[i]As everyone settled into the night their senses dulled, they did not have the wildness of their ancestors and so did not know of the dangers of the dark.  While the beasts had eaten several of them they were not satiated.

Susan Bly left the group without notifying them as she went into the woods to do her business.  Embarrassed because of the zero privacy this place provided, she told no one to watch out for her.  The others conversed around the fire and readied themselves to sleep never hearing the silent screams of the woman.  They were strangled by the blood that poured into her throat as one of the panther beasts took her by surprise and was quickly joined by a group of others.  

Mia Ellis was closer to Susan than the others as they were both girls and Horace had kept his distance when they first appeared.  When she did not see the woman around the camp, noticing her absence for more than five minutes, she began to worry and quietly stood up from her corner of the leafy bed and started to go searching for the woman.

Like a storm, for panther lizards attacked the group at once.  One managed to tackle Mia down, but bit into her shoulder instead of her throat.  Mia screamed in agony and fear rousing the others from their growing sleepy stupor.  

One of the panthers made a straight line for Sasha, lunging to pin the man down.  The other two made a pincer strike heading for Horace and a second seemingly going for Sasha as well.  Sasha had killed one of the panthers before, maybe the blood on his hands, a reminiscent essence of the kill, remained and it presented him as the largest threat of the group.  Horace was just unlucky to be close to the man making him a target as well.

Mia was dead, at least to Horace, that left aiding himself and then Sasha.  Without a second thought, without a moment of hesitation he lunged for the small fire pit.  He had seen the panthers rush the group before Mia was tackled and had reacted in that instant.  The others were later to react by mere seconds, sometimes that is enough to decide whether you live or die.  

Horace took thick log at least as thick as his wrist that was at least three feet long with the tip glowing red with embers.  It would serve as his weapon in the fight to come. 

"To the lake!" Horace cried out. "The water!  To the lake!"

He hoped the others would follow.  Inside the water the beasts would be slower and easier to repel.  

He charged the panther that rushed him fully intent on delivering a good wack to its eyes with the ember lit tip before rushing towards the water.[/i]