Moose Fights for the Win!

August 17th, 2018Posted by Nancy

Wednesday night’s Mortified Reading event for ChiSeries was a smashing success, with most of the audience wiping their eyes to keep from crying (with laughter! with laughter!) as Madeline Ashby, Don Bassingthwaite, Kari Maaren, Sandra Kasturi, Brett Savory, Elaine Chen, Stephen Michell, David NickleGemma Files, Troy Harkin and I shared some of our best juvenile work with the crowd.

In the spirit of contined sharing, below you will find two excerpts from one of my fine works from 1967 (when I was 8 and using a nom-de-plume).  Get ready for ….. RAJAH.  No corrections to spelling or punctuation have been made (except for two paragraph breaks because otherwise it would make your head hurt).

 

The rumbling echoed through the mountain side as the circus train traveled through the Canadian Rockies. Inside Rajah, the male leopard paced in his cage. He hated confinement even though he had never been free. All he knew was that he wanted to be free, to fly like the birds he had so often watched his heart filling with jealousy. A restlessness had been haunting him ever since he had glimpsed the forests. Day by day this strange urge had been growing and now it was becoming overpowering. He snarled at the keeper as he passed. He lay down only to rise again and pace the cage. Animals often have a sixth sense and all the animals were moving restlessly about their cages. Rajah’s sense was tingling too. Suddenly the train turned a sharp corner sending Rajah’s cage sliding down the car. Simba, the clown lion covered his face with his paws. Then it steadied again. An audible sigh of relief came up from the animals. Drowsily Rajah lay down panting. Then he rolled back and went to sleep.

Out in the mountains a female cougar named Seena watched the train wind around the mountain. She stood on a ridge her slim form silluhouted against the moon. Then a male cougar approached her. Seena turned and licked his face. He looked down at the dissapearing train. Together they bounded down the hill, across the tracks and vanished into the forest. The train lurched along the track, making it impossible for Rajah to sleep so he settled for dozing at intervals. The minutes dragged into hours, the hours into days and still the train went on. Seena and the male kept tabs on it because unknown to the male Seena had detected the faint smell of cat.

As the train rounded a corner the engine conked out. The train swerved and crashed into the cliff. Immediately the air was filled with the sounds of terrorfied animals. The keepers ran from cage to cage releasing animals. Rajah had been hit on the head by a steel bar,stunning him. He staggered out the fresh air reviving him. This was his chance! His long awaited chance! With a quick glance at the frightened animals huddling together he bounded off up the slope.

******* we now move on to later in the story and meet more cougars *******

“Well lets go have a drink then we can go watch the bull moose fighting. Its Spring and there’s bound to be some action,” suggested Zelda.

“I haven’t since a good moose fight since last spring and I could stand a drink” answered Chanta thoughtfully. They started out across the clearing and when they had disappeared Rajah set off after them. He followed them to a small spring bubbling, cascading out of a rock in a miniture waterfall and pouring down hill in tiny rapids until it flowed into a larger stream. They drank a bit and sat together until they heard the clashing of horns. “Come on,” said Chanta,” lets get ringside seats.” After they had gone Rajah dashed out and gulped down a quick drink from the sparkling stream and went off the in the direction of the sounds. He saw Zelda and Chanta sitting together entirely unoticed by the combatents in the clearing. He snuk around to the other side of the clearing and watched the fight. A female moose or cow stood at the edge of the clearing and watched the fight delightedly. You see they were fighting over her. She wasn’t particularly pretty, ugly in fact but in the eyes of the fighters she was heavenly. The bull moose is a majestic animal with antlers sometimes reaching up to 6 feet from tip to tip. The two old scarred males stood facing each other in the clearing. The earth shook as they thundered down at each other. There was an ear-pilting crash as the giants antlers met and locked together. Then began a general pushing match each trying to push the other back. Rajah decided he had seen enough.

 

I packed it all in:  train crashes, weird romance, moose fights, hinterland who’s who information, a chase scene, a fight with hunting dogs, and more weird romance. I’m glad I saved it.

 

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