Unwinding

Late at night, at a time when the sky had not yet begun to lighten, heralding the approach of another day, I was racing at full speed after my prey – a young, not very big zebra. The distance between us was shrinking with every moment, but I understood that it couldn't go on like this much longer – I had almost no strength left.

And now the distance had shrunk enough that I could make a leap and try to bring down the prey, so I started coming in from the right side. But it seems the zebra sensed how close I was and kicked out hard. I still don't understand how I managed to dodge the hooves, swerving to the right at the very last moment. There was no point in continuing the chase – I could no longer even walk, let alone run. After taking a few steps, I collapsed onto the ground in the tall grass, my front paws crossed, not very comfortable, but changing position – too much effort, and I let my whole body go slack.

I start thinking over what just happened. I hadn't been stalking the small group of zebras long and gave chase from too far off, no normal lion would have started a chase from such a distance – it was possible to catch up with the prey, but what then? There wouldn't be any energy left for the decisive leap anyway. What was I thinking? And for me especially, even that distance was too great. Considering that I was physically weaker than any normal lion, and I had to stalk my prey for much longer and at a much closer range.

But that wasn't even all there was to think about. Why drive myself past my strength, push myself to the absolute limit. Now I'll definitely lie sprawled out here for no less than a day. Right now my heart is almost jumping out of my chest and I have to breathe hard in the cold night air, my mouth wide open, to bring down my body temperature faster. My head is roaring and I don't have the strength to move even the tip of my tail. Before my eyes there's nothing but grass, and I can't even properly focus on it. Without straining myself, I close my eyes and continue thinking.

Not only did I spend all my energy on the chase, I also approached the zebra carelessly, and in the end I nearly paid for it. Still, I got very lucky to manage to dodge the hooves – just a little more and… I don't even want to think about it. And after all I don't like to take risks, of course you could call that cowardice, and in part that's true, but caution can save your life more than once, while a pointless risk can take it.

There's one explanation for all of this – I needed to unwind, and I got it. The last couple of days all I did was sleep and just lie around, basically, I did nothing. And that was all after I managed to bring down a small antelope and eat my fill, even before all sorts of scavengers showed up. Though you could call me a scavenger too, I can only eat like that as a last resort, when there's no other way out. And prey taken from someone else doesn't make me very happy either, nor does picking up leftovers – but that in itself is very unlikely. Who would I even have the strength and nerve to take prey from? From birds maybe, but even they can be very stubborn. Still, there's nothing better than fresh meat.

So, having eaten so much that I could barely move – I lay around in the bush all that time, and as a result, the accumulated energy demanded an outlet, the chase wouldn't have been so fruitless, but how long could I keep stalking that herd? It would soon start to get light, the chance of being spotted would increase, and controlling yourself in situations like that is always hard.

It's fine, my strength will be back soon, though not to its former level. Next time I'll behave more carefully.

And I'm not planning to leave this place in the next few days – there's enough prey here, of course there could be more, but there are practically no other predators either. The place is good after all, no one bothers me, and there are fewer things to worry about, but it's not for me, I can't stay put for that long, it gets kind of boring and the herds will move on before long. I'll have to return to my old haunts. Even though here I feel right at home, it all looks so much like the place where I spent my childhood. It's all strange, as if, at first glance, there's nothing unusual, but at the same time there's something that reminds me of where my life began and unfolded, my life before the last one, you could put it exactly that way. And still I couldn't stay here long, there was more than one reason demanding that I return to more or less familiar lands.

The roaring in my head subsided, but a headache started to set in, increasing the tension. My heartbeat had practically stopped and my breathing had evened out. I open my eyes, it's not so dark anymore, the night is leaving, dawn is breaking. Lifting my head, I look at the sky as it takes on new colors in the east. Dawn is near, I ought to move to a place that gives better cover from the sun's rays, but they won't be able to reach me until closer to midday, that's when I'll move. And right now I can fall asleep perfectly peacefully. I won't be able to get up anyway. Gently laying my still-aching head down on the ground, I close my eyes and gradually sink into a deep sleep, no thoughts trouble me now.