Chương 13: Book 1 - Chapter 13: No Rest For The Wicked

How do leopards make this look easy? Dominic groused as his claws slipped for the nth time – they'd bitten into the dead wood of the fallen tree bridge better than the living wood of this tree. Finding his balance again, he braced his front paws against the wall of the temple and walked them up, latching onto the next branch. Carefully twisting his body around, he coiled power in his hindquarters and then exploded upwards, bringing his hind paws to join the front ones.

Quickly, he shifted position so as not to over-balance, moving with a sinuousness that he was pretty sure he wouldn't have managed before gaining Translocation. Those cowards, Leo commented with distaste. Don't defend their prey – just flee into trees. Couldn't hunt. Then a hint of glee broke through. Now trees no refuge. Well, Dominic commented wryly. I'm glad you're happy. Though, if he was honest with himself, if there weren't the time pressure of the setting sun, he'd be enjoying this.

He'd forgotten how much he'd loved climbing trees as a child when he'd got the chance, and doing it as a lion was thrilling in its own way. But as it was, he would be glad when he reached the top – his muscles were tired, his bruises were aching, and his stomach was growling fit to wake the dead. He cast an anxious eye at the horizon – the sun was almost gone. Dominic hoped that the time limit of sundown only applied to getting to the temple, not going inside, but he wasn't willing to risk it.

Eyeing the branches left to traverse, he decided that a little more haste was called for. Leo clearly agreed with him as Dominic felt the lion nudging his position, directing him how to shift his weight and where to coil the power. The guidance was increasingly unnecessary – Dominic was quietly satisfied to realise that much of what Leo was suggesting was now what Dominic was intending on doing anyway – but it made the process just a little faster. Three branches left. Two. Only a sliver of sun left. One.

Barely a glimmer of light on the horizon. Dominic pushed with his hindlegs and pulled with his forepaws, gaining the top branch just as the last of the sun disappeared below the horizon. A grinding sound caught his attention and he saw a slab of stone sliding to cover the black hole in front of him. With no time to investigate, Dominic dived headfirst through the quickly-closing gap, extending his paws before him. He fell through blackness, the sensation awfully reminiscent of the– No.

His paws touched the ground and the rest of his body prepared to land almost automatically, his hind paws slamming down a split-second later. The impact rippled through his body, and he crouched to absorb it. A moment later, he straightened, staring wildly into the blackness, eyes searching for a glimmer of light. But the night was absolute, even for his leonine eyesight. Use whiskers and nose, Leo suggested, clearly uneasy.

Dominic felt a tingle in his muzzle, bringing his attention fully onto the bristles sticking out of it. He'd been unconsciously interpreting information from them, but it was only now that he realised just how much. It was like… body hair. Dominic remembered when he'd shaved his legs on a dare – how numb his legs had felt, and then how the sensation had come back little by little as the hair grew again. This was like that, except far stronger.

Following Leo's guide, he twitched his whiskers, sensing that there was a faint current of air that flowed from behind him. That made him uneasy, though he wasn't quite sure why until Leo clarified it for him. Predators ahead can smell. Hopefully there are none, Dominic replied, though he wasn't willing to bet on it. So much for having a rest – without being able to either see or smell potential threats, he didn't dare drop his guard.

No rest for the wicked, he sighed with a leonine huff, summoning up his determination and taking a step. He would get through this – darkness and aching muscles or not. At least losing his sight wasn't quite as serious as he'd first felt it was – he had something better for finding objects in the dark than a shin: he had whiskers. Moving slowly, he edged sideways, stopping when he felt an obstacle blocking him. A wall, he concluded after a few moments of exploration.

There was another wall not far on the other side, and a third behind him. The walls were curved and the ceiling was low. A tunnel? Dominic questioned for a brief moment. He'd have really liked to have a moment to rest, but without knowing if this was a safe place to do so, he and Leo both decided it was better to keep going – in the only direction that they could. Remembering the traps in the savannah outside, he moved slowly, not putting his full weight on a paw until he was confident it was safe.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. Without his sight, his other senses were far more sensitive. There wasn't much to smell – mostly dust and stone – and it was as quiet as a tomb. The silence meant that the sound of something sliding immediately made Dominic freeze in place. Straining his ears, he waited. There it was again. It wasn't the rumble of stone – at least it didn't seem likely the ceiling would come down on his head.

Hearing the sound again, Dominic estimated how far it was ahead of them, then crouched down to the rough stone floor beneath and started edging forwards. The sounds grew louder. It was definitely something sliding from one side of the tunnel to the other. Any ideas? he asked the lion, listening intently for the sound of paws – no point in pouncing on whatever was sliding only to find he'd just got the tail and presented himself as a target for the head. No, the lion answered.

