Rainbow Reflections - Prologue

I press back against the cold concrete behind me, most of the warmth imparted by the sun has fled and it makes my sweat covered back feel clammy. The rocks are hard beneath my feet, the scent of the flowering weeds along the creek thick and heavy in the late afternoon air. I strain to hear any foreign sound as I fight to make my breathing silent.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are!"

His voice makes my breasts tingle and the nipples tighten into hard little buds as something pulls deep in my womb. Yesterday I had responded to his voice, I had answered his inviting call. Today I hang my head in shame and blink back tears, I'll never forgive myself.

"Honey I'm home!"

I turn my head and look towards the setting sun, just a little longer ... I wait motionlessly as the sun sinks those last inches in the sky. I must have patience.

Finally I hear what I have been waiting for ... the far off rumble of an approaching train.

I glance around at the loose stones and rocks that litter the creek bed beneath the railway bridge. Some are barely visible in the deep shadows but I have the fastest escape routes fixed firmly in my mind.

Just to the left of where I hide in heavy shadows the creek cuts a path under the tracks, overhead thick steel forms a trestle bridge.

The train is getting closer and I kneel down as I let myself change, soon it will cover any noise I may make as I dash over those loose rocks, out the other side and up the steep embankment to the road.

"Honey I'm home!"

I can't resist his call any longer and glide from my hiding place on four paws, in this form I can here someone stumbling around in the gloom five hundred metres away. The engine of the train reaches the start of the trestle bridge.

I dash away with a burst of speed, down under the bridge, along the ditch to the best crossing place and then up the bank. I reach the far side of the road and my paws touch the soft grass at the edge of the narrow road.

I feel a curious tug, gentle at first then stronger, more powerful. I stop uncertainly, raise my head and swivel my ears. There is total silence.

Something wants to pull me back the way I came, something stronger lures me forward.

I stand with one front paw raised as I waver in confusion, slowly I become aware of a pale silver thread in the twilight. I follow it with my eyes to the crumpled, broken form hidden in the tall weeds at the bottom of the gully.

I stand there looking at it, at the thread that runs between us. A dim grey shadow moves at the edge of some bushes and I turn my attention away from that still form.

He is a large man dressed in a flannelette shirt, denim jeans and work boots. Beside him a figure on four legs moves and he lowers a large hand to the sleek form, it purrs and rubs its head against his thigh affectionately.

I make my way to the motionless form - something I can't name pulls me closer. I step carefully in the eerie silence careful not to make any noise. I stop where I can see it clearly.

It is a woman and she is in very bad shape. I watch without emotion as she starts twitching, she is having some kind of a seizure.

"The train covered what little sound you made but it also covered the sound of the vehicle,"

I jerk my eyes away from that crumpled form to look at the shadowy form in shock.

Then it hits me. That is me down there!

I look back down in horror, I recognise myself now. Well part of myself. The silver thread tightens between the convulsing body and where I stand.

I glance down and realise I can see through my own foreleg! I look up to find the man and his large cat just across my shattered body from me.

"I've come to take you home Chiquita,"

Home ... sadness fills me as I think of him. I know he'll be expecting me.

I long to continue on towards him until I glance at the shattered shell that used to be me. Limbs askew and the pale gleam of naked skin in the gathering gloom.

I can smell the coppery tang of blood and realise I can taste it, thick and warm in my mouth. I creep closer and sniff towards the twitching body with a sick feeling in my stomach.

Blood flows from ears, eyes and nose as glazed eyes stare uncomprehendingly into the growing darkness.

The need to go tugs at me and I raise my head to look back the way I had just came. The tug of that pale inert form wars with the need to go.

"Come," The velvety voice comes from the shadowy figure and I take a step towards his voice. I look back at my pale body longingly, I know if I leave now there is no returning, my body will die but I want to live.

"Your body is too damaged,"

I don't take my eyes off the pale form as each breath comes slower, more laboured.

"Your head received the full impact of the collision. Bones can only take so much before they break, before they shatter ..."

Tired I settle my shadowy form not far from the nearly motionless body. I slowly lower my chin onto my front legs as I stare at my body.

A firefly moves in the gloom and lands on the motionless form, I lift my head and watch intently.

Full darkness has arrived despite the new moon slowly rising into view and I glance at the place where the shadowy figures had been. I can only see the one now and it is starting to melt into the darkness of the night.

Its face moves as if he is speaking but there is no sound, only the occasional wet raspy noise of laboured breathing near me. Even the heartbeat is growing fainter and weaker with each passing minute.

I know what I must do. I climb to my four feet slowly and step forward delicately. I shift my feet carefully into position and lower my head to sniff my own face, it is then I become aware of them.

Two things so small they should be insignificant but each holds a most powerful will to survive.

Slowly I let my shadow body sink into the pale form beneath me. The night grows so dark it is completely black. My body is heavy and twitches as another seizure drains my dwindling reserves.

"I love you," His voice echoes in my mind and the very fibre of my being.

"I love you too." My words are my last thought, my last sensation.