lu3ke

"In the strange space between sleeping and waking I imagined myself lionized. I paced the avenues, mane dreadlocked by city dirt. I met my stone brothers on the public library's steps; I sat with them and watched the beat cop pass, orange poncho clad, walkie-talkie chattering on his hip. I went underground, below the sidewalks, prowled the subway tunnels. The big-bellied rats fled when they smelled my hide. I curled up beside a soliloquizing madman, a filthy bundle of piss-damp rags, once a babe in a cradle, a shiny possibility. I licked the tears from his face and he buried his head in my mane. Soon he slept, and it was the first good sleep he'd had in years. Nothing could hurt him now; he was safe between the lion's paws."
- David Benioff "Zooanthropy"