Through Lion's Eyes

"Anyhow, since you won’t tell me your name," he stopped and gave the warrior a disappointed frown, "I’m afraid I will have to castrate you." He sighed mockingly, drew a short knife, and approached the warrior.

"Lion," the warrior said.

"Excuse me?" the obese creature asked, looking up from the warrior’s crotch, where he had been about to remove the belt.

"My name is Lion Von Ser, that you may know the name of justice when it rends you in two." His eyes gleamed at this proclamation.

"Oh, very well, Lion Von Ser. You about to become a eunuch." He laughed delightedly with himself and bent down to cut the rough leather belt of Lion’s pants.

As the creature crouched, his white eyes glowing more brightly with perverse delight, Lion’s golden eyes flashed gray for just an instant, like a verdict against the actions of his captors. The two guards were holding him by the pole that wound behind his back, and were unwittingly providing him a perfect fulcrum from which to swing his legs. He heaved backwards, then his kneed shot forward, sinking into the grossly overweight face of the creature. He could hear bones snap as the creature wailed, reeling backwards towards the throne.

The two guards instantly reached for their knives, letting go of his pole in the process. He crouched low, bent by the pressure of the pole, and whipped his shoulders around, catching one guard in the groin, and smacking the other in the rear end. The guard with the groin injury rolled away, while the other lunged at Lion with his drawn blade.

Lion raised his wrists and caught the blade in the iron of the shackles, twisting it into the chain the connected them. The guard struggled to free his blade as Lion swing him around, dislodging the enemy’s grip on the knife. He brought his wrists to his shoulder and used the exposed portion of the blade to cut the straps holding the wooden pole in place. It fell to the floor with a clatter, and Lion stood up straight for the first time in days. He picked up the pole and beat all three of the room’s occupants, who were by now recovering from the initial shock of their injuries, with cold brutality, until he knew they were dead. They screamed as he beat them, but there had been screaming coming from the hut for more than an hour, and no once came to help.

Lion found keys on the guard, undid his shackles, and collected a few weapons. After scanning the area through the cracks in the walls, he bolted out of the hut, and easily scaled the poorly fashioned wall of the camp. There were a few grunts of surprise and alarm, but on the whole he had gotten away. The creatures would be too busy fighting for the now vacant leadership position to chase a single human prisoner.

***

He gloried in his escape as he walked through the crisp mountain air. He had left the war torn area and was now hiking across the rocky limestone paths of the mountain wilds. Wisps of yellow and red leaves hung peacefully in the air, and he ate luscious wild berries whenever he found a bush. The now cool evening breeze snaked through the golden brown hair that hung loosely around his shoulders. It felt wonderful to be free. When he reached the cities of the high mountains, he would gather more warriors and drive the enemy back for good. He would free his people.

Cresting a craggy cliff, he looked down upon a sweeping crater, cut jagged and wild through the mountain’s surface. He looked upon the world, seeing visions of the freedom he would bring his people. It was a beautiful, glorious vision, when seen through Lion’s eyes.