[Tevildo]

Dorran raced madly forward, his bow clenched tightly in his right hand and his quiver of arrows slung over his back. The boy was smaller and lighter than Brand and managed to overtake him, keeping a short distance ahead on the path. As Brand had thought, Lady had run a considerable distance from the camp. Relentlessly sprinting forward, Dorran covered nearly half a mile when he finally heard the hideous sounds of two animals braced in mortal combat.

Dorran scrambled over a fallen log and pushed through a thicket of bramble bushes, finding himself in the middle of a small clearing with large oak trees circling about on all sides. At the far end of the glade, he could see Lady pushed back against one of the trees. The horse was rearing up on her hind legs, with her forelegs striking out against her attacker. The cat was snarling and opening her mouth wide, her eyes flaming bright with hunger and rage. Now and again, the cougar raced forward, low to the ground, and tried to pounce on Lady's flanks, while attempting to avoid the horse's sharp, flying hooves.

Both animals showed the effects of their fight. There were deep scratches on Lady's flanks and withers. The cat had suffered an even more serious blow to her left side; blood had begun to ooze out onto her tawny coat and drip down to the forest floor.

Almost instantaneously, Dorran let out a shriek to let Brand know where he was and quickly cocked an arrow to his bow. He hesitated, afraid to let it fly, because the cat and horse were so close intertwined that it was impossible to aim at the one without endangering the other. He waited until the cougar slunk backwards to avoid Lady's flailing hooves and then let his arrow loose. It sped forward straight and true towards the cat's breast, but at the last minute the animal swerved abruptly, twisting her body to the right. With a thud, the arrow struck the cat's left haunch. As stinging pain registered on her crazed mind, she turned about from Lady and, howling in madness, leapt at Dorran.