The Maker’s Error

In the Beginning, within the wilderness, the Lion was forlorn. Flexing his ample wings to no avail, shamefully he averted his gaze from the sky – he had to admit, he was too heavy to fly.

“I shouldn’t have had a whole zebra last night”, he mused, “especially not on top of the gnu.”

“I must lose weight”, he continued, and so he joined a friendly gym, but the temptation there was too great for a carnivore needing to slim.

Mysteriously, membership steadily declined until no one turned up for a class, and so the management intervened: they came down hard, revoking his card, though they kindly reimbursed him in full. And so he had to leave.

The Maker looked down at this point, and consulted the Master Plan. Surely some mistake. A stupid one to make, it’s actually quite absurd if you consider the differences between mammal and bird.

“Let’s take these off you, mate”, said the Maker. “See how being wingless feels”. The Lion felt miraculously fitter and, by Linnaeus, order was restored.

(174 words)

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Written for Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers, Challenge #186.

Carolus Linnaeus is the man responsible for the method of taxonomy, the scientific classification of all organisms – as far as they are known. Gnu is an old name for the beast more commonly known now as Wildebeest.

It’s a kind of evolution fable. Last night, I had been writing a children’s story in 100 words – much more difficult than a grown-ups’ one as, I felt, you need to at least guide more, if not explain everything, so 100 words soon gets used up. I think this is how I came to write a fable – my mind’s stuck in childhood mode.

This week’s photo prompt provided by WildVerbs. Thank you, WildVerbs.

The rules for FFFAW are all explained HERE and please click on the blue FROG button below to read other stories submitted.

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