Cougar: Claw Rake: Torso

Its hind claws bicycled while it clung to your shoulders, and one stroke went deep, parting the muscle wall low on your belly. The doctor packed the wound and will not meet your eyes; if the gut beneath is nicked, there is no medicine for what follows.

• Confined flat to a bed for up to 7 days, no riding, lifting, or laughing
• Belly bound in a swathe over carbolic packing, changed by a steady hand only
• Fed on broth and spoonfuls of brandy while the wound declares itself
• /me lies rope-still, both hands resting light on the bound belly.

Recovery 7 days flat under a doctor to learn if fever comes, without one, you are betting your life on luck already spent.·Doctor, urgently

Four furrows across your chest, deep enough that one showed the pale of bone at the rib. The stitching took the doctor most of the evening, and the whiskey was medicinal in name only.

• Chest bound tight, no lifting, roping, or hard riding for 5 days
• Sixty-odd stitches in parallel rows that pull with every deep breath
• Sleeping propped upright the first 3 nights

Recovery 6 days bound with a doctor's needlework, 12 with rags and stubbornness.·Doctor, urgently

It shifted its grip halfway through, so the rakes cross each other, chest and belly scored in two directions like a checkerboard laid out in blood. No single cut would kill you; together they left you white and swaying.

• Torso a lattice of sutured and plastered cuts, wrapped like a mummy for 5 days
• Weak from slow blood loss, no hard work, and stand up slow, for 3 days
• Any bath stings past all reason
• /me moves like a man made of wet paper, one hand on the wrapped ribs.

Recovery 5 days with a doctor tending each row, 10 if you count on your own hands.·Doctor required

None of the dozen cuts is deep, but every one wept steady, and together they drained you like taps in a barrel. You went gray by the fire and woke to somebody else's hands pressing rags on you.

• A dozen cuts stitched and plastered across chest and belly
• Faint if you stand fast, no ladders, no saddles, for 3 days
• Eating for two: liver, beans, and beef to make the blood back

Recovery 5 days rebuilding blood with a doctor's diet, 9 gray ones alone.·Doctor required

The deepest stroke hit your sternum and skated, plowing a furrow up the center of your chest instead of punching through. The bone burns like a brand, but the bone is why you are breathing.

• Sutured furrow up the breastbone, no rifle recoil, no heavy pulling for 4 days
• Aches with every deep breath, and every sneeze is a small murder
• A centerline scar that will peek above every open collar

Recovery 4 days sutured with care, 7 with a whiskey wash and gritted teeth.·Doctor required

Your cartridge belt turned the worst stroke, claws screeched across leather and brass and dug in above and below it. There is a clean band of untouched skin at your waist between two bleeding ones.

• Cuts above and below the beltline sutured; bending at the waist pulls stitches for 4 days
• Wearing the gunbelt over fresh cuts is its own penance, it rides on the hips or not at all
• Belt leather scored through two loops, brass gouged

Recovery 4 days if the stitches hold with a doctor's tying, 8 if your bending tears them.·Doctor required

You stopped counting at twelve. Most are shallow, four wanted silk, and together they map exactly how long the cat hung on before your knife convinced it otherwise.

• Four sutured furrows among a dozen shallow ones, wrapped chest, no swimming or sweating labor for 4 days
• Dressings stick and peel twice a day; you learn to breathe shallow for the pulling
• /me unwinds the wrap a turn to count the red rows for the doubters.

Recovery 4 days under a doctor's dressings, 7 crusted ones without.·Doctor required

One rear claw hooked the shelf of your hip bone and gouged to the bone before tearing free. Small wound, deep opinion, every step tugs at it.

• Gouge at the hip packed and plastered, no running, and stairs taken sideways, for 4 days
• Waistband and holster ride wrong over the dressing
• Deep bone-bruise ache whenever the weather turns

Recovery 4 days packed clean with a doctor, 7 limping ones alone.·Doctor required

The claws took both suspenders clean off your shoulders and left welted scratches down your chest to remember them by. Your trousers surrendered before you did.

• Welted scratch lines from chest to belly, stinging under a shirt for 3 days
• Trousers on borrowed twine until the mercantile opens
• /me hitches the twine-strung trousers up with what dignity remains.

