The chances of getting squashed

New fairytale The View from the Top of the Tree continues from yesterday.

There really was a limit to what you could see through a telescope from the top of a tree, even if that was a lot more than you could see from the bottom of a tree without a telescope. Not to mention that Paisley refused to let anyone borrow her telescope. For these reasons the three girls decided that the only thing to do was go down to the beach to get a closer look. They thought the beach was the perfect place because Thyme and Imogen would be able to use the public telescopes.

They thought they would be able to use them, but when they got there they found them all occupied. Crowds of people were staring out to sea at the Gibraltar creature. The police and the fire department were working hard to stop people from swimming towards Gibraltar, or going out in boats.

Someone was explaining the dangers of a moving island, the chances of getting squashed under it or swept into it’s wake, and other compelling reasons to stay out of the water. Some people were diving in anyway, and the lifeboat had to scoop them back up out of the water.

Imogen, Paisley and Thyme sat down on a bench and had their picnic. By the time they had finished, it was time to go home for tea.

“I don’t really want to take my eyes off it,” said Paisley, as they started to leave. “What if it’s gone by the time we get back?”

“We’ve been watching for hours and nothing’s happened,” said Thyme, a little bit disgruntled.

“She probably knows we’re watching, she’s self-conscious,” said Imogen.

Paisley was quite right, Gibraltar would certainly be gone by the time she got back. The creature had thought it was a nice quiet place to settle down, but the noise from all the spectators was bothering her.

So she moved on, gradually drifted away until she was gone. Eventually she snuggled up somewhere near the North Pole, where lots of snow landed on her. Her sea creature friends the Isle of Wight and Puffin Island joined her there. She enjoyed their company, and they all enjoyed getting away from it all.

The humans were never really sure what happened. Experts talked about plate tectonics and the lithosphere. Imogen, Paisley and Thyme were the only ones who sensed that they were sea creatures, and Paisley’s parents were more interested in the disappearance of a few vego bars than the relocation of Gibraltar.

“Remember,” Ms Garlic’s loud voice distracted Ondine from the story. It was ok, she’d finished the chapter. “Any one neuron can receive messages from thousands other neurons at a time, travelling on electrical impulses up to two hundred times a second!” It was obviously a topic which Ms Garlic was excited about. And it might have been interesting to everybody else, if only it hadn’t been so boring. “Draw a diagram of the neurotranmitters, including the synaptic vesicles and presynaptic axon terminals. Answer the questions on page seventy-seven. If there’s time afterwards, we can take a look at their chemical structures!”

Everyone groaned as they got out their pencilcases.

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Violet’s Vegan Comics – creating funny, interesting, and sometimes slightly bizarre vegan fiction since 2012