Long, long ago, before mankind, there were many peculiar creatures, such as flying giraffes, the fluffy octopus, tusked koala, sorsel, hawkacorn, pengwhale, lamster, and, of course, the headless chihuahua. There were many others, but it would take me forever to name them, so today we’re talking about none other than… the Red Butted Sheep.
Once upon a nondisturbed world, there was a flock of Red Butted Sheep dangling from branches, swinging high and low. At the time, all the sheep decided to leave the area and find better trees with more fruits and veggies. All but one; Shrimp. “Shrimp the Sheep”.
He was sound asleep in his hammock, filled with leftover food and crumbs. Dreaming about food, food, and more food. About an eternity later, he got up from his cozy cocoon and looked around for a bit, still having sleep in his eyes. After a couple of minutes of dead silence, he finally realized he was the only one there.
When he finished eating the remains of yesterday’s meal, he decided that he was hungry again. He swung around the area but found no food. He thought to himself, so that’s why the flock left. Without further ado, he raced down the tree, a bit hesitant about his decision. Just when he reached the ground, he knew there was no turning back.
Shrimp walked for days, mile after mile, knowing it would be time to eat soon or all you would see would be a corpse lying in the middle of the forest. A couple of minutes later, he stumbled upon a mysterious looking plant. It looked a lot like Lantana that the other sheep always spoke about. Each flower petal was like a beautiful blue, red and yellow diamond. Who could resist?
But, they say it’s poisonous. Shrimp knew that it was either he ate the Lantana, feeling full before he’d die, or just die with an empty stomach. This was the easiest question ever, like having to choose candy or broccoli. Candy, duh.
Soon after, Shrimp reached out, the smart part of his brain that rarely showed up, begged and pleaded with him to stop. He simply ignored this warning, and his little monkey fingers proceeded to reach out. He caught himself but his fingers kept moving forward like a magnet. He gobbled it up and licked the remains of it off the ground, then tasted the unpleasantly sour lemon flavor.
The next day, Shrimp felt ill. It was like one side of his body was coming out as it pushed his stomach. Every time his tum tum grumbled it was like the left belonged to one person, and the right was owned by another.
Months later, of full dreadful hunger, he saw little white balls of fluff in the distance. “It’s the herd!” He shouted with excitement! When he got there, he realized he was hallucinating, because it was only a cotton field. Now that’s what happens when you’re in an unknown place and no one is there with you.
He felt hopeless, his limping legs were trembling, his fur nappy and dry, the bottom of his hands weak and so. His eyelids heavy, his lips as dry as desert sand, and you could see his ribs. He was malnourished.
He woke up in the middle of the night, feeling even more ill than before. His fur started to rip, and his skin was tearing apart, each bone popping and his squishy marrow rotting as his blood vessels burst open, shooting out blood everywhere.
Even for him it was a gory sight. His flesh smelled of mold and the air was getting heavier and heavier, denser and denser, thicker and thicker, making it harder to breathe every second. There were puddles of blood and oceans of tears.
He started to see an eye, then another as a fluffy head started to form. It was a short-haired creature he had never seen before. It had huge fangs and bubbly gums and a heart-shaped pink nose with brown wide eyes. He realizes what that flower did to him, he was splitting apart.
He fell into darkness. It felt like forever. Then he saw a ray of light gleaming through his eyelids. He pried them open with the last bit of strength he had, but to his surprise, he was safe and sound in his hammock, just asleep. Everyone was there.
He even still had crumbs and leftovers in his hammock “Was this a dream?” he murmured. His ma trotted over and gave him a bowl of soup. “So it was a dream?” Shrimp whispered. Just when he thought it was over, he looked to his right and saw the same creature, but this time it was grinning.
His mom said “It’s not a dream,” then put a sack over his head and swung a bat at his face to knock him out.
To Be Continued…