Let me tell you a tale Ralph, because you're obviously still here after listening to four other stories.
This is the tale of a girl and her friend.
5 - Sebastian
I had a very unusual friend once, when I was a little girl around age 5 or 6.
I was never that good at socialising with other girls my age back then, or now to be frankly honest with you - so I'd set my imagination on overdrive and make up these wild stories about things that I'd find during my days in the backyard. I'd make up all kinds of stories from ones about ants fighting a courageous war to reclaim their homeland from the giant gnomes that had been stealing their food and slowly pushing them out, to other completely stupid stories about rocks leaving the house and walking through the forest.
I wasn't sure where the forest was as a kid, I just assumed it was down the road and the rocks could make it before they grew old and died. It pained me later to realise that there are no actual forests in the heart of the Melbourne CBD and that those rocks never made it.
One day, while walking about in my backyard, with my adorable red gumboots on I came across a small cricket eating a leaf that had fallen down. I bent down to inspect it and it jumped away, leaving its food behind. It ran right towards the bushes where it was snagged up by the biggest praying mantis that I'd ever seen. In the mind of a five or six year old, this bug was the size of a small car. The praying mantis picked up the tiny cricket in it's mandibles and raised it's claws up at me, in an attempt to scare me off from its food.
I'm not going to lie - the attempt worked and I ran like a little girl. Because I was a little girl.
A few days later I had regained my composure and finally steeled myself to venture out into the backyard again. I stepped out in my bright red gumboots again and immediately walked back to where the praying mantis once was. I saw no trace of neither beast nor his prey and I was kind of bummed out - I was prepared for him this time, with some bugs I had caught and chilled. Disheartened I turned back to the house, only to see the Praying Mantis again. He raised his claws up at me and my heart started racing.
I pulled out one of the bugs from the bag in my pocket and placed it in front of him, his claws never lowering. At that moment I knew that he was afraid of me, that he wasn't able to fully comprehend just how big I was.
He had been an apex predator in his environment and confident in his ability to kill anything around him, he could not fathom any way he could even hurt me - but here I was, this benevolent god, making prey appear right before his multi-formed eyes. He hesitated a moment longer, in what I assume was an attempt to not break eye contact with my foot, until the cricket that I had placed down for him started to move - he couldn't let the prey escape after this giant had practically presented it on a silver platter! He struck and made quick work of the slow moving morsel. I pulled out another small cricket and placed it on the ground in front of him, and he lowered his claws at me. It had been quite a while now and I remember having to go back inside, either for dinner or just because too much playing with bugs wasn't good for a girl my age.
From that point on I decided to name him Sebastian. I was watching a lot of The Little Mermaid at the time.
A few more days went by and I would do the same thing every afternoon. Sebastian had grown fond of me now - anticipating when I would come out of the house and standing in the middle of the pathway with his claws up at me, which was no longer a threat, but more of a "Yay! You're here!" now. It almost looked as if he wanted to give my fingers a hug with his long arms. At this moment I did something that could have turned out poorly, but didn't. I put a bug on my hand and moved it low towards Sebastian in the hopes that he could crawl up on me, almost immediately I remembered that wild animals like to attack things and my heart started to race once again - I didn't want to get hurt, but I wanted to see what would happen.
My hand started shaking as Sebastian started to lower his claws and move towards the hand, sensing the prey sitting atop it. Sebastian gingerly tested the hand with a leg and backed away almost immediately. I can only assume what was going through his tiny insect mind at that point, but I'm guessing it was something like how scary this entire encounter was. He was used to a nice solid, non-moving surface and this was definitely not one of those.
Nevertheless, Sebastian gathered up all of the courage he had inside of him and took one confident step after the other, and slowly but surely made it on to my hand, where he picked up the cricket gingerly (child-me assumed this was so he didn't accidentally bite into my hand) and then leapt off as hard as he could. I was ecstatic! I'd finally made friends with the most dangerous thing in the backyard! From this moment on I would only feed him from my hand, My mum had found out I'd been collecting bugs and stopped me from walking out the back door without first checking me. So, I simply started crawling through my window to meet Sebastian.
Eventually Sebastian noticed the change and started hanging out by my window - I'd open it up for him and he'd jump onto my shirt and I'd hold a cricket up to him, which he would then grab and jump back on to the windowsill to eat. A few more days passed and Sebastian started not to react, at first he'd just eat the cricket on my chest, dropping most of it to the ground and then he reached a point where he couldn't jump all the way on to me. I pushed the cricket on to the sill and watched him eat it slowly.
Something was wrong. Normally he'd gobble it up with a tenacity known only to starving children in Africa but now he was taking his time, sometimes even letting the cricket warm up and escape.
I hadn't seen Sebastian for two days now, and I was starting to get worried. I'd looked up the average age of a praying mantis in an encyclopaedia I had and it had only made it worse. I wasn't sure how long it was alive before it first scared me back into the house, so five-year old me couldn't put an age to it. To me, Sebastian had been alive for years.
I walked out into the backyard to try and find him, searching everywhere - from where I first met him to where he used to meet me at the back door, with his little claws raised, to right up along the back fence.
And that's when I saw him.
He was under my window with a rather large butterfly - still completely intact but dead from shock, in his mouth. It looked like he had tried to climb up with the butterfly without damaging it and fallen from a great height. He wasn't moving and on realising this I started to cry.
Upon feeling the impact of my tears on the ground, Sebastian started to move again, slowly but surely. I noticed this and immediately placed my hand down to where he could walk onto it. Sebastian shuffled slowly to my hand and tried to climb on, but lacked the strength. With his last remaining bit of life he lifted his claws one final time and rested the butterfly in my open palms. A parting gift.
