The Fable of the Tarsier

by Barry J. Northern

Why not listen along to the Fable of the Tarsier as you read? Just click the play button below or download the MP3.

A tarsier sat upon his branch, chewing on a large cricket he had just caught. A warm jungle breeze rustled the leaves about him, and above, stars twinkled through the forest canopy.

He heard approaching footsteps on the branch and swivelled his head, fixing his large eyes upon a brother hurrying towards him. The younger tarsier waved his arms and chirruped. So hurried was Chirrup that Cricket-Catcher did not at first understand his words.

“... coming … quick … coming … this big.”

Cricket-Catcher smiled around a mouthful of food as he watched Chirrup extend his little arms as wide as his slight frame would allow.

“Big, eh?”

Chirrup jumped up and down and nodded. “Yes, yes. Big it is. Quick.”

“Quick too?”

“No, no quick, we must go.”

“Where? I've just caught this cricket. I'm not moving.”

This sent Chirrup into another frenzy of arm-waving and high-pitching singing. “... coming … big … snake.”

This caught Cricket-Catcher's attention. “A snake? A big snake is coming?”

Chirrup sighed and deflated. “Yes.”

“Relax. Snakes are slow.”

Cricket-Catcher spotted a Striped Tree Frog sneaking up the tree's wide bole below him. Finishing off his cricket, his mind already on his next meal, he spoke idly to Chirrup whilst eyeing the frog. “You know, those are clever little things. Tasty though. Worth catching. Can't leap as well as us. I saw one in the morning once, just before going to bed.”

“Go! We go now!”

“Yeah, yeah. Just a minute. It was pale coloured. You never see them pale like that at night. It's like they change colour to fool us. Argh! A snake!”

Cricket-Catcher had never before seen a snake as large as the one that loomed up from the shadows beyond the small frog.

“I told you!” cried Chirrup as the pair leapt upwards into the canopy where the branches were thin and the snake could not follow.

“I know. But did you see the size of that thing?”

A picture is worth a thousand words.

The Fable of the Tarsier by Barry J. Northern is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.
Hosted by The Internet Archive.
Music by Jeff Wahl from the album, Guitarscapes, and provided by magnatune.com

Audio Book Review on Dragon Page : Eoin Colfer's "And Another Thing . . ."

The most recent episode of the great show, Dragon Page Cover to Cover, features my audio book review of Eoin Colfer's continuation of Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series.

They also do a large library segment this episode -- short previews of loads of new speculative fiction books coming out this year.

If you like reading, writing, tech surround that or all of the above, do yourself a favour and subscribe to the podcast.

http://www.dragonpage.com/2010/01/29/cover-to-cover-393b/

The Fable of the Pigeon

by Barry J. Northern

A young pigeon, not long out of the nest, squabbled among his fellows around the legs of one of the wingless giants who sat upon the strange wooden bush at this time every day.

His father stayed close to him. “Look Fletch, this here giant is dropping bits of giant food already, good as grain that stuff. Oh, he'll fling us his scraps at the end, but you wanna watch out for anything you can get.” His father laughed at the older pigeons at the front of the crowd, fighting for scraps. “Look at em go. That's the way!”

“But, Dad?”

“Yes, my son?”

“Can't I just have grain mash? You've still got crop milk. I like it with a bit of crop milk.”

“Look son, I told you already, you're off the milk now. It'll dry up soon anyhow.”

“What about Mum?”

“She's got your brother to worry about. Look, you're not a squab any more.” His beady red eye darted ahead of a sharp-turned neck. “Look out! He's dropping scraps! Go on, get in there my son.”

Fletch, wanting to impress his father, pushed his way in. Everyone said Fletch was big for his age, and he was pleased that he had weight enough to force through the crowd of adults and defend his own patch. There were grains among the fluffy giant-food. He picked at them, they were delicious but few. He tried one of the giant's fluffy grains. “Ergh!” He spat it out. In his moment of disgust he lost his place and was forced to the back of the crowd.

“What happened, boy?”

“Those fluffy grains are horrible, Dad. There were hardly any proper grains, you know, like the ones you and Mum give me.”

“Son, if you live long enough to have squabs of your own, you'll wanna rear em on the best pickings. But you gotta learn to take what you can get now, lad. You're on your own.” And with that he flew into the mêlée and pecked at the floor with gusto.

Fletch flew around the green square of woodland for a while, not daring to venture into the giant's cliffs that surrounded it. He searched for good grain, but found little, and after several days he was so hungry that the next time the giant sat upon his wooden bush, Fletch was the first at his feet.

“Beggars can't be choosers.”

The Fable of the Pigeon by Barry J. Northern is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.
Hosted by The Internet Archive, download MP3here.
Music by Jeff Wahl from the album, Guitarscapes, track 5 Reality Check, and provided by magnatune.com

The Circle of Friends Award

Allow me to propagate a recent viral blog phenomenon. I've recently been awarded this honour by fellow blogger-writers, Erin Cole from Listen to the Voices, and Linda Wastila from LeftBrainWrite.

