But Coley was not to be taken prisoner. Daisy heard him fight for his life and for his freedom. She heard his shock and his anger and his pride. But there were too many of them. Daisy heard his pain and his terror and she felt his wounds as the monsters began to win. The noises tortured her until she closed her petals on herself to blot them out and she wept, bitter tears for her darling friend. She heard a final cry and then, silence. At that moment Daisy’s world ended. Her tender companion had cried out in mortal agony and she knew they had won.
It was dawn before the monsters left the mountaintop. Daisy stayed closed.
When the sun rose and stroked her little petal, Daisy refused to open. It was high and hot when the little flower felt the slow, unsteady approach of an animal. It sounded strange, foreign, but Daisy cared no longer. She did not raise her head – until – she felt familiar warmth. Faint it was, but familiar. The little flower peeped out from under her petals to see if she was imagining things. She wasn’t. There beside her was Coley. Her sweet, dear Coley the Snuffler. Daisy cried out in joy until she saw what had been done to him.
The Burren and Beyond 