who's gorging herself nearby, notices I've run out of steam and asks what's wrong. Nothing to worry about, I tell her. I just need to take a little rest.
Bloated from weeks of nonstop feasting, I drag myself down from the mountain of Beast meat. I trundle across the gray plain, moving at a slow crawl because I'm overstuffed.
I feel a twinge of sadness as I creep past the shriveled rinds of my long-dead brothers and sisters. If only they could have shared this incredible feast with us.
Or is the feast itself a danger? I feel sluggish and sick; my guts are churning, my skin parched. Did the Great Beast's flesh poison me?
I feel like I just want to crawl under a rock and hide. With no rocks in sight, I head for the giant white cliff instead. I find the hole at the base of the cliff, the hole where the tiniest maggot and I once planned to hide from the Beast. I crawl inside, push as far back into the dank darkness as I can, and curl up into a ball.
Then, shivering, I drift off to sleep.
Â
*****
T wo weeks later, I awaken in the hole at the base of the cliff ...and I'm a new person. Completely transformed.
Clambering out of the hole into the light, I stretch my spindly new legs and sniff the cool, humid air. I take a look around with my multifaceted eyes, catching every detail of the world in all directions.
The Great Beast's body lies in the same place I left it, sprawled on the plain . More of his flesh has been nibbled away by my family, leaving him pockmarked from the work of a dozen tiny jaws. What hasn't been chewed by maggots has been eaten away by the unseen hordes of the bringers of rot.
The other corpse, our original meal befo re the coming of the Beast, has been eaten away, too. There isn't much meat left on that one at all; he's little more than a pile of gristle and bones.
The Beast's metal pot, the one he carried the boiling water in, still lies on its side near the white cliff. The metal spray can he once brandished lies near his body.
But nowhere do I see a living maggot. No glistening pale worms wriggling through rotting flesh or squirming along a scarlet blood trail. My magnificent new vision catches not a trace of my brothers and sisters anywhere.
Then, suddenly, something catches my eye. A dark object hurtling through the air above the dead meat on the plain.
And I laugh. Of course! I should've known!
Another dark object zips past the first, and then another and another and another. I count five, then six, then seven, every one of them making a soft buzzing sound that's music to my ears.
I count eleven of them . I should've known.
If I've changed, then they must've changed, too. All my brothers and sisters, radically transforming as their lifelong dreams came true .
Like them, I've been getting ready for this for as long as I can remember. Rehearsing it in my dreams.
I shake out the wings on my back and set them flickering faster and faster . My black body lifts from the plain, just a little...then a little more.
Then a lot. Leaping up into the air, I swoop acr oss the world and join my brothers and sisters . Laughing, they do loop-de-loops around me, swirling and zigging and zagg ing with the greatest of ease.
One of them brushes me with the tips of her wings , then swoops around in front of me . Her tubelike new proboscis curls up in what I know is a loving smile. I can tell from her chirping whistle that she's the tiniest maggot, reborn.
Pure joy surges within me, and I dance with her in midair. My family and I have made it through the nightmare, defeated the Beast , and become stronger by feasting on his flesh . We, the proud survivors, have made it through the crucible and b ecome what we were born to become , doing what we have always longed to do .
We are soar ing .
Â
*****
Â
Special Preview: Bloodliner
Â
By Robert T. Jeschonek
Now on sale!
Jonah was drunk, pissed at the world, fresh from his mom and dad's viewing at the funeral home...and he was playing what
Bloated from weeks of nonstop feasting, I drag myself down from the mountain of Beast meat. I trundle across the gray plain, moving at a slow crawl because I'm overstuffed.
I feel a twinge of sadness as I creep past the shriveled rinds of my long-dead brothers and sisters. If only they could have shared this incredible feast with us.
Or is the feast itself a danger? I feel sluggish and sick; my guts are churning, my skin parched. Did the Great Beast's flesh poison me?
I feel like I just want to crawl under a rock and hide. With no rocks in sight, I head for the giant white cliff instead. I find the hole at the base of the cliff, the hole where the tiniest maggot and I once planned to hide from the Beast. I crawl inside, push as far back into the dank darkness as I can, and curl up into a ball.
Then, shivering, I drift off to sleep.
Â
*****
T wo weeks later, I awaken in the hole at the base of the cliff ...and I'm a new person. Completely transformed.
Clambering out of the hole into the light, I stretch my spindly new legs and sniff the cool, humid air. I take a look around with my multifaceted eyes, catching every detail of the world in all directions.
The Great Beast's body lies in the same place I left it, sprawled on the plain . More of his flesh has been nibbled away by my family, leaving him pockmarked from the work of a dozen tiny jaws. What hasn't been chewed by maggots has been eaten away by the unseen hordes of the bringers of rot.
The other corpse, our original meal befo re the coming of the Beast, has been eaten away, too. There isn't much meat left on that one at all; he's little more than a pile of gristle and bones.
The Beast's metal pot, the one he carried the boiling water in, still lies on its side near the white cliff. The metal spray can he once brandished lies near his body.
But nowhere do I see a living maggot. No glistening pale worms wriggling through rotting flesh or squirming along a scarlet blood trail. My magnificent new vision catches not a trace of my brothers and sisters anywhere.
Then, suddenly, something catches my eye. A dark object hurtling through the air above the dead meat on the plain.
And I laugh. Of course! I should've known!
Another dark object zips past the first, and then another and another and another. I count five, then six, then seven, every one of them making a soft buzzing sound that's music to my ears.
I count eleven of them . I should've known.
If I've changed, then they must've changed, too. All my brothers and sisters, radically transforming as their lifelong dreams came true .
Like them, I've been getting ready for this for as long as I can remember. Rehearsing it in my dreams.
I shake out the wings on my back and set them flickering faster and faster . My black body lifts from the plain, just a little...then a little more.
Then a lot. Leaping up into the air, I swoop acr oss the world and join my brothers and sisters . Laughing, they do loop-de-loops around me, swirling and zigging and zagg ing with the greatest of ease.
One of them brushes me with the tips of her wings , then swoops around in front of me . Her tubelike new proboscis curls up in what I know is a loving smile. I can tell from her chirping whistle that she's the tiniest maggot, reborn.
Pure joy surges within me, and I dance with her in midair. My family and I have made it through the nightmare, defeated the Beast , and become stronger by feasting on his flesh . We, the proud survivors, have made it through the crucible and b ecome what we were born to become , doing what we have always longed to do .
We are soar ing .
Â
*****
Â
Special Preview: Bloodliner
Â
By Robert T. Jeschonek
Now on sale!
Jonah was drunk, pissed at the world, fresh from his mom and dad's viewing at the funeral home...and he was playing what
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