This post is part of StoryADay May (https://storyaday.org/) #StoryADay #StoryADayMay @storyadaymay #freeshortstory
Their Mother
If she had been human, their mother would have been the worst mother ever. She ate three of them before they had the strength to wriggle out of the birth pit. By the time she had recovered from the trauma of giving birth, two of them had starved and the others had eaten them. Four had died in the fight over the bodies. More food for the rest of them!
The seventeen left had to hide from their mother and each other until they had grown their legs and arms and heads. Five turned out to be not very good at hiding, and had fallen prey to their mother and their siblings.
Ten survived their mother’s post-partum hunger, partly by protective camouflage, partly through speed, partly by pushing siblings out of hiding and into her path.
Ten was a good survival rate. Ten was excellent.
At that point, their mother reverted to her non-breeding nature and cared for them tenderly. They became a cohesive family, consoling one another’s sorrows, cheering one another’s triumphs, surprising one another with gifts and kindnesses in celebration of nothing in particular.
They went on to mate into other families, and had good survival rates of their own.
Everyone said they were a credit to their mother.
MY PROMPT FOR TODAY: John Howell‘s point-and-write. I opened a book at random and pointed at random and ended up with “their mother”. M is for the murder of my siblings….
MA
