The Hunt

                The sunlight spread across the sky as the hunting party made their way through the forest.  They moved quickly, but carefully, following the scent of their prey.  Only an occasional rustle of leaves betraying their presence.  Long experience has taught them the value of silence.  Days of hunger following a careless step or muffled cough.  

 

                The leader moves ahead signaling the others to wait.  He wants to make sure they haven’t lost the prey.  He returns in only a moment. Quick gestures let the rest of the party know that the prey is still within range. It is moving slowly as befits it’s size.  It is a good target. Large enough to keep the hunger at bay for a couple days. 

 

                They again move out.  After a few moments, the leader gives the signal to disperse.  The party breaks apart, each hunter finding their proper position.  The leader and three others swing out wide to the right and sprint to get in front of the prey.  The rest fan out on either side.  Their plan is an old and trusted one. They will frighten their prey into a trap laid by the other four most experienced hunters.  Waiting for the right time, the remaining hunters twitch nervously. The timing needed to be perfect. The leader and others had to have enough time to get into position without alerting the prey. 

 

                After half a hundred heartbeats, the rest of the party once again began moving toward the prey.  This time they didn’t try to be quiet.  In fact, they tried to make as much noise as possible.  They stamped their feet and broke off branches as they fanned out around their anticipated meal. 

 

                Soon the prey was in sight. It was huge.  Dwarfing the hunters.  This didn’t stop them as they had taken down this kind of beast before.  Their weapons and tactics, far outweighed the size advantage the leviathan had over them. 

 

                Suddenly it raised it’s massive head, scenting the hunters on the wind.  Bellowing it’s anger, it turned to face the one at it’s back.  Then it noticed the others.  Moments passed as it processed the new threat.  Finally, it realized that discretion was the better tactic against these numbers.  Turning quickly, it began to run in the only direction it didn’t sense danger.  It barreled through trees and brush, heedless of the branches scraping along it’s flanks.

 

                The hunters roared a challenge and tore off after it.  Moving faster then the prey ever could, they harassed it, slashing at it’s haunches and flanks. Driving the beast into ever greater panic.  It wasn’t long before the poor creature scented the other four hunters waiting in ambush.  It tried to turn or stop, but the pursuing hunters continued to taunt it with slashes and cuts. 

 

                When it reached the last of the hunters. They pounced.  Leaping upon the beast, they dug in with their claws and teeth and raked their vicious toe claws down it’s flanks.  Bleeding profusely from several well placed cuts, the monstrous beast began to weaken.  Still it valiantly tried to defend itself.  With a huge effort, the herbivore raised up on it’s back legs to kick and stamp at the swarm of predators.  Unfortunately, this was just what the hunters were waiting for.  The leader, as was his right, immediately leaped onto the exposed chest and raked his claws down the soft belly of the prey.  It didn’t take much for the dying creature’s entrails to spill from the wounds and stain the ground. 

 

                Moments later, the beasts tiny brain realized the error of it’s tactic.  By then it was too late. It had lost so much blood that it could no longer support it’s own massive weight.  It’s legs buckled and it fell to the ground.  The leader jumped clear just before the now dead weight crashed to the ground. 

 

                The hunters roared their joy and triumph to the skies.  They would not go hungry tonight.  When the prey had stopped twitching, the leader moved in to begin feasting.  Starting at the belly, he dove in and ripped out the choicest morsels.  The heart, liver and the tender meat of the belly.  The others waited their turn.  When he had eaten those parts that were his by right, he gave the command that let the others have what they could get.  The group then began to eat their fill. 

 

                Suddenly, I new sound intruded upon their feast.  It sounded like a stampede of a thousand, thousand prey.  The ground shook and the fliers took to the air.  The sound grew and grew till nothing else could be heard.  Then the hunters saw that a light was growing in the east.  As the sound grew, so did the light.  It was like the sun, but that was on the western horizon at this time of the day.  And the sun didn’t roar like this new light seemed to.

 

            Closing their eyes to the blinding glare, they didn’t see it as it passed over their heads to crash into the ground.  Now the earth rose up in a mighty heave, throwing the hunters about.  The meal forgotten, the battered party tried to gain their feet and flee this new terror.  Before they could get more than a dozen yards though, a wave of superheated air swept over them and ended their futile flight.  They were the lucky ones.  They never knew what hit them.  They didn’t have to endure the raging fires, and the endless night that engulfed the planet.  They never felt the starvation that killed the rest of their kind.