Run
No way are you risking that. You turn, racing back in the opposite direction and leaving the pride and the hope for more food behind you. Once again, you find yourself wandering through the plains, hopping from water pool to water pool until you stumble upon a beauteous sight.
Blue, glittering water fills a massive dip in the dry earth. Trees sprout, providing shade, all around the edges. You race forward, reaching the edge of the water with an eagerly lapping tongue just as you hear a sudden roar from your side.
You freeze. Looking over, your eyes scale over the massive, bulging form of piled, gray meat. A rhino waded into the water. His feet appear like pillars shooting up from the water to the bulging underbelly of the creature.
Your stomach growls.
You eye its wrinkled face, the spiked growth of its horn, and the impatiently flicking motion of its tail.
"Can I take him down?"
You ponder the question, but you're interrupted by the nagging sensation of your stomach growling once again. "Do I have a choice?"
You shift back into the cover of the bushy leaves. Your eyes never leave your point of interest, your prey. The energy in your back legs is murmuring, charging for a pounce. You can feel every tendon, tired and straining in preparation. Your mouthparts open, flashing teeth and scenting the air before you leap forward.
For a second, you're suspended in the air with your confidence intact like a spear lunged at the beast. Then, you falter. It looks up at you, eyes beady set back into that hard, grey armor before it tips its head and aims the arched curve of its horn directly beneath your trajectory.
You see the moments flashing in bursts. Your life, before your eyes, became a mixture of time as a human and time as this lion's form. You see yourself, putting on the game's glasses, falling into this world. You see the dry plains spread out in front of you, with the sun bleeding down in its setting motion. You see a hot pizza, spread out in front of a flickering movie screen. You see a gazelle, ripped apart and glittering red.
You life, in those final moments, becomes a blend of human and lion before they merge into a singular emotion as you crash into the rhino.
Pain.
Written by Picklessauce69 on 28 February 2016
The end (for now)