“Whaaaaahhhhhhooooo!!!!!”
This was more fun than riding a humpback whale in a hurricane! I could do this all day. And what was I doing you might ask. I was running a natural obstacle course at full speed and I was agile. I used to run a little bit back home but this was something new. I could keep up a steady 2 legged run at about 15-18 mph and when I drop to all fours! Whew, look out!! 40 mph baby, through the woods and mountains no less. My reflexes were quicker, my senses sharper. (but I was still down to my one good eye at the moment). I was able to dodge trees as soon as I saw them. I was even able to climb them and run through the branches without slowing down much and I just jumped over a twenty foot wide chasm like it wasn’t even there. Yeah, with my luck I was going to crash and burn tonight when I stopped. I’ll probably be so sore tomorrow I won’t be able to move for a few days, but at the time I didn’t care. I just did what ever I wanted. If I had a cobra I would have eaten that to.

I stopped around mid afternoon by another river just as it plunged off a cliff. I cooled off and took another drink. I had an excellent view of what looked like a plain stretching off into the west as far as the eye can see. I was admiring the view when my stomach started to growl.
Hmmmm.... I wonder if there is anything to eat out there. Maybe I could find a dear or a bird of some sort nesting in the grass. Heaven only knows I haven't come across anything to eat in this forest besides fish and monkeys and monkeys are to tough to eat and fish is getting old. (I've been traveling already for about a week. did I mention that? oops!).

"Well I have nothing else better to do." and with that said, I started my decent to the plain below.

"No where Mom! As if you would let me go anywhere outside of the village." the young Zebra added under his breath.

Zimba flinched. Moms are scary sometimes. It almost seems like they have have superpony ears that can hear a piece of grass being blow in the wind 5 miles away. He couldn't understand how his mom is able to hear anything at all much less his mutterings. His mother was the village shaman and so she would spend most her days experimenting and making new potions and remedies that would sometimes blow up violently in her face as she mixed them. Especially the potions she would mix using the strange herbs his sister would send them.

"So, where are you going?" his mother asks in a gentler tone, sensing that her son was upset about something.

He looked around the hut trying to find an excuse to give his mother as he didn't know where he was going. He was just so stinking board being cooped up in the village. He started stroking the necklace he was wearing. It was a gift from his father on his last birthday. It had had little smooth pieces of dark wood with ruins on it to protect and guide the hart of a Zebracan warrior. He was proud of the gift and was always reminded of the Greatness of Momboza, the Chief, his father. That's when, he had the thought.

His mother sighs as she continues to stir the brew she was making. She knew her young colt has a restless spirit but with all the trouble plaguing the village by a creature that has settled in the plain surrounding them it was too dangerous for anypony outside of the magic enhanced boundaries of the village. 'I'm sorry my son' she thought, ' but untill this evil... thing is killed or driven off,' She felt that thought just hang there. She knew that her magic wasn't strong enough to drive this creature away. It could barley keep it at bay. Even now she could feel its influence as its mere presence next to the village wares down her enchantments. She has to, almost daily, renew them in addition to making portable enchantments for the village warriors who have to venture out into the plain. It was slowly wearing her out, and she was afraid for her husband Momboza as well. He, as the village chief, was even now with the village elders coming up with a plan to drive it away by force. she shivers and prays to the goddess of the sun to protect those she loves in this time of trial and darkness.

" But Momboza! That's suicide! The Catoblepas cannot be run off with a show of brute force. It will kill us all." said one of the tribal elders.

The arguments and plans had been going on for five hours strait and they had gotten no where. There was a lot of fear in the room as they continued to discuss the problem. Frankly Momboza couldn't blame them too much. To be honest, the first time he had seen the beast he had been so frightened that if he hadn't of been leading a group of his warriors, he would have turned tail and raced back to his own hut and not come out for two days. And, he is the chief and subsequently the greatest and strongest warrior in the village. 'And my son is growing up to be just as fine of a warrior' he thinks proudly at that last part. His thoughts then return to the meeting at hand.

" What if we tried to make a peace offering to it or bait it into a trap or have your wife create a spell to drive it off!"
As soon as he said that last part, the village elder knew he had gone too far. Momboza's patience had held firm most of the meeting but that last suggestion caused it to snap and he got mad.

