“I swear to you. It’s coming. I…I don’t know what it is, but I know it’s bad, and...I know it will bring death. Please, you must believe me.”

The grizzled old hyena stood before his pack, his mangy fur littered with scabs and scars. His snout was still dark red from his attacker, not a minute earlier.

“Do we need to tell you again Yrsanu?” asked the magnificent alpha in front of him. Her glorious name was Aluraki, and she was his sister. She had a name as strong as the iron bite she held her pack together with. Every alpha needed to do so, if they wanted their pack to remain strong. No alpha had as strong a bite as Aluraki, and because of this, her pack was the strongest. No wild-dogs, no leopards and no cheetahs could stand against them. Their sole enemy was Karangoul, the king of a pride of lions, few in number but great in power.

The unforgiving sun was high in the bright blue sky, plastering the land with a sweltering, unending heat. The ground was so dry and hot that the insects living beneath the surface had died. The plants were so dry that they were brittle and crumbled in one’s mouth. The animals of the savanna were struggling, grasping onto life with the last of their unbroken teeth. Never had the drought lasted so long, nor had it been so intense. Despite all of this, each of them knew that though not all of them would, their species would survive to the rains. Yrsanu however, knew something far worse was coming. It ached in his heard and tortured him during his dreams. He could never see what it was, nor understand when it would come, but it was always there. And it was coming soon.

“I swear to you. I… I can’t explain it, but I know that if you don’t leave, you will die.”

Aluraki only raised her head higher to Yrsanu. She stepped forwards to his starved, bony form, looking down on him. His head was bowed, and his eyes were darting to his packmates around him, desperately searching for somebody that would speak for him. His eyes met only his sisters, and the sisters of Aluraki. He had been of the litter two years before her. The males had been chased off from the dried Hartebeest carcass. He was surrounded. Cornered by his own packmates.

“Please,” he begged, dipping his snout even further towards the ground. Silently he prayed to Gatharuus, the lord of the earth, that he would help. He didn’t know why he did it. Everybody knew that Gatharus favored the females. They said it was just. In most other species, the males were favored. His mother had told him that it was fair that they deserved a chance to rule.

“Say that again,” Aluraki ordered, her voice clear and crisp. The voice of a leader, her bright golden fur glinting in the sunlight.

Yrsanu didn’t know what to do. “P-please. I know it. I can’t prove it to you but-“. Before he could finish speaking, she had attacked him again.

She threw his frail body to the ground, and clamped her jaw down into his shoulder, making blood trickle out of the wound, and into her mouth. Yrsanu howled in pain, as the other females crowded around him, howling in encouragement. Male hyenas were superfluous, disposable, and expendable. They were smaller, and weaker. None of them were granted the honor of watching a packmate being tortured. Her teeth sank deeper into his wiry flesh, making him force himself not the thrash out in pain. If he did, he might scratch her. If he scratched her, he would surely die.

“Is that enough for you, Yrsanu? Or should I go for your throat?” Aluraki gargled through the blood of her thrall.

A mere weak whimper escaped the crippled hyena’s mouth.

Aluraki released him. He didn’t dare move as the others crowded around him. He remained frozen to the ground, blood trickling from his punctured shoulder.

Aluraki turned and kicked up dust from the parched ground over him, and the others followed suit. He was glad that he was blinded, so he couldn’t see the rumps of those he hated yet was designated to love and serve.

When they finished, they left him, crushed and nearly buried. A sign that he was no better to them than the dead.

But Yrsanu wasn’t dead. He may be no use to them, but that didn’t matter to him as he forced himself to his legs, made no more of bone and shaggy mangy fur. The females were still trotting away to feast on the hartebeest. Not even all of them would sleep with a full stomach. He didn’t look at them. There was nothing for him that lay within his eyesight.

