Chapter 3: Freedom isn't Free

To call the battle that ensued the next day just that: a battle would be incorrect. A battle is a fight between two parties. While these two parties may not always be of equal strength, generally the two sides can do a significant amount of damage to each other. What happened to the city that housed Zanniber's citadel was not a battle. It was a slaughter.

But, I'm getting ahead of myself. I should go back to the beginning. The day started like any other. I awakened in the master bedroom of my mansion, dressed, ate some bread and set out for the town square. It was here that I found the spotted cat, still sleeping. Duke was no were to be found, perhaps out scouting San's village. I decided to go out and feed the livestock. Our food supplies had expanded significantly in recent months. Duke summoned rain and farmed the acres of wheat, while I tended to our pigs, cows and chickens. The work was hard and difficult, but I never complained. There was always bread and meat to eat. I had never been happier.

It took the better part of the morning for me to finish my work, and when I returned to the square San was just stirring awake. "How did you sleep," I asked politely, still a little afraid of the colossal leopard.

She looked at me with sleepy eyes, and grabbed me forcefully in her massive paws. I cried in pain as she painfully lifted me into the air and threw me into her open mouth, like i would a jelly bean. On her massive tongue, I tried to stand but could get no footing on the slimy, fleshy thing. Desperately I crawled to the quickly closing mouth as the lips sealed out any light. I was too slow.

Was this how the others died? I wondered. Thrown into Duke's mouth and chewed and ground and swallowed. I didn't want to die, not like this. I didn't want to be eaten.

Suddenly I was thrust out of that dark, humid place and into the sun's bright light. I hit the ground hard, rolling for several feet before I finallystopped. I choked and sucked in fresh air and scrubbed the spit out of my hair and off my skin.

"You won't eat her," Duke roared to San, who was lying on the ground holding her stomach. The wolf pushed a foot into the leopard's neck. "If you ever touch Erin like that again, I'll kill you."

"I'm sorry," San cried. "I was hungry and tired and I didn't remember."

Duke turned to me, "Are you alright?"

I nodded shakily, the fear slowly settling into the back of my mind.

Duke released San, who slowly sat up.

"You're hungry?" the colossal wolf demanded.

"Y-yes," the great cat whimpered.

"Good."

Duke always wore a small leather sack around his waist that rested on his upper right thigh. That's where I was. While the outside was made from several tanned cow hides, the inside was padded with sheep wool, so I was safe. There was also a slit as big as my head that allowed me to watch what was happening, without being put into harm's way. Several miles outside of city, Duke turned to San. "You understand what you must do to be free of his influence?"

"Yes," the leopard whimpered, still obviously afraid of the wolf.

"You'll have to kill all his disciples, or he'll still have a foothold in this world."

"I know," San said, licking her lips. Long ago, Duke had told me that he took a liking to me because I never prayed to my god. I had lost faith in that heavenly bitch in my years on the streets, and so I couldn't sustain her.

"Then let's go."

Like most villages of the land, the one that housed Zanniber's citadel was surrounded by a lush forest. When we were several miles from the city, Duke told San they'd crawl on their bellies the rest of the way. It was a slow process, both the great creatures were forced to proceed carefully, as not to knock down a number of trees and alert the village to their presence.

When they were just on the outskirts of the city, Duke stood up and waltzed inside. From the pouch, I could see the villagers scream as the mighty wolf scooped several up and gobbled them down. San on the other hand was a leopard on a mission. She padded through the town, unconcerned with the dozens of people that she crushed under paw.

"San," boomed a great voice from the sky. "Kill that beast. Kill it now."

The leopard froze for a moment and turned to Duke, who was crushing a house with a tree. The wolf nodded his shaggy head, and San was filled with confidence once more. "No," she roared, delivering a powerful kick to a pillar of the monument.

"San!" shouted the voice. "I order you to kill him!"

San clasped her hands together and swung it into the pillar, snapping it into. Ruthlessly she began to beat upon the walls in a flurry of punches and kicks.

Duke was busy herding the remaining humans in front of the San, and forcing them to watch her deed. Any who cried for their god to save them was quickly silenced by one of Duke's crushing paws.

"San, I'm your lord, you can't do this to me," shouted the voice. Some unseen force suddenly struck the leopard's knee and she tumbled to the floor. "Kill him now!"

The leopard quickly rose to her feet and began to tear at another pillar of foundation. Another unseen force struck San, but this time she didn't fall. Every blow her god delivered only fueled her hatred and made the blows to the citadel more damaging. "San, please don't do this. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." The leopard roared with delight at the power she know realized she had and delivered one final kick. The monument to Zanniber crumbled with a crash, a huge cloud of dust engulfing the city.

San turned to the group of people that Duke kept in line. A grin of hunger and bliss crawled over her face. Her huge paw swept down into the cluster of people and picked them up. Men yelled and women cried as San dropped them all into her mouth. A sense of empathy swelled in my breast as the leopard chewed the humans to a bloody pulp and swallowed. Crimson and entrails dripped from her maw.

This sympathy fled however, as I noticed a small group of people who where hiding in an alley. Their clothes where like mine once were: torn derelict rags barely covering starved and withered bodies, the contrast to the elegant robes that were worn by the pudgy humans San devoured. They were people of the streets, like I was, and the humans who the leopard savagely ate where the people who ignored them. I slowly climbed out of bag and Duke lowered a paw for me. When I was lifted to his face, I asked, "Why?"

"They don't believe," he said before dropping me back in the sack.

When San had her fill of the humans, she crushed the rest under her feet and let out a roar of ecstasy. She darted to Duke and jumped onto him. Arms wrapped around his neck and legs embraced his stomach, almost crushing the pouch I was in. "Thank you," she roared with tears of joy. "I'm free! I'm finally free."