Just a minuscule short story Ive written. Light slips through the overcast of trees above, their branches intertwined tightly enshroud the paltry, pale shine of twilight that is barely a whisper. Darkness blankets the chill, temperate, forest making it nearly pitch black. There is a deathly silence pervades the tranquil forest. Where birds should be chirping obnoxiously, rabbits scurrying, and howling resounding through the trees and brush, there is nothing but a feeling of dread. Even the gentle rumbling vibration emanating from distant caves underground signaling the long slumber of bears seems fleeting and gone. Something is wrong. It is here in this dreadful place I awake from my dreams. Breaking away from the fantasies of hunting and succulent raw meat I shake the snow from my fur that is lightly falling from the web of branches that make up the roof of my home. Sometimes I make my den other places, closer to the small rabbits and fox that constitute my diet. These frightful and cunning creatures have been scarce of late and hunts lackluster and unfruitful. My stomach rumbles quietly, but is amplified tenfold by the hollow silence that is filling this place and echoes throughout the landscape across trees and rocks covered littered with sprinkles of frozen rain. All of my pack is missing. Fenris, our leader is missing; Brutus and Jenn--- my shield-brothers— are absent. I am alone. Abruptly, the ground begins to shake. It rumbles and grumbles, dispersing the thick layer of snow onto the sparsely grassed forest floor. The trees shake their cold limbs, shriveled by the ever present bite of winter. In the distance there is a grinding sound, as if stone on heavy stone is grating and breaking. I tread cautiously towards the sound. My paws pressing into the snow rising halfway up my stride, and even amongst the other wolves I am gargantuan. As I make my way through the dark forest, the unmerciful bite of the winter wind nips into my steel-gray fur, gnaws on my rough ears, and stabs into my soft eyes, the color of the frozen lake near the center of this expanse. Suddenly a tremendous explosion shook the whole world. Just ahead, between the branches that looms over the forest, an immense column of red and black erupted straight up into a singular pillar of flame. The sickening sweet stench of burning meat, like that over the fires of campers, pervades into my nostrils. I lay there with agony pulsing through my whole body, each beat of my heart shooting fresh pain through my veins. And everything goes black as my consciousness fails. It’s hot, unbelievably hot. My whole body feels like it is burning, on fire, and melting. My paws are blistered. Even the slightest motions set off every alarm in my body that is warning me not to move. But the danger is closing in, I have to get up! My eyes are scalding from the heat. My vision returns. However all I can see is a field of blood spotted with black smudges. Coming into focus as my vision clears is a lake of fire, not blood. Flowing patiently, the fire devours the trees. Set ablaze and melting before my eyes as they’re enveloped by this cataclysm creeping towards me only a few feet away. Struggling, I move, and cry out as another wave of pain shocks through my nerves. Pushing my feet beneath me, I stagger to my paws. I am scared. My senses are telling every fiber of my being to run and get away from imminent death. I cannot bring myself to move. My body, screaming for me to run, remains motionless. I am awestruck by the devastating beauty in front of me. Paralyzed by this, molten expanse, lake of fire, creeping every towards me. Fury and death emanate from the burning waves of fire, like a harbinger of death. Yet, in a morbid fashion does the almost sentient fire promise a peaceful release from pain and suffering in its pyre of char and glass. Forcing my stiffening legs to drag forward my body away from the death that encroaches rapidly upon my haunches. It is ever so hot… I cannot breathe, as I limp away from certain doom…
Posted on: Thu, 20 Mar 2014 12:21:04 +0000