Land of the Phoenix Part 7

The Stampede

All of this had been observed by the leader of the unknown creatures with round yellow eyes. He signaled for his group to surround the unsuspecting girl. She innocently walked further away from the mansion into the ambush.

“You better watch yourself little creature, this be an unruly world you’ve found yerself in.”

Anne looked around for the sly voice but she didn’t see anyone.

“You don’t look like anyone I’ve ever seen before. Where did ya come from, hun?”

It came from above her! She looked, but did not see anyone. Keeping her eyes on the roof of the house where the voice came from, she timidly backed away. But suddenly she felt a sharp prick on her back and cried out. Behind her was a small lizard-like creature holding a primitive spear. She screamed again and looked around herself, a whole lounge of lizards had surrounded her. Back at the roof of the porch, a regal lizard slowly moved into view from behind the porch gable.

He was a larger than the rest with a lean scaly body. Like the other animals Anne had seen, he had surprisingly intelligent eyes. He wore a tribal type of necklace around his shoulders and held a crudely carved walking stick that was so thin on part that it was threatened to snap.

He jumped down from the gable and walked up to her. The lizard was almost as tall as her belly button and he walked on his hind legs. He also just realized how big she was and summoned one of his comrades to him.

“Yes, Grynde, sir?” The other lizard asked.

“Get down on all fours.” He replied in almost a whisper. His comrade got down on all fours and, to Anne’s astonishment, Grynde climbed up on him so he stood higher.

“Ahem, so, as I was saying. What kind of creature are you?”
“I’m a human…” She replied uncertainly

“I see…” He too was uncertain so he whispered to the lizard he was standing on asking what the heck a human was. The crouching lizard replied quietly, “It’s a girl, sir.”

“Girl…girl…” Suddenly he gasped, “A girl! Like the one in the prophesy! The PROPHESY!!” He turned and summoned the other lizards to him, “Listen! My good Eemi! We have stumbled on none other then the second witch of the prophesy! Beware of this girl, she has come to challenge the Sorceress and we cannot have that, can we?”

“NO!!” The Eemi cried out in unison,

“So, we shall do the Sorceress a favor and get rid of the girl!”

Then, to himself, the leader lizard said, “And how shall I do it?”

“The stake, sir! We love the stake!” suggested the lizard beneath him.

“Ah ha! I have got it! We shall burn her at stake!” cried the leader. Anne gasped and the other lizards chanted “Stake, stake, stake!”

They started crowding around her and pushing her away from the house, Grynde sauntered in front of her, leading the way.

“Wait!” Anne cried, “I forgot, I’m not really a human! I’m an ape, you see, I just…evolved a little!” But Grynde would not acknowledge anything she said, he just kept on walking in a haughty, king-like manner.

The lizards considered which tree they should tie her to. First their attention was drawn to a mighty pine, but they didn’t have ropes long enough to wrap around its wide circumference. So, they settled for a small sapling. Though it was weak, they thought, it was small enough for their ropes and it would burn easily.

But they soon noticed that Anne was too tall for the sapling and her head was hidden behind the green leaves of the tree. They knew her face must be visible for the tribe to fully enjoy her pain. After a long discussion, one lizard asked if they could shave to tree of its branches. Everyone exuberantly agreed; burning her at stake was much more proper than burning her at sapling. Finally, it was done and the lizard’s victim was tied to the shaved tree.

Roughly, and thoroughly enjoying themselves, they began to gather large sticks and threw them in a pile around the girl. Her heart beat faster than it ever had before as she struggled with the tight ropes, her life would have flashed before her eyes, but she couldn’t remember anything. All she knew was that she was about to die, everything else was black.

After the lizards finished the pile of sticks, they leaped about and shouted in bloodthirsty glee. Anne observed this horrible ritual, hardly grasping it, until suddenly, they all stopped. Their tails twitched and they all looked in the same direction towards the horizon. The ground had begun to slowly tremble; at first, Anne thought it was like the tiny earthquake that occurred when she apologized to the lion-man, but it lasted longer. It kept going and she silently pleaded for it to stop, but it never did. Instead, it gradually shook harder and harder.

She waited for the subject of the chaos to come into view. Finally, fate gave in to her anticipation; a cloud of dust billowed from beyond the horizon. She knew that it was most likely a stampede. And, so apparently, did the lizards, they twitched their tails and talked nervously to each other. Finally, Grynde called the awaited order and, in one, they all turned and ran. Unfortunately, they forgot (or didn’t care about) Anne who was tied fast to the tree.

She struggled and called for help, her heart beat fast and tingled inside her chest then rose to a lump in her throat. Animals of all shapes and sizes moved the earth with their paws and hooves. Panic-stricken eyes rolling, they charge closer and closer, oblivious to the little girl tied to a barer sapling.

Anne tugged at the ropes so hard her wrists began to bleed. Frustrated at the tightness of the knots, she yanked at the tree that was holding her captive. To her surprise, the young tree bent over slightly. Then, she had an idea; she pulled harder at the tree and it bent lower. She got on her knees and the tree leaned with her. She yelled a loud as her shoulder muscles strained. Then, just as she thought, the tree bent low enough for the rope to slide up the tree. It hit knots and stumps from the cut branches but she continued to pull. The cloud of dust came closer.

Finally her painful struggle ended, the rope slid off the tip of the sapling and she landed with a thump on the ground. Realizing how hard it would be to run with her arms tied behind her back, Anne lifted herself to a squat and wrapped her arms underneath herself. Then she sat down, pulled her legs in and moved her tied hands under and around her feet. Now that her arms were in front, it was easier to run. The stampede was dangerously close and it was then that she panicked.

She started to run away from the approaching animals, then she remembered she would not be able to out run them. She looked around for an escape route, but her panicking brain blinded her eyes from comprehending anything. Almost unintentionally, Anne ran to the side. To her amazement, she was running to a forest; she knew that a forest would protect from the stampeding animals who would avoid the trees.

She ran toward her salvation, leaned against a tree trunk and rested. Suddenly, she heard a rustling noise. To her great dismay, the Eemi had already taken refuge in the forest. They greedily charged at her, chasing her back into the field in front of the stampede.

Anne couldn’t think, she hardly knew where she was. The grass, the sky and the lizards all melt away, leaving her alone in front of the humongous dust cloud. Almost out of nowhere, a panicked elephant came into view followed by wilder beasts, deer and other hoofed creatures. But, the poor girl was frozen, she felt like a tree rooted to the spot.

From under the elephant, another animal seemed to have emerged from the dust itself. It ran straight at Anne, faster than all the rest of the stampede. Its golden light entranced her, she wasn’t frightened anymore. Then, it leaped as gracefully as a gazelle and, somehow, picked her up. Before she knew what happened, she was sailing through the air. Her heart swooped inside of her as the stampede trampled the earth underneath her.