Fable

The Juggling Ghost Crab

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Four unlikely friends were frolicking in the ocean one day.  They were the Ghost Crab, the Blue Marlin, the Jellyfish, and the Nautilus.  The crab and the marlin splashed about on the surface, and dove back down, while the jelly and the mollusk bobbed gently under the surface.

Overhead, there passed the shadow of the Seagull, who watched the friends with great interest, a great interest born of a keen hunger.  Here she saw a variety of sweet and juicy treats for her to feast on.  She could easily carry off the crab, the snail, and the mollusk.  But that marlin was another matter.  He was a giant next to her, and he would surely swipe and skewer with that bill of his.  And being how fast he could swim, if he knocked the Seagull into the water, she would surely become his lunch. Continue reading

The Hippocampus and the Menagerie

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At the center of my memory is the image of a horse, a horse the color of orange cream, rearing up, and glancing at me, with an oceanic glint in her eye.  She has wings.  She has fins.  She is fast.  I remember.  She was fast.  Slicing through the water like a ray of sunlight.

So I don’t know how it could have happened.  But I have to do something.

I must free the hippocampus. Continue reading

The Cat That Haunted the Mouse

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Rinidra’s ears went flat and her tail went stiff.  The mottled blur moving toward her was fast, too fast.  If she had heard it a fraction of a heartbeat later, she wouldn’t have even seen it.

Her heartbeat.  It was hammering now.  A surge of raw force filled her chest.  In an instant, her body unfroze.  Her legs sprung beneath her.  They swept her to the side.  The mottled blur zoomed past her.  She felt its whiskers brush her side. Continue reading

The Reptilian Vaudevillians

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The Reptilian Vaudevillians arrived every ninth full moon, and their performances were so mesmerizing that beasts and creatures of every ilk would come and gather by the swampy stage to watch, to be awed, to laugh, and buzz, and hiss, and rattle.

Waiting nine full moons was not a trying task for some, like the turtles.  But for my kind…we didn’t live long enough to see a second performance.  We are but mayflies.  We are not meant to laugh or buzz or hiss or rattle. Continue reading

What the Tiger Remembered

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Again, residents are warned to stay indoors, keep your kids and pets indoors, and if you’ve got loved ones coming home from work, just be vigilant when you’re making that trek from your vehicle to your front door.  Bob?  Anything to add?

The news anchor turned to her co-anchor, who pressed his lips together, faced the camera with a serious expression and repeated his colleague’s warning.

“But I’m still confused,” Sally said, as she wiped crumbles of pie crust off the counter.  “What exactly is it that escaped?” Continue reading

The Swallow Who Was a Willow

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The swallow was a happy bird, but also somewhat superior.  Nothing brought her joy the way flying did.  Slicing through the clouds and flicking the air with the perfect points of her tail.  She believed that birds were the supreme creatures of the world.  Because they could fly.  Some insects could fly as well, of course.  But birds could fly higher, faster, and farther than any insect. Continue reading