ffxivwrite2020 #3 Muster
Run
Where did this will come from? To keep running, hiding, going. It wasn’t strength, there was none left in his legs, stomach empty and tongue dry as the desert around him. It might have been fear, quite likely guilt, possibly some selfish pity for his own state.
The heat of the sun bearing down made wheezing air through a bruised and swollen throat even harder, lungs burning so painfully he was sure they would light on fire. It only took a moment of too slippery sand underneath his foot for him to fall. Rock and dust scraped at bloodstained hands, the light of midday bearing down on his back. He could stay there, he reasoned, another kitten’s worth of bones buried in sand meant little and less.
A breath in,
A breath out,
He could close his eyes.
A shimmer on the horizon that wasn’t there before caught his eye, something bright and shining flying above the red cliffs, to unfamiliar structures off in the distance. He’d never been this far out of the sands before, past the Drakes and Amalj’aa, he’d only heard horror stories of the cities beyond. Those horrors couldn’t possibly compare, but perhaps he would see for himself.
The kitten picked himself back up, just a few seasons more than a dozen summers old, and as frail as a dried twig, and kept walking.
