Rose had been rather frustrated as she made her way through the woods, particularly as she was trying to get over and come to grips with all that had happened. Her husband's idea to flee Moon Lake because of its Mandatory Were Law was the starting point and she then pushed his buttons to get him to out and find a were to talk to and get him to realize that they weren't just animals, and that ultimately worked all too well. They'd stumbled onto a lone female were, and Richard quite literally. That resulted in him becoming a werelion before her eyes and then seeming to embrace rather lion-like behavior in showing interest in the werelioness that turned him over her.
To Rose, who had grown up in a monogamous family and had greatly enjoyed a happy marriage with Richard before coming to Moon Lake, that sudden change and embrace of another woman shocked and startled Rose. She essentially ran out of Sheila Wiggleston's home to let Richard have his moment while her mind wrestled with the entire issue. Her mind wondered if he even loved her anymore. Sure, he'd said he loved her, but people could say that and then do something that didn't reflect that, and continuing to be with Sheila AFTER his transformation was completed reinforced that. That essentially broke her heart, as she could remember every good time she and Richard had had together, when their children were born and the parties they'd been to together. They weren't necessarily super classy parties, but Rose always remembered Richard praising her to no end.
And now... all of that seemed lost, though she could privately admit that there was plenty that she had to learn about weres and their culture as well. Coming out into the woods wasn't necessarily her first choice, but when Richard had voiced running and even abandoning Frank, who was the reason they'd moved to Moon Lake in the first place, Rose had felt trapped. Now, she was trying to get home and recognize the mistake she'd made... but as more weres seemed to become more active for the night, she wanted to avoid them and get home. In her frustration she didn't think to go around to the front of Sheila's home and walk home on the sidewalk, where the limited number of streets and that most of them were all straight would have played to Rose's advantage, the result of this was that she'd found herself turned around and as she came closer to the backyards of some of the houses, she found that none of them were the Van Direstag home and the walled Japanese style home was not to be seen.
"I'm lost," Rose said to herself as she looked around and sighed, trying to figure out where she was and moved back into the woods, deciding not to wander out onto the main street and looking lost and ended up attracting police attention to herself. As she wondered if Moon Lake's weres had rules against normal people being out and about at night and getting caught wouldn't do well for her, though there were times when she felt like their were eyes on her, and that didn't necessarily make her feel any better. Her only desire was to get home and check on Frank, Rob, and Rachel. She'd try to think over things that related Richard becoming a werelion later.
It was then when a small rustling sound caught her attention, and she turned toward it. For a moment, the movement in the brush stopped, and at first she thought she might have stumbled onto another were that was up to something in the woods. That let her then speak toward it, though she hesitantly backed away and with one hand reaching behind her. She could see a faint hint of gold among some of the bushes, close to three feet off the ground, though Rose felt that was reflected light coming from the moonlight through the trees. But she couldn't make out more than the paired "eyes" that she could see.
"Hello... are you a were?" Rose asked hesitantly, "if this is your spot... I'm sorry, I'm just trying to get home. Can you help?"
There was no answer, at least not vocally, and Rose continued to back away. Her eyes focused on the eyes that she looked back to and in that she managed to watch its movements. It moved forward, slowly but deliberately. And eventually it did come into a space where the canopy of branches was thinner and Rose could make out a better view of what it was. With a brown head, rounded ears, a pink triangular nose and a rounded feline muzzle, there was only one thing this could be. A mundane Mountain Lion or Cougar, and she could tell it wasn't a were because of the fact that lacked human hair, which both Sheila and Richard had in their transformed state, and it also lacked the human-like features that differed weres from mundane animals.
The large wild cat focused on Rose and slowly approached with direct intent. It looked relatively healthy and it wasn't salivating, but that didn't really ease Rose's mind any, as even if this Mountain Lion wasn't sick, it COULD still kill her. As it began to move to a trot, Rose screamed and then ran in the opposite direction of the wild animal, and hoped that would bring someone to her aid. She dodged around one tree, but the cat was still faster than her, and with one swipe caught her by the ankle. Two of its claws caught on the outside of her shoe, but the remaining digits got through her jeans and ripped at her flesh, making her scream again, this time in pain as her foot was pulled out from under her. That brought her down to the ground and she reached out with both hands to try and catch her fall, though it was ultimately still a hard landing.
