Posts by Stranger Than Nonfiction

            Deep in an underground base, where unseen experiments take place, there was a kitten and a lion placed together in a room, both separated by a thick sheet of transparent glass. Frozen in place, the kitten trembled with fear, while the lion salivated and paced in anticipation for a chance…

             In a dark forest, a wiry weasel walked willfully and warily along, when without warning, a common raven croaked at it from the branches above.             “Toc toc, watch out, toc toc. The badger ahead might see you, toc toc.”        …

The Hot Air Balloon             Shielded from the Sun by a straw hat and a tree, a man on the easternmost point of the equator, woke up from his slumber and entered a hot air balloon. The skies, in patches bright and blue, were half-covered too with gently white, fluffy clouds,…

            During a particularly unfruitful day, of a particularly unfruitful month, of a particularly unfruitful year, a frustrated toad hopped hopelessly around in search of grub. Its belly was empty, its body, dry, its legs, tired, its energy, angsty, and its mind, racing.             Lost in exhaustion…

            Once upon a time, a special baby hippo was born, who almost immediately had to fight a territorial toddler much larger than itself, whose fierceness had finished off many a newborn before. Despite being only a few moments old and of a significantly smaller size, the fully-formed infant somehow…

            In a far distant time and place, on the fifth story of a great palace, near the wondrous window of a seemingly endless series of stately glass apertures, there resided a fish and a finch in a tank and a cage, respectively. But this was no ordinary pair, for…

            There was once a chameleon who could change its colors so well to camouflage, that it somehow forgot about itself. Perceptive as it was, with uncoupled eyes that noticed everything around, it no longer sensed its own body, which seemed see-through in its vivid detail. Even the tree on…

            Once a coyote spotted a squirrel up in a tree, storing nuts in a cache. Merrily, it laughed and, with its mind churning, called out, “Boy, am I glad to be me, born as I am! To own nothing but the fur on my back—at night, I wander, free…