Paw: A Short Story

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Recommended: Fictional story short

Once upon a time there was a little bear cub named Paw. One day, Paw was playing in the forest. Over and over she threw a little twig in the air, leaped up, and caught it in her teeth. She spun in little circles on the forest floor, kicking up pine needles with every leap. Suddenly the sky went dark. Paw ducked under a bush and froze, as her mother had taught her to. Then the sky lightened again, but there was a huge rush of air like a great wind. Paw curiously peeked out of the bush, tail wagging, nose sniffing, just as her mother had quite specifically told her not to do. It was a huge bird, perching unsteadily on an old tree stump. The bird was, Paw thought, taller than her mommy and her daddy and her two aunts and three uncles all put together. And its wings, which it lazily unfolded and then folded again one at a time, were …show more content…

She bounded to the carcass, running faster and farther than she had ever gone before. She remembered the way her mother had carried her, and soon she found the deer, lying on the ground mostly eaten. Paw looked around, and saw a blackberry bush nearby. The thorns cut Paw's mouth, but she didn't care. She didn't stop pulling branches from the bush until the deer was so thickly covered it was barely visible. Then she grabbed a flap of skin the bears had peeled off the stag and carefully spread it over the whole mess. The overall appearance was more of a bloody thornbush than an appetizing meal, but Paw was hoping the thunderbird wasn't very smart. She sat down under some ferns and waited, watching the carcass. Before very long, she heard a rush of wind. The thunderbird swooped down from the sky like an eagle diving for a fish, feathers rustling from the speed of the descent. It thrust out its bone-white talons before it, seized the deer carcass in its claws, and turned back upward toward the sky. But it stuck. The blackberry thorns dug into its feet and kept it tied to the ground, and it fell over,

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