Luminescence 1

Chapter 1

The night beat on all sides in a toxic heat wave, a drum roll of tiny insects buzzed unaware as a lion crouched forward in the grasses of the Savannah, sleek mussel, glowing eyes and a ripped maw where it had fought to keep its territory from another lion. It stalked closer towards the lake where a herd of gazelle lay sleeping.

The lion paused as another pair of eyes glowed through the grasses. 

It slipped back into the night.

*

            Marcus slipped through tall grasses a spear poised in his hand. He gave the feline beast no heed as he slipped beyond its territory to a place in the Savannah where the animals no longer dared roam, a place that set his heart racing with a wild hunger. This was his homeland and he’d grown up here in this wilderness, witnessed cold hard rage and cunning and what it took to survive. Marcus Ambruge had done terrible things and terrible things had been done to him. Now he was the predator stalking the planes entering the parts where even the insects died away and waited, a static beat in the air, only the heat lulling on either side remained a constant companion, a reminder of the heat from the fires that had flicked against his skin.

            That heat radiated in the distance, a glowing ember of poison.

            The cabin was alight, a homing beacon and within lurked something only Marcus had heard stories of, something his former people had long ago feared. He crouched closer not pausing long, the creature inside could smell human and Marcus would lose the element of surprise.