I'll never have another friend as good as Sebastian.
This is the tale of a girl and her friend.
5 - Sebastian
I had a very unusual friend once, when I was a little girl around age 5 or 6.
I was never that good at socialising with other girls my age back then, or now to be frankly honest with you - so I'd set my imagination on overdrive and make up these wild stories about things that I'd find during my days in the backyard. I'd make up all kinds of stories from ones about ants fighting a courageous war to reclaim their homeland from the giant gnomes that had been stealing their food and slowly pushing them out, to other completely stupid stories about rocks leaving the house and walking through the forest.
I wasn't sure where the forest was as a kid, I just assumed it was down the road and the rocks could make it before they grew old and died. It pained me later to realise that there are no actual forests in the heart of the Melbourne CBD and that those rocks never made it.
One day, while walking about in my backyard, with my adorable red gumboots on I came across a small cricket eating a leaf that had fallen down. I bent down to inspect it and it jumped away, leaving its food behind. It ran right towards the bushes where it was snagged up by the biggest praying mantis that I'd ever seen. In the mind of a five or six year old, this bug was the size of a small car. The praying mantis picked up the tiny cricket in it's mandibles and raised it's claws up at me, in an attempt to scare me off from its food.
I'm not going to lie - the attempt worked and I ran like a little girl. Because I was a little girl.
A few days later I had regained my composure and finally steeled myself to venture out into the backyard again. I stepped out in my bright red gumboots again and immediately walked back to where the praying mantis once was. I saw no trace of neither beast nor his prey and I was kind of bummed out - I was prepared for him this time, with some bugs I had caught and chilled. Disheartened I turned back to the house, only to see the Praying Mantis again. He raised his claws up at me and my heart started racing.
I pulled out one of the bugs from the bag in my pocket and placed it in front of him, his claws never lowering. At that moment I knew that he was afraid of me, that he wasn't able to fully comprehend just how big I was.
He had been an apex predator in his environment and confident in his ability to kill anything around him, he could not fathom any way he could even hurt me - but here I was, this benevolent god, making prey appear right before his multi-formed eyes. He hesitated a moment longer, in what I assume was an attempt to not break eye contact with my foot, until the cricket that I had placed down for him started to move - he couldn't let the prey escape after this giant had practically presented it on a silver platter! He struck and made quick work of the slow moving morsel. I pulled out another small cricket and placed it on the ground in front of him, and he lowered his claws at me. It had been quite a while now and I remember having to go back inside, either for dinner or just because too much playing with bugs wasn't good for a girl my age.
From that point on I decided to name him Sebastian. I was watching a lot of The Little Mermaid at the time.
A few more days went by and I would do the same thing every afternoon. Sebastian had grown fond of me now - anticipating when I would come out of the house and standing in the middle of the pathway with his claws up at me, which was no longer a threat, but more of a "Yay! You're here!" now. It almost looked as if he wanted to give my fingers a hug with his long arms. At this moment I did something that could have turned out poorly, but didn't. I put a bug on my hand and moved it low towards Sebastian in the hopes that he could crawl up on me, almost immediately I remembered that wild animals like to attack things and my heart started to race once again - I didn't want to get hurt, but I wanted to see what would happen.
My hand started shaking as Sebastian started to lower his claws and move towards the hand, sensing the prey sitting atop it. Sebastian gingerly tested the hand with a leg and backed away almost immediately. I can only assume what was going through his tiny insect mind at that point, but I'm guessing it was something like how scary this entire encounter was. He was used to a nice solid, non-moving surface and this was definitely not one of those.
Nevertheless, Sebastian gathered up all of the courage he had inside of him and took one confident step after the other, and slowly but surely made it on to my hand, where he picked up the cricket gingerly (child-me assumed this was so he didn't accidentally bite into my hand) and then leapt off as hard as he could. I was ecstatic! I'd finally made friends with the most dangerous thing in the backyard! From this moment on I would only feed him from my hand, My mum had found out I'd been collecting bugs and stopped me from walking out the back door without first checking me. So, I simply started crawling through my window to meet Sebastian.
Eventually Sebastian noticed the change and started hanging out by my window - I'd open it up for him and he'd jump onto my shirt and I'd hold a cricket up to him, which he would then grab and jump back on to the windowsill to eat. A few more days passed and Sebastian started not to react, at first he'd just eat the cricket on my chest, dropping most of it to the ground and then he reached a point where he couldn't jump all the way on to me. I pushed the cricket on to the sill and watched him eat it slowly.
Something was wrong. Normally he'd gobble it up with a tenacity known only to starving children in Africa but now he was taking his time, sometimes even letting the cricket warm up and escape.
I hadn't seen Sebastian for two days now, and I was starting to get worried. I'd looked up the average age of a praying mantis in an encyclopaedia I had and it had only made it worse. I wasn't sure how long it was alive before it first scared me back into the house, so five-year old me couldn't put an age to it. To me, Sebastian had been alive for years.
I walked out into the backyard to try and find him, searching everywhere - from where I first met him to where he used to meet me at the back door, with his little claws raised, to right up along the back fence.
And that's when I saw him.
He was under my window with a rather large butterfly - still completely intact but dead from shock, in his mouth. It looked like he had tried to climb up with the butterfly without damaging it and fallen from a great height. He wasn't moving and on realising this I started to cry.
Upon feeling the impact of my tears on the ground, Sebastian started to move again, slowly but surely. I noticed this and immediately placed my hand down to where he could walk onto it. Sebastian shuffled slowly to my hand and tried to climb on, but lacked the strength. With his last remaining bit of life he lifted his claws one final time and rested the butterfly in my open palms. A parting gift.
I'll never have another friend as good as Sebastian.
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