"Ouff…" Rose managed as she landed with her hands sinking into the fallen leaves on the ground.
She wanted to scramble to her feet and try and get away, when the Mountain Lion soon landed on her back. It batted at her shoulder for a moment, its claws cutting and pulling at her shirt and with the physical power to slide Rose's body along the ground. She could even feel its breath come down on the back of her neck, but for the moment it hadn't gone in for the killing bite, yet. It was more like the Mountain Lion was playing with her or was young and hadn't fully figured out how to kill, yet. Regardless, she knew she couldn't just lay and play dead as the animal would either figure it out or decide the game was over in order to kill and eat her. That only left thoughts of her family and Richard going through her mind, and the fear that she would be killed and the last thing she'd said to the man she loved was in anger and frustration, she couldn't let that happen.
She grabbed a handful of leaves with one hand and threw them back over her, hoping one or more would distract the cat. It gave something of a startled short call at that, and that was enough to get it off of Rose's back. That let Rose roll back onto her back where she hoped to kick the Mountain Lion away from her if it tried again, though Rose gave a pained grunt as she did so as there was a fair degree of pain in her chest and ribs. It wasn't super heavy, but it was enough for Rose to know that when the Mountain Lion pounced on her after she fell, its weight was enough to do something to her ribs or her spine. Nothing was broken, at least not that Rose could tell, but the attack wasn't over and now she was in a weaker position and looking into the Mountain Lion's eyes, which were focused on her.
"GO AWAY!" Rose screamed at it as it batted at her again, this time aiming for her head or neck.
Rose managed to get her arms up to deflect the cat's swipe at her neck, but her forearms caught the brunt of it and both were sliced open by the Mountain Lion's claws, with blood running down her arms. The one ankle that the Mountain Lion had swiped at earlier was also losing blood, and while Rose couldn't see it at the moment, her sock on that foot was becoming saturated in blood, and that was beginning to make her feel both colder and weaker. The other part of the problem was that deflecting the blow up only meant that the swipe hit her head rather than the neck. The Mountain Lion's claws didn't catch her head as deeply as it did her forearms, but as her arms were knocked back, there was enough blunt force to knock Rose back and she blacked out when her head hit the ground.
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The previous darkness of the woods that filled the area been Moon Lake's Main Street and the marked street that the Van Direstag house faced, Wild Street, was no longer there. Richard's new werelion eyes could see every tree and bush and shrub as he moved through the forest, dodging trees and hurdling bushes at high speed. If it weren't for the fact that he had heard Rose scream and scream in terror, he might have marveled at how the pads on his hands and feet dealt with the ground beneath him, not to mention at how much detail his eyes could take in. But he had heard Rose scream in terror and that had his heart in his throat. His sharper hearing was enough to tell him more than just the general direction, and while it was to the west of his position, and going away from the Van Direstag home, the direction didn't matter. Getting to Rose was all that mattered.
"I should have had more control over myself," Richard mentally scolded himself. He wasn't necessarily ashamed of being a werelion and he was greatly impressed with his enhanced musculature and his "equipment," but when Rose had stormed out of Sheila's home, guilt was about the biggest thing he felt. For Rose had always been his everything, the one he loved and would do anything for and that he'd been trying to protect. And in fact much of his whole escape plan was to save her from being pulled into a situation he thought she wouldn't want. Then in a rush of euphoria and various werelion instincts assailing his mind at once, he let himself get too pulled into Sheila's offer and with the hoping idea that Rose would join them, without ever stopping to think on what Rose wanted. It only served to remind him on why Rose had brought him out into the woods, and half made him think that he should have thought things through more carefully and not rushed into any kind of escape plan. All that did was see him become a werelion, upset Rose, and now saw her in danger.
And danger proved to be the operative word as Richard stormed into a section of the woods. Caught between Birch Tree and a Apple Tree, was Rose, laying on her back and unconscious. Blood had stained her right sock and there were obvious claw marks on her forearms, across her forehead, and on her left shoulder. All of these injuries had also allowed for his wife to lose more blood, and standing over her on all fours was a mundane Mountain Lion, its legs straddling Rose's body. She was breathing, but it seemed fairly weak, but as Richard's eyes fell on the Mountain Lion, his heart was frantically beating with the fear of his wife being killed by a mundane animal and his werelion instincts had a very different thought, kill this threat to his Pride. Rose was the love of his life and she was his mate and partner in all things. They'd had three wonderful children together, and even if Rose didn't become a werelioness, Richard wanted her to stay by his side for the rest of their lives, and there was no way he was going to let some young Mountain Lion kill her.
