Theme: Stories about the Globe and the Planet
Title: A Prehistoric Day Out
Written by: Mitchell Tan (4D 2023)
Two rodents scampered across a vast expanse of mudcracks, the pitter-patter of their feet the only sound to be heard for miles. They had found that even though food and water was hard to come by in this arid area, there were also no other animals to compete with them for food, and even though it got lonely at times, at least they had each other. They had only met a few days ago, and already they felt like they couldn’t live without each other. In each other’s company, they were in complete bliss.
The rodents had evolved to tolerate heat, but that day, it was blisteringly warm. They tried to chase a large insect that crawled out of the dirt, but had to stop as they got too hot. Suddenly, the land was engulfed in total darkness.
Something was terribly wrong. The rodents looked up.
The sun was covered by a large round object, blocking out the light. Its flaming body strongly contrasted the night sky it had suddenly wrought upon the land.
One of the rodents screeched, grabbing the other’s hand and pulling her along as he ran.
It had not stopped getting hotter.
Insects poured out of the cracks in the ground, clearly agitated.
They snapped at the two rodents with sharp mandibles.
Out of our way please!
The two rodents did their best to dodge them.
The earth sizzled.
The rodent behind squeaked, conveying pleas to slow down, for an explanation about what was going on. The rodent ahead took one more fearful gaze at the fiery ball in the sky. The cratered rock was now twice the size it was before. He looked down at the rodent behind him, who gave him a tearful, wide-eyed gaze.
The rodent ahead shook his head. Got to get out of here!
At this point, the pair reached the jungle where they had nested together.
Oh, no. Too late.
Trees were seized in crackling flames, causing a brilliant orange glow to emanate from the canopy. Animals far larger than the two rodents stampeded out into the desert, every one of them frantically scrambling for their survival. The rodent ahead swiftly darted through the crowd, adamant on getting the both of them through this, and his friend screeched in terror and agony as she struggled to keep up with him. She knew they couldn’t stop, but she so desperately needed to. She tried to squeak again, to beg with him to stop, but she choked on the billowing smoke, and let out a few loud coughs…
Her friend finally stopped. As tears rolled down his face, he gave her a tight embrace, his only way to apologise. He guided her to an abandoned burrow nearby, his hopes of escaping all given up, to be with his only friend in their last moments.
They laid down together in the burrow. She cried, then he cried, and they both hugged and closed their eyes as the ground started to tremble violently.
MJR World of Words 