|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2010 6:46 pm
Amira's paws dragged through the sand. Why she hadn't chosen to turn back was beyond her. She could have turned around, she could have been back in familiar territory by now. But noooooo. She chose to wander the blistering sand because she was too damned stubborn to admit that she'd made a mistake. Because princesses didn't make mistakes. She was supposed to be perfect. She was supposed to know what on earth she was doing. But in all honesty, she was more confused and frightened and lost than she had ever been in her whole life. Without her sister as a guiding force, Amira seemed doomed to trudge to her death.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2010 6:53 pm
Perhaps it was better this way. Amira's steps slowed with exhaustion. At least...this way...she wouldn't have given up. She would have gone down...swinging.
Sagging to the ground, burning hot against her face, she blinked wearily, the sand blurring as a few tears started leaking from her eyes. It was just so hot...this life was just too hard for her on her own. She closed her eyes, not knowing when she would die, knowing that no one would ever find her out here. She would die alone, friendless, and no one would ever know that she was gone.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2010 7:58 pm
But did it really have to end this way? What a sad, pathetic way to die...
"No, my daughter. It doesn't have to end like this...heaven knows, if I'd quit when I was down, you wouldn't have even been born. You've got loads of strength, you just have to decide to use it."
"Who..." Amira said, her voice scratched hoarse with sand. "Who said that? My mother has...has been dead many years. I barely remember what she looked like. You are...an impostor..." Amira managed to crack open a grimy eyelid and lift her head the tiniest bit. She saw a lioness, white like snow, wavering over the sands like light on a river. "M-mom? B-but...how...?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2010 8:03 pm
"Shhhh. Don't worry about that now. Just focus on getting up," the shining lioness said, tossing her head proudly. "No daughter of mine grovels in the dirt like that." What a glorious beauty the shiny lioness was, covered in splendid indigo markings. The mother Amira remembered was perhaps a shade or two darker, but...this lioness was close enough for Amira to long for her touch. After all, Amira hadn't really ever had a mother...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2010 8:07 pm
No, she hadn't known her mother for very long. Amira had just been a cub when her mother had died. Whether by accident or a grisly murder, she had never found out. But either way, her beloved, beautiful mother had been stolen away from her...and that dealt a wound that not even time could ever fully heal.
"Mom, I...I don't know if I can get up. I'm so tired, and I've walked so very far..."
It was a bit surreal, her mother suddenly appearing like this. Common sense said that this wasn't her mother, not really, but at this stage of exhaustion and dehydration, who listened to common sense?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2010 8:12 pm
"Amira! GET UP!" Her mother's voice, suddenly stern and anxious. "Get up, I say!" The form of her beautiful mother scolding her was almost too much for Amira to take.
"My daughter, I love you, but I can't help you unless you choose to help yourself! Your sister said the same thing. She was right. You knew she was right when she said this, but you refused to listen to reason. And so you exiled yourself out in this dratted wilderness, where you've driven yourself almost to death, simply because you are too stubborn to admit that you were wrong." The lioness looked nearly furious. "It is never too late to change, but it will be for you unless you start MOVING."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2010 8:15 pm
Amira grimaced. She hurt, worse than anything she had ever experienced. But she dragged herself to her feet, hobbling towards the shining mother she had never truly known.
Amira was toast without water. She could survive a bit longer without food, but...dehydration was a fast killer. The form of the shining lioness merely smiled, beginning to walk away. Amira followed after, shuffling through the sand as fast as she could. "W-wait!" she rasped.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2010 8:18 pm
But the lioness did not wait, neither did she say another word. She quietly led the way, her pawprints leaving the sand undisturbed behind her, her wavering outline slowly fading.
Amira raced after as fast as she could, her legs dragging at such a slow pace they seemed made of stone. She struggled to reach the lioness, struggled to get to her side. She nearly made it, cresting a dune and fumbling down the hill to fall at the feet of the echo of her mother...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2010 8:21 pm
As her face fell where translucent feet had been, the image of her mother faded away to nothingness. Her face hit the sand, where she lay blinking, hoping for another glimpse of the mother she hadn't seen since she was but a baby.
"No...." she whispered scratchily. "Don't leave me again..."
She would have cried, if she had any more tears left to shed. In her greatest moment of need, she had been abandoned, again, this time to certain death.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2010 8:26 pm
But as she lay there, wallowing in self-pity, she realized that at the very tip of her muzzle, something was washing underneath her chin. Could it be...?
She opened her eyes, sliding forward, shoving her nose in the water that was flowing over her face. She had been led to an oasis, a tiny spring hidden in the cleft of a rock. She drank her fill, then lay herself to rest under the leaves of tiny trees that sprang along the spring's banks.
Her sleep was a healing one, a truly restful sleep that carried her to life, not away from it. She would awake refreshed, eager to live....and ready to return the way she came. She had been wrong to come out into a vast desert she didn't know how to cross. But now she knew. She knew it was okay to be wrong sometimes, okay to make mistakes.
Her mother had said it was okay.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2010 12:24 pm
Some time passed. Amira rested, drank from the spring, then slept again. She spent one day at the spring, trying to regain her lost strength. Once she felt more like herself, she took a tentative step out into the sand. The sand was soft against her fur, warm, but not hot. It was early morning, and the sun hadn't had time to heat up the earth.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2010 12:27 pm
It was hard, she thought, leaving the spring that had saved her life. She knew that she would have to move quickly, back to the forest, out of the desert, if she wanted to survive. It was a race against time, against all odds. But she felt more invigorated than ever. It was thrilling, being this close to danger, to death.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2010 12:33 pm
Of course, she did not want to die. So she ran across the desert, sending sand flying everywhere. Perhaps she would die anyway, but she knew she had to move, and move fast. If she could just keep her strength long enough to get to some shade, or some food...
She knew she would make it. Why else would her mother have appeared to her?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2010 12:36 pm
Unless, of course...her mother was a forewarning of death. But that just didn't make sense! Why would she be led to water if she were destined to die?
It was because she wasn't. A determined expression, ferocious, appeared on Amira's furry face. She would not die here. She refused to die here. She would make it to safety.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2010 12:39 pm
Whether by a combination of nerves and her hallucination mother's blessing, or by sheer dumb luck, Amira stumbled out of the desert in one piece. Granted, she was exhausted, but she had made it. She had survived. And she had learned a thing or two about going into the desert unprepared. She'd never make that mistake again.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