"RooaaaaaaAAAAARRR!" the Mountain Lion cried at him and actually took a step forward.
Part of Richard's mind was a bit puzzled as to why this Mountain Lion was advancing on him. In his present form, he had the sense that he was MUCH bigger than he was in his human form. The clothes for his human form wouldn't fit him while he was transformed, and he was packed with the muscle to dominate the smaller animal and the natural claws and teeth to deal with the Mountain Lion. And while Mountain Lions weren't the most brilliant animals, this individual had to know there was a difference between itself (Puma Concolor) and the Asiatic Lion (Panthera Leo Leo), which Richard's were form was based on. But while Richard couldn't understand the smaller animal's challenge, he knew how to respond.
"GGRRRRRROOOOOAAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUHHHH!" Richard roared in anger and lunged forward.
The Mountain Lion met him half way and tried to claw at his neck and shoulders, but Richard found that his mane largely did precisely what a male Lion's mane helped do in fights between males, provide some natural body armor. The Mountain Lion's claws caught on the fur that made up his mane, and in in some places it pulled on the hairs a bit, but that was better than having his skin cut open. It let Richard grab at the Mountain Lion's sides, with his own claws extended, and then lift the smaller cat up as he stood up to balance on his digitigrade feet. From there he threw the smaller animal through the air and it hit a large deciduous tree that Richard couldn't identify. Hoping that would be enough to get the Mountain Lion to flee, Richard turned back to Rose.
"Rose! ROSE ARE YOU OKAY!?!" he called to his wife, hoping she was just dazed.
The distraction only bought the Mountain Lion more time and it attacked again, this time leaping up onto Richard's shoulders and digging its claws in deep to his shoulder joints and into his back with its feet. The Mountain Lion tried to then get a bite at his neck, but tentatively retreated when the longer fur of his mane hit its tongue. The Asiatic Lion's mane was thicker on the front of the neck and shoulders and thinner on the top of the head, neck, and shoulders, a key difference between the Asiatic Lion and the African Lion (Panthera Leo Melanochaita), but it was still a feature that no other member of the cat family had and it was likely something that this Mountain Lion didn't anticipate encountering. But yet, something drove it on to fight and to attack, and Richard in particular, possibly because it saw Rose as prey and didn't want to lose it, but Richard figured that being thrown through the air would be enough to make decide fighting wasn't worth it.
But yet the Mountain Lion fought, and by now, Richard had had enough of it. Ignoring the pain as the Mountain Lion's claws drug along his back, Richard reached up and grabbed the Mountain Lion by the head and then dug his own claws in again, making the Mountain Lion give out a cry of pain, before pulling the Mountain Lion off of him and then throwing the smaller cat down to his feet. Momentarily disoriented, the Mountain Lion lay on its back for a second while Richard got down, pinned one of the Mountain Lion's forelegs down with one paw and its head with the other. One of Richard's claws ended up sinking into the Mountain Lion's left eye, making it scream with pain, but those were soon silenced as Richard brought his own jaws down around the smaller cat's throat. He didn't bite down as hard as he could, and the Mountain Lion's fur tickled his own tongue, but he simply held the smaller animal there. It tried to kick at him to get him off, but they were weak and grew weaker. Eventually the Mountain Lion's struggles ceased and it fell limp. It was only then that Richard let it go.
With the fight over, Richard stood up again and again threw the now dead Mountain Lion at the tree he'd thrown it at initially. This time the smaller animal bounced off the tree's trunk and did not get up. The only thing that Richard was left with of it was one of its eyes, impaled on the claw on his thumb. Without thinking any more on the animal that had harmed his wife, Richard flicked the eye ball off and retracted the claw and moved to approach Rose. She lay quietly but was still unconscious and still wounded. He could see that she was bleeding, though the cuts on her head weren't bad, and those on her arms were bleeding less profusely now. It was the wound to her ankle that Richard couldn't see. She was still alive and was still breathing, but Richard didn't know what to do.
"I'm sorry, Rose," Richard said to her and then called desperately into the woods, hoping someone... anyone... with any amount of medical training... would come to Rose's aid, "SOMEONE! PLEASE! COME HELP MY WIFE!"