Cat Chase, by Maggie O'Brien grade 7

My heart pounded loudly in my chest as I ran out of breath. There was no doubt about it. They were getting closer.

All around me, green vines whipped past my faces. Streams of violet, orange, and sky blue blurred past me. The sounds of birds and exotic creatures flooded my eardrums with the jungle cacophony. The scent of damp moss and fresh rain pooled on leaves moistened the forest air. However beautiful this world was, I could not stand to observe it.

The tribesmen chased me. Over logs, through brooks, and under heavy branches, we continued the steeplechase. I struggled to make another step. There was a stream ahead to free me of the forest’s prison. Relief urged me onward.
An arrow jumped past the corner of my eye. Shrieking like a cat, I sprinted faster. All to my luck, I tripped on a root and collapsed to the dirt floor. The pounding of the men’s feet, the screaming triumph of the children, and the fountain of blood rushing through my ears was too much to bear.
When we all thought nothing could get much worse, a massive leopard sprang forth from the underbrush. Her glittering, spotted pelt rippled over masses of sheer muscle. I could see the lust to kill in her glassy eyes. Starvation shone in her saliva, tainting her long fangs.

I wanted to scream and run, but my body held me hostage.

The leopard was caught between the tribesmen and I. Her talons lashing out, she crept up to my side. There seemed to be no way out of this.

Quick! I urged myself. I needed to deviate a plan. The forest clan pursuing me had no intentions of killing the leopard, only me. This leopard was only a mere obstacle to them in the plot of my death.

I stumbled to the left and rolled down a steep cliff side. Together as one, the massive feline and the tribe growled. I flipped into a tree. Smacking my arm on a heavy stump. Gushes of red bubbled from my forearm, pain tingled its way through my wrist, and I saw the gouges I scraped into my flesh. My throat became dry as salt, swallowing the scream I longed to release. The pounding of my pursuers footsteps matched the drumming of my pulse.

The leopard assaulted me from fifteen feet above on a high ledge. She flew through the air, a sunbeam setting her fur ablaze. The tribe halted their descent and watch in awe as the leopard soared over the ditch.

Immediate exhaustion struck me as her claws sunk into my shoulders. Furious scarlet lines appeared on my ragged clothes and bloomed into cranberry blotches. I never feared death before, but at that moment—then, there in time—I feared the ending of my life.

Just as my eyes flickered shut, I saw a semi-triumphant smirk on the tribesmen’s faces. I was dead; their family was avenged. All they had yet to do was clear the obstacle the leopard formed.

With a fading breath, I murmured, “I… am sorry.”
The green, jungle light dissipated and the bark-littered ground vanished beneath me. I sat in a darkness, trembling in my own hands. All of my senses withered away.
I had died.

But then, as if from some miraculous gift from the heavens, I glimpsed a brilliant, pure light. Again, the light crackled into full color. I became a living soul, once again, painless and free.

I rubbed my eyes and eased myself to a sitting position. Blinking rapidly, I checked out the movements of my body. I could feel a cold sweat on my skin, smell a dirty musk in the air, and hear the diffused sound of a waterfall over the cry of birds. Grateful for life, I relaxed in the tropical rainforest.
However, there were voices of the unknown. They spoke in tongues unheard of, but still vaguely familiar.

Finally, the thought eased upon me, like daybreak on a summer day. I never died. It was all a tragic ending to how the chase could have gone. How could I have already lived that scene once? The ending changed my story more than the setting or the characters themselves.