I Know The End || Killian Jones

𝟶𝟷 - 𝚙𝚒𝚕𝚘𝚝

the jungle kingdom, long ago

– THE KINGDOM WAS AFLAME AND MAGIC WAS RUNNING RAMPANT. Great tigers prowled over the land, hunting and killing in perfect unison. Screams filled the air as their unlucky prey tried and failed to flee. They might have been ordinary beasts but for the malice in their eyes that far exceeded what you could find in any wild animal, and the black stripes that emitted a dark smoke to join the blazing fires. Their eyes glimmered like obsidian, laced with a singular ring of blood red.

A man and a woman fled on foot, their crowns abandoned, though their torn clothes still sparkled with what remained of their royal status. Their chests ached with fear and exhaustion, and the woman clutched a crying child in her arms, who could be no more than five.

"We'll never make it!" the queen gasped. "The river is too far."

"There is nowhere else to go," the king insisted, and so they pressed on.

The child said nothing, instead pressing her face into her panther plush to wipe away her silent tears. She listened as the screams became dull racket in her ears, and the fire's rage was like the glow of a candle at her bedside. Her bedside... she missed her warm blankets and her soft pillow and the security of home, but somewhere inside she knew this was not a trip from which she would soon return, if ever.

They were so close, so close, when a roar split the cool night air. The couple froze, watching the great tiger before them in terror. This was not one of the conjured monsters that was tearing apart their home; this was a wild beast, flesh and blood, and it wanted theirs. 

"Shere Khan." 

A low growl rumbled up his throat at the sound of his name, and he stalked forward another step. In a split second, instinctive reaction, the king launched his only weapon at the tiger's face: his torch. The great cat skittered away, but not fast enough. Pained yowls and roars filled the night sky, though they grew more furious by the second as the couple sprinted for the docks. The boat there was small. It wouldn't move quickly. Shere Khan would catch them.

"Go!" As soon as his feet hit the dock, the king turned to face the tiger in a last desperate hope to stall him.

The queen didn't hesitate. She kept going, pulling the little girl's head into her chest to shelter her from the terrible sight. But she could still hear the screaming, the claws that tore through flesh like paper. She shuddered, more tears soaking her cheeks. 

Her mother stopped only to let her down into the boat, but froze when it was her turn. They wouldn't get very far, not with a tiger on their heels and so much weight on a small canoe. For a brief moment, she held her daughter's cheeks in her hands. 

"Stay strong, my little flower," She whispered. "One day, you will come home." 

The child's eyes widened, but her mother's hands slipped from her grasp before she could stop it, and the boat was shoved out into the weak current to drift away. She clutched her panther toy harder, giving a shrill cry as she watched her mother fall, barrelled to the ground by the bloodthirsty tiger. 

For a moment, he was distracted with burying his claws into the woman, filling his mouth with her blood, and then his gleaming eyes looked up just in time to see the real current take hold of the canoe, whisking the terrified princess away. He dared not try to follow her now.

He gave a frustrated huff before turning back to his kill. If ever a tiger had looked smug, this was it.

°

The princess was a bundle of exhaustion and despair beneath her little shawl by the time the boat bumped against dry land. The current was practically gone in this part of the river, making it easier for her to climb to shore before she drifted any further.