Then the air flow shifted for a moment and a dry sort of scent entered Dominic's nostrils. Yes, the lion continued urgently. Danger! Dominic tensed. What kind of danger? The lion projected uncertainty for a moment. Snake? Crocodile? Lizard? Those are somewhat different from each other, Dominic pointed out tensely. Can you narrow it down? They listened more intently. The slide of scales against stone was quiet and there was no click of claws. Snake, the lion replied with more confidence.

Wonderful, Dominic replied with a shudder. I hate snakes. He had ever since a 'tame' snake at a birthday party at the zoo had decided to use him as a climbing frame. It hadn't tried to strangle him, but he'd hated the feeling of its body wrapping around him. Between a crocodile and a snake, he wasn't sure which was worse. Why couldn't it have been the lizard? he complained, then tried to force the irritation away. I'm getting hangry, that's the issue, he decided.

Maybe I can get a few bites from this snake while I'm killing it. I wonder if it does taste like chicken…. Danger. Maybe venom, the lion warned. Dominic hesitated – he'd been edging forwards almost unconsciously, his hunger driving him to hunt. Leo was right. He didn't know if this snake was venomous or a constrictor. And the fact was that snakes relied less on their sight than lions did – in this blackness, the creature had the advantage.

Maybe we should sneak past it, Dominic suggested, though his stomach hurt at the thought. Maybe, the lion replied, though didn't seem convinced. Attack from behind, he continued. Dominic could almost see it – snake fangs burying themselves in his back heel, pumping their venom in. Good point, Dominic agreed. Plan A it is. Since he'd never hunted anything before, Dominic followed Leo's nudges and descended into a low crouch – lower to the ground, less air disturbance.

Hopefully the snake wasn't capable of sensing his body-heat. With a fluidity that impressed Dominic despite the situation, he crept forwards. The threat of danger cleared all fatigue from his muscles – even his bruises and scrapes seemed to hurt less. Frequently, he froze in place, both to check if the snake had detected him and to gain more information about what it was doing.

As he'd already guessed, the snake was slithering from side to side of the passageway, obviously guarding it in a way that no true snake ever would. At least its predictable movements meant that Dominic was able to guess where its head was – he could hear when it changed direction and, based on that, determined that its head was about a paw's width ahead of the first section that scraped against the rough stone floor.

Fortunately, his pin-point focus on the snake meant that he noticed immediately when it deviated from its guard-duty. Perhaps he'd got close enough to trigger a new protocol because it suddenly went from slithering from side to side to frozen in place. Since Dominic was already within two body lengths of it, he didn't hesitate. Propelling himself forward with his powerful back legs, he leapt for where he knew the head was.

He heard a strong hiss and felt something sharp brush against his fur as he pinned the snake's body down with one paw. A moment later, his other paw pressed the snake's head to the ground and his teeth ripped through its neck. The snake's blood filled his mouth, reawakening his hunger with a vengeance. Its body flip-flopped over the paw holding it down, but the after-death spasms didn't last long. Eager to fill his stomach, Dominic stooped quickly, teeth ready to tear.

But, frustratingly, even as quickly as he tried to consume his rightful kill, his teeth clicked together on empty air. Only his whiskers stopped him from headbutting the floor. Dominic snarled loudly, completely done with food just disappearing from between his paws. Why is this place trying to starve us? he demanded, half-hoping that that mysterious laughter might return – proving that it was intentional. But all was silent.

Sighing since even the blood on his paws and muzzle had disappeared, Dominic continued padding cautiously through the tunnel. Abruptly, his left front paw hit something solid where he had been expecting space. Feeling at it first with his paw and then with his whiskers, Dominic confirmed that his progress had been blocked with a wall. No, a door – there was a paw imprint. By this point heartily sick of navigating in darkness, and just wanting to eat and rest, Dominic pressed his paw to the imprint.

Instead of the door just opening as it had every time before, there was a bright flash of light. Dominic shut his eyes in reflex – after the utter darkness he'd been in, the light was overwhelming. When he opened them again, he had to blink several times in sheer incomprehension. It wasn't only bright, the colours were also strange – more vibrant than he was used to, with the reds particularly vivid. And, somehow, he had changed position without any indication of movement.

Where before he'd been standing in a corridor, now he was standing on one side of a circular room. In the middle of the room was a large chunk of meat that, though he was still awfully hungry, looked less appealing than he was expecting. At the moment, it wasn't available – sealed under a glass dome. On the other side was a starved-looking lion that was oddly familiar. In fact, the last time Dominic saw it, it was in the light of a torch held by his father.

And as Dominic blinked again, he realised that he wasn't standing on four feet; he was standing on two. And he had hands again.