Slithering through a boiling sea of sand and rock and dust, the glassed iv’ry scales of a horned and hunting viper curl softly against the grains of eroded mineral that might’ve, at one time or another, crowned the highest peak on some other portion of the globe – or perhaps, a while ago, it began its journey in a lake of fire deep beneath earth’s crust before being spit out in furious fashion, reaching even higher heights than any summit, before it comes hurling down amidst a gloomy trail of smoke, alighting some tree or other thing on the surface before cooling slowly as it forms into some crystalized material that might someday be intentionally vibrated through electric current before the toll of time further degrades it into dust.
The lowly reptile, ever-hungry and even hot to the touch for one who might dare to put a finger to its smoothly-beaded and candied skin, winds across a basin seemingly unspoiled by human touch and much of the stones and boulders that surround stand armed with jagged and sharp edges, as if stony highway robbers to any sparse and parched passerbyers – though the snake is undeterred, for its hunger will not thirst nor bare a detour to be sated, for far off it spots a mouse, just there across the crater, now a cauldron simmering in the sun, as if slowly stirred by three Fates who seek to cook them both to broth!
The brave and furry prey, a sentry of the sand as it stands atop its lonesome mound, discovers from afar its would-be devourer, a devil of the dunes; then all at once, in fleeting fashion, he abandons post to scurry underground in a maze beneath the heat as the pursuer now too close behind and at a tunneled fork, knows not that his direction will decide whether the dashing burrower will succeed in tricking or be a treat.
The path leads further down and the aridness now turns to a moist chill, a noticeable change that is interrupted only by the sound of tiny kicking feet against the dug-up dirt behind, for liberation has been won by one; yet as the fruitless hunter tries to twist and turn, writhing around to head back to the surface, the ground around begins to shake and quake as the clink of chains and groan of pain resound from deep below.
A place in the desert east

Illustration by Albert M. Nikhla
Posted On: December 30, 2024