Kingvoria

The night sky was darker than usual; the clouds had faded away until a deserving tomorrow and all that remained were the night’s shadows awakening from an illuminating nightmare. With the darkness cloaking their identity they could become anything or remain as nothing, it was their perfect time to catch a prey unaware.

There were five now, but there had been many more, a pack, a family, maybe. They were stronger back then, hunting wasn’t a risk to them but rather a sport, a game that her brothers played well. They would soon be four if they didn’t feast soon, this was what she knew since she was the frailest of the pack now.

She had had a name but always found it hard to recall during this form, even more so to speak it through her carnivorous mouth. Her shadow was a weak web shaking in the breeze compared to her brother’s much stronger limbs. It was partly down to one of her back legs leaking a red trail behind her, the adrenaline from the open wound, the only thing keeping her moving, if she stopped, she would never catch her brother’s again.

The pack scurried through a thick overgrown forest which extended for miles in every direction, a green heart pumping life into the world it inhabits. Her nose, her greatest asset, was picking up a puzzle of smells, a mixture of naked bark filled the atmosphere, fresh and recently torn from its mother tree. The light odour of manure and insect underground, she decided was from a nest of beetles. An easy meal for a hyena. But this would leave her with further stomach cramps and even further behind her brothers. So she kept her senses acute and followed those scruffy smells of her canine brothers.

Over the spilling weeds and through the chunky trees that reached heights she could not see herself. Her nose would not fail her, she thought to herself.

I’ll still be smelling the world around me while some animal feasts on my decaying body.

That animal would soon be her own family if the need for nourishment was not met quickly. The blood dripping from her leg would have certainly spurred them on, at least, but as the pace quickened, their growling grew louder and it was then that she realised she would not be on the menu, at least, not tonight.

It was the abnormality of the stench that made her weary. She was certain her brothers had detected that the meat nearby was man, but she doubted that they distinguished the other smell woven within the human’s imprint. Could her juvenile brothers even take down such a prey? Usually, one man meant others nearby, all hidden with the same plan in mind, with sharp weapons and devious traps. Whatever the pack were heading towards she feared it too late to escape the circumstances of this predator becoming prey.

Following her brother’s scent imprint wasn’t something that came to her naturally, years of focus had taught her how to untangle the scents of the world, know which ones meant food or clean water and those that meant danger and an unwinnable battle. The familiar growls peaked in volume as the forest broke away to reveal a peculiar opening illuminated by the moon’s ray. She lowered her weak limbs so she could rest the underneath of her body and crawl ever so slowly towards the danger, making sure to stay hidden amongst the forest. She spotted the man instantly, he didn’t make it difficult, standing tall on a stump dead centre in her view. Men couldn’t camouflage, of course, or flee fast for that matter, so their tactics were often outlandish and aggressive when provoked. He was, however, the largest man she had ever laid eyes upon and that would be why her brothers had yet to force an attack. Circling their target they waited for the right opportunity, or as she thought, they were holding out until one of them had enough courage.

They will never find the courage between them, they need me, they are wild without their sister’s voice.

The man’s oversized hands were clasped around a spear, one he had constructed himself, she was certain. The way the metal tip was roughly and quickly sharpened, the way the other many spears hanging from his back were designed differently, at a different time perhaps, for a different prey, maybe. The man seemed highly skilled with the spear, she wondered how many hyenas he had killed before, and how many more he would kill before he’d meet his own end. He was calmer than the young hyenas, a calm she had never seen in a man’s eyes while staring at a blood-thirsty hunger all around him. She thought about the man’s name and how it might sound something like her own. If only is she could remember her own.

The smallest hyena was the first to make a pounce on the man defending his position, his advance was as quick as his descent yet when he landed he did not move an inch. The others immediately joined the brawl as soon as they smelt blood, but of course it wasn’t the man’s, it was her youngest brother, who was sprawled across the mossy floor with the shaft of the spear shot through his jaw, thick in blood. One by one, they leapt up, jaws flying forward with more hope than precision.

They’re unprepared, they’re attacking for their own pride, not as a brotherhood, I must intervene.

