Two young brothers were on their way home from the bake shop with sweets they purchased for Easter. Taking a shortcut through the woods, they greedily ate their delicious treats.
To their surprise as they rounded a bend, they came upon a gnarled old tree branch blocking their way. Because the path was exceedingly narrow and the brothers were exceptionally chubby, they knew they would not be able to walk around the branch.
They decided to toss it into the murky pond below.
The brothers wiped their sticky faces with pudgy fingers and licked the crumbs off their hands, then wiped them on their shirts. Just as they reached out for the branch, it growled angrily at them.
“Get your fat, gooey hands off me!
The boys were too pudgy to jump back and only teetered like Humpty Dumpty. “Who are you? What do you want?” they asked the branch.
“I am Groot. I was once part of the oak tree in your yard until you uncaringly jumped on me. Your hefty weight caused me to break away and here I lay, forgotten.”
The boys were indifferent. “We were having fun and you are only a branch.”
Without warning Groot’s arms began to grow. They wrapped themselves around the boy’s ankles and flung them into the pond. The brothers sank to the bottom, never to be seen again.”
Groot smiled. The couple who mindlessly used him to hang their heavy swing was approaching.
“Come to me”, he thought.
NAR © 2023
Written for the April 7, 2023 edition of The Unicorn Challenge. Jenne Gray and has thrown down the gauntlet and I have accepted the challenge.
The Elephant's Trunk 