Open to all forum members, even after it starts!
This month's prompt:
BugsYep. Bugs. Simple and easy. Prose, poetry, play. Fiction, nonfiction. It's all good, all bugs.
Instructions:
Simply post your blog's URL in this thread to join. I'll let you know in this thread when it's your turn. Once your turn comes up, you have two days to complete a blog post using the prompt. When you are finished, please add a link to your post on the thread.
Each post should be less than 1000 words if possible. Read and comment on other participants' posts if you possibly can--they'll be doing the same for you! Please include a list of all participants' blogs (not necessarily their actual posts for the month) in your blog post.
*****************
Light
streamed through the tree canopy onto the woodland floor dancing as the leaves
swayed in the gentle breeze, mist still hanging in the morning air.
Lost deep in
thought a loud growl disturbed Abigail’s dinner. A quick look around the woods, revealed a wolf
greedily eating a monarch butterfly, its golden yellow wings protruding from
the wolf’s mouth.“Stop” she yelled,
“Sezs who?”
He asked.
“Look at the
wings!” She yelled.
“Why?” He
asked.
“Just spit
it out!”
Obligingly he
spit the butterfly from his mouth, a glittering stream of nanobots made their
way up the saliva dribbling from his mouth and raced down his throat causing
him to gag.
“What the
hell was that?” Asking as he recoiled in horror.
“Nanobots”
she replied using a leg from her male lover to clean her mandibles.
Gasping
Ramone began puking his vertebrae into a bloodied pool upon the woodland floor.
“What is
happening to me?” he asked weakly.
“You ate the
golden monarch” she replied. Still
fixated on her lover’s leg she debated if she should take it home with her or
not?
“Help me” he
gasped
“It’s too
late now” she retorted.Ramone lay on the woodland floor twitching as the bones and muscles in his body turned to mush; a deep sleep fell over him. Life carried on in the woods as if nothing unusual had happened, the only true witnesses to the event was Abigail and the now deceased golden monarch.
His once
long sleek tail and thick fur had sloughed off onto the ground beneath him; while
he slept the nanobots converted his former wolf body into the chrysalis of a
monarch butterfly. Barely aware of his
surroundings Ramone realized that he was hanging upside down from somewhere up
high.
“HELP!!!”
Ramone screamed for what felt like an eternity, screams went unnoticed by the
other occupants of the woods. This had
to be a trap of some sort, the beta males hated him, or so he believed but who
would do this to him?
Exhausted
from screaming Ramone slipped back into a deep sleep. The nanobots continued
their work as he slept hanging from an oak branch.
“Ramone, Is
that you?” Abigail asked creeping closer to the strange blob.
The creature
did not respond; it hung there lifeless emitting a soft pinging sound. Abigail turned back to the remains of her
latest lover, kicking his head aside as she made her way towards the top of the
tree.
There she
sat waiting, for what she didn’t know but the horror show that was occurring in
the lower recesses of the oak tree was mesmerizing. She wondered if this was how her lovers felt,
right before she snapped off their heads.
In his dream
state thoughts went through his mind. He was proud of his status as a wolf in
the woodland kingdom. He would watch
Abigail be pursued by lovers, courting day and night, then the mating, a heated
fury that ended with the poor son of a bitch losing his head! That wasn’t Ramones style. No, he preferred
to court the ladies, woo them with fresh kill, defending them from the other
less scrupulous wolves. He was a
veritable ladies man, protecting them at all costs from the dangers of the
woods.
And now
this… what did he do to deserve this?
Nausea set
in as he swung in the breeze, he hated heights they always made him dizzy
though he never let on about this with the ladies, and worse than hating
heights he hated being upside down!
The soft
pinging sound continued inside of his head as he fell into a deep sleep.
As he slept
the nanobots continued to transform Ramone from his former wolf glory into a monarch
butterfly.
The
transformation from wolf to chrysalis took two weeks to complete; if all went
according to plan he would be a force to be reckoned with in the woodland.
The hum of
the woodland increased as the blue green chrysalis began changing color. At first it started to turn brown, rumors
abounded that the creature within the chrysalis had died.
Abigail grew
tired of the rumors and retreated to her spot high up in the oak tree, a spot
that allowed her to blend in with the surrounding foliage, out of harm’s
way. The last thing she wanted was to
end up as dinner, especially a grackles dinner.
She hated grackle’s they were loud, dirty, and unpredictable.
Her greatest
joy was watching the squirrel kill the grackles. She would never have believed it had she not
seen it with her own eyes.
