points.

The man reached over for his knife and Cassie grabbed his arm and bit down as hard as she could on whatever she could get hold of. The man screamed again, but pushed her away and grabbed again for the knife.

The bird-type creature landed and the wings folded back flush against the spine. The face was not that of either bird or human. There were four golden eyes, no nose, something between a mouth and beak, no discernable ears. And the entire body was covered with golden hair. Cassie could no longer see the wings and wasn't sure if there were any feathers anywhere at all. The creature was without clothing and showed no earthlike gender characteristics.

But there was both power and strength in the creature. The creature was shorter even than Cassie, probably about five feet high. And was lighter in build than the man, as well. But it showed no fear and it steadily approached the now armed man.

The man himself was trying to decide whether to keep hold of the knife and slash repeatedly or to hurl the knife and hope for a killing strike. But the creature's anatomy was unknown and who knew where the heart was, certainly not he. He opted to hold onto the knife and got into a crouch.

The creature stood in what could only be termed loose preparedness. And then, in a blur, an arm shot out and raked the razor sharp talons across the man's arm and the creature's other hand (claw?) almost gently took the knife. "Leave now, while you still can," came a soft, musical voice that didn't seem to match the cold stare of the four eyes.

Footsteps were pounding toward the trio and Cassie could hear Hiro shouting, "Do you need help?"

"A heavily armed Samurai is coming this way," Cassie sneered at the man. He looked around the small forest and glared at both Cassie and the creature and then ran in the direction opposite from the Samurai's shout.

"I'm all right now," Cassie yelled. And then to the creature, "How can I ever thank you? My name is Cassie."

"I am Doston3647."

"I'm human, a woman. Where are you from?'

"Let's get you taken care of first, then we can talk."

"Cassie, what happened?" asked Hiro, stepping into the clearing and seeing Cassie, face bruised, torso bleeding, torn clothing, and in a totally disheveled state. He glared at the creature and raised his sword.

"This horrid man was going to rape me, at least, and probably kill me. But Doston here saved me. Hiro, please put the sword away. Perhaps you both could help me home?"