Week 6: Sylvia Ess McKee- Flying Jackelope in Pangea

Full Prompt: “Flying jackelope in Pangea”

Story:

Mashda’s paw twitched, then an ear. A slight turn of her furry head set her path. Minimal movement of her stout tail corrected her course. Flying is where she felt most at home since the day gravity had loosed its restraints from her. Mornings were filled with swooping and spiraling over the landscape, doing what she could to fulfill the promise she had made with the wind. 

When she was young, Mashda had heard a cry of a whisper coming from a pit. Carefully she peered over its edge to find a small chipmunk trapped in a den of hibernating snakes. 

“please, please help me,” the chipmunk pleaded with her.

Mashda’s immediate reaction was to run from the danger. But the lessons her mother had distilled over a lifetime came thundering back through her mind and she knew it was her responsibility to help.

Sniffing the wind and perceiving its temperature, she had deemed it still cold enough to rescue the chipmunk unnoticed by the cold-blooded and still sleeping snakes. Her powerful hind legs would have her bounced in and out of the pit in no time- something the chipmunk was not able to do.

“Stay perfectly still and quiet. I will get you out of there,” Mashda whispered to the chipmunk.

Mashda jumped down into the pit and scooped the chipmunk up into the safety of the cradle of her antlers. Unbeknownst to them both, one of the snakes, who had been covered by others, and therefore warmer, had its sites set on the chipmunk. And this snake woke others.

Mashda was quickly encircled by the den. She selflessly tossed the small chipmunk to safety and warned the snakes: “you won’t like how it feels digesting me.”

“oh… perhapsss, but we are hungry and up to the tassssk,” the snake replied.

Mashda tensed her powerful back legs and lowered her horned forehead, preparing for snake strike. She launched herself around the pit! One, two, three snakes she flung as her legs propelled her around the walls of the deep hole. Narrowly evading strikes all about her until one finally caught her ear and pinned her to the ground. It coiled tightly about her antlers, squeezing her injured ear. Still able to kick, Mashda fought off several more bite attempts. But terror began to encompass her being. 

“it’sss the cirrrrcle of life little one…” another snake hissed.

As the den slithered ever closer to the helpless jackalope, the temperature suddenly began to fall. This was accompanied by a breeze which turned into a strong gust. As the temperature fell, the snakes’ cold blood caused them to become lethargic. The gust turned into a gale and then a focused cyclone. Mashda’s body was raised from the ground as the snake’s grip loosened about her head. Much to her shock, Mashda was pulled from the pit by the strong winds. In her ears, across her fur, in her nostrils and chest, she felt the power of this ethereal force. With merely an ear wound from her snake encounter, she was thrown gently to safety by the unexpected winds.

The breeze howled through the trees and Mashda felt different, lighter. She felt as though she could understand what it was saying. Knowing this to be silly she pushed off the ground with her strong legs to put distance between her and the danger of the snakes. But whereas before the encounter with the wind, her jump would reach its peak and she would descend, this time there was no descent. Mashda was on the crest of the wind. Able to hop from gust to gust. She was flying.

Mashda’s eyes fluttered open. She woke from her sleep and peered around her dirt home. All was as it should be. She poked her head from her hole in the earth ready to begin her day. Her small pink nose sniffed the air. Her eyes darted back and forth and she leapt from the hole. She caught the warm air current, hopped on to the next, and soared ever upward, ever farther; vigilant. She resumed her unending search for the others. Determined to fulfill her promise to the wind, determined to find that which had been lost.

Long ago, before unyielding waters fell from the heavens and great geysers rose from the ground, dividing its land masses, they had been one. One terrain, united. United as were all the creatures upon it. Some of those creatures have gone extinct. Yet, many remain today, cohabitating upon the planet. But further still, some, believed to be extinct, are not. They have merely adopted the cloak of concealment, and these creatures are legend even unto those who would be called legends themselves. 

To be continued.