Elvira and the Leotaur

Fandango provided us with the word Premonition and Darkmoon_Art created this wonderful image. Let’s see what story they make. Come and Join me.

Elvira and the Leotaur

It began as a regular jog in the woods, until it came.

A crack of branches, the boom of air expelled from a massive chest. Then came the stench of death. A predator was on the prowl.

Elvira could see nothing moving in the dusk. She could feel it in the tingle of her glistening skin, and the sensation of eyes on her spine like energy beams. She’d become the prey.

Time to leave the woods!

With her heart pounding in her heaving chest to match the panicked rhythm of her trainers, she sprinted through the pine trees toward home.

Thunderous footfalls, mimicked her every step.

“Leave me alone!” Ducking a branch, she shrieked as it seized her hair. Tearing free, her auburn locks tumbled from her ponytail, obscuring her vision.

Another roaring breath – it was beside her.

“No!” Elvira lurched aside, stumbled to a knee, and then ran again.

Soon oak trees loomed like twisted, gnarled demons in the coming night. Blackthorn vines grabbed at her shorts as the darkness swallowed her.

“Damn it, where am I?” Elvira stopped and spun a circle. Lost. This wasn’t the way home and yet she couldn’t stay here. “Got to get back to the pine trees,” She decided on a new path and set her pace again.

By now the following footfalls had gone leaving the woods silent aside from her laboured breathing.

Fatigue turned her leg muscles to jelly.  Her trainer whacked a tree root, and Elvira fell.

“Ow-er, damn it!” she felt something snap as pain flared red hot her knee. She grasped her leg as she rolled in the leaf litter. A look about revealed a regular stone bench before a wall of impenetrable darkness. There had to be a drop in the landscape, she realised. Although in the moonless night, nothing was visible beyond.

Yet there was something, a silvery blue light growing ever brighter.

The thunderous feet returned.

Elvira rolled, saw something leap from the bushes and she screamed.

A festering hulk of fur, claws and salivating fangs pounced upon her.

She cowered and closed her eyes as the whole clearing flashed a sparkling ocean blue – death was inevitable.

And yet it wasn’t. There was no pain, or spurting blood. No flesh tearing from her bones.

Elvira forced herself to breathe, then opened her eyes. “Ahh!” she shrieked face to muzzle with the beast. Its massive, wrinkled snout was frozen an inch above hers.

“Bloody hell!” she scrabbled away. Her knee throbbed but she was getting far away from the monster.

The size of a horse but with the appearance of a horned lion, it terrified her even if it was frozen in mid-air.

Elvira gained the bench and hauled herself into the sparkling light. It was then she realised the air beyond the bench was spiralling, opening into what could only be a blue wormhole.

From within came a lightning-fast ball of light containing a ball of liquid silver.

“So, people do see UFOs, then?” Elvira said as it flattened into a saucer shape and came to stop.

“Indeed, they do,” answered a voice, not from the object but inside her head. “Sorry about the Leotaur. It escaped when some vacuum-brained scientist left its chamber unlocked.

Elvira glanced back at the frozen beast, “That’s what he is? A – a Leotaur?”

“Yes.”

“W-where did —Which planet does it come from?”

“Not planet, dimension. We’re from the dimension Magius,” the object shimmered for a moment then settled.

Elvira straightened and cursed her burning knee as it struggled to take her weight. “So, the multiverse is real then?”

“It is. Had modern humans not been so fast to destroy ancient sites, like the Pyramid wormhole generators, Earth might still be properly connected.”

“Ha, well, humans destroy everything!”  Elvira hobbled a step toward the Leotaur. “Can it still hurt me?”

“Why? You wish for me to let it savage you?”

“Hell no!”

“Then let’s keep it in stasis, shall we?” the object moved as if observing the human.  “You can touch it if you wish.”

“Thank you.” Elvira took a breath and limped toward it. The Leotaur exuded heat like a radiator. She reached its German Sheppard-sized head, and with a shaking finger pressed its rubbery nose. “It’s, it’s unreal and yet right in front of me!”

“Of course it’s real — it stinks! What happened to your knee?”

“I fell whilst running from your friend here. I think I might have torn a muscle.”

“Sit.”

“Okay.” Elvira hobbled back to the bench and sat within the aura of sparkling blue light from the wormhole. “I suppose you have to take me with you now?”

“Why? Should I take you?” the object moved before Elvira. “Don’t move.”

“I’ve seen too much now, haven’t I?” she watched a beam of gold light emerge from the object and surround her knee. At once a warm feeling grew from her patella and extended into her thigh and calf.

“Sure. Just try and tell your police that you saw a giant lion with horns and a talking UFO that came from a wormhole. I’m sure they’ll get a psychiatrist to help you.”

“Good point. I c-ahh!” a stinging pain erupted deep within her knee.

“Sorry about that, you tore your meniscus.” The golden beam turned indigo as it continued to work.

“Damn, no more running for me then,” Elvira wiped her eyes as her knee began to pulse most uncomfortably.

“Did you know, most humans, although they never remember, agree to travel to other dimensions? We come to get them when we need help. Nobody likes to help by force, do they?”

“No, they don’t.” Elvira flinched as something popped inside her knee. “Ow-er! What are you doing to me?

“Relax — almost done.”

“Okay,” Elvira sighed. “So, are you saying you need my help?”

“Not today, I had a premonition and just couldn’t bare such a pretty lady becoming a Leotaur snack.” The laser light vanished. “Try walking.”

“Thanks for taking me off the menu.” Elvira rose to her feet and took a few painless steps. “Wow! Can I get a laser like that please?”

“I’m afraid not.”

“Oh, well.” Elvira returned to the Leotaur and ran her fingers through its thick brown fur. “I still can’t believe this is real.”

“The lesson is that each life is its own dimension. You can weave it any way you wish with a little hard work. You have the heart of a Leotaur, Elvira. Go forth and conquer Dimension Milky Way.”

“I —” the Leotaur vanished. Elvira turned to see the object return to an orb and flash into the wormhole. A split second later she was standing alone in the dark clearing. She blinked and smiled as she began jogging back down the path, somehow knowing exactly which way to go.

“Now, I’ve seen everything and know I can do anything.”

The End

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