Choice Cuts

Cerulean

The Thing crawled up on four legs and showed itself to them.

The tall creatures with four legs craned their necks down and, upon seeing the Thing, tilted them to one side, blinking once, twice, and no more.

The Thing stomped their feet on the ground four times, begging the tall creatures to see its four legs.

The tall creatures only stared, their eyes long and blank and unseeing. Eventually they craned their necks back up to the heavens and began marching forward with their four great, great legs.

The Thing managed to grab on to one of the four legs of one of the tall creatures, and held on. It wrapped its four legs around the trunk of the tall creature’s lower great leg.

The Thing shivered against the scales of the tall creature. The air is grey and unforgiving, curling around and around its thin, thin feathers. The Thing huddled closer.

The tall creatures marched on and on, and the ground rumbled and shook in answer. The tall creatures are silent.

The Thing trained its eyes on the ground and saw that it was moving. Like oily snakes slithering on top of each other.

A terrible roar resounded from the front of the tall creatures and was abruptly cut short. The tall creatures marched on.

The Thing eyed the tall creature marching next to them. They were not so different from the tall creature the Thing was currently on. They have four great legs and they march on and on and on.

A giant oily slithering snake lashed and coiled around the four great legs and pulled the tall creature under.

The terrible roar made the Thing’s ears rejoice. The Thing tilted its head equally over its shoulders so the liquid will color its feathers.

The oily slithering snakes turned into cloudy oil where the tall creature vanished. The cloudy oil spread inch by inch.

All around them, more great, terrible roars followed, and were also abruptly cut short. But still the tall creatures marched on and on. The tall creatures are calm.

Until the tall creatures are now only one.

The tall creature shook and its entire body rumbled. It stopped marching forward and craned its neck up, up to the heavens. The tall creature extended its neck up to the clouds, until it could no longer do so. And then there was the great shuddering, as the tall creature began to pull itself up from the oily slithering clouds. The Thing tried to hold on with its own four legs.

The oily slithering snakes rose up with the tall creature and coiled around their four legs, and around the Thing, and pulled.

One last great and terrible roar resounded from up high, and then there was the horrible ripping.

The Thing was still holding on, and then the Thing was falling.

The oily slithering snakes welcomed and embraced the Thing. The Thing shivered in their embrace. The Thing cannot breathe. The Thing let go of the great leg of the tall creature and continued to fall, fall, fall.

The Thing’s chest hurt and squeezed. The oily slithering snakes were everywhere. The Thing cannot see. And then it saw a brightening. The brightening broke through the oily slithering snakes and swam towards the Thing. The Thing struggled to open its eyes against it.

The Thing cannot breathe anymore. And there was a hollow pain in the Thing’s chest. And the Thing can breathe again.

The Thing opened its eyes and blinked. The brightening was gone. The oily slithering snakes accompanied the Thing as it continued to fall, fall, fall.

But the Thing wasn’t falling anymore. The Thing was hovering amongst the oily slithering snakes.

The Thing didn’t feel any pain.

The Thing tested its four legs and kicked against the oily slithering snakes. The Thing started to swim.

The oily slithering snakes parted and made way for the Thing. The Thing chattered and flipped and zoomed and zipped away.

The Thing jumped in exhilaration and felt light. The Thing didn’t shiver anymore.

The Thing blinked against the oily slithering snakes and crowed in ecstasy.

The Thing didn’t shiver anymore.

|Originally written: January 07, 2022