The thick forest waste and entangled grass held Iyya back from running and using her feathered wings to fly. How she wished she could get back into her human body and be able to shout for help or run with her own two legs.
Everywhere she turns, there is a thick forest and lots of bushes. She has just arrived in Serengeti Park today, and from what she remembers from her class 5 Geography books, this is supposed to be more of a treeless grassland.
Her heart jumps high with fear of what is coming after her, and her sense of hearing is on high alert.
The trees swaying and branches clicking are some of the major disturbances she doesn't want to hear right now.
Sunrays protruding through the tall trees are not helping either, as they show her enemy exactly where she is heading.
She hears car horns about one kilometer away, which is not a good sign.
The tourist cars are after the “Big 5” — a Lion, leopard, Rhino, Buffalo, or Elephant. She doesn't want to get crushed or eaten at this moment. Coming face to face with these animals will be the end of her.
She is an easy target, even for weak animals.
She recites .
“I NEED TO SURVIVE.”
“I NEED TO LIVE.”
Maybe going after the tourist cars wouldn't be a bad idea. Maybe they could save her. She needed to get to the main road first. But which direction is the main road? She wondered.
Maybe some tourists will take an interest in her, like the Commissioner that brought her from Zanzibar.
Today she is miles away from Zanzibar. Abandoned in the middle of the Safari Park. She has been here for a few hours.
She craves Zanzibar. It was way safer there even in this body than it is here and also it's where her stepmom resides. The person she believes holds answers to her redemption.
Whether it's poaching or buying her legally, she doesn't care. Right now, all she needs is to get out of this park before she becomes a meal for the animals, especially for the one chasing her.
And now it is all over.
Any second now.
The ground is shaking, and the tree branches and leaves are being crushed, telling her how speedy the animal after her is running.
It is too close to her, and as she starts to tremble, she trips and falls. She tries to look back and comes face to face with a wolf.
Oh, my God. It's a giant wolf! Sharp teeth moving speedily towards her neck, ready to tear her apart. She tries to get up but can't.
Roots wound around her legs like cobwebs. She tries to scream, but she has no meaningful screams for anyone around.
She is a bird.
A useless one, she thinks to herself. The bird that can't speak or do anything to help her turn back to her human form or save herself in the situation.
She says her last prayers and lets the darkness completely consume her.
*****************
She blinks as she opens her eyes to a large body on top of her. She can't see its face, but it was an enormous animal covered in black fur, and the smell of blood brings her back to her environment.
There is too much blood everywhere. Is it my blood? Am I dying? Iyya asks herself.
No one in the middle of the forest bushes would help a peacock. Everyone would leave her for the dead or make her a meal.
Her life flashes in her eyes.
The happy and sad times, the fear and failure; her biggest fear and failure being never meeting her stepmother, “Heina.” Before she dies.
She doesn't know anyone who would help other than Heina. After all, it was her doing. In her clouded mind, the only relief she felt was a memory of the handsome man from yesterday.
It also almost felt peaceful to think of dying, but she didn't want to die, accompanied by more pain than she was already in. She wished there was just a simple way to just die peacefully and be able to meet her mom and dad; she missed them so much.
Lost in her thought, a roar from the gigantic animal above her brought her back to her senses.
Not again. Please, Lord, not again, Iyya prays desperately then…
Her mind knows what that means.
She is back to square one, in the hands of another extremely big wolf. Her flesh was going to be torn to pieces, in any minute now.
