How lame it might would have been for the deer to think it may flee from the king of the jungle- me. What a reckless thought. Saliva had begun to ooze, the time to relish my feast was approaching. I could smell it. I could feel it. I could sense my victory. Just one leap and I would win again. I would dine in style.
In the human world strength and power may lie with the wealthier ones. But in the natural world, real power belongs to the physically strong creatures. They don’t need to hunt but how can they be different from us? They too hunt. Not to satisfy their taste buds but to satisfy their filthy self that makes them believe they are always right. But in the natural world, even wealthier humans fear the real lions.
My thoughts were distracting and there went my prey. Dashing away, in vain. How remote could its tiny legs take him? I started following the miserable creature. A sudden warmth and determination welled up inside my body with every strike I made to welcome my dinner. Air whipped past my face; dry leaves crunched beneath my claws; insects were being crushed; sparrows flew, alarmed, but nothing was now going to make me go astray. All that clawed my mind was victory.
It felt like gliding. I felt weightless. With every passing seconds I came closer to my destination. My deer was just a few feet away. I could see the symptoms of tiredness in my prey. And fragility gave me invincible energy. And all of a sudden, my right leg betrayed me.
Has it ever happened to you humans? You are so close to you goal and all of a sudden your world shifts to a different axes? Have you experienced a hurdle so close to your aim you almost feel like cursing the air, punching whatever comes forth and wanting to veil yourself away into wilderness. I don’t know about you, but I hate it. I hate being vulnerable to nature. To things that come uninviting.
A thorn. A thing as tiny as a thorn disturbed me. That is the beauty of uninvited happenings, they either break you and you back off or they make you determined enough to overcome your shortcomings and move on, just like that. I was determined. But by the time I overcame my pain, the deer had succeeded in being a little too far. I hate this.
I shunned away the bushes that were blocking my way. My ears could hear the pigeons cooing and the bees humming nearby. And the Earth, the Earth shook as I hounded the deer. Why couldn’t it just surrender? Why was it being so stubborn? Why couldn’t he just give up already? Poor thing thought he could compete with the natural law.
My impatience was clouding my senses. I jumped a little too noisily and the deer escaped. Again. I landed on barren ground and a sudden roar escaped my jaws. This was too much. But why couldn’t I hear the deer running away? Because the deer lay dead besides me. And there was the other king, towering over my feast, his prey now.
I gritted my teeth in exasperation. How could he feed on my food? How on Earth? I roared with a thundering fury and broke into a sprint. I wanted it back. I didn’t care about the herd I might find, I wanted this one. The other lion was too seething with fury. Should I fight my brother?
Do humans fight their fellow brothers and sisters? Ah, how foolish of me. Of course they do. They think of others as by-products of nature. And themselves as the superior ones. They fight with both the right and wrong, but never for the wrong.
With a solid sense of pride, and against my will, I backed off my ex-food. I could hear zebras nearby. Yes definitely zebras. I started my journey again for a prey that was stronger than deer. Than meant fun. After all, who’d want a lame deer any ways?
Photo Courtesy: Atif Saeed
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