Title: An unusual friendship
by Lauren from East Sussex | in writing, fiction
A claw ripped at my tunic. A set of teeth clamped around my arm. The jaws closed. I screamed. Blood spurted and spectators gasped. A cheering rose as the lion circled me. Backing up against the walls of the colosseum, I felt for the only weapon I had, a small blunt dagger. Pulling it from my belt I thrust it towards the creature in front of me. I missed. The lion backed up and growled menacingly. The crowd that was once raucous fell silent. I watched the brush of the lion's mane sway, in a slight hypnotic way, as it slowly advanced. My gaze fell to its beautiful but sad amber eyes. Maybe it was a prisoner and was only fighting for freedom just like me. I didn't know, but in that moment, something hit me.
Feeling guilty, I lowered my dagger. A wrong decision. The lion's instinct flooded back into it, and it pounced on top of me, pinning my arms to the dusty ground. As I struggled to get its heavy weight off my chest I noticed the spectators laughing at me. Cackling, like witches. I wanted to prove them wrong, so summoning strength from seemingly no where, I threw off the lion like a sack of potatoes. It fell about 10 feet away from me, whimpering. Feeling proud, I stood up and saluted to the crowd. The laughs changed to clapping and I realised they were cheering me, not the lion, like they did before. I was the favourite!
As a final gesture, I marched over to the lion, but instead of killing it, I helped it up and it didn't lash back. After all, it does have a soul too. I then walked calmly over to the locked doors of the colosseum, as a flabbergasted crowd looked on. Using my dagger, I cut into the wood of one door. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see some guards advancing on me, wearing faces of stone. Quickening my pace, I grabbed a sword from a vase full of weapons nearby and hacked into the wood. They were getting closer. Frantically, I made a final swishing motion to finish the job. The crowd started to go crazy. As soon as the lion spotted the hole in the door, he knew what to do. He lunged for the ever advancing guards and threw them across the area. Once the guards were cleared, he raced towards me, throwing me onto his back. Amazed, I watched as we jumped through the hole I made and ran away from the colosseum. I laced my fingers into the lion's soft and smooth hair; wind going through my own.
I watched the guards cursing, staring angrily through the hole, smiling to myself. As I rode through the beautiful city of Rome, all my worry left me and I finally knew what freedom felt like.
I was given a task for English to write about a terrifying animal encounter (when I was in year 9 - I wrote this when I was 12 or 13). This is my result. I didn't want to stick to conventions and write about an animal attack in a forest or jungle such as being attacked by a bear and tiger. Although this includes a lion, it's in a different context and there's a happy ending rather than a gory one. I hope you like it!
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