Word count; 1025 words.
How long has it been since the pride she was born in to had seemed to melt away? How long had it been since Ky was taken away? Time was something Marina had lost notion of. She also did not know just what she wondered around the rogue lands for. She didn't know what purpose to work towards, or what goal. She was beaten, down trod, and lonely. She missed her family and friends. She missed her pride... She longed for it all, and nothing at the same time. She was lost.
Marina was also scared, deep beneath the auto-pilot her life currently resided on. Just how long could she survive like this? She needed to do something with her life. She felt like she was wasting it. Wasting it horridly.
That night as the sun set she perched herself on a jutting rock among the pale grasses and roared, like a wolf howls at the moon. Would there be an answer for her?
Marina listened.
The chirp of crickets and the croaking of bullfrogs were all that met her ears.
She let out a disappointed sigh. But then, the sound of laughter. Marina's ears perked in alarm. This wasn't friendly laughter. This was the laughter of a hyena. And not just one. A whole pack of them.
Marina looked around to see where they were coming from. All around her she saw the reflection of eyes. She shuddered in fear. Was this to be her end? She couldn't get away. She was stranded on this tall rock as they slowly closed in on her. The hyenas had found an easy dinner.
They closed in inch by inch in excruciating slowness, as if the terror would marinade the lioness to perfection and make her taste all the better…
That would be a mistake though, for their slowness gave marina the opportunity to assess their numbers and develop a plan. The rock she was currently situated on was angled, jutting up at a fifty degree angle towards the sky. The hyenas would no doubt push her to that highest point and hope to overtake her - plunge her to her death to waiting mouths below. But their numbers were fewer than Marina had first expected. If she were to take a great leap from that highest point after some of the pack backed her to the edge, she could leap over those below and hope to make a run for it…
Marina hoped her plan worked. She knew her life was an endless spiral of nothingness, but she didn’t want to die today. Er, tonight. She swore to herself that after this she would look for some sort of mission in life, and live life to her fullest, and cherish her life, doing all that she could for herself and others. Just let her live.
Just as the hyenas has been slowly closing in, they suddenly sprang in to action - rushing Marina to the edge. There were five coming up the rock, and three below. Yes. Yes, she could do this! Marina delivered one mighty swipe of the paw to the hyena that had lead the pack up the rock ofter her, before turning and taking a giant leap. A leap of faith. The hyenas below tried to jump at her and jab her foot, tail, anything, but they couldn’t reach.
When marina hit the ground, it was a rough landing, but she knew she didn’t have any time to catch her breath! She had to run. Run, run, run. And run she did. She could hear the pack after her, but her new promise to live spurred her on, even when her legs and lungs burned. She didn’t know how long she’d been running after she could no longer hear the pack. She had been a little afraid that they thought by making no sound she’d stop, thinking she’d outrun them. And that fear again spurred her on. Now she found herself in luscious jungle. It reminded her of home.
The nostalgia factor made all sorts of emotions bubble up in her. Again she thought of Ky, then her mother and siblings and the land of her birth…
She slowly lumbered to a stream and collapsed, drinking where she lay. Oh how exhausted that little stunt and hade her! She knew she should seek a proper shelter to sleep, but her body now ached and she was so tired. It was only the thought of possibly being swallowed up by a jungle crocodile or some other beast that made her once again rise to wobbly feet at seek out shelter. She soon found it in the form of a tree - hollow at the bottom with large roots and lush elephant ear plants around the entrance. And best of all - perhaps her luck was looking up already - it didn’t appear or smell like it was anyone’s home! So Marina entered the temporary den and promptly fell into a deep slumber. The jungle felt more at home than that open savanna, and thus, her sleep was much better than it had been in the past few…what was it, months? Years? Again, time had no meaning. But it would start to. Marina had promised that when she promised to live life to the fullest.
She dreamed of living in a place like this with a family that loved her. Her family. She dreamed of never having another sad day in her life, and every day being life a new celebration. Of putting smiles on the faces of others, and raising children…. Yes, children. When Ky had been kidnapped all thoughts of her happy future had been taken away. But now…now she knew she had to move on. Ky hadn’t been the only thing taken from her, but now, she really had nothing to lose. She could only build a new and better life from here. She had to. She had to do it herself because life wasn’t going to suddenly hand it all back to her on a silver platter.
When she awoke, she awoke to a bright shining day. Shining just like her future.
