Hunted by Shadows

She’s near. The Slaughterer straightened up from the rippling pool of stagnant water at his feet. Across it flitted, like a lost dream, the fire creature.

The Slaughterer grinned, showing sharpened canines. I’ll call her Scorcher, he thought watching the wilted patch of grass at his feet.

He frowned suddenly. She’s going faster. How is this possible? He stretched languidly, muscles rippling beneath his dracon hide clothing.

He threw his head back and laughed, raising his arms to the desolate sun.

“The hunt is on!” he roared.

~

I almost stumbled in my surprise. It was after me! It was after me! I wanted to sit down and weep, cry like I’ve seen so many people do, spill out all of my fear and misery so that it was a manageable amount.

But I couldn’t sit down, or even stop too long. Not while there was life beneath my feet. So I quickened my steps, until the strange spotted felines racing at my sides became pinpricks behind me. Near nightfall I had to skirt a small cluster of huts and just before dawn I heard the hunter’s ghastly laughter again.

For once I was content not to have the needs of a normal human; this would’ve slowed me down long ago. I didn’t need to consume food, or rest yet I had muscles, I knew that, I had white alabaster skin that was never scorched by my fire or by the sun, and I had a mouth, but clearly one only suitable for talking. My keeper had promised to explain everything about me but he didn’t live to see the day.

I would have to discover these things myself. But I did get tired at night, my mind especially. I looked up at the darkening sky and wondered if the sun had anything to do with it.

As I past under blackness pricked with tiny lights, I saw a shooting star and in my joy at seeing one I halted completely and stared up at the sky for a few seconds before I realised my mistake and wearily went on, no longer running but just at a slow jog. I had never gone for such long stretches without stopping before and I knew that whatever my reserves were and how they came to be, they were almost depleted.

I heard a strange roaring of what must be a night beast and the scuffling and hunting of other ones around me. I was completely ignored; I did not boast a smell. Near a dry patch of open soil I collapsed without meaning to. What is wrong with me? There was a pain all over my body and I gasped for breath needing it more than ever. I could not see my limbs either in the satin darkness and I whimpered in confusion. There was always an ever present light gently aglow beneath my skin but now...My skin was cool to the touch and I did not burn even the straggly weeds beneath me. Was I dying?

I lay on my back marvelling at the stillness and extraordinary coolness. My hair spread out around me; I could feel it but when I turned my head it was just a mass of darkness. I watched the movements of the heavens above me, listened breathlessly to sounds I never had had time for and I filled my inhuman lungs with fragrant night air laden with hundreds and maybe even thousands of scents, I did not know how many. My keeper had taught me my numbers and letters through writing on paper in front of me, never allowing me to touch anything that contained such wonders. He had read me dozens of poems and stories and I wish that he could’ve seen this, for surely this whole experience was a perfect fairytale? A perfectly wonderful fairytale, he would’ve said.

I fell asleep, although I had no idea what it was at the time.

When I awoke the next morning, for a moment I did not know what had happened. I had watched strange scenes and surreal stories unfold before my eyes and I had followed a line of children to a meadow yet here I lay. I had not moved at all. How was it possible to have felt I had moved and seen things I never would when I was here all the time, with my eyes closed?

But it had not been unpleasant. I noticed with surprise that a lot of time had passed somehow and the sun had peeked out from behind a low flat mountain setting my skin aglow once more and removing the lethargy from my muscles. I felt rejuvenated as the sun rose further into the sky and shone stronger. My feet once more flew over the ground but with a joy and carefree spirit I had not felt for a long long time.

~

The Slaughterer jerked up from the branch he had been precariously balanced upon for the whole night. He had slept haltingly interrupted by the growling of angry animals below who did not want him, especially one of his kind, on their territory. A few blazing light features had easily scared them off but he had paid for it.

He felt exhausted as he lightly sprang down and after a few stiff stretches he loped off. Scorcher was a far way off and he cursed himself for his negligence of the hunt.

It stopped yesterday, he thought as he paused by a waterhole to fill his flask. Yet the whole veld is not ablaze, how is that possible? At least it granted me a slight reprieve. The Slaughterer grinned. Now I know she has limits. This is getting more and more interesting...