Recovery 2 days of welts and sting; salve and a new pair of braces.·Doctor advised

The shirt died so that you might live, shredded to bar rags while the claws underneath drew only beaded lines of blood. Cold air on raw scratches the whole ride home.

• Beaded scratch lines across chest and belly, washed and salved for 2 days
• One shirt, deceased; you ride home half-dressed in the cold
• Scratches itch mercilessly as they scab

Recovery 2 days of itch and sting, treated or not.·Doctor advised

It swung around your side as it fell away, and the claws scored your flank from lowest rib to hip. Shallow enough to skip the needle, deep enough that laughing is a mistake.

• Scored flank plastered, twisting and hard laughing pull for 3 days
• Sleeping on the off side only
• A fan of thin scars that read left to right like sheet music

Recovery 3 days plastered; it heals the same with or without a doctor's rent.·Doctor advised

The rear feet drummed against your ribs through coat and shirt, more bruise than blade. Your side comes up in barred welts like a washboard, and one rib answers doubtful.

• Barred welts and one tender rib, no heavy lifting for 3 days
• Deep breaths on a budget; coughing is a two-hand operation

Recovery 3 days sore, 5 if the rib is crankier than it lets on.·Doctor advised

A palm's width of one furrow went deeper than all the rest of the scratches put together. Three stitches hold it; the rest is iodine and complaining.

• Three stitches low on the chest, plus painted scratches, no rope hauling for 3 days
• Stitches snag on shirt buttons until you learn to dress careful

Recovery 3 days for the stitched cut; the scratches beat it healed by a day.·Doctor advised

Three shallow scratches just above the belt, stinging like a briar patch judged you. The claws never got a full stroke before you tore free.

• Three iodine-painted lines above the belt for 2 days
• Belt buckle sits a hole looser while they scab

Recovery 2 days of sting; soap and salve close the account.·No doctor needed

Your winter coat gave four claws nothing but fleece and canvas. What reached you raised welts like switch marks and broke skin in exactly two places.

• Welt stripes across the chest, tender for 2 days
• Two small scabs and one large invoice at the tailor

Recovery A day or two of welts; the coat needs the sewing, not you.·No doctor needed

Three neat scratches from collarbone to breastbone, shallow as a switch-flick. They flush pink in the bathhouse and buy you one free drink of sympathy.

• Three shallow scratch lines, salved once a day for 2 days
• Shirtless work draws stares and questions

Recovery 2 days to scab and settle; nothing to it but the telling.·No doctor needed

The stroke that should have opened you up hooked your shirt placket instead and popped every button into the brush. One shallow scratch under it all.

• One shallow scratch down the breastbone, plastered for a day
• Shirt held shut with a whittled peg until buttons are found or bought
• /me pins the shirt closed and dares anyone to comment.

Recovery A day for the scratch; the buttons are wherever buttons go.·No doctor needed

Your leather vest took all four rear feet and died a hero, shredded past any cobbler's pity while the hide beneath it stayed whole. You wear the ruin home like a medal.

• A red pressure welt or two beneath, gone in a day
• The clawed vest, retired, hangs where guests will ask about it

Recovery Nothing to heal; hang the vest where it can brag.·No doctor needed

The satchel slung across your chest caught the bicycling feet, and the cat disemboweled a week of provisions instead of you. It fled wearing your flour like war paint.

• One faint scratch along the torn strap-line
• Provisions scattered from here to the treeline, the biscuits died instantly

Recovery Nothing but the shopping list; you are untouched.·No doctor needed

With the cat clamped on and its claws spinning, you threw yourself backward off the bank into the creek. Cougars despise water more than they love meat, it exploded off you, swam ashore, and quit the county. You stood up dripping, shirt in ribbons, skin barely marked, laughing steam into the cold.

• A handful of faint scratch lines, half-closed by the cold water already
• Soaked through and shaking, get to a fire within the hour
• /me wrings out a shredded shirt, still laughing too loud for comfort.

Recovery A fire tonight and a stiff walk tomorrow; the story outlives any mark.·No doctor needed