Caino's Alphabet, H

    Hardly an hour after he began his journey towards the river, Darius began to experience 
an unpleasant uncertainty, a sensation he knew must somehow be connected 
to the distance separating him 
from his beloved friend Caino.  
    When Caino had insisted that this 
world of his was not a dream, 
Darius had allowed him this belief;
how can one tell one’s own figment he is a fiction?  
As far as Darius was concerned, 
Caino was free to describe this world of his 
however he pleased, but now, more than ever before, Darius was certain that this place was 
an invention of his own sleeping brain.
    Everything around him seemed to be 
in conflict with itself.  
If he turned away from a place, 
when he looked back again, 
things would have vanished or shifted and changed.  A light rain fell from the sky.  
At first, the drops seemed to pass straight 
through him, but moments later he began to get wet.  Then, hopping onto a fallen tree 
that barred his path, his paws touched nothing 
but air and he fell through the trunk to the 
wet ground below.  
    An indecisive shaking shivered the branches 
above his head as if they were dancing in a breeze, 
and yet he felt no wind at all.     
Darius slowed his pace and chose his path 
with more care, and the world around him 
grew more surreal with every step he took 
as he moved through this 
nightmare that he could not control. 
    As the river came into view 
the ground became silty from the spring floods—covered with delicate herbs and thin saplings, 
all shimmering and shifting 
in the same faltering dance as the trees above.
    Darius entered a small clearing 
and froze instinctively as he scented a rabbit.  
He watched as the flora shifted to the left of him, and a large doe emerged from a patch of high grass, carelessly feeding on the fresh vegetation.  
    Then, through the gap from which 
she had emerged, a fox slowly revealed 
first a long nose, then its whole whiskered face—grinning with sharp yellow teeth.  
The predator sank to its haunches 
and prepared itself for the attack. 
    Darius looked on with a professional interest 
as the fox carefully adjusted its footing and… pounced!Then the whole world fell to pieces. 
—
    Darius watched, his head tilted 
to one side in amazement, as the fox 
caught the rabbit by the neck, pulling 
it down to be killed.  At the same time, 
the rabbit dodged the fox’s attack and hopped 
to safety in eight directions at once. 
Six foxes bounded after the doe, 
three of them caught her and one fumbled the kill, allowing the doe to escape.  
Two of the escaping rabbits merged into one another as did two of the successful foxes, 
who then proceeded to eat.  
The scene continued to split and converge 
but Darius had seen enough.  
He bounded over the growing collection 
of sad rabbits and happy foxes and 
made a beeline for the river.
—
    Back at the camp only Gail now remained 
of the three thwarted kidnappers, 
and Aaron had no inclination to evict her 
from her purloined body at all.  
Caino thought it might be for the conversation, 
but the fact that she was young and attractive 
no doubt factored into the equation as well.  
For Aaron’s part, he continued to maintain 
that she was held only so she could later 
be interrogated at the Abbey.  
    While they awaited Darius’s return,
the two scientists’ argument had slowly morphed into a conversation and they talked 
long into the night.  As with most such long debates, some common ground was found as the 
two scientists, while not sympathising with, 
at least began to understand 
each other’s perspectives.
–
    Darius had left the day before, 
and Aaron decided the trio should stay in place 
to await his return.  While Aaron and Gail 
spent their time discussing the finer points 
of playing god, Caino stalked the peripheries 
of the camp, ostensibly hunting but 
in truth watching and waiting for 
his dear friend’s return.  
    Darius had been Caino’s constant companion 
for the greater portion of his life, 
and his absence now left a hole in his heart.  
For the first time he remembered, 
Caino truly knew what it was to be alone.
—
    That night Caino dreamt he was in a room 
with a very high ceiling.  There were four other children with him: two boys and two girls.  
They were all sitting on a big rug made from the pelt of a stag.  A huge, wolfish dog was under the rug, growling playfully and making a sport 
of attacking the giggling children as they tried 
to grab at its paws.  There was the smell 
of meat roasting and an impossibly tall woman 
was peeling vegetables next to a huge iron stove.  
    There then came a horrible creaking, 
and a door stood open to the night.  
Hungry eyes glinted in the darkness.  
There was a growl and a scream…  
and he was awake.
—
    Somehow Caino knew his friend had returned.  He raced into the forest away from the camp, shaking off his dream as he ran. 
    He soon saw Darius emerge from the trees 
in the guise of a small, frightened child.  
Seeing Caino he ran to him, 
growing and changing, until at last 
he arrived with a wide toothy smile 
in the form of a big happy wolf.