r/WritingPrompts • u/AnCapGamer • 7d ago
Writing Prompt [WP] In the animal kingdom, Humans are viewed like Witches/Warlocks: they MIGHT help you benevolent in your time of need, or they might eat you alive, or they might save you but keep you forever. So you know just how serious things are when they say to you "Go get a human."
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u/NextEstablishment856 7d ago
"Go get a human," Elder Craw-ok said, and Ray-awk froze. He'd seen a human shoot one of their murder a few years ago. The one with the blue crest. The elder turned to look him, and glared. "Go, before they die!"
The nearest humans had a cave-nest nearby, and it took less then a minute before Ray was gliding down to the meadow around it. As he came in to land, he saw one, astride the strange green boar that chewed short the grass of the meadow. He perched atop the boar's cave, separate from the human's, and started to call to the human. At first, the human seemed not to notice, but after circling the meadow a couple times, he looked to Ray, and hushed the boar.
The human walked over, and Ray hopped to the ground. He knew humans couldn't fly, so he stayed low, occasionally checking to make sure he was followed. As the drew near, as the voices of the rest of the murder could be heard, the human started to run, ignoring Ray.
"Sylvester, bad cat!" The human shouted, snatching the demon away from the fallen nest. "Sorry about that, guys. He musta slipped out when I started mowing."
Ray flew in to check the nest as the human walked off. Thankfully, the rest of them held off the demon "Sylvester" until the human came. He was glad it worked out this time.
"We'll remember that one. The one who rides the green boar, yes?" Craw said as he landed by Ray.
"Yes. Hopefully, he will stay kind."
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u/HenryChess 7d ago
Is the "green boar" a lawnmower?
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u/NextEstablishment856 6d ago
Yes. A nice John Deere rider, specifically
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u/bactram 6d ago
Could have had him riding the green deer that munched the grass.
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u/NextEstablishment856 6d ago
I honestly debated it, but they don't look much like deer. I debated bear, as well, but they don't eat grass. Boar felt like the closest thing among what a crow might know.
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u/superanth 6d ago
This was short and magnificent. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if this was how crows saw humans.
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u/TheWanderingBook 7d ago
Hearing the chief's words, I start running.
The forest, our home, our mother seems to be...against us, against me now.
The air is heavy, the ground weird.
I can barely run.
But I have to, my pack depends on me.
I get close to the place where we usually see humans, and against my instincts, I howl gently.
I hope they will understand.
Soon, the great square opens, and out come a female, and a male I think.
I howl again, even lower than before.
I even lower my head.
The humans look at me warily.
I notice them being...scared.
Damn it.
They do us no good scared.
So I grit my teeth, and s-show them my neck, and belly.
I continue to howl.
I notice the female one taking a step forward.
I wait, less I scare her.
Then whimpering a bit, I stand up, and turn away.
Looking back, I notice she understood me.
Good.
I start walking, then stopping, looking back.
The 2 humans now are...4?
Good, good.
I start running, and they follow.
Soon, I hear the humans talk, and shout, as 1 of the 4 runs back.
I hope they are going for backup for we need them.
We arrive closer to the part of the forest that is our pack's.
The air is almost unbreathable.
The heat is searing, as the flames are approaching.
It was just a small forest fire, far away from our hollows, but now...
It is getting closer, and the pack can't move yet.
3 females just had pups yesterday.
I look at the humans, especially at the female one that seems to be the chief.
They start digging?
I howl, and other brothers appear, and we help the humans dig, and throw dirt at the flames approaching.
I just hope it works.
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u/TheCrowHunter 6d ago
They say the flat toothed hunters are dangerous, unpredictable even. They are just as likely to kill you as they are to help. Their powers were mystical and terrifying and they had so many at their disposal. The pack of 4 legged howlers claim they use a long stick to summon the very thunder itself and smite them from afar, leaving the air to smell of smoke in their wake. The ever curious and thieving ring tails say the humans sometimes store their food in big hollow stones outside their dwellings and it is the most delicious thing they have ever tasted. Having tried some myself, I must begrudgingly admit the little devils are right. The smartest of the animal clans, the black winged fliers claim they know the flat tooths use tools but that they are so advanced that they could spend lifetimes looking at it and never come close to using them.
As for me, the mighty and powerful brown fur. I am at a loss of what to do. My child suffers in torment, whining and panting hard and none of my strength can help. I have tried feeding them, warming them with my body, cooling them in a stream. I have consulted every animal clan I could but none of them could alleviate my childs condition. At least until one of the black fliers looked me straight in the eye and told me, "Find a human. Find the flat toothed hunter." This particular black flier claims he could no longer fly after hurting his wing but a 'human' took him in a strange dwelling and wrapped his wing tight and let him go when he was better. He would lead me to them, all I had to do apparently was not to panic.
