The sun sank closer to the horizon and I knew it was probably late afternoon.  There were several clouds in the distance, a rare sight here, and not white ones.  As the clouds moved closer it seemed they had no intention of dissipating.  Dr. Jones began herding everyone back onto the path we’d hiked.

“There’s a storm coming and we don’t want to be here when it hits,” he said, causing several girls to squeal.  I knew flash floods were a real problem in the area so I did my best to keep up. 

As we came down a small incline my foot slid across a rock and I fell.  I hit the dirt hard, a cloud of dust poofing out. Several students skirted around me in their hurry to get back to the bus.

“Oww,” I moaned and tried to push myself back up.  A sharp pain shot through my ankle as I put some weight on it and I sat down again.  Two strong arms wound around me and I felt myself being lifted up.  “Thanks.”

I turned to see who it was, expecting Danny or even Matt.  Collin stood over me, his arms around my waist, keeping me from falling over.  I gasped.  Why do I keep running into this guy?  It felt like fate was beginning to have a very sick sense of humor. 

“Did I hurt you?” he asked, his face concerned.

 I didn’t know how to answer him.  What if I said the wrong thing and he flipped out on me again?  I shook my head and tried to step away.  My ankle twisted painfully as I did and Collin caught me.  “How about you let me help you back?  We need to get out of here…there isn’t a whole lot of time left.”

I peered up at the sky, his words making me nervous.  The clouds, now an ominous charcoal color, were too close for comfort.  Resigned, I allowed him to pull my arm around his neck and limped beside him.  There was no one visible on the path ahead of us and I glanced over Collin’s shoulder to see if somehow we were ahead of the group but it was empty too.  A sense of unease settled over me and I tried to move a little quicker.

Collin must have felt it too as he sped up, nearly dragging me.  A strange roaring sound rose up from behind us.   Chills ran down the back of my neck.  I worried it might be the waters of a flash flood rushing towards us.  Collin froze for a split second before scooping me up and sprinting down the path. 

I bounced along in his arms as another roar ripped through the air, much closer.  This time, though it sounded more like a snarl.  Somehow Collin managed to speed up.  I tightened my grip around his neck, worried he might drop me.

“What is going on?” I demanded the words jolting out of me as I held on for dear life.  He ignored me as the snarling reverberated off the rocks…this time from in front of us.  Collin skidded to a stop and set me down gently.  I stood on my one good foot and watched in terror as the biggest animal I’d ever seen outside a zoo stalked down the path towards us.

Collin angled himself in front of me, pulling a long knife out of the pack on his back.  My mind seemed to disconnect as he crouched with the knife’s long blade pointed at the creature.  I stared in shock as it prowled closer. 

I didn’t think jaguars were native anywhere in the U.S. anymore, yet here was one looking extremely hungry.  A flash of lightening momentarily blinded me and I screamed as I felt Collin jerk away.

Loud snarling echoed off the surrounding rock walls and seemed to come at me from every direction.  I dropped to the ground, my hands searching for something I could use to defend myself.  My fingers wrapped around a large rock and I snatched it.  As the spots left my vision, Collin came back into view.  He wrestled the jaguar, who kept clawing at the pack on Collin’s back.  It glanced at me and I gasped, backing away.

Its face had a very distinct pattern.  One I recognized…from the museum, but that was impossible.  That cat died and was stuffed who knew how long ago.

Something glinted some distance away from the fight and I realized it was Collin’s knife.  I scrambled as best I could across the dirt and loose rocks, ignoring the excruciating pain in my ankle.  My hand closed around the cold blade just as the clouds hit us.  Fat raindrops began thumping around me, evaporating into a thin trail of steam as soon as they hit the sun heated landscape. 

I crawled towards Collin.  His hand pushed against the jaguar’s nose, barely avoiding the razor sharp teeth.  I fought the terror and panic that screamed at me to run the other direction and dragged myself closer.  I pushed myself into position, preparing to leap onto the jaguar.

