A Most Unpleasant Conversion Into Usable Protein

     Daniel sat at his table clutching a simple clay cup of water so tightly that any additional pressure would surely break it. The word of his impending arrest had gotten to him earlier in the day and now he found himself in a place of mortal fear. 

     Time slowed, like honey falling in the dead winds of an angry winter.

     Determining the rumors were true, Daniel had sent his family to a safer space in a nearby village. He prayed they made it there safely.

    The soldiers arrived at his door. It struck Daniel odd that they bothered to knock and request permission to enter. 

    “Counselor, we have come to escort you to the palace  dungeons,” the sergeant  in charge announced with a hint of confusion, colored by sadness.  “Counselor, I don’t want to do this but the orders are clear.”

    Daniel, feeling a strange comfort in the sergeant’s words, calmly and with a genuine smile, joined the soldiers.

    They did not mock him or strike him.

    All were silent.

    The respect between the men had always been powerful and now their uncertainty was all that hung in the air around them. All moved forward in silence.

    It needs to be said that all the soldiers present really enjoyed beating the shit out of new prisoners to “soften them up” for trial. Not this man, though. His beauty, humor and intelligence were legend throughout the kingdom and this arrest made no kind of sense to any of the soldiers.

    This man had actually authored legislation that led to better living quarters for them and damn better food than what they had before he came  into power.

    All because of a weird new law that demands all allegiance and love for the king and no other? They thought they knew their king, too. This wasn’t something he would normally do.

    A feeling of unpleasant dread hovered above them as they marched onward to a certain and grisly doom.  Whatever the counsel had planned for this man was definitely going to smell as bad as it looked.

    When this kingdom executed someone, vicious, pagan hordes could take notes...

    As the group approached the palace dungeon gates, Daniel’s knees grew weak. “Sergeant, I’m afraid my legs don’t wish me to go any further, would you mind loaning me your strength for a bit?” Daniel asked calmly.

    “Yes, counselor! Take my shoulder,” the sergeant replied.

    The sergeant’s face was ancient, lined with deep wrinkles and skin stained with the blood of countless enemies all the way to his soul. He was the agent of death in this land and the Sargent’s actions right now were frightening in their gravity. Daniel knew when the Sargent’s turn to die came, the man would face it calmly, or maybe even with a laugh.

    For a moment, the image made Daniel laugh, creating a small, but welcome boost of courage.  

    “We haven’t forsaken you,” a woman’s voice whispered into his ear.

    Daniel looked around shocked that someone had gotten that close to him through this phalanx of guards.

    There was no one, only the soldiers. 

    A sudden, calm washed down over him. He changed inside. He removed his hand from the sergeant’s shoulder and continued. “Sergeant, your strength has served me well. I will face my death standing, like you would. Besides, I don’t even know what this is really about. This could be a most interesting day after all!”

    Watching their prisoner’s spirits lift inspired the soldiers a bit, though they couldn’t exactly say why. They were all attracted to bravery and courage and this man was a friend of theirs.

    It was one weird day to be sure. If tomorrow was a fraction kinder than this, then best move on to that with all speed available.

    The “trial” was disappointingly brief.

    Daniel was demanded to be taken immediately to the lions den at the palace dungeons and placed inside with the beasts until he was devoured. Upon the discovery of the whereabouts of his family, they too, would be fed to the beasts.

    The fate was so ordered by the king, who was not in attendance, which Daniel found extremely troubling.

    The short trip to the king’s bestiary downwind of the main prison yards filled the entire party, prisoner and guards, with some level of dread, rating the highest with Daniel.

    It was one wrong place.

    Lord what a lonely and wrong place...

    At the entrance to the main “den,”  Daniel felt his fear return in a swelling wave.

    “Don’t do that. Don’t fear. That’s what stirs them up. It’s like you and the cardamom you spice your morning water with. Bring it down a notch. I’m with you,” the woman’s voice whispered into his ear again.