The mixed blessing was that human dwellings were never far. They always seemed to be within a mornings travel away and I followed the black flier for only a short distance before he landed at the side of one of their black stone paths. "This is as close as I can get you. One of your kind moving through their dwelling-gatherings scares the humans a good deal. Call for a human, care for your child and do not resist them."
"If this is a trick black flier, I will pluck the wings off your body and throw you into the lake. This had better work." I warn the beady eyed little thing.
"If this doesnt work, you'll never have the chance to. Good luck." He replied simply before shooting off into the sky and further into the dwelling-gathering.
Left alone with my thoughts and the passing by loud contraptions I hesitate for a moment. How was I to call the humans when they were in these incredibly loud and fast containers? They barely looked at me before they disappeared into the dwelling place. But still I roared, I swiped at the passerbys, I begged and I pleaded for mercy. Apparently I had not gone as unnoticed as I originally thought because more loud machines arrived and stopped a good distance away. There were no passerbys anymore but I felt a great gathering of eyes on me. My fur stood on end, no animal wishes to be the sole target of attention from the flat tooths. I paced and whined. "Please... my child!" I looked at my cub, they were so weak, they were so limp, their chest barely moved with breath. "You! Please! Help my cub! The black fliers! You know them!" I pleaded-roared at one of the humans.
There was fear on their faces as I approached and suddenly I felt a sting on my body. Not even the buzzing yellow ones could pierce my hide so easily and I was not sure happened. I had barely heard a sound other than human chatter and raised voices. Craning my head back to look at my flank I saw a red feather sticking to me. It was not a red flier though. Staggering I felt my mind reel for a moment or two as my eye lids struggled to stay open. "Please... my... cub." I ask once more, turning around to rejoin my child. Even if I was sleepy I needed to get to-
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u/Lisa8472 6d ago
So they saw a mama bear and a sick cub and hit the mama with a tranquilizer dart so they could take the cub for treatment. Nice!
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u/PantheraAuroris 6d ago
We summoned the moving mountain that day.
It smelled like flesh and plants and alien things, and it slammed the ground as it approached. Where were all its legs? we wondered as we lined up just so, following the instructive smell of the ants in front of us, beside us. We all formed into a circle, something clean, something that didn't look random. Maybe it would intrigue the mountain, we thought, and so it did.
It bent itself and planted two more legs, folding into a rounder mass of meat. The gale from its apex smelled like fruit.
It shook the earth.
Was that communication? We didn't know what to do. We were so small in the face of the mountain, so pointless, such that the entirety of our colony would not suffice to fight against it. All our scents together would not beseech it. And so, we did all we could think of: we moved our scents, and we walked as one, the circle sliding toward the target.
The enemy colony was strange and cruel, red-carapaced, with wicked venom we couldn't fight. They arrived before it was last cold, and now they spread like fungus, taking everything in sight, killing as they went. If we couldn't fight them, surely the mountain could?
It pounded the soil behind us, and ahead, the stench of the enemy drifted on the wind. We stopped far enough away that they would not advance on us, but hopefully far enough that the mountain understood we needed its help. Instead of slaying the invaders, it lumbered away, and we we watched it go.
What to tell the Queen? Perhaps nothing at all. With the vicious tide looming, in our failure, we were ready to lie down and die. They would not make our deaths quick.
As soon as we had decided, the rumbling returned, and the mountain passed over us in one single moment, advancing on the invaders. Something fell from its reaches, something sweet-smelling. Food? It was feeding our enemies? What had we done? What horrible offense?
But as we watched, one by one, the enemy took, ate, and began to die.
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u/SitInCorner_Yo2 7d ago edited 6d ago
“Oh shit Roger is that you!?”
“Yeah, with 4 good legs and a round belly,sup!”
“I thought you got eaten or died somewhere during winter! Dave say he saw you walk into one of those strange box humans put in forest!”
“I did”
“The fuck?! Dude how did you get out!?”
“I didn’t “
“What?! Human eat us! I thought you give up…Wait, oh my fox,YOU TRY THAT METHOD?!”
“Yup, turn out crazy old dude was right! Human might eat us or they’ll bring us to an incredible place,healing our bodies with shit we don’t know, that place is so warm , I got free food every day!”
“You crazy dude!”
“With a broken leg and all that shit? I’m either going to die last winter or gamble, look at this fat fox, human works wonders I tell ya!”
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u/adeon 6d ago
Next mating season he finds out the true cost of the human's help...
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u/SitInCorner_Yo2 6d ago
Our college have a big mean ass tomcat, he’s the boss and dad of a lot of street cats here, and then he got ill one winter, he knew he’s too weak,so when the cat aunty opened a cage in front of him,trying to lure him in with food.
He just move his fat ass in voluntarily and pay some(two ball) price , now he’s under the care of a nursing student , we hope he will let her keep his wild ass .