 At least that was the plan.  I shoved off the dirt and my good foot slid across more loose rocks.  My leap was more of a lunge as I shoved my hands out in an effort to stop myself, completely forgetting the knife still held in one.

 I hit the writhing mass of boy and cat and heard a shriek of pain.  I rolled off and horror numbed me as I watched blood drip from the knife still in my hand.  Rain fell in sheets washing the blood from the weapon. 

The scuffling behind me had gone silent but I couldn’t make myself look to see who was still panting. Something touched my leg and I screeched, jumping several feet away.  Collin chuckled and I collapsed in relief. 

“Don’t worry, he’s gone,” he said.

How does he know that was a he?  Collin stood, his shirt in shreds and his pants smeared with blood and mud.  He offered his hand and pulled me up.  He pulled harder than was necessary and I thumped into his chest.  His hand slipped around my waist, steadying me.  Our faces were inches apart and I felt my heart flutter wildly.

What is wrong with me?  I do not like this guy, I reminded myself.  I cleared my throat and hopped a step back, putting some much needed distance between me and the warm brown eyes that were still too close for comfort.

He kept his arm around me as we walk/jogged as fast as we could, not even bothering to see if the cat was still around.  I stared at Collin, waiting for him to explain what had just happened.  His mouth turned down at the corners and he kept muttering under his breath but said nothing that I could understand.  Finally I quit moving.  He took one more step before realizing he was just dragging me.

He faced me, a quizzical look on his face now.  “What are you doing?”

My eyes went wide.  “Seriously?  What am I doing?  What the heck just happened?!”

I pointed back where we’d come from.  The rain still fell, though it wasn’t nearly as hard as before.  If I strained I could just make out the section of the trail that was all churned up from their wrestling match.

Collin glanced in the direction I pointed and began hustling me along.  “It was a random attack.  Sometimes that happens when food gets scarce.”

He recited the words like he was reading them from a script.  My eyes narrowed.  I recognized a cover story when I heard one. 

“Really?  They have jaguar attacks here?” I sneered.  “And I recognized that cat.  Yesterday it was in the UNM museum lobby.” 

Even as the words left my mouth, I realized how crazy I sounded.  I skidded to a halt again, determined not to go any farther till he told me what was going on. 

“I’m sorry,” he said.  His response threw me off.

“Well, I, uh...don’t think you could have planned for that.”

For some reason his eyes were sad.  He opened his mouth then closed it with a snap and shrugged.  His cavalier attitude fell back into place.  I didn’t even get a chance to say anything else before he scooped me back into his arms and kept going. 

I folded my arms across my chest and glared at him.  He ignored me.  I wished I could ignore him, but that was hard to do when I was wrapped in his arms.  His extremely warm arms.

The rain had stopped now and I noticed that it had washed the majority of blood off Collin.  His wounds didn’t look nearly as bad as before.  Maybe some of the blood had been the cat’s.  The bus finally came into view.

Professor DeMille paced outside the bus with his clipboard and I saw Dr. Peters gesturing to a couple of the grad students.  The adults finally noticed us and Professor DeMille rushed to meet us.

“What happened?  What is this?” he demanded, his face livid.  I didn’t know what to say and peeked up at Collin, curious how he was going to explain this.

“She tripped and hurt her ankle.  Lucky I was bringing up the rear,” he said.  His smile didn’t reach his eyes as he set me down.  I leaned all my weight on my good leg, further emphasizing his story.  The professor didn’t seem to notice Collin’s own injuries, or if he did, he didn’t say anything.  He merely huffed and stormed back to the bus, checking my name off the list.

Relieved to be out of Collin’s arms, I limped my way to the bus.  He tried to help but I swatted him away.  I didn’t think I could handle being that close anymore.  I was over it, over him.  Over the whole thing.  Ever since I’d met him it was nothing but weird drama.

Somehow I made it onto the bus and into my seat.  Lilli-Mae fluttered around me trying to help, the whole time lamenting that it wasn’t her that had gotten to be the damsel in distress.  I wanted to tell her what had really happened if for no other reason than to shut her up, but for some unknown reason, I kept it to myself.