08-21-2009, 07:30 PM
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Somewhere above his head, a murder of crows took flight and scattered and the sound seemed louder than it had ever been before. Loud enough to be frightening, which it was, but his reaction to it was delayed; by the time he looked northward towards the overcast canopy, the birds were gone. His head ached more than it ever had, his legs felt like the most untrustworthy things beneath him, and his ability to focus had started to betray him even more. There wasn’t anything familiar about the thinning, dense hollow wood he was stumbling through, though he had caught fleeting glimpses of the sea that stretched out after sand. It was the shoreline that he was heading towards and it would be the shoreline that he thought he would follow.
But somehow, that wasn’t exactly where he ended up. Disoriented and unaware, Hezekiah had gone in plenty of circles already through the same expanse of forest. The shoreline never really got any closer, though by the time it actually did, sunset was fast approaching and he no longer had the energy to persist in doing anything but resting. He all but collapsed at the base of a hemlock tree, allowing the gnarled and exposed roots to cradle his tired body, and it was there that the ringing in his ears came-to to drown out the sounds of the earth. And in both his chest and ears, he felt the frantic and unheard rhythm of his heart.
Despite being lost, it hadn’t really been at the top of his priority as far as things to fear went. Waking up in the middle of the afternoon in a completely unfamiliar place had topped that list, and then only became amplified when he had found a gash on his side with no recollection of what had occurred. He tried to remember again when he had gently parted the stained patch of fur to peer at it with an shaky hand, but as to whether or not he had obtained it on his own or because of someone or something else continued to evade him.
The bleeding had long stopped and the wound had clotted, but for the longest time he had thought maybe it wouldn’t. And that had been another place in which fear had been founded for a young coyote who was still very much a child; he didn’t want to die. But it was also an inevitable thing, this he knew, because of the circumstances he was in. Hungry, injured, utterly alone and completely without a clue where he was — what were the odds of survival in that case? He knew how to fend for himself well enough and had on a number of occasions, but this was simply too much. For the first time in his life, Hezekiah wanted to go home. He wanted to go home so badly that he damn near felt like crying.
But he closed his eyes instead, far too exhausted to put in the required effort.
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But somehow, that wasn’t exactly where he ended up. Disoriented and unaware, Hezekiah had gone in plenty of circles already through the same expanse of forest. The shoreline never really got any closer, though by the time it actually did, sunset was fast approaching and he no longer had the energy to persist in doing anything but resting. He all but collapsed at the base of a hemlock tree, allowing the gnarled and exposed roots to cradle his tired body, and it was there that the ringing in his ears came-to to drown out the sounds of the earth. And in both his chest and ears, he felt the frantic and unheard rhythm of his heart.
Despite being lost, it hadn’t really been at the top of his priority as far as things to fear went. Waking up in the middle of the afternoon in a completely unfamiliar place had topped that list, and then only became amplified when he had found a gash on his side with no recollection of what had occurred. He tried to remember again when he had gently parted the stained patch of fur to peer at it with an shaky hand, but as to whether or not he had obtained it on his own or because of someone or something else continued to evade him.
The bleeding had long stopped and the wound had clotted, but for the longest time he had thought maybe it wouldn’t. And that had been another place in which fear had been founded for a young coyote who was still very much a child; he didn’t want to die. But it was also an inevitable thing, this he knew, because of the circumstances he was in. Hungry, injured, utterly alone and completely without a clue where he was — what were the odds of survival in that case? He knew how to fend for himself well enough and had on a number of occasions, but this was simply too much. For the first time in his life, Hezekiah wanted to go home. He wanted to go home so badly that he damn near felt like crying.
But he closed his eyes instead, far too exhausted to put in the required effort.