Limping, he picked his way off the mound, through the bones of previous carcasses he hadn’t eaten, and selected a femur. It had been from a buffalo, more than a moon ago. He’d managed to chase it to the trap of his packmates, waiting to slaughter it. A bone already stripped barer than the landscape of was of water. He lay down on the outskirt of where he was allowed to go and began to gnaw. The gnawing brought him no satisfaction to his empty stomach and caused his body to produce saliva from internal water he didn’t have. It didn’t sooth his restless mind, nor did it distract him from the searing, burning pain in his shoulder. He simply did it because it was what he did. It made no sense, but it didn’t have to.

The faint sound of soft, light paws padding through the scorched earth made his ears twitch. An annoyance disturbing him form his gnawing.

A faint, low growl escaped his throat. He could smell that the hyena approaching him was a male, and though no male outranked a female, Yrsanu wasn’t the lowest ranking male.

The other hyena took a small step back, before making his way to Yrsanu’s side, ignoring his warning growls. The crippled hound felt a small tongue rasp against his wound. A warming, comforting feeling.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Lions had the feeling of biting into a fresh kill. Wildebeests had the feeling of escaping to the other side of the river. Wild dogs had the feeling of nuzzling against each other in a warm den. Cheetahs had the feeling of the wind flying through their fur and carrying them ever faster. Male hyenas had the feeling of a tongue rasping over their wounds.

Yrsanu however, was… different. He instantly snapped at the other hyena, who let out a yelp, and leaped backwards.

He was small and covered with more spots than usual. His legs were black, and his ears were round, the left one tipped gold. His face was too small for his ears, and his beady eyes were too big for his face.

“Are you deaf, Kkali? I growled for a reason,” Yrsanu huffed.

“I’m sorry,” said the smaller hyena. His fur was still bright and hadn’t yet been torn up too much to stop its glint. He had only recently been cast from his mother protection, and to the tip of her claws. Slash marks down the side of his snout told the story to Yrsanu. “You…I…That wound. It looks… bad. I thought I could…. Um…”

“Well you couldn’t. I was about to fall asleep. I’d forgotten about the pain,” the grizzled hyena lied. “You’ve brought it all back. Stherien pup,” he cursed.

Kkali looked hurt. “Well I…”

Yrsanu stopped listening, as something caught his eye. Gilinda, the current watch hyena, was dozing atop the Spotting Rock’s irresistible shade. Instantly, an idea formed in his worn, but still quick mind. He turned and took off. Never again would he get an opportunity to escape like this. Only once in his lifetime had the watch hyena fallen asleep, and one of his brothers had attempted to escape, while they were still yearlings. It had been shortly after they’d discovered that the comforting pup life was a mere lie, blanketing that which was ahead of them. Yrsanu’s brother; Diraak, had been caught and killed.

Yrsanu sprinted faster than if he was chasing a dik-dik, his long, clunky limbs sending him flying through the dry savanna grass. He had too. He must escape. There was no alternative.

If he was caught now, he would die. There would be no chance to even live the rest of his life until he died of disease, starvation, or blood loss, at account of his sisters.

On and on he ran, not allowing his cramping haunches to stop him, nor his gasping lungs. He knew that he would leave a trail of blood behind, but there was nothing he could do. His best chance was to make as much distance between him and his back before they realized that he was gone.

A rock rolled out from under his paws as he scrambled over a snake’s basking spot, sending him tumbling head over heels. The snake hissed but didn’t pursue him. He knocked his head, sending his vision tripping more than his feet were. Before he could take another step, he had sprawled over the ground.

He lay dazed in the dust for a moment, letting his head still, when he heard the sickly strong howl of Aluraki. He had been discovered.

Scrambling to his struggling feet, he began running again. His long, loping legs carried him onwards towards freedom. His dizziness didn’t leave, accompanied by his hunger and thirst, nagging at his empty, sagging stomach, but he couldn’t allow himself to stop now. He plowed forwards, running in a shaky line, and crashing through the grass.

