>>795585I was by the aviary preserve trail in Ca. This was before the houses, back when it was just wild feilds. I worked nights, guarding land and piles of copper. I shared my nights with rabbits, coyotes, owls, if there were snakes I never saw them.
One night while guarding these massive plots of land it happened, I walked near a few bushes and out came a large muscular cat, a mountain lion, through bushes, leaves and bramble. Not a sound, emerald eyes that studied me with intelligence. No one told me they were thinkers. That unnerved me the most, it was studying me. Seeing if I would fight back. 8 yards, not a lot after all..... I had my long knife, a flashlight, and a flare. Never taking my eyes off her, I took out the knife. If I was to die I would leave it scars to remember it's meal, take it with me if I could.... I put the light on a weird strobe set (dropped) it on the ground, that gave me a split second to get a few yards back to the flare. I just took out my lighter and opened it a bit with the knife.... it approched a few feet squaring it's shoulders towards me. Confused by the strobe light..... I could see a feline expression of wild confusion fading off its face. Then the fucking flare light up. Took 20 seconds.... that was an awful 20 Seconds... so a long knife made of shot Chinese steel in my left and a road flare In my right I prepared to fight, and to die. I screamed as loud as I could tearing my throat. Then silent, powerful, and slowly it turned back into the bushes and without a fucking TRACE, it prowled back. Which was really something as it made me realize it could have been watching me for months....