Kahlan held up the piece. “Would you like one?”
The animal looked up at her as if it understood her words. It clearly wanted the food, but it was also being cautious.
So as not to frighten the creature, Kahlan stayed where she was as she slowly stretched her arm out to offer the piece of meat.
The animal also stretched, leaning forward on its powerful-looking forelegs, its nose twitching as it smelled her hand all the way around. She could see the muscles rippling under the sleek fur of its shoulders. Satisfied, it then smelled the meat, and finally, carefully lifted the piece of the meat from her fingers. When it took the meat she saw that it had a broad mouth of long, needle-sharp, and quite formidable teeth.
Watching her the whole time, it dragged the prize back a short distance and hunched over, gnawing at it very much the way a cat hunched over food as it ate.
Kahlan used her teeth to tear off a piece of her own and chewed as she watched the animal, letting it know she was hungry, too. As happy as the creature was to take the handout, it certainly looked like it was getting enough to eat. By the looks of it, it was built for hunting. By its robust build, it was clearly successful at it.
The dark spots on its back seemed to grow together the farther down they went along the side of the body and up onto the neck. The fur on the head, legs, and big paws was very dark. In the moonlight it was hard to tell if it was dark brown or black. Since the light-colored area on the back under the spots was tan, she guessed that it was probably dark brown. The one exception was the almost white tufts of hair at the points of its ears.
When it finished, the animal looked up and started purring again, content where it was, not yet ready to leave.
“Still hungry?” Kahlan asked with a smile as she offered it another piece. It took the second piece with equal care and withdrew a short distance to gnaw at the second prize.
Kahlan drank water after another piece of salted fish. The animal watched out of the corner of an eye. Kahlan lifted her waterskin.
“You thirsty, little one?”
The creature just watched her with big green eyes. It seemed interested in everything she did, appraising every movement, its ears perked toward her.
Kahlan poured some water into her cupped hand and held it out. The animal rose up a little and moved forward and crouched down to greedily lap at the water with a rough, catlike tongue. When it finished, Kahlan poured a second handful as it waited and watched. It drank most of the second handful, finally seeming satisfied.
Kahlan offered it a third piece of meat. When it rose up and stepped forward she saw that it favored its front left paw.
This time it stayed close as it gnawed the meat in two before swallowing down half of it. As it picked up the other half to gulp it down, it lifted its weight off its front left paw. It seemed less afraid after having the snack, so Kahlan cautiously reached out and with a single finger stroked the sable-soft fur on the foreleg that it held partially up off the rock.
“Do you have something wrong with your foot, little one?”
It backed away. Moving slowly and deliberately, Kahlan reached out toward the paw.
“Can I take a look? Maybe I can help.”
The animal stayed in place, tipping its head down, watching her hand as she gently lifted the paw. With her thumb, she stroked the top of the paw while slipping her fingers under the big, soft pads.
She felt the sharp points of a burr lodged between the toes. The fur was wet where the animal had been licking at it, and probably trying to get it out with its teeth.
“It would feel better if you would let me take that out for you. Would you let me?”
She knew that the creature couldn’t understand her, but by the way it continued to purr she thought that maybe it found her soft voice comforting.
Since the animal wasn’t going to come closer, she turned a little and got up on her knees so she could lean closer and see. With her one hand, she carefully spread the toes and saw the thorny burr lodged between the two of them.
“That has to hurt to walk on. It’s not going to kill you, but why don’t you let me see if I can get it out,” she cooed. “It would feel better.”
The thing watched her without showing any reaction, but she was well aware of how close that wide mouth full of teeth was to her face. Other than its thrumming purr, it was as silent as a cat when it moved.
Not wanting the wicked-looking thorns stuck in her own fingers, Kahlan grabbed a nearby stick and bent it in half with the fingers of one hand to use as pincers. She leaned in on her elbows, holding the toes spread with one hand while she worked her thumb and finger on the stick with her other hand to start to pull the burr out. It was one of those small spheres with thorns all around and it was lodged tightly in place.