Vincibimus Populum

We could only focus on was the pounding of our feet; the tempo was erratic and inconsistent. Fear drove us, the knowledge and the fear it gave us. We knew what would happen if they caught us, we could not let that happen.

We were running on a flat, dry surface. It had laid there, a dry stretch of terrain surrounding The Enclosure, baking in the sun for eons. Everything around The Enclosure, which had been undisturbed for centuries, was ancient.

We had seen that there were now people, creatures, who inhabited the structure, and converted it to their use. They were oblivious to the contiguous space.

The people around them, the people of the adjacent land, were growing restless. Each day, one of them crept closer to the menacing structure. They worked as individuals, together in being alone. We danced a dangerous dance with the other people of our land.

We never spoke to them. We were different than them. Someday we would conquer them. We would do so much better.

We had all these thoughts, running through our head to match the way our feet ran. We would outrun the creatures. We would destroy them, and the people of our land. We would rise above it all.

We reached the outskirts of the forest without stopping. The further we got, the thicker the forest got. Roots stabbed at our feet, threatening to overthrow us, leaving us to the creatures.

We could feel other people of our land, catching the action and latching onto it. The creatures were renewing their energy at a sickening pace. We however, were tiring.

We would not let the creatures catch us; we were taken completely off guard when they did.

We snapped around faster than they expected our face a snarl equivalent to a wild animal.

We could not see them. The air around them shimmered in a haze of dark.

We could not move from their grasp. Their hands, or claws, were welded around our wrists.

We heard their voice, sliding into our head like oil, enveloping us.

We watched, and our sneering face turning to a horrified one as the haze dropped away.

We saw their face revealed.

“Too close,” they said.

We could not conquer them.

I could not conquer them.