Runner up - Clarissa
By Clarissa
THE WILD THINGS
The sun set like a burnished orange and he flew against it, Icarus-esque. The island was in sight, he could see the bleached white of the beach and the topaz blue of the water. Yet towards the far edge of the island the water and sand were inked with insects, and other animals. Craseonycteris thonglongyai was late, and he knew that the summit was almost over. Three centimeters long and with fur fettered from his face his feet he was smallest mammal in the world. The only two left of their kind, he and Terisa had traveled far. Yet his colleague had sadly been rammed into by an airplane; they seriously needed to do something about traffic air control.
Mr X continued addressing the animals, “And thus I propose a new a treaty, a treaty for our earth. The time has come for us to fight back! Too long have we watched our rainforests raped, our brothers and sisters left for dead, all because of what? O yes mankind will occasionally try and help some of animal kind, adopt a Chimpanzee why don’t you?” The was latent laughter.
“The Chimpanzee is saved because he is cute, because he is sexy. Yet what about Mr Jini?”
At this he pointed to a onyx animal with yellow spikes and along snout. “Zaglossus bruijni the last of the egg laying mammals. Or Camelus bactrianus , a species so strong it can survive the radiation if nuclear weapons; and there are hundreds more of us! Why then are we not being saved, from the genocide of their global warming? Noises of agreement erupted from the animals. He continued, and his voiced throbbed with anger.
“We, the most genetically distinct species in the world, have been abandoned because we do not fit in the demarcations of worth. They call us ugly, they call us the wild things, well we shall show them how wild we can be. Mankind preaches biodiversity, but it practices animal apartheid. And so I say to you we shall have justice….justice by any means necessary!
Applase sounded from animals auditorium, and just the a tiny figure ran towards Mr X. “No!!!! You can’t!!! Its time for change but not this way. To completely exclude humans wouldn’t help anyone. Look I don’t have all the answers but I have some-” But before he had time to finish what looked like an old ochre mouse with fangs, was brought out on a leafy throne. The shamanic Solenodon paradoxus spoke “Thus when the bees, disappear and the new bee reappears only then will there be change” and then he died. “The bees are disappearing, what does the other part of the prophecy mean?” The wild things were bewildered. And then approaching Craseonycteris thonglongyai and Mr X said condescendingly,
“Who or rather are you what are you?”
“My name is Craseonycteris thonglongyai, I am a bat, a bumblebee bat.” And understanding hit them like el nino.