"You think it is that easy?" he said in a low deep voice that was dripping with venom.

"We have tried to make peace offerings and they have been denied. It has seen every trap we have tried to lay for it and has avoided them, and MY WIFE!" he was yelling by this point and took a deep breath to compose himself. "My wife has done everything in her power to make it so you" he points a hoof at the elder "can sleep peacefully at night. It has exhausted her to the point that I not only fear for her health but for her life, and you dare demand more from her?" The pain and worry evident in his eyes as well as his voice.

"I am sorry Momboza." the elder said. "I did not know that she is in danger from this."

Momboza snorts the last of his anger out. "Until this beast, this demon is gone, every Zebra is in danger."

Zimba had heard enough. The meetings of the tribal leaders were supposed to be private, but the lose woven sides of the hut and the guards that only watched the entrance made sneaking around back and listening to the meeting easy for a young colt. He had been unnerved by what he had learned in those few minutes. He knew the village had been in danger for about a month now hence the restricted access out side the boarders of the village, but he had no idea that it was this serious. He also didn't know about how tired his mother had become in protecting the village. She was very good at hiding it. He felt a little guilty now about giving his mother a hard time earlier.

What was it they called it? A Catoblepas? Yea, that's it. Even as he thought of the name, it sent chills down his spine. He remembered those bed time stories that his mother and sister would tell him, about a beast so hideous and ugly that one smell of its breath could paralyze you and if you looked into its eyes it was certain death. That last part had to be an exaggeration though, I mean come on. Dying just by looking something in the eye? Please.

In fact, the more he thought about it, the less scary it became and the more he was certain that he could just run it off. I mean after all he was the strongest warrior in training, and he was graduating soon. He had even beaten most of the instructors and they were full fledged warriors. As he had been thinking about different battle plans for taking this ... beast on, he noticed that he had ended up right back at his own hut. He looked around and his mother was gone. 'Hmmm... must be out collecting more herbs.' he thought as he was looking around. That's when he saw it. His fathers war staff was hanging over his parents bed. This staff was the proud symbol of a great warrior and chief. The strange dark tattooed wood seemed to call to him, he raised his hoof as if to touch it.

"If I had such a fine weapon as that, I would not be afraid of anything." He looked around to see if his mother was coming back any time soon and he stared at it a little more and then with his mind made up, he grabbed the staff and ran out the door and to the edge of the village so fast that no zebra saw him leave.

"Now, I will track this beast down and show him what a true zebracan warrior can do." he proclaimed as he trotted off into the plain.

He searched and searched for what felt like hours. The sun was beginning to sink low into the sky. He had traveled so far that he could see a range of green mountains far off on the horizon.

Now that he thought about it, he had never been this far from the village before. He was beginning to wonder if he could find his way back before night fall.

"Na... I'll be fine. I can find my way back." but for some reason he was still antsy. It felt like he was being watched.

The sun seemed to speed up and it started to get darker quicker. 'I better get home now' he thought. He was now seriously questioning if his hasty flight from the village had been wise. As he started to turn back, he heard a huge bellowing roar! he looked over and there it was, it had to be it. The Catoblepas.

He had never been so scared of anything in all his life. He could see it and he could smell it now. It reeked. he was beginning to rethink his foalish notions about the stories being an exaggeration. Right now he was glad that he couldn't see the eyes because he just might drop dead if he saw those hideous things. He took his fathers war staff in his trembling hooves and got in a defensive position. That's when he heard a rustling in the tall grass behind. Now he knew he was doomed.

Danger in front and danger in back. he hoped his death would be painless. Just at that moment the Beast charged and Zimba braced himself for the assault. A very predatory roar was heard directly behind him. Zimba almost pissed himself when from out of the sky it seemed, came this huge orange mass of fur and claws and it charged straight at the catoblepas!

"Damn it! Is there nothing to eat in this place!" I grumble to myself. I had been hunting around in this grass all afternoon and there was nothing. There were animal tracts but they all seemed to be a month old at least. It wasn't much longer though that I hear the grass rustling like something was coming near. I hid and silently waited for it. It was a Zebra. Yes! my luck had just changed. I was going to eat well tonight. I crouched down getting ready to pounce, and what came next floored me. The zebra spoke!

