Birds circled overhead, ready to scavenge for carcasses of the dead. _Are they just going to watch me die? _Victor pumped his fist in the air. “Go away you monsterous fools!” If that were their purpose, they would have a long wait. Of course, the vultures weren’t really there for him. Victor had yet again underestimated the intellectual power of a fellow mortal being.

Several of the vultures swooped towards the ground. _Did they find something? _Victor strained his neck to see where they had gone. His eyes landed on the big, dark bird picking at the corpse of what vaguely resembled a moose. _I wonder what killed it, _he thought. He shivered at the thought of all the ways he could die.

“But not I!” He announced aloud to the open desert. There was no way he could possibly die here. “I shall live to the age of grey hair and balding!” He knew that if humor couldn’t save him from the plague of destructive thoughts, then nothing could.

His hands pressed into the sand, and he lifted his body to a sitting position. The birds and the carcass were now gone. Had he really seen them? Had he been dreaming? He did not doubt it. Sights such as this were common to both his dreams and to his waking life. He had run out of water two days ago.

_I’m… exhausted. I don’t know if I can go on. _He pushed himself to stand. “We march on!” He shouted, but then muttered immediately after, “Who do I think I’m talking to?” Victor crushed his sweat-soaked face into his palms. “At least if I see a dinosaur, I’ll know I’m not okay. It would be something to laugh about, at least.”

At least if he died, he would have finally done something interesting with his life. Even though his skin made him feel like he had been wrapped in a dirty rug, he could barely hold himself, and was very likely going insane, he felt more alive now than in anything else he had ever done. “I’m not going to die. I’m not going to die. I’m not going to die.”

It seemed there was very little he could do to comfort himself. He tried variations of phrases and sayings, but eventually he gave up and turned to his motivation. “I must go on. I must find my way to water.” It wasn’t much, but it was realistic enough.

Victor walked onward. He didn’t know where he was going. He was relying purely on feel. Something pulled on him to go this way. It was like an intuitive safety line. _Like that string in the one story about the Minotaur in the labarynth. _

__

That’s when he found himself face to face with a most outlandish creature. Victor looked it up and down. “Oh, hi. I was just thinking about you,” he laughed. He wasn’t afraid because he knew it wasn’t real. _I’m just crazy._

“I know you were. I have been sent here for you.” The humanoid beast threw back it’s bull-like head and screeched loudly. Victor’s eyes went wide and he immediately clapped his hands over his ears.

“What was that for?” Victor groaned. “I don’t know if my hearing will ever be the same after that.” He rolled his eyes into the back of his head as the screeching went on. “Can’t you cut that out?”Until it stopped.

“I was summoned to show you the way,” it grunted. It pointed its monstrous hand to the left of where Victor stood. “Follow the path.”

Skeptical, but also exhausted, Victor watched the shimmering line before him. “Where will it take me?” He turned to watch for the Minotaur’s response, but it had already vanished. “Well, I guess I have nothing to lose.” He touched the line with his hand, and miraculously it felt solid. _I am absolutely going insane. _

“I was going to find my own way, but thanks.” He shrugged his shoulders. His wearied body took the venture step by step, his hand sliding along the magical hand rail all the way.

He meant to keep his eyes on what lie ahead, but he did stray from time to time for an animal corpse or skeleton. Whenever this happened, his path would spark lightly and vanish. After a brief moment of panic, Victor would then return his eyes to where they were and everything would return to as it was. Not that these circumstances were very… normal.

Victor gasped. He clutched his heart, but kept going. _What is happening to me? _Beads of sweat poured from every segment of his body. His vision was now gone. He let his weight rest on the line, for his own strength was failing.

He was practically crawling now. _It’s over for me, isn’t it? _“No, no! I am not finished!” Victor placed one hand over the other, and pulled himself until he had to put his other hand forward. “I am not finished…” his words were muted and slurred.

There was no more he could do. He collapsed in a pile of flesh and bone. Destined, he thought, to become food for the very birds he had cursed just a few hours ago. If only he could have seen. The birds were surely circling him now.

Then, there was a hand. A gentle touch. A whisper of hope.

__

__