Short Story: The Night of Wind and Beasts

Too forbidding? Jadefireeyes

The night was cold and alive with the voices of the wind. Thus, I ran from the gales for many miles, silently gliding among the shadows. A whisper issued behind me; a figure strode forward, the silhouette gleaming with its own light. I prayed for dawn, yet it was too far off.

Eventually, I reached a cave. It was dark inside, but I knew rain would soon join the gales. Upon entering, I found the remains of ruptured skeletons, their hollow sockets hungrily glaring at me. Unnerved, I paced delicately among the auburn bones, and cradled myself in a black, damp corner.

The sound of a violent storm thundered outside, forks of lightning igniting the world for miles. Over hanging vegetation soon became frayed by the winds, the howling, fearsome winds. Was that a shadow outside the cave?

Yes, there it was again! It was definitely moving, and something big. Could it be the dweller of the cave I had inhabited? Was that the gleam of a large tooth I saw in a flash of lightning? I feared for my life and searched desperately and quietly for a weapon.

I snatched an ancient arrow out of the hands of one of the dead. I armed myself... just in time for the snarl.

The beast leapt at me, the jaws closing upon my left hand with a metallic clip. The pain was horrible, and in half consciousness I plunged the arrow head into the chest of the great animal. Yet the skin was not penetrated. The wild beast stared through me with those yellow eyes, and prepared to bite open my heart.

I stumbled down in anxiety as it lunged forward, slaver dripping off its deadly fangs. Thrusting my hands forward, I clambered onto its back by grabbing its shaggy coat. It roared with rage, and attempted to overthrow me with a maddening gleam in its eyes.

I hung on with all my might as it spun in viscous circles, keeping away from the attacks of the utterly savage animal. In its eagerness to crush my skull in its heavy jaws, it sailed over the gorge, with me still griping on.

The wet humid air was alive with the down pouring of rain, and deafening din of thunder. Its dirty fur became slippery, and I lost my hold, falling into the jagged rocks below.

The wind howled in my ears with a stunning ferocity, and I could only feel the ultimate sensation of hurtling with terrible force, the feeling of burning hopelessness within a few short seconds.

Suddenly, I passed a pine branch jolting out of a crevice in the cliff, and I caught it with the sense of pleasant security. The pine needles and bark cut through my already wounded skin, and I screamed in agony. I craned my head downward a hundred feet down were the broken body of the ferocious beast lay in the valley, its gaunt eyes staring sightlessly at the stormy night sky.

I felt a horrible forbidding as I lost my grip on the flimsy branch, the lightning illuminating the world as I hurtled towards my death, and I felt the worst pain I ever experienced in the last fraction of a second of my life.