May 03, 2016, 06:37 PM
Deep within the earth was the first of them, his breath steady and low, and he rested in the dark without care for the world outside. It was warm here; made warmer by the fat upon his haunch, the tightness of the cave walls squeezing tightly at his dark body. The beast shifts in the dark, as if dreaming.
A tucked paw unfurls and smacks at a nearby chin, causing a chain reaction of shifting and twitching, thought the great dark thing does not wake. It is not until a stray locust finds its way in to the bizarre darkness, buzzing and thrumming, eager to eat — no, it is not until that horrid little thing careens for the diffused light and smacks the sleeping giant upon the nose, that the beast finally snorts and half-wakes.
The first thing he does is burp, the second is groan a deep and bestial sound that reverberates through the cave. Still, the insect is mindless. It is hungry and thinks - if it thinks at all - that the creature must be something edible. It lands upon his exposed cheek and the touch makes the beast shift again, unfurling his mighty head; thus the locust lands upon it, and with one seemingly defiant nip of its mandibles upon the tender nose of the bear, wakes him.
From outside the cave can be heard the agitated bellow of the beast although none are around to hear it.
A tucked paw unfurls and smacks at a nearby chin, causing a chain reaction of shifting and twitching, thought the great dark thing does not wake. It is not until a stray locust finds its way in to the bizarre darkness, buzzing and thrumming, eager to eat — no, it is not until that horrid little thing careens for the diffused light and smacks the sleeping giant upon the nose, that the beast finally snorts and half-wakes.
The first thing he does is burp, the second is groan a deep and bestial sound that reverberates through the cave. Still, the insect is mindless. It is hungry and thinks - if it thinks at all - that the creature must be something edible. It lands upon his exposed cheek and the touch makes the beast shift again, unfurling his mighty head; thus the locust lands upon it, and with one seemingly defiant nip of its mandibles upon the tender nose of the bear, wakes him.
From outside the cave can be heard the agitated bellow of the beast although none are around to hear it.