Evolution

I stared at my protector, she had stopped breathing for a while now, why had she been so adamant to protect me? If she hadn't done that would she still be alive? Would I be dead if she hadn't come?

I could feel the energy from her body condensing inside her chest, I assume it was being stored in her heart. Soon the scavengers and possibly other large beasts would come for the meal here, but they couldn't have her. I wouldn't allow them to have her energy, her heart was mine. I would die without it and she had given her life for mine, I would protect the rest of her in death.

I went to the wound in her stomach and extended my claws as I reached under her chest, her red and silver blood coating my fur. After gently moving the other organs out of my way I finally reached her heart, using my claws I had to cut it away from the rest of her as I pulled it out from her wound.

It was smaller than I thought it would be, it was only a few of her hands big, and it was completely silver with only a few red streaks here or there. The energy in the heart made it hard to look at, I'm not too sure what will happen if I consume it but I needed to hurry so I could move the rest of her body away from this bloody place.

I looked at her face again and took a bite from her heart, and swiftly consumed the rest of it in only a few bites. Nothing seemed to be happening, maybe I should eat a few of the other-

Before I could finish my thought I could feel the energy rushing through my body, it was nice at first until my bones started to shake. I fell over my body itched and ached like being bitten by thousands of bugs at once, I tried to shake them off as I rolled on the ground. The itching started to dissipate but before I could feel relief another wave of energy erupted.

It was much worse than the first time, I felt my bones splintering, iI tried not to move but my body betrayed me and began shivering. Such tiny movements brought so much pain.

I chirped for my mama, "please make it stop, it really hurts!"

There was no reply, no one came to protect me, I laid there hoping it would end soon as I cried into the dirt. My bones broke, my skin tore open and I bled.

I don't know when it stopped, but it did, and I was so grateful that it wasn't hurting anymore that I didn't even care when it happened. I just hoped it wouldn't come back. I was still scared to move, mama had mentioned if we evolved it would hurt bad the first time but I didn't think it would hurt that bad, slowly I moved my limbs.

Yes! No pain! I could feel the damp dirt below me, it was rougher than I remember but maybe that's what happens after evolution? Slowly I started to get up, my legs had stopped hurting so I must have healed during the evolution.

I stumbled forward, something is wrong, my limbs feel longer I looked down only to not see my paws but a pair of white hairless paws.

"Ah!"

"What was that?" I flipped around looking for the beast who made that noise. Looking around there were no other beasts present, did I make that noise? What is going on here? I sat on my butt and looked down, there were two legs similar to my protectors along with my other limbs which had five claws each. They were longer and sturdier than my previous ones, so it wasn't all bad.

My protector had been very fast and agile so I guess it would just take practice? I tried to stand up, just like her, and I stumbled and put my arms out, slowly coming to a standing position like a bear. First I took a step and nearly toppled over, again, but I managed to catch my balance, then I took another and I slowly got used to moving on two legs.

I moved towards my protector's body, she was still bloody and torn but there was a small smile on her face, my eyes started leaking along with my nose, walking closer I wiped away the water coming out of my eyes. I'm like her now, I need to find the others and the burrow, but first I need to move her away so they won't eat her.

I'm not sure why that's so important to me but I didn't want anyone else to touch her. I grabbed onto stuff that covered her body and started dragging her away from the corpses, I dragged her in the direction of where she had flung her stick. She was a lot heavier than I thought she would be, but she was still three times my size so I was happy with my progress, by the time I found her stick which was lodged completely in a large tree my body was covered with sweat and my limbs burned.

Beneath the large tree, there was a large boulder, the tree had grown around the boulder leaving open a small cave-like canopy between them, there were bushes and weeds covering most of the area blocking it from view. If I couldn't find my family then I would need a new place to sleep and this wasn't a bad location. Mother once said if you get lost you would need shelter food and water, thinking of food it was best to get some while it was still available.

I ran back to the bloody area and went to the nearest body and used my new claws to rip off the large limbs of the bear, it took forever to just get two limbs free from its body, they were so heavy I could only take one at a time back to my small cave. After the first two had been dropped off I headed back for more, just as I got to the outskirts of the bloody area the hair on the back of my neck stood up, I stopped moving and got low to the ground.

Looking out over the area I saw that quite a few of the bodies had disappeared, bloody streaks were headed back to the forest, just as I wanted to leave a large wolf entered the clearing it swallowed a corpse whole in just a few moments and grabbed another by neck its ears perked up and it dropped the corpse and bolted, seeing such a powerful beast run from what was coming I bolted back to the cave.

As I ran I could hear the larger predators moving towards the source of the bloody scent, they would either take their own share or possibly go after one another, either way, it was not my place to be a part of it.