Freedom

 

Kendra sat on the forest floor, tending an injured cougar’s leg.

Numerous animals filled the clearing.

Birds. Squirrels. Deer. Elk Chipmunks.

It was like this every time she ventured into the forest.

She was happy here. Content.

Perhaps today would be the day she didn’t return home.

 

“Do you want me to help your cub or not?” Kendra said.

The mother bear paused, then dropped back to the ground. She stepped aside as Kendra knelt beside the bear cub and freed it from the trap.

Drawing on the vibrancy of the forest, she held the bear cub’s paw between her hands.

“He must take care, but he will live. Now go. Before the hunters find you both.”

The mother bear stared at her one long moment, then led her cub back into the forest.

“Mother, you can stop screaming now.”

 

Her mother screamed, her terror filling the small glen.

Kendra ignored her as she approached the wounded bear cub.

The mother bear roared, but Kendra shushed her.

The mother bear swung her shaggy then stood up to her full height, towering over Kendra.

 

Kendra looked like her mother, but that’s where the similarities ended.

And she was nothing like her father.

Both were content within the confining stone of the manor house.

Kendra felt stifled.

Trapped.

She yearned for the freedom of the forest.