The bear prowled the forest

with a regal air. Gone were the

weak limbs, the moral dilemma,
the fragile emotions - only a
ruthless bloodlust remained.
She would finally have the
power. But never the control.

The black rat cowered beneath a

swarm of fleas on a deserted island.
Powerless and fragile, his days were
now numbered. He would never
influence the world, nor exact his
revenge.
Then, the beacon of a galley cut
through the haze.
The rat climbed aboard.
It was the year 1348.

The wolf raced through the forest,

free of the war, free of mans
mindless bloodshed over pieces of
land.
The obstacle
nowhere.

appeared

out

of

The alpha of the facing pack bared

its fangs in a snarl: this new wolf
had breached their territory.

Tired of swaying in the random

whirls of human emotion, he
sought refuge in a dogs head.
Pure, unadulterated bliss. His tail
doesnt stop wagging anymore.
That is, except when the troubles
of his human master turn it to
stone.

Bruised, battered, and bleeding

through body and soul, the tiger
slunk away from the raging battle
cries.
Morphing back to human made his
body whole again. The screams of
the dead, though, would always
keep his mind in tatters.

The hawk flew free.

With talons that cannot hug, a
beak that cannot kiss but of
what consequence was that, high
up on this thermal? He flew free of
the human world so far below him.
He never saw the airplane coming.

The alien stood on a planet far, far away

from home.
Different
war,
different
weapons,
different
species.
Different lives, different loves, different
morals.
But he had battled beside them. And
the sleep that rolled over him end of the
day was fraught with the same
nightmares.