October 2020 Drabble #1

Hanzo is running, but he knows that there is no way out. Still… he can try. He never goes down without a fight, after all.

Behind him, the hoofs of the creature are relentlessly hammering against the hard forest floor, near frozen from cold. He tries to loose it in the thickest part of the undergrowth, but the sound of the drumming hoofs never ceases. Never even slows down.

His lungs are burning, his face stinging and bleeding from the branches that have slapped him in his desperate struggle to run away from his destiny.

Grandmother always had spoken of the powerful Kirin that would lend their powers to the Shimada, but he had never truly believed in them. Until, that is, he had seen it with his own eyes; standing calmly at the edge of the forest surrounding the estate. Watching him.

It had looked as beautiful as it seemed demonic. It’s glinting black eyes staring at Hanzo. Looking into him. Into his soul.

It hadn’t moved a muscle. He doesn’t know why he started running all of a sudden – he just knows that a bone deep, existential fear had been gripping him, standing in the estate gardens and watching the creature; slowly making out more and more details as his eyes adjusted to the darkness of the moonless night.

He is fast and agile, but he is also just human. His body fails him eventually; his foot snagging on a root and halting his escape abruptly. Pain flares from his hip where he nearly pulls his leg out of its socket, but it is only second place to the fear rolling through his body when he hears… nothing.

The drum of the hoofs has stopped as abruptly as he had fallen. His face is in the dirt, his lungs burning as he pants and tries to get his body back under control. Never has Hanzo felt fear like this.

Had he just been imagining things? Had the approaching ascension ceremony spooked him out that much?

He digs his fingers against the rock hard ground and grits his teeth before finally making himself twist to look behind him.

On some level it does not surprise him to see the creature standing there, still as a stone, staring at him with those glittering black eyes. Still, his heart skips a beat.

The Kirin lowers his long neck a bit, and opens its mouth. Wide. The seams stretch longer than they should be able to. Hanzo stares in shock at the wide, crocodile-like maw opening before him, rows of needle sharp teeth exposed to his wide-eyed stare.

He long tongue slithers out, slowly curling around his ankle and holding on with disturbing force.

He is caught.