My Carnivorous Terrapin

The Pet Shop (1)

     Eddy lay contentedly on the sunbathing rock in the pet shop. Today was just another day in the life of a terrapin, he thought as he stretched out his tiny body, sighing at the touch of the cool, wet rock. His eyelids began to heave as he fell into a slumber. "Just a little sleep,"he muttered,"Just a little sleep."

Meanwhile, Stephanie dived up and down in the clear, shallow water, her feet acting as flippers. Every now and then, she would come up to the surface to breathe.

Eddy and Stephanie do not know each other. Not yet. But it doesn't mean they don't have friends.

Stephanie caught sight of her best friend Elizabeth. "Hi," she said in Terrapin language. Elizabeth growled out an answer.

"Tag?" Stephanie echoed. "Sure!" Stephanie is always ready for a game of tag.

Elizabeth took off, and Stephanie immediately gave chase. Swift on her little flippers, Stephanie swam fast, and didn't seem to get tired, unlike Elizabeth, who was scuttling up onto the sunbathing rock to get away from Stephanie.
~~~~~~~~
Eddy opened his eyes lazily to the booming sounds of his fellow terrapins coming on board the sunbathing rock. Who could be the ones disturbing his beauty sleep, he wondered.

Eddy looked up to see two terrapins running into the rock, obviously playing tag. One of the terrapins was coming- coming for him!

With a yelp, Eddy got up, scuttling away just in time to avoid that terrapin from bumping into him. Phew, he sighed in relief.

But his relief was not to last.

"Wurna boiy sume telepines?" said a loud, deep voice above them. Eddy and Stephanie looked up to see three gigantic figures looming over them. Of course. Humans. Every now and then, some humans would come and look at their tank, say some weird, foreign language and their owner would come over and scoop some terrapins out. The last time, it had been his ex-best friend Max. Now that he had just gotten a new friend, Adam, he hoped he wouldn't get chosen. He much preferred hanging out with his friends on the sunbathing rock and greedily guzzling all the food pellets when it was feeding time.

Well too bad Eddy you were the chosen one ;)

Eddy felt something large and warm thing close over him. "Noooo!"he screamed, but no one came to his aid. He was lifted up into the air... Higher and higher...

He kicked and struggled, but he could not do anything but flail his tiny arms helplessly.

He was placed gently in a gigantic bag with a bit of water inside. He tried to move about, but was stopped by an invisible wall. Realisation dawned upon him-he was done for. Heaven knows what would happen to him now. Eaten, most probably. He was so fat and juicy by terrapin standards. Now, he could do nothing but wait inside his invisible cage.

Stephanie watched in horror as the sunbathing terrapin she had seen just a while ago was hauled into the air by a huge thing with five long sausages poking out of it. She did not know what it was, but she knew better than to stand there and wait for doom.
"Det wan!" yelled the voice above her, "Gat det telepine!"Stephanie scrambled away from the human. Too late. The huge hand closed over her. She stared down at the ground, now all so far away... She gazed at Elizabeth, and muttered, "See you in Terrapin Heaven..."
She looked through two of the long sweaty sausages and saw the hand moving towards a transparent bag. She saw something else in there-what was it? She squinted her eyes. Another terrapin! She recognised him almost immediately-he was the sunbathing terrapin she had seen earlier. His name was Eddy, and he was infamous for liking to nip other terrapins' hind legs. Stephanie had been nipped at once, and she didn't like it. Not one bit.
The hand began to lower her into the bag. Eddy's fat, chubby face came into view. He stared at her.
And blinked.
Once.
Twice.
Thrice.
Enough, Stephanie thought. She widened her eyes and stared right back.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Eddy watched in disbelief as another terrapin was lowered into the invisible cage. Wasn't he fat enough to eat? They wanted to have TWO terrapins for lunch?! This was just animal abuse!!! Strangely, the terrapin didn't seem to be particularly bothered about the fact that they were going to be made into a meal.
The terrapin was now staring hard at him, and he wondered why. To try and break the ice, he said, "We're gonna be eaten. Why are you so calm?"
The terrapin snorted. "Silly, we're gonna be pets. Not dinner."
Eddy did not like being called silly. He opened his mouth to shoot back a retort when the ground beneath his feet began to move and tilt to one side.
"Whoa, whoa...."yelped Eddy as he and Stephanie slid to one side of the invisible cage. He turned to Stephanie.
"You say we're gonna be pets? I better be treated well, or I'd rather be the dinner."

Yeehaw! I updated this story faster than I thought! Hope you enjoyed it. Hopefully I would be able to progress just as smoothly for Part 2 'The Pet Shop(2)'.