It's a wild chase amid a familiar perfumed alluring smell of someone I know so well but couldn't tell who.
To find this smell among these creatures on my heels was beyond overwhelming, nothing within my experience to propel me forward, except natural survival instinct all animals possessed. flight. run! run!.
my own voice couldn't catch-up to me in my flight from these big black cats with yellow eyes and fangs in my wake.
They seem to be coming from everywhere. I run as hard as I can but they were right behind me, snarling, shrilling and howling.
my fried lungs pants to a random totter. the air wasn't enough anymore as my heart starve of oxygen.
i made my way through thorny vines, and grooves on bare feet and skin.
the influx of torture, conjure strength from a place unknown to me, and I kept pressing on.
At first, I had thought it was a dream among my variety of nightmares, but this wasn't a dream anymore…
that initial thought had long left my mind.
I don't know how it started, but it was happening now. In only a breechcloth, my unrestraint movement on land through air, gave me a speed like that of a cheetah.
My mind didn't have time to think, to try to figure where I was or what brought me there climb the tall tree with a smooth back.
twice I slipped, nearly slide down as I made my way up to the first branch over ten feet high.
one huge cat sprang to reach my position at about eleven feet in my climb.
It didn't catch up to me but its claws did get my legs, leaving deep furrows as it slashed it's way down to the ground.
The pain was so unbearable, I couldn't scream or grunt, for my throat felt as raw as the back of a desert lizard, blistered all the way up to my open lips which couldn't close anymore.
I need it open to breathe the cold dry air of the wild.
The cats now surrounded the tree, licking at something at the blood that was trickling down the tree from the fresh slashes open on my hind legs to the ground.
My body shivers as I lose more blood. The mesmerizing glances of the big black cats made my heard twirl till I shot my eyes close, for I felt I was going to fall by looking at them.
I clang to the branches and wish I could climb a little higher up the tree, but I couldn't, my body felt so numb I regretted ever climbing the tree.
I found myself trap up here. If the vile creatures couldn't get the meet fresh, they were willing to get the carcass when I am dead.
either way I will be devoured, why delay the inevitable?
I can picture how my mutilated body will be torn into shreds by the ghastly fangs, and my bones crush under the massive jagged molars of this unrelenting creatures.
How these beautiful carnivorous will lick and clean the nostrils and faces off the blood residue that will be left on the furs, and find cool under grooves and caves to herniate after the long hunt, waiting for their next meal.
I smile crept my face as I open my eyes to see their innocent eyes staring at me. I am just another meal. nothing wrong about that.
Predator and prey; the whole of life defined, it's as simple as that.
As I drift between sleep and wakefulness, I found myself hallucinating about the irony of life.
I never believed the human soul could be this resilient. I did expect to die by now, but I was still alive.
The flies and ants wanted their share of the blood spilled. My flesh becomes food to the stinging insects.
excruciatingly, I went into a stooper, but the stink of the flies or ants was savage enough to bring me back to life, again and again.
My body spasm feverishly disturbing the swamp of flies from my exposed flesh, in their annoying droning sound. I had no energy left to fight the natural army of fate.
*****†***†***†****
A crackling shrill came later in the day as the sun passed its zenith. The black cats lying under the tree, stood up on all fours ready to pounce on whatever that was coming at them.
In my delirium on the high altitude, I heard and saw the source of the threatening roar.
It was from one of their own kind, fiercer, and deadly looking bad it drew closer.
My attackers squeamish as they caught whiff of the wild black panther that was coming like a moving dark cloud on a stormy day.
It was coming for the trophy on the tree. the others scurried away in all directions into the thick grooves and gorges not far from where I was on the tree.
It slows down to a stride as it drew near, stalking as though unaware of my presence. It circled the tree to make sure no other predator was lurking close by in the grooves.
Then, it connects eyes with me, and something stir within me, a feeling that kept me so frighten I remain awake.
Wait, is it communicating to me through the yellow eyes? It wanted me to do something I didn't understand. The tree has a smooth back, and it couldn't climb to get me.
"do you want a slow death or a quick one?". In stupefaction, I brood over what I head in my mind. The panther is talking to me in my mind.
Sorcery it is then, or maybe my blood is poison by an infection from the puncture wounds I sustained earlier from the claws of the cats assault.
"are you going to sit there and muse all day?". I heard it again, the question came into my mind with a taint of amusement in it.
"I can't move" I tried with my mind, and it felt insane but I tried though. It heard it and replied, "allow yourself to fall from the tree" it instructed.
"and watch as you eat me alive?".
"will you rather stay there and die slowly. I can leave you and go and the others will come and wait till you drop," it replied, and I was beyond terror as I found myself falling from the tree.
The compulsion was so strong, it has found a way to connect with my mind, and now it has taken control of my conscience.
As I fall from the height over fifteen feet, I did made my peace with earth and heaven, for I know I was going to die either from the fall, or the fangs and claws of the grey panther waiting under the tree.
I fell on soft fur as I landed. "now wrapped your hands around my neck," it commanded.
Feebly I did as I was told. Lying astride atop the panther with my hands wrapped around its neck, and my legs locked beneath it belly, and it sprung into the wild in a gallop.
The other cats came out and gave a hot chase, snarling and roaring behind us, but my savior sped on.
When our advisories close in on us, trying to out flank us, it turned and roared, and the cats back off topsi topsy-turvily, and we pressed on.
We were now climbing a mountain. Further in our climb as the temperature drops below 30°, my bare skin froze and stiffen, and my wounds felt numb.
On the mountain tracks we came to a cave entrance, then proceeded inside into what seem like an ingenious oven not in use for 24 hours.
I found the warmth welcoming. Although I know I was not a guest here, but food to this predator.
At least it will be one beast feeding on me, or maybe I will be food for it and its kind.
My eyes I felt heavy as I fell to the ground, on the soft animal skins laid on the cave floor, and I went into a slumber.