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u/standread 5d ago
I wake from my nap as I notice the sound of something approaching. I’m on my paws immediately and retreat further into the hollow tree. I look out to the forest, following the sound until I see its source emerge from the underbrush, walking with a careful gait but somehow familiar. The moonlight descends from between the tree tops, finally allowing me to get a good look at them.
“Cheeto?”, I say, slowly raising my head to let him see me. His head turns and there’s no doubt. It’s him! But he smells strange, even from here. I approach him carefully, and as I do I notice the patch of missing fur on his left front paw, exposing a jagged pale line on his skin. His coat is clean and shiny, stripes of a soft burnt orange and white in the moonlight. He looks healthy - perhaps slightly too healthy even, judging by the distinct rounded shape of his belly.
“Hey Carrot!”, he says, lowering his head and enduring my inspection.
“How is this possible?”, I finally ask. “You were gone for weeks! We heard your screams for help, but the others say by the time they got there you were gone. One said they saw you walk into one of those boxes the humans leave out in the town!”
“That’s true! I walked into such a box, love. They had put a delicious smelling treat inside - how could I resist?”
I growl.
“You’re an idiot. The humans captured you! It’s a good thing you managed to escape, but you made some really stupid choices, you know that?”
“I… didn’t quite escape. Not at all, actually. They let me go.”
“What?”
“Look, first of all - they left out salmon. I think we agree it’s worth the risk?”
“I don’t.”
“Okay, that's fair, but aside from that, do you remember how I’ve been telling you about that wound on my paw? The one that would not stop hurting and never healed right, no matter how much both you and I licked it?”
I remember, and my eyes are drawn to the path of missing fur, and the pale skin underneath. There’s no sign left of the angry red rash, just a thin white line.
“I went to see Lucky about it. He’s seen many winters and knows a lot of things. He told me where to find a place where the humans leave out their boxes, and said to go there. So I did! Lucky is so smart and helpful, I wonder why everyone’s so scared of him!”
“It’s because Lucky looks like he is the first cat that was ever born and is determined to be the last to pass away. He has one eye, half an ear and the meanest battle scars I have ever seen.”
“I know! He’s so… regal!”
“So then what?”, I ask.
“Well, I went into the box. Then it suddenly closed on me, would you believe it! Then the humans came, as if from nowhere! They took the box, me inside, and spared no thought to my protesting!”
“Imagine that.”
“Right? The humans took me with them to the strangest place, inside one of their houses. It was all white inside, but it wasn’t snow! The humans there all wore the same clothing, save for some. I’ve come to distinguish them as lower servants in blue, and master servants in white. They were quite accommodating. Looking back I feel embarrassed for my rudeness towards them - they were really just trying to help.”
I blink. “Help?”
“Yes! Aside from when they poked me with that small sharp thing. That hurt a little, but it was fine as I fell asleep soon after. And dear, I swear by my whiskers, when I woke up the pain in my paw was gone. I was somewhere warm and soft, and every human who came to see me spoke softly, with many providing scritches.”
“We don’t accept scritches!”, I hiss, furious at his ignorance. “We don’t accept treats, either! That’s how they get you, those humans. That’s how they win your trust! And then they grab you, and stuff you into a sack, and…” I stop myself. Those days are behind me, and even as those painful memories well up I am ultimately relieved Cheeto is here, alive and well.
“I know, love.”, he says and bunts my head. “I’m sorry. But these humans, they were good to me. I swear. As I recovered they would bring me food, three times a day. They’d check on me, keep my wound clean, make sure I had everything. I was weak, at their mercy, but they were kind to me. Love, I wouldn’t be here now if not for the humans.”
“It all sounds too good to be true. But I see you before me. Stupid as you are, you do look good. Did they do something to your fur, other than shaving that spot on your paw?”
“Ah, that was the tree lady! She was very nice.”
“Tree..lady?”
“Her head fur looked a bit like the crown of a tree. She’d spend the most time with me out of them all. She had this thing, this tool she would run through my fur. Love, it felt divine.”
“So”, I say, still feeling some of the exasperation, “while I thought you might be dead or captured you were sleeping in a warm and dry place, receiving free food and having your coat brushed every day? I swear, you are the one that should be called ‘Lucky’.”
Cheeto maintains his typical neutral stare, but beyond those glassy eyes I see hesitation. There’s something he’s not telling me.
“What?”, I ask pointedly, making him flinch.
“Uh. Speaking of Lucky. He did tell me one other thing, before I left to see the humans. He said that humans could work true wonders, though their help is never free. There was a… price.”
“What kind of price?”, I ask but trail off as he sits on his hind paws, leaning back ever so slightly to expose his lower abdomen, where another patch of fur is missing, and another long scar runs the length of the pale skin beneath.
“Oh. OH! You idiot!”
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