Snow Leopard's Warning

The landscape rough; unwholesome, unlike Heaven would appear; of rubble; no life aboard; the meadows long ago lost down below; the flower scents did not make it so high. But still, in that heartless region within Heaven, there staged pockets of flatlands to settle and rest on. Daniel found a lowly pasture of hard rock and pebbles to sit about, though mist crawled round to blind him. The distance between hand and face was all he could see. Though by the lurking shadows and rolling drifts of cold-spell spray, frost-biting, and chilling smoke, something unseen and out of view was lurking hideously about.

Daniel felt the presence of this untold being; unmentioned but in earthly lore and rare observance; the lands drifted with the sea of mist and fog; but shadows did form by their own consequence. Still, to the curse and point of it, this presence yet came; stalking, leaning with its cagey eyes to observe; soft pedals in its stance and pace; the quiet realm only camouflaged it further. In this dawn of nightfall and sunrise intermixed; something, or someone was in watch of him.

"Who goes there!" Daniel commanded, though no formal sound was to be made.

He thought to unsheathe his Holy sword to bring light upon the stage.

"There is no need…" a sly voice crept low to the ground and so resonated at his feet.

"Of what?" He held hard on his sword's handle.

"To draw; to fight; to kill…" the voice was closer yet, "is all…"

"How would you know what is best for me?"

"If you knew my intent," the voice was nearly upon the soles of his feet, 'no harm; no claim; I see, but can not be seen, unless I let it be so…"

"Then do me the honor," Daniel made attempts to pierce the density with his shot-drenched eyes and expression, "and show yourself free…are you alone?"

"I am…"

"Then do me the pardon…"

Nothing came; the presence seemed to stall in its own footsteps.

"I do wait for an answer," Daniel pulled his face from side to side.

"I have none to give…"

The winds blinded in a harrowing howl and cast out beastly throws and currents there. The mood and shade about was grim and gray with the foliage of the unknown.

"Your fellow patron down below wished me to pass; do you, the same?"

"In these ancient lands, there is no hunger or thirst for food; though otherwise I would have hunted you clean, and cut your throat through by now…"

"Then what is to halt you presently?"

"I am not hungry…"

"Then why not show yourself?"

"To my choosing," the male voice was mostly of a whisper, yet there was indecent command as his voice penetrated to expel words about, "We are most solitary… And delight little with company; especially that, not of our own kind…"

"And what is your kind?"

And through the shifting yards of fog and escaping clouds, mist, and rolling sprays, outcropped the swagger of a white mountain leopard; of cream-white entails and fur, with spots in black and rimming gold sparsed throughout; a tail as long as his full length, with heavy fur as twice to thickness as the rest of him; his whiskers long and branch-like, which moved to bend when he spoke; the eyes of yellow and gold bursts that fought with his presence to conceal his whereabouts. His four paws were massive and in razor-sharp prose; the back crawling, baiting Daniel with his fear.

"The killing kind…" he smiled on this clever response, "The instinct is much; even in this realm, but the gracious Father requires of me to pause… To let you pass by, by His will…And so I shall as He so instructs… But don't dally, or my mind might change and carve you out of delight!"

The large leopard maneuvered to one of Daniel's sides.

"Should I fear you?"

"Caution," the leopard slinked, "is more to the word… Fear; protects, yet in all, it can enhance the pleasure to the kill…"

"What is above here?"

"Don't you know?" The leopard slinked to his other side.

"That is why I travel higher still…"

"A stallion trapped is all," he snickered to seemingly enjoy this, "of wings, though he dare not fly; this highest point is his perch. He waits for the one to ride him off the mountaintop… Of pure white gold; the most treasured stallion in all of Heaven."

"Then why don't you go up further then?"

"I can't," the leopard looked to be disturbed by this, "He holds to the highest ground; the very cliff of all Heaven…No vantage for the kill; for I can not dive from what is not above…"

"What does he want?"

"To find the only one who can ride him…"

"Which, this would be…"

"The one who can ride him off the mountaintop…"

"Have others tried?"

"None others have dared…"

High above they could hear the high shrill of this horse resounding throughout the mountain range. The haunt of his powerful gait; the echoes of his grunts; the stammers; the illusive and mellow ghosts of his spirit ride; the harrowing rile when he seemed to stomp and bring thunder down below, and nearly create an avalanche by his hooves.

"Nowhere to run; nowhere to hide; no passage to escape; no jumps to other mountains can he make… Trapped, all alone; for as long as time began; wild and untamed; the spirit of a thousand horses sits in his belly… But if to ride, and perhaps you shall; there is a gift which awaits the victor that can propel…a gift of amazing fortune…"

"And what is this?" Daniel was near to leave this place.

"His Holy wings…" the leopard's eyes ranged wide and froze as if in a mesmerizing state; the whiskers pulled deep, backward into that greedy gaze; his ears reared in retreat and bent low to hide upon his crown, "that is the gift to the rider of his destination; if strength be yours, and stamina your own… He will rise and fight to near the end; but succumb, he will, to the one who entreats the wisdom Christ-born; sits in the belly of his thoughts; pumps the blood into his heart," the leopard stalled to look clear on Daniel, "Ride him if you will; ride him if you can; for in the end to all, it seems to be the Father's ultimate plan…"

"I beseech you," Daniel came to a stand and looked low towards the Leopard and his low-muddling growls, "If you were to know more; tell it now…"

"I have nothing further to give; messenger it is, that I am all to be… The Father attests," and with this the leopard shrunk deep into the shadows and fogs of this intermingling day and night.

He disappeared without even a trace.

One last violent grumble was all, to echo through the mountains and all to this region's home.

"God, do speed triumph so…" Daniel whispered as he arched higher still.