Those Things Who Hunt Me

Those things who hunt me

            I run through the woods. The shadows of the trees are the only things that can protect me when they hunt me. They come with fire. They come with claws and they come with their boomsticks. Sometimes the booms hurt me.

             I bleed.

            I hurt.

             I scratch at the ground in agony.

            I cry out at the stars.

            I want to be left alone.

            I don’t want to get hurt.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">            But, they are not always the ones hunting. When my belly pains me, I fill it. And I only fill it with warm kill.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">             I leave my home in the dark when the moon is black and the clouds are grey.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">            I sneak away from my shadows and seek out the hunters’ dens. Not hunters now. Prey.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">            I see their rocks. The ones that they live in with the look-in walls and the smoking tops. I hide in my shadows.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">            I crouch down and peer in.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">            I see prey inside. One of the little ones, asleep in the nest. But that is not it. I see one of the big ones too; with the furry face and the tough flesh. He sits beside the little one. He has a boomstick and fire glowing in his mouth.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">            I do not want to get hurt.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">            I move on. Under the shadows, in the dark I prowl.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">            I look for easier food.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">            I listen for foot noise.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">            I smell for flesh. The scent of prey fills me.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">            I move out. Slowly. One limb at a time. It is dark.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">            I am hidden.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">            I am hungry.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">            I look at the prey. It is walking down the path moving under the line of the hunters fake moons. It is one of the smaller ones. With the long hair and the tender meat on its chest. Its smell makes my hunger grow.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">            I follow.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">            It moves in the light.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">            I follow it in the dark.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">             I crawl carefully and without noise. It doesn’t hear me, but I hear it. It doesn’t see me, but I see it.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">            I move closer.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">            I see it closer now. The meaty bottom and the fleshy chest. My mouth waters.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">            I pace it and see my chance. A break in the light from the fake moons. Darkness that it must walk through. Out of its territory of light and into my shadows. My dark.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">            Its almost there.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">            I crouch down. It moves closer.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">            I tense my long limbs. Almost time to strike. It is inches away now.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">            I ready my talons. Now. Darkness.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">            I spring out.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">            I grab my prey.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">            It tries to screech. It tries to call for the big ones with the boomsticks, but I don’t let it. I cover its noise malker with my big hand and dig into its flesh with the other. It is soft. It is vulnerable. It flails its limbs at me. It strikes me, but I do not hurt.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">            I keep digging and tearing.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">            I tear off the bottom noise maker. No meat there.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">            But I cannot stay here. The moons in the stone dens light up.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">            I hear the hunters shouting.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">            I see the fires lighting. My prey has stopped fighting. It has stopped kicking. It has stopped hitting. But the hunters are out now. They see me.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">            I see them. The ones with the furry faces and the fire and the claws and the boomsticks. They use their boomsticks and I run. They give chase, but I am faster.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">            I am big and they are small.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">            I keep galloping.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">            I am careful not to drop my meal.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">            I am far away now, but I keep going.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">            I still hear the hunters’ shouts. I can still hear the boomsticks.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">            I keep speed until I am back to the woods. Under the trees and in the shadows, I am home.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">            I have warm kill.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">            I fill my belly.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:200%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">