"We're almost there!" Weed called from in front of me.
It wasn't that I didn't want to go fast. Though I had to be fair and allow Weed to make the directions, since he actually knew where we were going. I, on the other hand, would have made a fool of myself for rushing blindly without knowing where in the hell I was going.
"Alright!" I shouted from behind, keeping up with Weed at a medium trot.
Finally, we came to a gorge, reaching about hundred-feet deep and possibly eighty-feet at length from one side of the cliff to the other. Doubt immediately began to fill my eyes as I proceeded to stare at the gorge in front of me. How could I cross such a lengthy leap?
"Let's go, Tamashi," Weed ordered, leaping over the cliff without hesitation. Before I could utter a word, Weed was already seven feet in the air and heading straight towards the other side of the cliff. To my shock, he landed perfectly on his paws on the other side of the cliff. And he was just a yearling!
Turning around to face me, Weed shouted, "Tamashi! Aren't you coming? Do you want a head-start?"
I hesitated. All I could do was stare at that deep and wide gorge and tremble. Doubt settled in my eyes and I nearly walked away from the sight before me. A mere yearling managed to succeed that jump! How in the hell would I be able to?
"I can't, Weed!" I hollered back at him. "I can't!"
If I couldn't face my past and look it straight in the eye without so much as a glimmer of fear in my own, how in the hell was I going to be able to make such a huge jump?
I finally buried my head into the sand, sobbing pitifully. Why was I such a weakling? In an instant, the answer came to me. Because of my past, my awful, hellish nightmare of a past. Why couldn't I have grown a spine over the past three years?
"Tamashi?" Weed's voice asked with concern, causing me to lift my head up in defeat. "What's wrong?"
"I don't deserve to come with you and meet your pack," I whimpered. "I only agreed because I thought I was going to have a family. But now that you're revealing this test in front of me – a test that I most will certainly fail – I'm not sure if I have the spine for such a task!"
"Listen to me, Tamashi," Weed said in a sharp tone. "You only have one life. If you waste it away on thinking you're nothing but a coward, then that's who you'll most certainly become in the future. But you'll have to look past your fears, face them head-on, and defeat them without horror. Only then will you be considered such a warrior."
"But Weed–" I was cut off when Weed slightly bit my tail, causing me to whirl my head around. "What the hell was that for?"
"You're not worthless, Tamashi," Weed barked. "I can easily sense potential in you. But you'll have to prove to me that you can do this task that I'm giving you."
"Weed?" I was almost on the verge of crying. To think a puppy can have such confidence in a total stranger he barely knew! "Weed."
"Let's do it," Weed said, "together!"
Standing to my feet, I suddenly felt a rush of – what was this? – hope. I'd never felt such a sense of optimism. It felt more powerful than when I'd killed my first dog. It was stronger than a rain storm!
It caused me to face the gorge ahead of me. It washed away any fear or doubt that happened to be lingering in my mind. It made me smile at the gorge, the hesitation no longer present in my mind.
Without knowing what I was doing, I turned around and walked away from the gorge. But this time, the crippling doubt was no longer over whelming my thoughts. Instead, I raced at the gorge with full speed. My heart was pounding with a strange new feeling . . . hope!
The millisecond my hind legs sprung from the edge of the cliff I threw myself into the air. And not into a measly two-and-a-half feet, but a whopping eight feet! I pushed myself towards the other side of the cliff, nearly looking down in fear.
Luckily, Weed had my back. "Don't look down, Tamashi," he warned me. "Just focus on the other side of the cliff. Looking down causes you to give into the fear of falling!"
My heart nearly stopped at those words. I'd never heard such powerful words, especially not from such a yearling. I had to focus on the other side of the cliff, had to concentrate, had to get to the other side. Millisecond by millisecond, the edge of the cliff began to come closer.
Finally, my paws landed on hard tan ground, causing me to trip and flip over head first into the ground. It wasn't a graceful landing, but it was a landing.
I looked up at Weed, who was grinning down at me with pride. "You did it, Tamashi," he congratulated me. "You're now an Ohu soldier."
"Thank you, Weed," I said, climbing to my paws and bowing my head. "Thank you very much." Inhaling deeply, I exhaled a breath of relief and confidence. "Now, let's go meet your pack."
Is it getting better? What do you think of it so far?