The Beast

Our assignment was to write a story based on a child's interaction with a creature of our choosing, but without giving away what the creature was until the end. With that said, here's "The Beast".

The Beast
By: Michael T. Flanders


The boy was scared. He entered the cave in hopes of finding the butterfly he had been chasing around for the better part of the afternoon, only to find that he was now face to face with something nightmarish. The first thing the boy noticed wasn’t the horns or wings, but rather the smell. The entire cave reeked of overcooked meat and burnt hair. It caused his gag reflex to respond almost immediately, yet he was able to chew back the bile, if only to hold it in for something worse. Pushing past the urge to throw up, the boy finally took notice of the creature before him. Its scaly eyes were piercing, stirring emotions the boy didn’t even know existed, but also highlighting the ones he already had. Needless to say, his fear of the unknown never had validity until now. Slowly backing away, the boy broke for the cave’s entrance, wanting to get away from this mythical creature as fast as he could. The light from outside merely a few feet away, the boy’s escape was halted when a coarse fist wrapped itself around the boy’s torso. The boy’s mind went crazy. How was this possible? How could something of God’s creation have such a large hand? What would happen if he couldn’t get away? Feeling the pressure from the roughly plated hand, the boy took notice of the scales that encased the monster’s arm. Not just its arm, but its entire body. Pouring through different tactics of escape, the boy finally decided to attempt biting the creature. The attack however, was rendered completely useless due to the natural armor that the beast was covered in. On top of that, the thing tasted of rancid spinach, so it only ended up making the boy spill out some of that bile he’d been holding onto for such an occasion. Placing the boy on the ground during his fit of vomiting, the beast took a step back, arched its wings and let loose a magnificently terrifying roar. It was at this moment that everything the boy had known became forsaken. After all, how’s a child supposed to accept the fairy tales of old when a dragon dwelled in the world of today?