Chelsea didn't understand. She had done everything right.
Most predators have pretty poor success rates, after all. An alert, agile prey should be able to escape fourteen times out of fifteen.
Chelsea had kept on alert for predators, using her big ears to stay aware of her surroundings. And when she had noticed the large feline following her, she had bolted at the first possibility of safety, using her slight frame and incredible speed to leave the hungry cat in the dust.
Except the feline matched her speed for speed. When Chelsea ducked into a wooded area, the feline followed. When Chelsea had scrambled through some foliage to lose her, the feline had scrambled through right after her. When she cleared a wide ravine in a single leap, her pursuer had done the same.
She almost made it. She could see a burrow in the woods that was far too large for even this agile predator to fit into. But she before she reached it, Chelsea felt the clasp of fingers on the back of her shirt, yanking her off her feet. In an instant, her clothes were off, and her body was being pressed into the tight, moist tunnel of the feline's gullet.
One in fifteen. Those were the supposed odds of a pred actually catching their prey.
Apparently, today was the one.
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I was on vacation for the last few days, and one of the things I did was see a big cat show, touring from a wildlife park. They had a lynx, and I learned lots of interesting things, like how their primary diet is rabbits and how they're perfectly adapted to chasing that particular prey down.
Well that's the way it is sometimes. If prey lasted forever, preds would only ever need to eat once...and they'd have to be a bit picky about who they ate. More like a relationship than a meal, if anything.
Well that's the way it is sometimes. If prey lasted forever, preds would only ever need to eat once.