    Skin, impossibly soft, vibrating gently with the strangest energy, slid into Daniel’s hand. Someone he couldn’t see was grasping his hand quite firmly now. He glanced about the room to see if anyone else saw anything weirder than feeding a man to some lions. He resolved himself to the possibility that his mind was failing to connect a familiar reality under the stress.

    Daniel remembered the hard driving rhythm in the song,  "To everything a time, place and reason..." Everyone was humming it as you passed by. People loved to make the sounds and wanted more such, experiences. The way the songs would make the women move, as if possessed by the flames that dimmed the darkness, remaining hot and casting lustful shadows in dark hues of rust and aged cinnamon.

    The gate closed quietly. The guards backed out of the area with practiced stealth. Not a sound was made. The care the guards placed in their exit was not lost on Daniel, whose heart swelled  with a weird sense of respect.

    “I thought those jackasses would never leave!” Gabriella said through a grin that could dim the sun. She stood before Daniel, at once solid, and dream suspended in a glowing cosmic truth.

    To be honest, Daniel was a bit more concerned with this “shiny woman,” than the hungry lions! 

    At the same time, he could not look away from her.

    Her incomprehensible beauty, witness to the ancient mysteries, and knowing smile that radiated from her entire being, shorted out his half human mind and left him temporarily paralyzed from the shoulders up. 

    He found himself not only staring, but fighting back the drool that moved a little toward his quivering chin.

    “Seriously Daniel. Calm down.” Gabriella admonished him half seriously through a wink and a smile. “It’s the trick. No fear. When you’re afraid your  body puts off an aroma that brings on their hunger...

    ...fear is a poison that kills bad,” she added.

    Daniel, now pretending to be calm, turned his eye to the lions. They were uneasy, but holding their ground.

    The cats were beautiful, slick. almost liquid...

    Their movements were poetry.

    He wanted to touch one.

    Gabriella moved toward Daniel. Her hair was the color of a heartbreaking sunset and glowing with a light that at times would coalesce into something resembling fire in a new copper urn.  She was both exquisite and frightening, unable to disguise the energy radiated by The Cosmic Data Stream at its purest form.

    She was power.

    All the power.

    If this was a but a soldier of The Creator’s armies, what then of The Creator itself?

    Daniel feared madness at the end of that path of thought.

    “That’s it. No fear.  You’ve pushed out a lot today. You are not Nephalim, but you are not purely of man, either. You and your brothers are new constructs of The Power That Creates The Universes,”Gabriella began.

    She knelt down next to one of the cats, taking its neck in her hands in a loving squeeze. “Who’s a big mean kitty? You are dats who!” Gabriella said in a silly voice to the cat.

    Daniel, fascinated moved closer to the affectionate exchange.

    “Get down here and pet this guy! He’s crazy soft,” Gabriella said, gesturing with her hands to join her.

    Daniel moved cautiously to one knee and slowly placed his hand on the lion’s head and pushed his fingers through its plush fur. His fingers became of one mind, that to experience this sensation forever would define heaven.

    “I now understand the king’s interest in these animals. Do you think he pets them like this?” Daniel asked.

    “Hell yes he does!” Gabriella exclaimed through a slight laugh. “The big old king gives dis big old kitty all de loves! Yes he does,” she said, turning her affection back to the cats.

    Then, back to Daniel...

    “This isn’t about you. It’s going to be your great story, but it isn’t really your story. The king has allowed some truly unworthy influencers into his circle. We need him safe and stable again. This isn’t really a miracle either, because all I did was share a trick with you. Conquer your fear around things that feast on it. You don’t die tonight or any night for that matter. You know you and your brothers can’t be killed. Don’t fear it. Understand it. In the morning, things are going to get real nasty.” Gabriella spoke, now a bit more serious.

    “There will be no mercy on the counsel, will there?” a missile of words launched for little reason…

    “I’m afraid not my friend. Or their families. These cats will eat well in the next several days.” Gabriella explained.

    “I’m sad for them.” Daniel confessed.

    “I’m sad for these cats’ stomachs!” Gabriella said through an ironic snort.

EH

4/25/21

updated 8/5/25