Growing Pains
We slumber in the darkness, biding our time for when the warmth seeps down to
where we hide. At last the thaw comes; the race is on. Drawing on what resources
we can, thrusting skywards in the fight for the light.
Our competitors tangle with each other, strangling and tearing. Nearby thorny elites
devour all around them; their victims drained, dying, falling back into the earth.
We find a gap in the crowd and drive for it, unfurling to soak up energy pouring from
above. But as we flourish, fast moving monsters who have bided their time, ferociously rise and cluster around, choking us. We can’t fight. We are lost.
In an instant and a passing shadow, the more perditious interlopers vanish. Their
bastions turned over, their supply lines dug up.
Freed, we have the space to bring our mission to fruition, and reveal our fleeting
glory to the sky.
Steven Patchett is an Engineer, Father and Writer in the North East of England. His works have been published in the National Flash Fiction, TL;DR Press anthologies, amongst others. He can be found on Twitter, and Blue Sky, being encouraging. @StevenPatchett7 & @stevenpatchett.bsky.social
This story was shortlisted in the October 24 Monthly Micro Competition.