But her body could not take on another battle, what use would a bloodied and weakened hyena have anyway, she thought. So she lay there, still bleeding, spectating a food chain flipped on its head. The giant of a man removed another spear from the sheathe on his back, anticipating the attacks of the hyenas and shunting each attacker back before any damage can be done. The game continued as the three remaining brothers pranced around the stump waiting for the perfect opportunity.

Why are they waiting? Take him together why we still have the numbers. I need my voice.

Then she spotted a slash through his lower calf. One of the brothers had already made contact, to her surprise, yet she wondered if it was his blood they smelt or their brother’s still on the ground. The man was weakening by the minute, it wouldn’t be long until his leg would collapse under him and the stump would no longer protect him from the hungry carnivores below. The weakening man was an unmissable opportunity to the three remaining healthy hyenas, his breathing was now stuttering in his aching lungs, losing the chance to inhale oxygen into his heart. Another chomping guillotine, and another, finally the brothers were united together as they sensed victory coming closer. The hyenas tore at the man’s hairy skin with veracious snarls, his screams echoed straight through the female hyena and throughout the shadowy forest. He screeched in agony, it distorted at the end of a breath into a grizzly roar and her ears immediately perked up. An eerie wind found its way through the tiny gaps between the crowds of trees forcing the hyena brothers to retreat, but not completely flee. The obnoxious roar continued while a rush of abnormal movements shunted through the man’s oversized body like a large python sliding underneath his skin. His limbs tensed and began to expand while a flux of tainted hair spread across his skin and to the edge of his fingers were fresh claws appearing from almost nowhere. Clothes were ripping from his back, his sheathe of spears were already on the forest floor and then he roared again as his new wild feet burst through his boots. And she suddenly remembered that she wasn’t so different. But why she did not know yet.

The beast’s paws frantically grabbed his face as it contorted into the head of a much larger mammal. His nose advanced forward, his cave-like mouth widened to reveal a set of sharpened white weapons , his injuries had not disappeared, if anything his transformation had made them deeper. The only thing to shrink were his black eyes, now pushed behind his snout and staring coldly back at her. As a man, she knew she would be safely camouflaged amongst the forest’s green cloak, but now, he smelt her, he knew what she was.

He dropped down from his stage that was his previous defence but now no longer needed. Remnants of forgotten trees from thousands of years passed snapped and crumbled under his new mighty weight. He dropped to his new animal stance, her brothers let out a fearful choking gruff and the oldest, bold enough to itch a paw closer was instantly answered by the bear’s rasping roar. Her three brothers, her family, her pack had fled.

A jet black nose pressed through the green curtains that concealed her all this time, his inhales were ghastly intaking the heavy smell of her blood. An open jaw followed, a black cave where she would find her end. She lay there too weak to fight or flee. Too animal to scream.

She had given in long before his jaw was gripped around her canine head, she closed her eyes and accepted her end, her body too weak to change.

The razor sharp teeth barely needed to touch her skin before drawing fresh crimson blood around her neck, she assumed it was her screaming that she heard rattling through her head, but as the teeth withdrew from her skin and she opened her eyes she knew it was him. The bear was back in the open air frantically trembling, twisting and contorting his muscles. He turned his back and there perfectly injected deep into his skin were his own spears.

It immediately smelt of men, who else would be able to manoeuvre such an evil weapon? She didn’t waste any more time that she already had, she knew she could escape men and so this was her final chance. She stumbled to her paws and made for the opposite direction of the deathly screams of the bear, deeper into the forest.

She hopped gingerly over fallen branches, forced herself through gaps that were obviously too small for her to fit through and remained at a careful pace, not like she could push her muscles any more than she already was. She did not have any fat remaining in her body to burn for energy, the agonising pain of the linings of her stomach were distorting her senses and they were fading at the same speed as her body.

Her ears, she thought, were still picking up the dying roars of the bear, echoing from every direction, misconstruing her path. Something, or someone, quickly shifted around her, from all directions and the floor beneath her body seemed to disappear. Her broken body felt like it was falling forever, she wanted the nightmare to end, but when she landed all she could hear were the sinister cries of man. But she could not utter a word in response.