Strange Jungle

Prompt - A wild animal in the city.  Words - 1,089.



The water hole has drained to mud where once the river raged. 

  Antelope and Zebra no more stoop by its edge.  Only their hoof prints remain, cast in drying clay.  I shake off this dusty river from my feet.  Food was plentiful here as I waited submerged and still beneath the bloated water.  Just waiting, swimming gently closer to my prey, slithering calmly, only caressing the top of the water with my snout.  It was easy.  It took one striking moment of power as I lunged at them, grabbing at legs and necks and faces.  Then it was over.  Back to calm as I filled my belly and temporarily satisfied the cravings that hound my days. 

  I must eat but there is no food here.  My short legs that slice me through the rivers cannot chase pray on dry ground.  I don't fear predators - I have none.  My armour is tough and my teeth long, sharp and many.  I fear hunger and thirst.  I must move on and find another river soon.  I try and follow the retreating tracks of my prey but soon tire and the wind scatters their dusty imprints.

  The sun is baking me inside my scales.  I have no cooling mud to clothe my back.  My mouth becomes dry and my tongue swells against my teeth.  I let out a growl of frustration that scares something behind a rock.  What strange creatures are these running from me?  They flee on long bony legs.  Two legs.  And their other legs running but not on the ground.  Odd. 

  They fear me, these three creatures, as they should.  I follow them as they run, all the while looking back at me.  I am not used to prey looking at me.  It doesn't matter.  I must try and get to them.  Eat them.  Or at least follow them to their water hole. They are faster than me and soon are out of sight but their fresh tracks lead me on.  What a peculiar smell they leave.  An aroma not unlike wild boar but mixed with other smells I have never encountered.  Except the smell of fear.  I smell that on them.  That is the same on all creatures.

  Just as I am becoming too weak to carry on, I see a mountain range before me and I head that way.  Mountains hold rivers that fall from their peaks.  I am almost there and the mountains confuse me.  Perhaps my dry eyes are failing.  The mountainous crags and gullies are too straight and have patterns cut into them.  They aren't even that tall and there are gaps in-between the ranges.  They seem to be hollow as more of the two-legged creatures walk out from within them.  They are using these mountains as shelters, like caves but not like any I have seen before.  Noises reach me as I get close and I realise they are coming from the creatures.  Their voices are weak.  Their cries tell me these creatures are no stronger than gazelles.  I should have easy pickings here. 

  Almost at the mountain edge and I come across the river I had hoped would be here.  I look over the edge of the bank.  The river is a long drop from the top of the bank and is a dark, muddy brown.  It smells of concentrated fear, stronger than I am used to.  Even though thirst is aching in my dry throat, I don't want to enter this river.  It reeks of death.  But I have no choice.  I drop into the river, scraping my empty belly on the hard bank.  I drink the water.  It isn't right but I need it.  The river is stagnant, it doesn't move and it is full of waste.  Animal waste and other that I don't know. 

  I must now find food but there are no creatures at this water's edge.  They couldn't reach its foul liquid even if there were.  I swim up the river and it bends further into the mountain range.  I hear noises I don't recognise coming from creatures I don't know.  The sounds are becoming loud and hurt my ears.  I feel something I have never before felt but I don't know why or what it is.  It could just be the rumblings of my empty stomach.  I am desperate for food now and realise I will have to find prey outside of this river.  I see a shallow bank and leave the putrid water.  I am in the creature's lair.  This is their domain and they are moving around in all directions.  They aren't grazing or drinking.  Just walking and entering the holes in hollow mountains. 

  Hunger is making me see things that aren't real. I see many other creatures of a different type.  They are big and ugly and their legs don't move right.  Their legs are like big round, black rocks and very smooth.  These creatures just roll across the ground and they smell all wrong.  I move closer to these peculiar beings.  The two-legged creatures see me and scatter.  I could grab one but I need to know why these rolling beings see me but don't smell of fear.  Perhaps they think their armour is stronger than mine and I can't harm them.  They move very fast.  As fast as I can move in a river.  There are many of them all following each other in lines and the growls they make are long and loud.  They occasional roar a harsh high note to each other. 

  As I reach their paths, I see two legged creatures inside the bigger creatures.  Do they eat them?  Something feels very wrong to me and then I realise what it is that I feel.  It is fear.  I have never felt this before and I know I have to go away from this place.  I whip my head around, my long tail flailing behind but before I can move one of the large armoured creature’s races towards me.  Chasing me?  Hunting me?  There are more of those strange, high roars.  Fear is now concentrated in a place where there was once only strength and power.  I feel my taught, powerful body turn to that of a weak and fearful antelope.  The creature is upon me and crushes its jaws over my back.  As I feel it snap and know that death has come to take me from this terrible place, I see the two-legged creatures gather in packs, howling amongst each other, racing towards me. 

  I was once the predator but will now be devoured as the prey.