I was stunned and at the same time my curiosity was peaked. A talking zebra? Well I'm a talking tiger so I guess this makes sense. 'Ah man! Now I can't eat it' I could never eat anything that has conscious thought. O well, I suppose I'm not any worse off than I was before.

My hunger temporarily forgotten, I decided to follow him, umm... well I think it was a him anyway. He looked like he was kinda nervous. He kept looking back in a certain direction and the darker it got the more nervous he became. He then turned back the way he came and right then I catch a whiff of something on the breeze. I almost threw up. It smelled like 25 different kinds of wrong. Not two seconds later, a huge bellowing roar breaks the silence
of the evening air. The zebra spins and faces this huge beast. it looks like a giant rhino but it had a bigger broader head with horns on the top and tusks out the side it had what seemed to be scales going down his back and a long reptilian whip like tail.

It was ugly and it looked like the zebra, No! The zebra soon had a big stick in his hooves and it looked like he was going to fight this behemoth that is easily 10 times his size! I'm not sure that I had that kind of balls! This thing was easily 5 times my own size. I then noticed that the zebra was trembling. Oh boy, I better give him a paw. I hurriedly take off my back packs throw them to the side. The behemoth then starts to charge. I was just beginning to wonder what I was getting myself into when all of a sudden I get this feeling inside of me. It was strange. It was powerful. I felt like I had to let it out. I felt my muscles clench into tight iron bands. and I surprised myself when I roared a load almost scream type roar as I leaped over the zebra and charged strait at the monster.

I rushed at it with the force of a furry freightliner. I tackled it and to my surprise I actually stopped its forward advance as my momentum knocked it over to the ground. I then began trying to bite it and claw at it. It was tipped over on it side and the hide on its back was too tough for me to get to so I attacked its softer but still tough belly. I thought I was doing a lot of damage but it soon recovered from my surprise assault and it hit me off with its tail. I was laying on the ground stunned and bleeding (that monster reopened the cut on my eye and was pouring blood all down my face and soaking the make shift eye patch I had on) when all of a sudden I see those huge tusks coming towards me. I quickly try to scramble away as it tries to stomp and gore and beat me to a bloody pulp. It kept roaring and hitting and as I kept blocking those tusks and giving my own roars and hisses. I was trying to strike back when and where I could. It was then I noticed the smell again only it was 20 times stronger. It started to get to me. I could feel my mind starting to fog up and I just began to bit and claw randomly at it's head while trying to avoid those tusks. I must have scored a few lucky hits as it would occasionally roar in pain and I would get drenched in blood.

When It roared is when I noticed the smell got stronger. It was its breath! I could feel my hits getting weaker and my reflexes getting slower as my mind got foggier. I couldn't see. Finally, it had me pinned down and I thought for sure I was a goner when all of a sudden I hear a "THWAK!" and a roar. The beast steps away from me and I get a breath of fresh air.

It felt like getting a bucket of ice water dumped on me. The fog in my mind lifted and I wiped the blood out of my good eye. Standing over me was the zebra. He had just delivered a powerful blow to the back of the monsters head with that stick. I see the monster growling and roaring in pain. It had blood all over its face. It looked like I may have gotten lucky and gored out its eyes. That blow seemed to hurt it more than anything else. I got an idea. I stand up on my two legs and look down at the zebra (I'm a good 3 feet taller than he is).

the Zebra looks at me with surprise. I can't tell if its because of how tall I am or that I just spoke to him. He nods his head and gives me the staff. I grab it and I felt a bit of a buzz coming from it like its alive or something. It felt... right. The beast was trying to charge again, but since it couldn't see it was having a much harder time. I run towards it and I feint to one side as I go for the other. I jumped up and I brought the stick down as hard as I could at the base of the skull where it connects with the neck. There was a massive explosion as the staff shattered in my paws. I was thrown backward and then... darkness.

Coming up with a decent monster was tough. There arn't very many African monsters that I could find outside of Egyptian culture. lots of demons but few monsters. Here is the link where I found it at.http://www.mythicalcreatureslist.com/mythical-creature/Gorgon+-+African

One of a Kind

by JaHarre

Meet the Locals - good and bad