She had to
admit she got an immense satisfaction from the squirrel’s killing efficiency. Her mates knew that the end was near, but the
grackle, no the grackle never once suspected its own demise. She wiped the drool from her mandible. The very thought of the squirrel killing a
grackle caused a desire deep within herself to find a mate and quick, before
the desire passed.
Her trance
was broken by the noise coming from the branches below her, the woodland
suddenly sprung to life as the creatures gathered at the bottom of the oak
tree.
Movement
within the chrysalis was causing a loud ruckus.
“It’s
alive!” someone shrieked.
The once
blue green color had changed to orange and black. The nanobots shimmered as they moved even
faster over Ramones newly transformed body.
Claustrophobia
created a strong desire to tear at his body, and tear he did. Breaking free of the clear chrysalis he
inhaled deeply, blood pulsed upwards in his body causing his newly formed wings
to unfurl. The metamorphosis was complete,
all he had to do was open his wings and fly.
A gasp rose
up from the woodland floor as its residents gazed upon the monarch’s beauty.
The bonds of
the chrysalis had broken and the soft pinging giving way to a heartbeat, Ramone
stretched his wings and soared upon the wind.
************************Three modified grackles landed on a branch, not far from Abigail’s hiding place. They had been modified with a special gene in hopes of eradicating their numbers from the land, but alas all did not go as planned. Instead super grackles were born with the ability to think for themselves and with control over the very nanobots that were designed to kill them.
A plan was hatched by the grackles to not only
kill the squirrel his cold callous ways disturbed many in the woodland, but to
also kill Abigail.
A
victim of her own genetic predisposition she killed her lovers in order to
mate. Many in the woodland found her
sexual arousal over the grackle deaths unacceptable. She had to go.
Ramone
was there guy, he would protect them all, but not in his wolf state. He was changed into a monarch butterfly, a
majestic being, his size allowing him to dispatch the squirrel and Abigail.
Peace once again existed in the woodland.********************
Participants and posts:
orion_mk3 - http://nonexistentbooks.wordpress.com (link to post)
Diem_Allen - http://mindovermistakes.blogspot.com (link to post)
Ralph Pines - http://ralfast.wordpress.com (link to post)
articshark - http://www.drslaten.com/blog (link to post)
Lady Cat - http://randomwriterlythoughts.blogspot.ca (link to post)
U2Girl - http://ancatdubh.org (link to post)
MsLaylaCakes - http://www.taraquan.com/ (link to post)
SuzanneSeese - http://www.viewofsue.blogspot.com/ (link to post)
robynmackenzie - http://iwanttobeawesomewhenigrowup.com/ (link to post)
Sunwords - http://susannedoering.wordpress.com/ (link to post)
Angyl78 - http://jelyzabeth.wordpress.com/ (link to post)
susanielson - http://somesemblancethereof.blogspot.com/ (link to post)
HistorySleuth - http://historysleuth.blogspot.com (link to post)
SRHowen - http://srhowen1.blogspot.com/ (link to post)
xcomplex - http://arielemerald.blogspot.com/ (link to post)
milkweed - http://www.thistlequill.blogspot.com/ (link to post)
Bumped:
Archive of Past Blog Chains
11 comments:
“Nanobots” she replied using a leg from her male lover to clean her mandibles.
I loved this line!
Thank you, I wanted to play around more with her various activities, or the crudeness there of, but was limited by the number of words allowed.
I think I could write a short just on her behaviour alone!
Great story! I love the idea of a wolf/monarch butterfly hybrid.
These genetically altered creatures would make for a very interesting book. :-)
Interesting perspective. I love how she killed her lovers to mate. lol AND there are nanobots. Shew Fantasy with a little scifi thrown in. What more could you ask for?
What is a Shew Fantasy?
Shew is a phrase or saying. It's a regional colloquialism. A shortened form of shoot. Pronounced like shoe. Your story is fantasy, well paranormal, with elements of science fiction. SF/F
I was just saying that I like the mix. That is all.
Thank you D.R. Slaten for taking the time to explain, I'm thrilled that everyone loved my story as this was a first for me!
Definitely one of the most creative stories I've read in a while. I love it when authors blend Fantasy and Science Fiction. (MsLaylaCakes)
That was a great piece of writing. Well done!
History Sleuth's Milk Carton Murders
Wonderful conceit there, the whole metamorphosis thing from the insect's point of view :) Gregor Samsa it ain't!
Incidentally I think you meant "their" rather than "there" in "was there guy."
Well thank you, now I know who Franz Kafka is, never heard of him or his book until today.
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