A Very Small Chapter

Just for the fun of it. I have decided to place here a new chapter I wrote for a story I thought was mostly finished. It is being dropped in a place where there is a slight drag in the story.  

 Conquest (leader of the renegade gorillas) sat a little ways from the camp keeping watch. His brow furrowed as he listened to the sounds of the forest. The group he had with him was still close enough that Conquest could still hear the sounds of the large birds in the trees not far away waiting till morning to continue feasting on the dead. Other sounds were moving in the direction where they had come from reminding him that these birds weren’t the only creatures who fed on the dead.  

Conquest straightened his back, lifted his head, and whispered “Let them do what they will, soon we will give them even more to feast on. I fear nothing.” His final words had a slight quiver in them. Conquest in spite of his words was afraid.

“Soon everything will be in place.” Conquest paused but looked out into the dark as if inspecting something only he could see. He could see it in his mind everything laid out and prepared. He looked over to where Link slept. “Little spy you don’t even realize you’re sleeping next to one of my newest weapons.” With those last words, Conquest focused on Max.  

A smile crossed Conquest’s face. It wasn’t a happy smile. It was a smile filled with meanness. If Max or Link had seen that smile, they might have run in fear or just shook falling to the ground. “As promised,” Then Conquest's smile became even wider, “I will become Master of the forest.”  

It was at that moment even I the teller of this story had to look away. When I looked back it was as if Conquest’s eyes reached across space and meet mine. I was afraid. How could Conquest see a person writing a story far, far away? I nearly quit writing leaving this tale unfinished but then it happened.

“Not even the Creator can stop me,” Conquest said through gritted teeth.

The spell was broken. Conquest lied and deep down inside he knew it.

Illustration by Don Lee.