Original Short Stories

Quirky Quokka

On a western island off the coast of Australia lived a certain species of animals, quokkas [KWOK-UH]. Quokkas are small marsupials, no bigger than the average household cat. They look like oversized hamsters with feet like kangaroos and a long rat tail. They slightly resemble a wombat. Quokkas have no natural predators, so they are extremely friendly toward humans. 

Quill is a young quokka, one of three in their litter. Quill never really seemed to fit in with his siblings. He was the odd one out. His siblings always wrestled, but Quill could never join in since he was the runt and too fragile. Quill was shyer and more reserved than most quokkas. He was not ambitious like the rest of them. He preferred to explore things slowly instead of jumping straight into something new. He lived with his mother and two siblings. A quokka's father normally leaves the den a little after the joeys are born. The den was not too large; Quill and his family had just enough space. They gathered sticks, leaves, and vines to create beds for themselves. Their den was a hole inside an old big Eucalypts tree on Rottnest Island, Australia.

"Please be back before the sun reaches the trees," said the worried mother. Quill followed his two siblings down the trail. This was the first time the young quokkas were venturing away from the den without their mother. They hopped through the trees, passing eucalypts, banksia, and gum trees. They also saw different color flowers like roses, orchids, daisies, dandelions and more. Quill was more interested in sniffing each flower, berry, and plant they came across.

The joeys reached the shoreline. The smell of salt overwhelmed their tiny bodies. Their paws sunk into the sand. Quill had to put in more effort with every hop he took. Some of the ground was hot and lose, while near the water it was dense and cold. The water was crystal clear but very cold. After running and playing, their stomachs started to rumble. Eventually making their way back to the forest, they snacked on bright green leaves and black and red berries found near the ground. After their bellies were full, it was time to get back on the journey to explore.

"Hey, do you smell that?" one of Quill's siblings asked. It was something new that they had never smelled before: a mixture of sweat and scents of nature that were too strong to be real. The quokkas peeked their little snouts through the bushes and that's when they saw them. 

"HOOMANS!" Quill's siblings squeaked. When quokkas are young, they were taught that humans were friendly creatures who will feed them; however, Quill always thought it was too good to be true. His two siblings hopped their way over to the humans, while Quill stayed behind. He continued to take in all the different and new smells. The humans with longer hair smelled of strong flowers and the ones with short hair smelled more of trees and spices. Quill watched his siblings hop their way toward these tall creatures. Each one looked extremely different from one another. However, humans were a lot bigger than Quill had thought, which made him feel frightened. They could easily hurt him or his family if they tried.

"So, this is hooman? They barely have fur. How do hoomans stay warm?" All very good questions Quill asked himself. He continued to sit there and watch the humans. He slowly learned their behaviors, like how they communicated, moved, and their reactions and emotions.

Soon enough, the joeys saw the sun near the trees, and they hopped their way home. Once returning, they raved to their mother about how amazing their first day was. Quill, however, was still skeptical of the humans, and he was embarrassed to be afraid of them. His siblings made fun of him for this. Quill was scared of getting injured by the larger creatures.

After days of repeating this adventure, Quill felt it was time,
"Today is the day," He said to himself, "today I will touch hooman." Quill was determined to get over his fear of the large creatures because his siblings picked on him for it. Quill set out on the journey with his siblings to the area they now called Human Habitat. That was where all the humans lived. There were houses and stores all throughout Human Habitat, along with an abundance of people of course. The quokkas knew where Human Habit began and ended because it was all on top of a surface not native to a forest: concrete. It was not as bright out today as the other days. Their mother said the rains were coming and they should not be out too long. They passed through the bushes separating the forest from Human Habitat. Quill was looking for a smaller human to greet because he felt as though they would be more gentle and nicer. After some time, he found the perfect person to greet: a small human with medium length brown hair. She smelled like flowers and berries. It was not as overwhelming of ascent compared to the bigger humans. He slowly hopped up to her and sat there patiently waiting for her to notice him. He was so focused on getting the attention of the small human to start out with that he didn't realize someone was approaching him from behind. A warm rough hand touched Quills back. Quill jumped in fear and scurried off into the forest. He sprinted away in the opposite direction of his den, into an area of the forest he had never been in before.

Quill found himself running until his little legs could not take him any farther. He plopped down next to a tree. He felt a splash of cool refreshing water on his head, and then another, and another; before he knew it, it was pouring. He then started to move, which confused him, because he was still sitting. The ground beneath him had turned into a mudslide. Normally Quill would have enjoyed this; however, he was in a new place without his family. The mud sucked his feet in, and he could not move. Quill began to sink into the ground. The unfamiliar part of the forest became clear to him. It was a dangerous part of the island. The ground was softer in parts creating sinkholes in patches of sand or mud. There were also a lot of Crown of thorns, which are plants with sharp thorns, along with small cliffs and big sharp rocks. Quill squeaked in fear for help. He thought that may have been it. There was no one around to hear his cries, and no plants like vines he could grab onto. He was now up to his waist in mud, stuck. He heard rustling within the trees. He became even more frightened. Quill's little heart began to race,
"Hey there, do you need help little guy?" asked the little girl from before, emerging from the trees.

"YES, YES PLEASE!" exclaimed Quill. All the girl heard, however, was 'squeak squeak squeak.' She wrapped her small hands around the quokka and began to gently tug. Quill wiggled his body to help the little girl free him. Soon enough, Quill felt his squishy body was free again. He gave the girl a few licks as gratitude.

"Are you lost little fella?" Her voice was soft and sweet.

'Squeak,' which meant yes. Quill shook his head up and down. As she put Quill down, he wiggled his body to try to get some mud off. He then followed the girl back out of the woods to Human Habitat. By this point, the rain had stopped. He hopped over to a small puddle on the concrete ground and began to roll in it to clean off all the mud. The little girl fed him some berries and juicy green leaves. She sat on the ground with Quill for a while. He soon fell asleep on the girl's lap. Quill had felt protected by this small human.

'SQUEAK SQUEAK SQUEAK.' Quill awoke, still on the girl's lap, to hear his family. His family came hopping through the brush. He quickly jumped off the girl's lap to greet them. Their warm fuzzy bodies and musky scents greeted him.

"What happened Quill? Are you okay?" his mother frantically asked while licking him clean.

"I okay mommy. I got stuck and hooman save me and feed me!" Quill gave the little girl a lick and then climbed inside his mother's pouch to warm up and rest more, as the family hopped back to their den. It proceeded to rain the next couple days as a sign of spring coming in a couple of weeks. This would be the time the joeys would be leaving the den for good.
Once spring came, the joeys separated from their mother and each other, Quill felt lonely since he never really fit in with the other quokkas. However; each day when the sun was at its peak, Quill would hop to Human Habitat to visit the little girl he named 'Red' because she always brought him these really sweet red berries that he couldn't find around the island, raspberries. They always played or snuggled together during the day, until she had to go back to her home. Red and her family lived on the island of Rottnest all year round. As the weather got colder, Red built Quill a little enclosure near her own home. It kept him warm during the winter months. He also lived in a burrow he dug himself near Red's house. The burrow was not very big, but Quill never spent much time in there, and considering it was underground, it kept him very cool during the hot summer months.  The other quokkas still picked on him now saying he was 'domestic,' and he was odd for being so small and living with a human. Quill, however, didn't mind it anymore, he learned that he was different ... he was quirky, and that was okay. Quill finally felt as though he belonged somewhere; and that somewhere was right in Red's arms.