The leopard hunts in darkness..

"The bull charged. The forest burst open before his rush, branches crackled and broke, the leaves shook and fluttered as though struck by a hurricane and the bull came out into the clearing. He came out crabbing sideways, a deceptive but characteristic feint that had lulled many a hunter until the direct sudden lunge at the end.
He came fast. It seemed impossible that any beast so enormous could move so fast. He was broad and tall as granite kopje, his back and shoulder crusted with dried mud from the wallow, and there were obscene silvery bald patches on his shoulders and neck, criss-crossed with the long healed scars of thorns and lions' claws.
From his open jaws drooled silver ropes of saliva, and tears had tracked wet lines down his hairy cheeks. A man could barely have encompassed that neck wiht both arms, or matched the spread of those horns with arms extended.In the skin folds of his throat hung bunches of blue ticks like ripe grapes, and the rank bovine smell of him was choking in the hothouse of the forest.."
- 'The Leopard hunts in the darkness'-Wilbur Smith.

The above excerpt might justify my liking this particular author a lot... its rare .. the talent wherein u use just mere words..to completely paint up a complete, vivid picture of what you wish to convey.. and do it in such a way.. that the reader is almost magically transported to the place where the event is happenin.. and watch the events unfold right there.. in front of his eyes.

But again.. there are authors available a dime-a-dozen who seem to have this talent.. so wat exactly makes me turn back to another of his books every once in a while..?

The raw unspoilt beauty of africa that he so beautifully captures in every book?
His every protagonist being invariably thrust into the world on his own.. left to fend for himself.. and face the wild and become a real man.. after being testified by the trials and fires of the wild?
The primitive and basic instinct of survival and procreation that seems to form the crux of most of his plots?

Maybe all the above.. but most of all.. the sense of freedom that each protagonist feels when hes in the wild..
its a feeling i crave.. not because im shackled by anything.. but still..the feeling of being independent and master of your destiny...
some day i hope to feel like that.. and write abt it here.