Reading Over Eating
Author: April Ann Roy
Writing Prompt #1
Link to Photo Source: https://www.deviantart.com/imaginism/art/The-Little-Reader-379117790
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The wee human should have been afraid.
I am a monster.
I’m puke green, covered in mossy fur, gnarled this way and that, with razor fangs the length of her entire body.
She was a cupcake.
A sweet afternoon snack to gobble down.
And I was hungry.
But she sat on my bent knee, opened up a book, and started reading. A story about a red-haired mermaid who couldn’t speak or walk on land at first, who was beguiled by an ugly sea witch.
What can I say, I’m a sucker for stories.
I didn’t eat her.
I told her to read me another story from that big book of hers.
Her fairy voice tinged off the spring branches of these woods, tickling the ears of all my fellow forest dwellers. They came out one by one, into the fading light. The trees hushed the wind, if that’s even possible, and the squirrels shut their yappers for 30 glorious minutes.
I didn’t think of eating her anymore.
Sometimes I think fear makes me hungry.
Specifically, human fear.
And she wasn’t afraid.
Anyway, I smiled.
I actually smiled.
I may have to rethink my diet.
THE END
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