consign me not to darkness Posted on November 21, 2022 at 10:06:51 AM by [Tendaji]
crawl on my belly 'til the sun goes down
{ Ahead of her, the colt kept running toward the dunes of sand, not stopping until he sagged down into the soft slope of the outermost dune, his strength near spent, but not so much that he closed his eyes, nor ceased to be alert. Minutes later, sides still rising and falling rapidly, he heard a voice he did not recognise and surged to his hooves, his wiry little body taut and thrumming with anxious energy… }
He stared up into the eyes of the first stranger to come upon him, undaunted, and trembling still, but only because every muscle in his body was so tired from his mad dash across the sand. The boy was not afraid, for he had scented blood and death on the air and there was none of that now. No savage, murderous yowl of the lioness. Only silence, softly broken by the whisper of sand as the tall figures settled on the sloping dune above him. “Did not mean to trespass,” he said, words softly accented, and carefully, precisely sounded. It was one of the first things the fierce brown mare had taught him to say. She’d promised these words would keep him safe.
“Mwindaji,” he murmured, still breathless, and shook his head, trying to remember. “Huntress lion. Near the water. My mama, she made me run…” Shivering, he turned back, looking across the empty desert plain. There was no silhouette approaching, nor a cry sounding on the wind.
Feeling cold and twisted inside, in all the places where his thin, sleek hide seemed to glow with the heat of a fire; his belly and chest where they weren’t painted over with white, and the vulnerable latch of his throat tucked safely beneath his chin, the boy turned back, his golden eyes gleaming bright with sorrow, but dry. He couldn’t cry, because then he’d be breaking his promise, the one he swore anew every nightfall, when the brown mare seemed too afraid to close her eyes. I’ll be strong, and I’ll be brave, so you don’t need to be afraid for me.
“So thirsty,” he croaked, tone pleading and submissive, because though he does not fear the strangers who have found him as he feared the lioness, he was wise enough to know that they could harm him all the same, and it was painfully clear to him that his mama wasn’t coming.
And he was at their mercy now. the lost son of Shenzi