Chapter 42:  13:20– A Countdown to Third Death [10:40am]

Thunder POV

Without thinking I jumped, grabbing Seungho’s ankle and yanking him down. We landed hard on the sand below, and the lioness’ extended claws skimmed his scalp by centimeters. A gasp came out as I watched those ivory weapons gorge long streaks into the metal of the ladder like a knife cutting through butter. If I had been just seconds too late, those claws would have sliced through a very different sort of material.

“Run!” Mir yelled and I wanted to yell back, that’s what I’m trying to do!, but all my energy was expended on yanking Seungho onto his feet and pulling him away from the lioness who landed with grace, turning so that her tail lashed. Irritation sparked in her amber eyes. She followed us slowly, impertinently so, as if she thought she had all the time in the world to catch her prey.

Not that we’re that easy, I thought vehemently.

“Head for the other ladder!” Mir said, as he raced ahead of us.

“Stop!” Seungho yelled and reached out, hands tangling in the material of Mir’s shirt and pulling him to a sudden stop.

“Wha-?”

“Look,” Seungho hissed and that was when I realized the sounds of growling had intensified, echoing around me in a 360 stereo.

I turned cautiously, only to see another pair of amber eyes form out of thin air, barely a meter from my face. Eyes that stretched and curved into long, sleek strikes and a burnished orange coat. A tiger in all its burning glory. It huffed, an animalistic little action of freedom and prowled around us in a circle. I had never been stiller.

From my peripheral vision I could see more felines appearing, sleek shadowy shapes of lashing tails and silent paws. They encircled us, their lips hungrily. The air practically crackled with tension; we suffocated under the heavy weight of their watching eyes.

“Mir?” I hissed, tracking the closest lion with my eyes.

“Yeah?” he replied, equally frightened.

“How far away is that rope ladder? If we can get up that platform, we should be safe.”

“About five meters,” Mir whispered in response.

“But how are we going to get there? They’re watching us from every angle,” Seungho hissed. I could feel his hot breath against my neck and it tickled.

 “A distraction?” I suggested, but I knew there was nothing to throw. No movement we could perform without alerting the beasts. “It’ll have to be one of us,” I came to the conclusion. Seungho and Mir both snapped their heads round to look at me.

“Thunder…” Seungho gave me a warning tone.

“Umm hyung…Thunder…” Mir stared past me. I turned to see what he was looking at. At least twenty felines were watching us with a hungry gaze, their eyes fixed and unmoving. If it weren’t for their twitching tails, I would’ve said they were mere statues. The numbers seemed to only be growing. “I don’t think any distractions are going to work here…”

“I think,” I swallowed, “you might be right Mir.”

The lion closest to me twitched his nose and roared wide and loud right in my face. It did not smell good. I held my breath and closed my eyes, trying not to envision the lion behind it.

“Move it!” It was Seungho’s turn to grab my sleeve and drag me away, as the lion snapped close its maw and decided to lunge. As if it were a signal, the other twenty-so animals clicked into action and pounced. Seungho let go of my sleeve and I turned, scrambling and kicking up sand as I avoided one tigress’ vicious swipe.

“Climb first!” Seungho yelled to Mir who was staring at us, frozen on the spot. “Hurry!”

Mir snapped out of his reverie and placed one foot to the swaying rope ladder. It was fragile and shaking, but panic put aside any questions about athletic abilities and he shimmied up the short ladder and onto the platform above. Seungho was seconds behind him, one hand grasping and steadying the ladder just as Mir swung one leg over and onto the platform.

“Duck!” I shouted  as a lion pounced high, paws arcing towards Seungho’s exposed back and I was too far away to do anything this time. But Mir’s hand shot out and he grabbed Seungho’s outstretched one, and in an amazing feat of strength, he hauled Seungho up and onto the platform.

But the force of pulling Seungho up made him topple forwards and Mir was falling…

“NO!” a yell left me without my realization as Mir’s path would lead him right into the jaws of two particularly hungry looking leopards. “Mir!” I called out, knowing it was futile as even if Mir knew, he couldn’t move. And I was too far away to do anything. Seungho, too high up to save him. Powerless. Incapable. Mir falling, lips .

Time seemed to slow as Mir twisted, his amber eyes widening at the realization of his fate and I almost wished he didn’t. The last thing he needed to know was how he was to meet his end.

I stretched out, a subconscious last resort action.

And then there was a sudden explosion of dirt. My hands instinctively flew up to block my face as dust barreled past, stinging my eyes and face. Around me I could hear mewls and yelps as the felines were pushed backwards by the sheer wind that was blowing. Their sensitive eyes and whiskers would feel even more pain than I did. Surprisingly though I held my ground, skidding only slightly.

Then, as the sandstorm slowly dissipated, I chanced a glance.

Large jagged shards of the dirt and sand that had formed the Big Top’s flooring made a circular ring around where Mir would have fallen. But there was no sign of my friend.

“Mir?” I called out hesitantly, taking a step forwards.

“He’s down there…” someone replied and it was Seungho. He was looking down from above with a stunned expression plastered to his face.

“Inside there?” I pointed.

Seungho nodded and swallowed. “Mir…” he called out. “Are you okay?”

For a moment, silence. And then Mir piped up in a thin, wavering voice. “I-I’m fine…I think…”

Relief filled me like a balloon and helium at the sound of his voice. He was okay. He was alive. And he was…in the middle of a strange earth formation thing?

“Mir? Can you get out of that…thing?” I asked, not entirely sure where to direct my voice.

“Um yeah,” Mir replied and I could hear the shuffling of his feet as presumably he stood up.

How are you going to do that? I wanted to ask. The shards were about ten feet tall and they overlapped so that there seemed to be no way out. Unless Mir could somehow climb the formation-

My thoughts came to an abrupt halt as one shard slid down and seemed to vanish into the floor. Or more like the base crumbled back to dust until it was entirely gone. And what was left behind was Mir’s pale, dusty face. He stood, looking a little unbelieving and with his palm held flat out towards the shard that had retracted.

My mind whirred. “Did…you do that Mir?” I asked. My throat felt dry with dust and sand and disbelief.

Mir just nodded slowly. “I think…so…” he stared at his hands, letting them drop.

What had Mir just done? Manipulate Earth? Wasn’t that just like what…

“The Ringmaster could do…” Mir voiced my thoughts. He slowly looked up to meet my eyes and I could tell inside horrified thoughts were writing soliloquies. Mir’s hands trembled and though in the past fourteen hours Mir had had every reason to misstrust every other living being on this planet, this was the first time I had ever seen Mir have reason to fear himself. 

And it broke my heart.