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Keeping her eyes closed, Miriam lost count of how many men might have arrived. Certainly more than she could overpower or even run from. Her ruse of pretending to still be unconscious barreled towards useless. Both her curiosity, and the hopelessness of her situation, drove her to finally open her eyes, slowly and part-way, preparing for some sort of retaliation or reaction.
Nothing happened. No one noticed. Opening her eyes fully, she quickly understood the reason. Every poacher there busied themselves with trying to secure Usa. They looped giant ropes across her body, tying them into huge knots and binding Usa’s feet and tail. Two men worked on her jaw, tying a rope tight around it to ensure she wouldn’t be able to open her mouth. All of this looked effective and practiced. These men may have never seen a dobhar-chú before, but they’d certainly dealt with large animals.
She found Radley right in the middle of the fray, barking orders while also doing his fair share of tightening, binding, and checking.
All of this would serve to keep them safe from Usa when she woke up, but getting her out alive would be another matter requiring some sort of vehicle.
Psst!
The sound penetrated everything else as something foreign and unexpected. Miriam twisted her head and quickly found the source of the interruption: Kim, crouched nearby, shielded by a smattering of low hanging branches and thick, green leaves.
A small smile crept across Miriam’s face, much subtler than the Cheshire grin on Kim’s. Miriam motioned to the vines wrapped around her shoulders, eliciting a quick nod from Kim.
Like a panther, Kim crept closer, skirting away from the camp to keep as covered as she could. Anyone paying attention would surely see her, but the grunt work of securing Usa kept them all busy enough to ignore any movement in the woods. Given the possibility of more dobhar-chú in the area, Miriam thought it foolish that they hadn’t left a guard posted. Perhaps it wouldn’t be a monster that foiled their plans, though.
Miriam felt the vines loosen before she even registered that Kim had approached the tree, hearing only a slight snap as each one broke beneath a large knife that Kim brandished. Kim reached around and touched Miriam lightly on the bicep, motioning into the trees. Miriam took the hint and, as silently as possible, followed Kim to cover.
Not a single one of the poachers noticed her escape. Apparently, hunting dangerous animals did not translate well into being captors.
Together, they moved through the underbrush, increasingly far away from the camp until they found a very relieved-looking Macy sitting on the forest floor, surrounded by bushes, a tranq gun in her lap.
“Mir!” she whisper-yelled.
Miriam didn’t try to escape or shrug off the hug that came next, but she did wince a little. Between the three of them, Kim was the least battle-damaged.
The moment of elation quickly passed as all three girls sat in a circle. As bad of an idea as it seemed on the surface, Miriam knew they’d be going back to save Usa. After what had happened to Kawa, it had to be done. They couldn’t let this creature be paraded out of the forest and exposed to the world in this way, by evil men with an evil purpose. Whatever they planned to do with this specimen, it would rob Miriam and the scientific community of the chance to properly study and protect this majestic quirk of evolution.
If they were going to be stupid enough to do this thing, they needed a solid plan.
“What do we have?” Miriam asked.
“Some rope,” Kim responded. “Both this pistol and Macy’s tranq, and this knife.”
“Not a lot to work with.”
“No, but enough,” Kim said. “We need to free Usa. She’ll help.”
“Or she’ll attack us like she did before,” Macy replied.
Macy wasn’t wrong. Usa’s attack vector would be unpredictable and uncontrollable, if she fought at all. She was just as likely to slink into the woods and leave the three of them to face a handful of hunt-hardened poachers, a task they were not prepared or equipped for. The odds seemed poor, and Miriam preferred battles tipped in her favor.
“She won’t,” Kim pleaded. “Not this time. She knows the bad guys from the good guys now.”
Macy rolled her eyes. Miriam sighed.
“She’s a wild animal, scared and mourning,” Miriam said. “I don’t think we can count on that.”
Kim stared defiantly into Miriam’s eyes. “Fine. What’s your plan then?”
Miriam didn’t have one. Not one that would succeed anyway. Neither of her companions could track, aim, and fire fast enough to make any sort of an ambush work. The poachers would be far faster on the draw, and, assuming they had no compunction with killing, would put the girls on their backs before they had a chance to accomplish anything at all.
Miriam’s preference was to subdue or take out the men, then carefully release Usa back into the wild in the least threatening way possible.
“We need a distraction,” Miriam said. Her mind raced to find one.
“If only we had Kawa,” Kim said.
Kawa was dead in the lake. The pups, likely hidden in a den somewhere, were far too small to be of any use in a fight. But maybe... maybe they didn’t actually need a dobhar-chú? Maybe they just needed the poachers to feel the threat of one.
Miriam checked her front pocket and breathed a sigh of relief to feel the outline of her phone. Of course it had been through hell and back, but her feature requirements for a phone were a bit different than most. Number one on her selection list: ruggedness. As she slipped it out, the water coating the outside of the plastic shone in the cloud-strained sun. But nothing was cracked. A quick tap of the power button brought the screen to life. No signal, of course, but she didn’t need a signal.
She looked at Macy and Kim, both bedraggled and injured. Neither looking particularly primed for a fight. But Kim would stop at nothing to save Usa, and Macy always had Miriam’s back.
Miriam held her phone out to Macy, looked her friend in the eye, and revealed the plan that might just save them all.
