Beast by Donna Jo Napoli Read Free Book Online Page B

moan.
    I bolt. I run in as straight a path as the trees allow. So many trees, but nowhere to hide. O Merciful One, let me find a prince’s energy. My legs must go faster. I run.
    A new lioness gets to her feet in front of me, as though forming from the dirt itself.
    I swerve, skid, stumble, and roll.
    The lioness who has been following me is far behind. She trots up slowly, in no rush.
    I stand and face her. I am lion, I am lion, I am lion. I’ve never heard if lions are cannibals, but if they aren’t, O Merciful One, let me remember I am lion.
    The other lioness stays in her spot, ears cocked, eyes wide, lips closed. She watches intently.
    The first lioness slows to a walk. Her lips are black; her nose is black and riddled with scars. She makes puffs at regular intervals through those lips and nostrils. She stops a body’s length from me. Large whiskers form parallel horizontal rows on her cheeks, each emerging from a small dark spot. The top row has only spots, no whiskers. Her face is wide—over wide jaws.
    I think I will pass out.
    She blinks and looks away. The back rim of her small, rounded ears is black. Her right ear has two nicks.
    I hear myself panting.
    The lioness looks at me again. Her deep-set eyes have round pupils, not vertical slits like the pupils of the bazaar cats. The black tuft on the end of her tail swats across her rear. She opens her mouth fully and holds it there.
    I count four fangs and four knife-edged teeth behind them, then molars. I am dead unless I attackfirst. I crouch, praying that my body will know how to spring.
    Ahchoo! The lioness snaps her jaw shut.
    She sneezed. That lioness sneezed.
    She squats and sits like the Sphinx I visited on my pilgrimage to Mecca. She looks away again.
    I stay taut, as ready as my queasy heart allows.
    The second lioness trots over now. She comes right up to where I crouch in the dirt. I am panting so hard, I think my heart will explode. She rubs that part of her head right above the eye against my cheek. She puts her weight into the rub; it’s all I can do to keep from falling to the other side. She crouches now, and pushes her head along the length of my whole body, until we are rubbing, side against side. Suddenly she springs up and twirls around to put her face near mine again. She licks my head. My neck. Her tongue is long and rough, and the whole time she is softly humming.
    The first lioness watches, her gaze open.
    I pant more loudly, but the dizziness has passed. A new feeling enters me—a rush like waters cascading at the first spring thaw in these mountains. It invigorates.
    The second lioness rolls onto her back, exposing white fur. She waits expectantly.
    I know what she waits for. And I have no idea how to give it. This is me, inside this body, this is me,Orasmyn. How can I think of responding to this lioness? But I am not thinking. I pant.
    She gets to her feet and trots around me, her tail raised.
    I find myself on my feet. I trot after her.
    She stops and crouches.
    I stand behind her.
    She lifts her tail higher, her flanks higher.
    I am hot with the impulse to mate. I look back at the first lioness. She looks at me, then away.
    I straddle the lioness at my feet, my front legs straight on either side of her ribcage, my back legs flexed. A quiet rumble comes from her throat. I have the urge to bite the back of her neck, but I resist with all my might. Instead, I bite at the air. But I cannot resist other urges. I thrust, and within seconds she yowls and twists under me, swatting at my head.
    I duck to the side, and she’s out from under me in an instant. I jump around to face her, confused, ready to defend myself.
    Instead, she drops onto her side with a sigh.
    I wait.
    She doesn’t even look at me. She lolls her head onto the ground and breathes loudly.
    Slowly I lower myself till I lie beside her, ever wary of those paws that can swat.
    The weight of my body pulls at me. I let my head fallto the ground.