The Ant King and Other Stories by Benjamin Rosenbaum

Author:Benjamin Rosenbaum [Rosenbaum, Benjamin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Short Stories
Publisher: Feedbooks
Published: 2008-09-07T04:00:00+00:00

No, you can’t go in the water again. Look how cold you are, you’re shivering.

Because you’re warm-blooded and I’m not, that’s why.

No, no! You’ll always be warm-blooded. And you’ll never have my teeth or my tail or my armor. You won’t change. Stop asking!

Fair? Nothing is fair.

Yes, you belong with me, don’t worry about that. Don’t be upset. You belong with me now. Hush.

Hush. Listen to the story.

κ

She fights the whole way down. She digs fingers against the rock. She hits the slightly sloping part and spreads her arms, digs her toes against the mountain.

Another drop. She bounces off a jagged crag. A bone in her arm snaps.

Then she is sliding, rolling in dirt, on a little promontory that juts from the mountain. At the end of it she drops again. Her legs shatter.

I dive into the cool water. I don’t want to see.

Eventually there is a splash at the edge of my domain. I move there swiftly.

Once I pull her onto the beach, I show her my human face.

Her pupils have grown huge. Her breath is rough and bubbly. She cannot speak. Her eyes are wild, but also halfway beyond this place.

Why did she leave her city? What was she fleeing, or seeking?

I stroke her brow with a human hand, until she sees no more.

Then I drag her body down and store it in one of my caves. When it rots, I will shake the sweet flesh from the bones and swallow it. The tiger stalks into the forests. The baby hangs on the root, sleeping.

The tiger is angry.

He thinks they should not have abandoned us. He thinks they should come back out of their cities and fight him.

Fool!

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.