I'd add those, but I'd like to add five new ones

• Bukowski's Basement - for whisky, audio prose poems, and class.
• Sophie Playle - for updating us on how the other half (editors) live.
• CRIME FICTION - published authour, Leigh Russel, for showing us what can happen if you keep on believing.
• Fiction Writer ~ Jodi MacArthur - for being a writing buddy of the first order.
• The Bathroom Monologues - for a steady stream of funny and original.

Check out my blog roll for more.

Short Story Acceptance : Howl Anthology

Hooowwll!

My short horror story, Corvus Curse, has just been accepted into Mark Crittenden's Howl : Tales of the Feral and Infernal anthology, from Lame Goat Press.

I'll let you know the release date as soon as it's announced. I'm so excited, and looking forward to holding that book in my hands, and seeing my words in print.

Good luck to all those who are submitting or writing their stories now, and well done to anyone reading this who has also been accepted.

The Fable of the Elephant

by Barry J. Northern

A young elephant trailed behind the herd, trying not to be noticed. She wanted to play with the young ones, as she always had done, but Mother had told her that this year she was old enough to help with mothering duties.

The first of the new calves had been born the previous night. It had been a wonderful time, all the women of the herd celebrated, but Kijana now feared she would soon be set to some task or other.

The fear of impending duty grew within her until she could no longer bear it.

"Mother!" she called out. "I'm just off to the water-hole. I won't be long."

Mother turned around, her trunk swaying, ears flapping. "All right, dear."

Kijana had expected an argument. It seemed there were some advantages to being a little older, she thought, and stomped off to the water-hole alone. She was still young enough to feel nervous about leaving the herd behind, but felt emboldened when a pair of impala skittered away from her shadow.

Now it was Kijana's plan to escape the herd to avoid mothering duties, so she had decided to take the longest route to the furthest water-hole. She would make some excuse about needing a wash, for the water at the local hole was hardly deep enough for that. She chuckled at her own cleverness.

At the water-hole, however, she found she really was in need of a bath, for the it was further away than she had realised, and the day was hot.

After she had spent a long time washing, which was not one of her favourite duties, the sun had already begun to set, and she could barely see her herd's distant dust-cloud. She knew it was time to return, though she would gladly have rested longer.

On the way back she saw a she-lion stalking a herd of zebra. The herd was large, and Kijana feared that the she-lion might decide that a young, lone elephant was easier prey, so Kijana gave the lion, and the herd, a wide berth.

The journey back took over half as long again as the journey out, so that when she eventually returned to the herd she was quite out of breath and ready to sleep.

"And where have you been all afternoon, young lady?" said Mother, "I wanted you to help with Abla's calf. She needs time to forage you know, she's eating for two now. I explained this to you yesterday, Kijana. That calf of hers is a thirsty one."

"I know, Mum," said Kijana. "I just wanted to have a bath."

Mother's great grey brow wrinkled. "Well, it's too late to help with anything now. You can help tomorrow."

Kijana knew the same trick would not work again, and sighed. "What exactly will I be doing, Mum?"

"Don't look so distressed, Kijana," said Mother. "I only want you to play with the pup while Abla's off foraging."

She who avoids labour works twice as hard.

Elephants are highly social creatures, though it is females who stay together in herds, while the mature bull elephants are mostly solitary. Like human children, elephant calves require constant care for many years as they grow and develop. Unlike most animals, but again like humans and primates, elephant calves are born with few natural instincts, and so need to be taught about the world around them. The whole herd -- often closely related; mothers, daughters, sisters, and aunts -- is responsible for looking after the young calves. Such non-maternal care is known as allomothering, during which young females will also learn parenting skills before becoming mothers themselves.

http://www.psychology.stir.ac.uk/staff/plee/documents/AllomotheringAnimBehav.pdf



The Fable of the Elephant by Barry J. Northern is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.
Hosted by The Internet Archive, download MP3here. Music by Daniel Berkman from the album, Calabashmoon, track 4 Two Rings, and provided by magnatune.com

Charity and social networking on writer's blogs

Fellow blogger, Linda, over at Leftbrainwrite has come up with an interesting idea to help the people of Haiti whilst also generating traffic to her site. I want to say that I applaud both of these things, and see this being in no way cynical. Her generosity and desire to help others is genuine. She has pledged to donate $1 for every comment her post receives until midnight EST this Friday. At the time of writing she has 24 comments.

 http://linda-leftbrainwrite.blogspot.com/2010/01/helping-haiti-cash-for-your-comments.html

She has also pledged to double that dollar if the commenter also links to her post. So I guess that's now $26 and counting.

This is just another example of what I talked about on episode 392a of Dragon Page Cover to Cover.

Well done, Linda.