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Thread: Starvation

  1. #1
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    Starvation

    I'm trying to write short stories to improve my ability to story tell, but I couldn't think of any fresh or good storylines so I wrote a silly skit of what my guinea pig's perspective must be when she's hungry. Ridiculous, I know. But if you read, I hope you'll enjoy and give some feedback.

    Thank you!
    ***

    Her nose pointed up toward the sky as she frantically sniffed the air for any whiff of food. Her friend scuttled by her, knocking over their last bit of food and began pawing at the ground for any buried leftovers from the earlier meal - however long ago that was. For her, it felt like centuries.

    Each meal was delivered by the food lady, served with a variety of vegetables, pellets, and hay every day consecutively. Despite that, between the time the meals were given, an eternity seemed to pass. Her stomach would make this odd rumbling noise and feel empty. Sure, they always had a supply of hay provided to them by the human, but were they expected to be satisfied by that alone until the next meal? Absurd!

    From the distance, she heard something and froze. Her friend spotted her attentiveness and stopped digging, her head popping up to listen. Yes, it was the sound of footsteps. Her friend started with a shrill high-pitched squeak (preceded by a few pathetic gasps of air.) She followed the chorus with her own weaker but just as desperate cry for food.

    Their plan seemed to be working. The door creaked open and in walked the human communicating some sort of dialogue with them they didn’t understand, nor were too interested in understanding since talk didn’t fill their tummies.

    Dashing to their human they stood up on their hind feet and pressed their paws up against the bars to reach the human, exposing their empty bulbous bellies. She reared back up into the corner glaring at the human when it poked her tummy, then it exclaimed some sort of happy tune in its foreign tongue before standing up and walking away. No! She darted back to the bars and reached even higher this time as she watched in distress the human disappearing into the other room.

    Couldn’t it see they were starving? Surely no other guinea pig had this small of a tummy - they had to have much rounder tummies than hers. Her friend hadn’t given up on the attempt to beg, squeaking even louder when the human left. But she personally felt it was futile and remorsefully nibbled on some hay laying at her feet.

    Just as she chewed on another strand of hay, wondering if this would be her last meal before she plopped down from starvation the human returned! Should she squeak? Would the human poke and ignore her again or deliver food? The human knelt and opened the entrance to their home stroking their heads.

    Alright… that felt good, but she was hungry! Butting the hand away she craned her neck to find where that amazing smell was originating. She smelled it coming from the human’s large paw. Her friend, not being the brightest or recognizing the smell came from the food within the paw and not the paw itself, nibbled the human who pulled its hand away. This didn’t stop her friend from trying to scramble out of their home and pursue the food. But before she got far she was lifted from her belly and placed back home. For a moment she was turned around, unsure how she had gone from the deck of their home to face the wall. Finally, she composed herself and found her way back to the entrance where she was gladly met with a large bell pepper she ate from the human’s hand.

    With her friend satisfied the human attempted to hand feed the other but she wouldn’t have it. She tore at the bell pepper and ran away with it turning her back to everyone. This was her food, nobody would have the chance to take it away.

    Glancing over her shoulder, she saw some more food dropped into their dish and was filled with a little hope they would maybe make it to their next meal.

  2. #2
    TheFairyDogMother kiz_paws's Avatar
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    Hi, Fastidia and welcome to LitNet.
    I like your writing style. Never apologize for the subject matter, it's all good!
    Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty
    ~Albert Einstein

  3. #3
    Registered User fudgetusk's Avatar
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    Nice read. Well written. Engaging.

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