The Tiger
He sits with such patients in the long grass that hides him so well from those he seeks.
He is mighty thirsty for the kill he need to catch this time, for he has been hungry for too long. His mind wonders to his youth when game was plentiful, life was good and easy. The vibration of the approaching heard is felt through the earth where he lies and his heart beats faster and faster, they have come. Muscles bunch and his whole body comes alive driving away the stiffness of lying unmoving for days now. He cannot afford to loose his kill, if he does all will be lost and life will cease for not only the cubs but himself also.
He raises his head a little allowing his pointed ears slide to the tops of the grass where his golden eyes sees the drifting dust cloud far off in the distance. There is plenty of time; they are a long way off yet. He dreams about his mate who has been long gone. She bought him many young cubs and they were comfortable with each other and life was fun. She went hunting one day and never came back; the cubs and I miss her a great deal. There were lots of loud noises that day along with the man smell that were all over the tracks she walked, these were her tracks and all respected her domain. His nose twitches; he smells a different smell, the man smell mingling with the smell of dust and animals.
He flinches and backs away from the place of ambush circling the man smell.
His body glides through the landscape, being as one with his surroundings, blending in, unseen by any eyes and his presents unfelt.
The man crouches on the ground looking ahead, stick in hand and then a loud noise cracks out, I flinch with the concussed impact on my ears. Again the air comes alive with another crashing sound, birds screeches quickly take them to the air on frantically beaten wings driving them in all directions. The herd veers away stampeding in their fright to leave this area their driven hooves causes the earth to be ripped open sending dust billowing into the air, blanketing the sight of their bodies retreating away in the opposite direction.
I see my future destroyed, our meal gone, and my cubs lying dyeing from hunger. I snarl, my anger boils over, these teeth glitter white in the shining sun, my lips stretch back revealing all my fangs, I spread my sharp clawed pads revealing them to the sunlight. My body tenses up and I attack. I must feed. He hears me not and I rip his flesh, the air is alive with the screams of this man animal. My teeth sink into his neck and the silence is deafening to ones ears. I feel at peace, for another day we live my family and I. I do what I do and have no regrets. Life must go on……………………..
Albert W Megraw
