Sacrifice

The Sacrifice

She crawled, blood dripping from the wound in her side. She crawled to the edge of the balcony her body growing weaker and her wound opening and closing telling the tale of her life in a macabre pantomime; a gory mouth that should never have been. She fought hard to find him and she knew that her threads were coming shorter by each gush of blood. The stones were slick with her life as she slumped against the rail. Beneath her the great oak doors opened and a beast that hadn't seen the sun in years slunk belly low out the doorway and into the courtyard. Round golden ears twitched and she still marveled at the power she saw in him. The tawny hide shivered in the cool night breeze as the long thin tail swished dust from the stairs hours earlier she's slunk across to find and free him.

She could see him still caged, the fringe of his mane crushed beneath the muzzle that pressed deep into his tawny throat. She'd opened the cage and he'd shivered back in a corner. She'd unlocked the muzzle so it dangled from the great head and left the cage open. He'd figure it out. A shadow had come that stung her back and side as she was chased from one room and hall to another. She led it away from the open cage and left him to find his way to the fresh air and open skies. She whispered his name but he didn't look back, the gates stood open and he ran. She breathed deep as the tears burned down her cheek. She didn't turn to face the shadow that loomed nor did she flinch as the blade sank within her breast. Her eyes followed the golden beast his great mane a halo beneath the moon lit night.

He never looked back as she watched him go. The blood began to dribble from the edge of the balcony. Drop by drop splashed in the dust and refuse that littered the courtyard. A cat slunk from beneath the wall of the carriage house and sniffed at the cool dark puddle. Its tiny head twisted to gaze quickly at the open door way before it lapped at the blood with a delicate pink tongue. High above blue grey eyes turned to glass and stared off into the forest unseeing and unseen.