Life, Death & Destiny

Chapter 1

Fresh air doused hot lungs stinging with wild fury. A long rumbling preceded a sharp, fowl growl that snapped in the air as much as the fallen branches underfoot. Hot breath released into a white cloud forcing the smell of blood, sweat and fear to mingle on the next desperate gambit for air.

A human cry, my own, shrieked through the night as flesh ripped against a large tree trunk. The forest was unseen in the darkness of the night as the sky blazed with twinkling starlight, unhindered by the touch of modern-day light pollution. Fresh blood joined the desperate situation, trickling down the forearm it swept from while marking the tree.

None of this stopped my haste through the forest. The lives of an entire village depended on the success of living through the night. How could one possibly stop with that pressure? Another shrieking growl more akin to a child writing in pain sounded. Louder. Closer. Enraged and closing in on my location with inhuman speed. Ripped into raining chunks of flesh by finely serrated claws and burned to a crisp in the fury of that monster's rage would certainly end most anyone. That knowledge forced me to press forward against the screams of muscles and joints.

Air was richer back then. Clean and teaming with oxygen. It fueled a faster recovery and escape on that night. Our lives were a daily challenge, but it hardened us in a way that modern-day humankind would never fathom. Surely you would rush to worthless articles in a bit to relieve discomfort, such as social media, where cries of how such things were a hoax. Nothing more than a pollical agenda. Or some other meaningless drivel.

But my reality, people's daily fights, and your very past were of dark monsters and nasty choices made in a time before science, collaboration or strong morality. What happened that night shaped the turning point of our physical world and humankind's inevitable path.

The beast's stalking sounded like a scream in a void—as nothing. Where and how it approached remained unknown. A truth that would continue. Only when rage pressured it to the point that a scream-like call escaped did the creature reveal hints of its location. It could not roar as expected for something the height of two humans. The stripeless mountain tiger possessed a maw large enough to fit a human skull inside. Undoubtedly, if caught, that fact would be the least of my worries.

Still, I drew her onward, away from the village and the innocents.

Muscles burned in agony while pushed to the brink. They could handle no more, and breathing was coarse and painful. Lush forest surrounded my young form, no more than ninety-two seasons at the time of this faithful mess. That many seasons was an older age for the average lifespan of the time, an inescapable truth for people without modern medicine.

No way to be certain; I stumbled as much as dodged into the cover of the vast broad-leafed forest foliage, hoping it could protect me long enough to survive. The forest was young, as much as Earth was back then. It was a stunning aroma which I would always miss. An impossible smell to describe after all the tree types that comprised the forest known as 'Great Provider' were consumed by extinction. Safe within the coverage of Great Provider, my mind wandered. The only escape before me was mental, and I foolishly succumbed to the temptation.

The landmasses were one and complete. Exploration was an unfilled wish shared with my best friend, South. She was beautiful, strong, and kind. They said there were two other human settlements beyond mine; one was nomadic. I wanted to meet them and see the world as much as South. But after this night, at least one of us would see their dreams and the world's wonders. The monster would be slain, and humans freed of the shackles restraining them. We would find the truth ourselves rather than have it fed to us with over healthy doses of deceit and malice spanning generations.

Startled from my musings, hot, exhaled breath wafted through the fern-like branches. She was near. The Mother of Fire. The scourge of our very survival. The monster I once loved until awareness dawned.

Not yet. Death filled the hiding space as her rancid breath puffed free. The spoil shifted as her twenty-five-inch claws forced their way through. The once tan fur of her paw splashed with red blood in varying degrees of drying. She was ravaging us, but how many, I couldn't be certain. A hard swallow was the only respectable response.

Then the unthinkable, my moron of a brother called in a hushed whisper from his hiding spot, "Sage." He motioned to crawl towards the over-exposed hiding hole he resided within.

Oh, how I hated the first name of my being. My family was the first ever to use names. It caught on like wildfire after a gentle winter. But we often named ourselves after things in nature. Or so you would think, but it often went the other way. Sage plants gained their titles after my name.

My head tossed side-to-side, and I raised a finger to my lips, trying to keep him silent. My youngest brother had never been wise. Often the side that drove his need to adventure also walked him directly into near-death experiences. The features of my brother's appearance were long consumed by time, but I knew his eyes were golden brown, and like everyone of the time, he was fit and muscular. It was not enough on this night, as his final act of stupidity undid him.

Despite the fifty-foot distance, the monster was on top of Sky's form with nothing but a hop of her feline hindlimbs. The copious splattering of blood, insides, and screams from my dying brother covered mine. Only one escaped; it was the harshness of our life. The pain was white hot and forced my body to tremble, but time would heal the wound to nothing but a factual memory.

Death, a relentless and ever-present force. It scavenged our world taking pride in its work. However, that loss of life opened an escape route. The trees whizzed past, a fact only made clear by the way starlight danced off the dew-soaked broad leaves.

Foliage littered around as I burst through the edge of Great Provider into an open field. Tall grass waved in a night breeze that I greedily sucked into my lungs. Nothing but open, cloudless sky and stunning plains met my gaze. Tears streamed down my face and chin.

"Brethren? Family?" Shifting further into the clearing, desperation grew with each step. "Where are you?"

They were meant to meet me here. I was the bait, the meal held out to this beast to lure her into this spot. A predetermined place that we agreed to trick the monster towards and slay it once and for all. I knew my death in this scheme was near determined, but the price would be worth it.

Hopelessness overwhelmed my mind and body as rank breath fanned my skin from above, making my unruly burgundy hair push out in front with the forced breeze. The sound of crushing bone above drilled into my eardrums as she crushed the last of Sky's skull, and his blood spilt down my shoulders. When my youngest sibling's head fell in front of me with only those brown eyes keeping their shape, I remembered why I would never forget the colour of them my entire life.

Tar black nails dug into the soil on either side. Heat sizzled in white steam from nature's near-perfect knives, designed specially to rip us into stripes of fine sirloin. Not as foolish as my deceased brother, legs carried me forward. The tall grass wouldn't cover any seen creature for long, but better than waiting for her to sink giant fangs into my flesh. But, with a single swipe, the great Pillar, named for how they upheld Mother Nature and acted as her great and forceful hand, could serrate my body easily into two useless pieces.

Hope and faith gone; instinct alone drove my reactions as I screamed for aid in vain.