The Aventine Chronicles : War Island

Chapter Eight - Fever's Prey

He ran as fast as he could. The dry, dead earth dusted his naked feet as he leaped and bounded to get as far away as possible. His hard breathing awkwardly flared his nostrils as he takes a quick glimpse at his back. He sees his predator, eyes unto him and unflinching with it's horrific incoming. He felt his heart pound as soon as he flashed to his feet again, his temples throbbing.

The winds felt warmer with the heat of his panic, his salty sweat poured endlessly to his eyes. He pushed his legs even harder, more than what he thought he could only do. The animal still in its hunt, he could somehow almost hear its frenzied breathing too. It scared him.

 The plains daunted him as boundless, he didn't see anything that could possibly save him. Not a bush nor a higher ground. Still he ran straight and true, as if he could run forever. The chase went on, but  he knew all too well that the animal would soon finally catch up as his legs seemed ready to collapse despite his unrelenting will. His feet bled with every rock both landed on, it was a profuse pain he was willing to endure. He wanted to live.

He had once dreamed of death, yes. But never like this, being devoured by a mindless beast. But deep in him he knew it may well be his last run. So he gave his everything and the beast a fight before it gets its meal.

A little fire blazed inside him, as the setting sun above a mountain in his right shortly blinded his eyes. That fire whispered a memory, a happy one. He was with family, down a river in his hometown. It wasn't the prettiest of waterways, but it kept a community living and fed through the hard days. It was the feast of Golemn City, the day of its foundation. His friends were with him, kids of his age. He was playing with them through the camps, chasing each one of them; playing tag. He always ran as fast as a child could.

Still at his speed, he saw a little smudge of a tree ahead of him. It seemed like a lighting bolt of hope. He believed somehow he'd evade death again, as he previously did. He locked his body on that hazy figure, and bolted faster. His feet seemed like a machine, tireless and unwavering. A rush of adrenaline renewed his fervor to live. It seemed endless and long and uniform. It felt like his nude, hasty steps almost belonged with the dry and cold land.

He felt infinite, the rush was now savory to him. A feeling taht started to disgust him, and excite him as well. He thought he had never felt more alive.

Then abruptly, his feet finally emptied its fuel to drive. It struck him the hardest pain he had ever felt in his life. He fell to his head as his feet tripped him. There wasn't a rock or anything that his feet forgot to avoid, his legs just stopped working.

He found his weight on the dead earth, the ground flat on his face. He laid on the ground and kept still, he sat and curbed his fear. He thought to say a prayer, if only he was a believer. 

The animal leapt to him, the red menacing sun at its back. The scene just striked him as very timely, in a few moments now he could be as red as the twilight. How funny he thought, but he was never the funny lad. Only that his death came from the teeth of a hungry beast, and something out of that tickled him in his memory.

He looked at the animal, right into its yellow, fevered eyes. It's thick golden mane adorned its majestic face, that seemed intricate and gentle. Its lean and muscled body towered above him. 

It was a lion, with all its grandeur. The only thing that betrayed its supposed divinity is its teeth. He waited for it, for the lion to sink in to his meat and tear him limb to limb. Then it started a roar, a short husky one. Like a donkey's cry.

"I have lived. Beast. I am not afraid of you." he challenged the lion.

He thought he was ready. But the beast had only showed its white, pearl fangs and scuffed its enflamed fur to his feet. It felt warm and endearing. The beast opened its mouth and seemed to start tearing at his legs, but out its tongue and licked the dirt and blood that covered him.