A searing pain shot through his foot, as a thorn tore through his skin between his toes, making his teeth accidentally chomp into his tongue, and sending him tumbling once again. Down a slope, he rolled for a second, before landing in a bed of dust that plumed up around him.

His head was spinning. His nose was clogged. His eyes were blinded. His body was filled with pain. But he could hear. He could hear the sound of a hyena’s footsteps, sliding down the slope to him. There would be no use in trying to run now. It was futile.

“Let me flow into greatness as the circle of life goes on,” he tried to say through his bleeding tongue.

The hyena stopped right in front of him, and as he braced himself for the teeth to sink into his neck. Instead, they sunk into his scruff, pulling him to his feet.

“C’mon, we got to go,” urged the young hyena. Kkali had followed him. His soft teeth, gently tugging him up.

“Get me up,” Yrsanu growled through his swollen tongue.

Kkali pushed Yrsanu to his feet.

“Where’s Aluraki? Is she almost here?” Yrsanu asked, limping forwards. They were in a dried our river bed.

“No. They haven’t noticed us. She’s disciplining Gilinda.”

“Perfect,” Yrsanu almost smiled, showing his huge, bloody teeth.

The two of them reached the other side of the river, but the bank was too steep, and to eroded for them to climb. Yrsanu cursed under his breath.

“What do we do?”

“We follow the river bank,” he decided, limping along the edge.

They had barely gone ten hyena lengths, when they heard a howl. “Stop in the name of Aluraki!”

Yrsanu glanced over his bloody shoulder to see two female hyena’s standing on the edge of the river bank. Girsaan and Dilitha, both of whom were his sister.  

“Come and get us why don’t ye!” Yrsanu hollered, finally fed up with them. He was beyond point of submission. Being caught now meant death.

Dilitha nearly leaped in after them, when Girsaan stopped her. “Sister, there’s no way out of the river. It’s too steep. We should ask Aluraki.”

As Dilitha thought of what she should do, Yrsanu and Kkali started off again, progressing down the river.

“Call Aluraki, tell her we’ve found him,” Girsaan told Dilitha.   

Dilitha nodded and sped off, as Girsaan leaped in after them.

As Yrsanu and Kkali ran, the river bed became more and more moist, soon turning into mud, and by the time Girsaan was nearly behind them, it was ankle deep water.

None of them had known that there was this much water anywhere in the savanna, but none of them would risk a stop to drink.

“Over there!” Yrsanu exclaimed. Part of the bank had collapsed, revealing a way to escape.

Before he could reach it, he heard a yelp of pain. He turned to see Girsaan, pinning Kkali down.

“Yrsanu!” he screamed as Girsaan fought to get a good angle at his neck as he thrashed to keep his head above the water. 

The escape was just ahead of him…But Girsaan would catch up to him and kill him after she killed Kkali. He turned back not to save Kkali, but to save himself. He knocked the bigger hyena off the cub, and bit down on her back.

Girsaan reared up, throwing him off. She leaped onto him, pinning him down instantly, submerging him. 

He thrashed and kicked out, but Girsaan was too heavy, crushing him beneath her weight. He tried to crane his head above the water, but it was met with bone crushing teeth. He desperately kicked out at the ground, and attempted to roll, but Girsaan’s grip was too strong, and his energy was faltering. 

Yrsanu couldn’t see what was happening, but he felt the water push against him, rolling him over, and Girsaan getting ripped off him. He tumbled over in the water, before throwing his head over the surface and gasping for air. Kkali was scrambling for the escape, and Girsaan was being dragged through the water. Massive green scales could be seen above the water, as Girsaan howled for help. She was being hauled to deeper water where the beast could kill her properly.

Yrsanu stood, frozen in shock as his sister was turned into nothing more than a ripple in the water.

“We must go!” Kkali called from the other side.

Yrsanu shook his head in shock and followed the smaller hyena.