Animal Activities #72
The morning mist was always iron-flavored and tasting like old pennies to Barnaby. He was not a noble stallion; nor a noble-dog for guarding; nor anything so illustrious. He was regulation donkey with one ear with a nick in it; and he did love silence more than anything. It was not often silence on the Henderson's.
It was Barnaby's duty to guard the sheep. The amnesiac fluffballs saw danger in every rustle of breeze. But on this occasion it was real danger.
The wind began to blow - a smell of Musk, of the wrong sort; it had been like a sort of tanginess and the whole length of Barnaby's spine had shuddered, the hair on his back each springing erect. A flicker in a break in the fence round the sheep enclosure - a coyote, yellow-eyed and lean, staring a lamb out of the herd of white ones.
The lamb was transfixed; the coyote was coiling its haunches.
Barnaby, he gave neither warning or bellowing. He simply drooped his ears; let out a rumbling, gut-twisting hee-haw that sounded like achainsaw whittling through a metal roof; and he ran.
He was,not often thought of, for dynamic feats, however, with a sheer power and horrific speed Barnaby surged forward. His hooves, crashing down, thudding on clumps of sodden clay. The ears of the coyote were assaulted with the deafening roar and then followed, after a momentary beat of half a second where it should have known better, by a charging grey wave.
Barnaby swung around with a circular agility perhaps honed by the countless pursuit of precisely the same coyote species; reared up onto his forelegs and kicking out with his hind legs. The hooves met nothing but air but narrowly missed the coyote's ribcage, landing just inches to the left of it and cracking like a rifle-shot.
The coyote decided that it was too expensive a meal at the Henderson's and ran back through the bushes with a flick of its tail. The sheep already remembered nothing and went back to munching. Barnaby shook himself, nudged the scared lamb toward the others; and then went back to his clover; and had a nap.
Thanks for reading my post I'm inviting @bela90, @rad-austine and @m-fdo to participate.