Certain letters of the challenge are harder than others. The letter "Z" is one of them. The most common "Z" word that comes to mind is Zoo. I used that for the 2020 challenge Z-word. This time instead of focusing on my favorite place to take photographs, you are invited to meet some of the creatures that inhabited Deneas' world.
Cats
Several species of large, cats stalk the land, especially at night. A single swipe of a paw could hamstring and bring down a rambler or disembowel a man. An excerpt of a camp invaded and Deneas' encounter with one of the. lethal felines.
An ominous growl echoed in the night. A heartbeat later, a second, closer one, came from where a pair of green eyes glowed from on top of the wall. ...
Slowly, so as not to encourage an attack before she was ready, she stirred up the coals, sending the orange flames higher. What had been almost invisible except for the unblinking jewels of its eyes now resolved into a large, spotted cat. Deneas weighed the stick in her hand. One swipe of the creature’s massive paws would break the wood in two.
Helwr
The aerial hunters of legend are showcased in the 2022 challenge post, H is for Helwr.
Herds of shaggy beasts called ramblers roamed the plains, leveling anything in their path. Not even knives or arrows matched the killing power of the young bulls’ horns and hooves. The adult males who ruled the herd stand taller at the shoulder than a grown man ruled the herd. Their horns were longer, sharper, and more lethal.
American Bison, aka Buffalo, were the inspiration for the ramblers. My first introduction to them, other than on Saturday morning westerns, was a grade school class trip to a family farm who had several bison. Later, I saw a small herd of them on a regular basis at a buffalo ranch near my family farm.
Another inspiration for the ramblers was Bronco, a cow-buffalo cross. He could be exasperating and frustrating. Usually by breaking out of the pasture when you want to go somewhere such as high school graduation. And of course, he refused to respond to the usual call of clanging a wooden spoon against his feed bucket.
This is the last post in the challenge. I hope you've enjoyed the trip to the world of Fire and Amulet. To make following my posts in the challenge easier, you can find all my posts at 2022 AtoZ Connections.
~till next time, Helen
I learned something new today :)
ReplyDeleteGreat pictures to go with this post. The big cats are always fun to see.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! Hopefully you enjoyed the A to Z Challenge as much as we did!
~ The Operation Awesome Team