Spring

Here it is, 500 words on the theme of Spring

‘It’s called season creep.’
The comment halted the conversation that was taking place below and slowly, one by one, all the faces turned to look up at him.
He felt very smug. He liked that.
Rex was the last to look up, as usual, but it was Pip who spoke first. His voice was squeaky with nerves, as well it might be.
‘Season creep you say?’
‘Yes,’ he replied flatly. Then he twitched his shoulders and stretched his neck as he settled into a more comfortable position.
He could hear them murmuring amongst themselves and he patiently waited for the next question. He could hear the loud deep whisper from Rex, the measured voice of Felix, and Pip’s shrill and sharp intonations punctuating the conversation. Then the jittery tone of Belle came through, her offspring were in attendance, but he assumed that they would be too scared to speak, and he didn’t blame them for that.
As he sat there, the warm evening breeze surrounding him, but it had an unsettling, foreboding feeling about it; not comforting and full of promise as it normally was. He wondered how long it would be before they wouldn’t be able to recognise the seasons at all.
He heard a fresh noise below and looking down again he saw Erica waddling towards the group. She was Rex’s partner, and out of all of them, he liked her the best. He could never quite muster the sharp tongue or sarcastic manner that he inflicted onto the others when he spoke to her. She wasn’t pompous, like some of them. When she spoke, she was calm, self-assured and always made perfect sense. He could respect that.
After a short discussion with the group, she spoke.
‘Good evening Walter, do you have the time to talk a little more? We all, as ever, would value your knowledge in this matter.’
Respectful.
‘Good evening Erica. Yes, I will explain further, but you must all listen carefully, time is not on our side. It is getting warmer earlier in the season and this, as we are experiencing, is causing problems. The flowers are blossoming, and trees are coming into leaf too early. The bees – we know how important they are – are confused. One minute they’re working, then boom, there’s a cold snap.’ Everyone nodded in agreement. ‘Hibernating animals are roused dangerously early, and our young are being born at the wrong time. We are all feeling the effects of this.’
‘But what can we do Walter? Who is to blame for this?
‘Erica, there is nothing we can do I’m afraid, we just have to try and adapt as much as we can, but there will be casualties. And as for blame Erica. It is the fault of man, I heard it myself from their very mouths as I was hunting not two nights ago.’
He fluffed his feathers angrily and looking down at the scared faces of the woodland creatures below, he wondered who if any would survive.

Did you have a go yourself?

I’m still reading Pet Sematary, and I’ve been ploughing on with my novel and novella The Rue Stone. But I also need to make a start on a short story to enter into the Aurora writing competition (www.writingeastmidlands.co.uk), as the winner is presented at the Lincoln book festival in September. As I’ll be there anyway I might as well throw my hat into the ring.

Have a think about a topic for May…