Barbary Lion part one

الأسد البربري

الجزء الأول

I sit on a rock in the middle of the desolate plateau plain.

As I take in the environment, I reach a state of complete absorption by nature.

I become one with the rock I’m sitting on. The wind that blows through the grass, is the same wind that soothes my ears and waves my hair.

The sound of the river, rushing down the plateau rockface behind me, is welling up out of the silence. Birds start chirping, encouraged by the seeming absence of a human presence. Alpine swifts, scrub robins and crimson-winged finches flutter from rock to rock, bathe in the sunlight and whistle about the joy of flight.

A myriad of flies, bees and insects start buzzing and chirping. Nature’s orchestra is rising to a swell. Complete with the subtle rustle of grasses—dry strands gently stroking one another—and the soft flow of wind over the scree—softly whistling over the blunt edges of the rocks. And as I melt into my observations, and nature slowly reaches a crescendo in my ears, a sudden presence makes itself felt…

Suddenly complete silence erupts…

Slightly over my left shoulder, some distance away, something pounces over some rocks—something large. I turn my head just fast enough to see a large flash of dark blond-brown fur disappear behind a massive deep-red rock. Birds fly up in apparent horror and insects and plants fall silent, unexpectedly spooked…

A lion!