beasts

I could hear them coming for me. I could hear everything which surrounded me; the birds, the falling leaves and the sun. I could hear the loud roar of that unforgiving ball of fire as it shot beams through the foliage. I heard the hounds baying through the dense forests of Malvachia, my home.  My mind was a whirling mass of emotions and...fears. But among the sounds; I could hear the hooves of those horses and the chatter among those greasy burley men...the huntsmen of Malvachia. They were running me down and they were enjoying the prospect of skinning me a live and throwing my bones to the ashes. But more that, they would enjoy taking me; each and every one of them would take me at their pleasures before feeding me to the flames. I read each and every thought that fleeted through  their minds as they searched for me. And the thoughts were thus-Each of them force feeding me Aconitum while I writhed beneathe their sooty fingers...gagging me with some putrid cloth to keep me from biting and as many ways as they could deter and keep the beast at bay, they had made plans for thus. My senses were enthralled by the horror of it all. As well as my senses being alive with the thought of that one man in the group who secretly wished me no harm...at least no harm as to kill me.  Underneath his fervent agreements to end my life, he secretly wished that I could outrun them and run to him instead. On some night, after the hunt had been called off...he knew what he would do...or at least he fantasized and entertained thoughts on the matter.  Alongside that blasphemous thought  of secretly finding me and enjoying the pleasures for his own...he hoped that I would offer myself up to him freely for  he, being my savior, would expect this. I could feel, I could hear and I could smell all sorts of things. I could smell this man and his scent was stronger than the others...not a bad scent but a passionate thing which wouldn't let up. I raised my head to the touch of the breeze...nose to the wind.

 So many things invaded my being that I was losing my sense of direction. I held on tight to the bark of a pine and tried to steady my breathing. My body reeled and rocked; my breasts heaved against the laces of my corsette making the breathing yet harder still.  The smell of dead venison caught me off guard. It was not long dead but it was already ruined by its on excrement. It drove me a little crazy making my pupils dilate and my mouth water. I turned toward the rancid smell and caught the smell of live wolf...just wolf...not wolf as I had become. As I turned away from the carcas and its predators, I smelled the hunters were  growing closer...still fast on my trail. I had no choice and I couldn't stay here. I had to run again and so I ripped a wider potion of my peticoat from the hem of my dress and prepared to gain distance between me and my certain devils. With a purpose that I was unsure of, I rose from the forest floor and made my way to somewhere .

After gaining ground, I found the place. It was just as it had been before, when Petra and I had hidden from the other children of the village. The caverns seemed smaller than before. But, since I had been starving myself, I was able to squeeze into the mouth of the west end. I held tight, my little velvet bag filled with Aconitum, vetivert and horsetail; these being very important herbs and medicinal objects. I wriggled this way and that until I lodged myself firmly in between two large crevices.  There, I  found rest just inside the mouth of the Dachal Caverns....and so I slept for a while. No beast disturbed my slumber...nor my dreams....excepting the beast in myself.
....................

I dreamt of him again. He was gaining on me but he was growing nervous. He knew that the others would kill me so he was thinking of a way to assist me in my escape. I heard his thoughts as they raced through his head and I was curious by him. I knew that I should not trust him because he was human and humans are never what they seemed to be. Why did he really want to help me; it could not possibly be only for carnal reasons. I could feel his presence in my sleep and felt, that part of his mind was trying to link with mine. And I saw his eyes ...they were the most beautiful blue and unyielding that I had ever seen.  But, despite the beauty and allure of his gaze, there was something very painful residing within this man.  Unlike most humans with such pain; I could not open his soul to my reading. And so, I opened my eyes and saw the wet rock in front of me. I looked around and all I saw was wet rock. I heard the trickling of water in the distance and I heard the trotting of horses. They were very close and their arrival would be soon. But, the most important question was, would they find me? Of course they would find me or their hounds would. I could hear the barking grow louder making my ears itch and I could smell them too, their rich blood, similar to mine. There was at least 8 of them and they were on my scent. I could not stay here but was it too late to run? My pulse quickened and I felt my teeth pushing through my gums. I was having a very hard time keeping from anger and my mouth was bleeding because of this fact. I reached up with the strip of peticoat and wiped my bloody lips. I just could not seem to keep from tearing my gums in both anger and hunger. My instincts and strange ways were taking over me..the beast wanted out and it wanted out now.

"no..." I whispered to no one and then crawled deeper into the cave. As I crawled, I pulled at my little velvet sachel and took a few twigs of Aconitum from the bag. I slipped the bitter weed into my mouth and  chewed fervently. The effects were quick.

I wondered what to do now. Should I drop the bloody cloth and hope that the scent of it would deter the hounds long enough for me to get through to the other side of the cavern? Should I hope for nightfall and desist from taking the Aconitum, thus releasing my curse to welcome them? But I wasn't sure that I could take them all and the hounds too. Should I call for others fore I knew there were others in this vast forest who would come to my aide if for nothing more than a free meal. I had many options and so I kept crawling. My fingers dug into the earth as I pushed along. I tucked the bloody cloth into an alcove in the wall and squeezed through a small hole to my left. I heard them as them came to the opening of the cavern. Their minds were confused and chaotic. Some of them wanted to go home now, now that the sun was traveling further down the horizon. Some of them had grown angrier and wanted to find me all the more. Some of them were climbing down from their steeds to ready themselves to enter the cavern. And some of them were talking about the thing that I wished they did not have the intellect for...some of them knew about the other opening to the cave and they were trying to remember its exact location. These were the ones whom I truly feared, the ones who were smart enough to follow through. Then I felt the fringes of his thoughts again and I saw him. He was very handsome, dark haired and average build. A beautiful man really...he turned toward the setting sun and spoke his concerns for his huntsmen. I saw beyond his concern to something foreign. I pulled myself away and continued to climb further and deeper into the caverns. I dropped the Aconitum onto the wet cavern floor and used my body to shimmy yet into a smaller crevice in the rock. It was only a matter of time now...until there would be only one option...to feed.