[50024 Years Ago/ Noon/ The Plain]
Mike came running out of the ditch and found himself in rocky, uneven land. He gave a cry and leapt as he noted just in time a fissure in the earth, not wide but deep. He landed on the other side, stumbled, but kept his feet and went on.
He ventured a look behind him to see the lion was jogging around the fissure rather than leaping it. Her paw was too sensitive to leap or land.
Mike scanned the area for other fissures and though he saw many, this did nothing to boost him. He knew it made little difference if he leapt a dozen of them; it only put off his death by a dozen more minutes, since he had nowhere to go for safety.
The thumping of the lion's paws was heard again, and Mike was gasping out his breaths and felt as if his heart was going to shatter.
Then he stopped short. His feet dug into the gritty soil and he fell.
He found himself kneeling on the edge of not another fissure, but a ravine. It was very wide and long and fifty feet deep. Sunlight illumined the steep walls and dusty floor far below.
Mike saw the end of an old root sticking inches out of the wall. He took hold of it, found it solid, then let himself drop down to hang by it.
The lion growled in irritation as she came to look over the edge. Her massive head covered the sun and put Mike in shadow. He looked up to the angry eyes of the predator.
"Sorry, Great One," he said, as he found a protruding rock large enough to hold tightly, then he lowered himself further, "but I can't be your meal today."
The lion made efforts to snag her prey, and Mike was distressed that the huge claws could reach down far enough to play about in his hair.
He found a narrow lip of rock and lowered himself more. "On another day, under different circumstances, I might actually be inclined, but not today. Today, there is this girl . . . ."
Mike lost his grip and cried out as he fell down into the ravine. His last view was of the glaring eyes of the lion.