Burning Bright

It’s time for another Stream of Consciousness Saturday!

SoCS is hosted by Linda over at Life in Progress. Click here to visit her blog, read the full rules, and find other blogs that are taking part. 

The deal is you get a prompt and then write a stream of consciousness inspired by the prompt. It can be fiction or non fiction, but you can’t plan it out and you can’t edit the finished piece apart from fixing typos. 

The theme for Saturday 4th March 2023 is: “wild animal.” Choose a wild animal (or many wild animals) and use it any way you’d like in your post. Enjoy! 

Belloc said the tiger was kittenish and mild, while Blake thought it had a fearful symmetry. 

I walked with a tiger, in New Zealand of all places. She was a fully grown Bengal tiger, but she felt like an overgrown house cat. It was only when I looked at the photographs I realized “Wow! I walked with a tiger.”

She reminded me of my tabby, who didn’t like his tummy tickled. I guess I was right, because when my sister tickled her on the tummy she grabbed her legs and knocked her off her feet. I laughed, which was mean but probably stopped the tiger from wanting to eat my sister. Cats don’t like being laughed at. 

Here is a story:

Claud, the tiger, had a tummy ache. He couldn’t get comfortable. He tried lying on his left side, on his back, he even lay down in the water which usually made him feel better. Nothing would settle the terrible pain in his gut. 

A little bird landed beside him and offered to pick the strips of flesh from his teeth. Claud opened his mouth, but he couldn’t keep from moaning. 

“What’s the matter, big guy?” the little bird asked. 

“My insides are killing me. I just want to sleep but I can’t get comfortable.”

“Perhaps it’s something you ate,” the little bird said. 

The next moment a dagger blade poked out of Claude’s orange and black flank, cut a hole in his side, and a very angry little man climbed out of the tiger. He spat at Claude and stomped off into the jungle. 

“Better out than in,” the little bird said. 

Claude sighed and settled down to sleep, comfortable at last.