Nera and the Bean Hunt

It was a normal Saturday morning for the cats and Nera, my number one cat, was perched on the table waiting for something to happen. Although she knows that tables are not places for cats, she sits there just to make a point.

"Mrs. Human, I do not make a point. Tables are there for cats to sit on and to observe what is going on."

"OK, Nera, point taken, so now let me get on with my work."

That last sentence was a signal for Nera, as my work consisted of preparing the green beans for lunch. First of all I fill the sink with water and put the beans in to wash them a bit. That was then the Nera adventure begun.

"Fun, Mrs. Human, now the bean hunt begins."

"I don't exactly know what you mean Nera, after all cats are carnivores."

"Of course we are, I mean we don't actually eat the beans. Now if you were washing mice, it would be a different aspect to observe. "

"So what is so interesting in those beans that you make a leap from the table to the sink and sit there watching. You don't usually use such energy Nera unless there is a reward."

"Well, just watch Mrs. Human. The beans are in the sink and now I have to make a careful observation to see if they move and what they do.

Look Mrs. Human, look, one of the beans is moving."

"Not so excited Nera, of course it is moving with the movement of the water."

"No, Mrs. Human, you two legged objects just do not understand. That bean is trying to escape from my stealthily concentrated observation. I have decided, that bean will be hunted."

"Nera you cannot hunt beans, if it were a mouse or bird I would understand, but not a normal vegetable, just a green bean with no heart or soul."

"Now just look Mrs. Human, I have got my paw ready to attack."

So Nera attacked her bean and captured it in her mouth. She was so fast I only caught her on the camera as she was leaping away with it.

"Mrs. Human are you taking photos of my hunt. Although quite a good idea, then everyone can see what a clever, intelligent and cunning cat I am."

"I am not sure Nera whether you will be recognised as the best feline bean hunters."

"Well I captured that bean so fast you couldn't even keep up with the camera. Now comes the fun part, just watch. The bean is still alive and is trying to escape."

"Nera beans are not alive, they do not breathe, talk or do anything. They just sit on a stalk until they are harvested and I cook them."

"Rubbish, forget it Mrs. Human. You humans just do not understand the thrill of the hunt. So now watch me."

I then did as ordered and watched Nera with her bean. She had it on the floor and sort of played football with it until she got it "captured" next to the table leg.

"Look Mrs. Human, isn't this exciting. The bean is trying to get away and I have it clamped in my paw."

"Yes Nera, very exciting."

"Don't be so patronising Mrs. Human, this is a serious task and needs my full concentration. Look, now I have killed it, it is no longer a danger to the cats here."

Nera seemed to be quite happy with the result of her hunt, and another bean bit the dust. I wonder what she will find to hunt next week. I think I must cook some carrots again some time.

MULTIPLY RRC #32 - Daddy?

„Daddy, what’s that man doing with the camera?“

“He’s taking a photo of us together.”

“Why?”

“Well he just asked, so I said it would be ok.”

“But daddy you didn’t ask me.”

“Oh, sorry honey. Do you mind.”

“Of course not daddy, just proving my point.”

“What point?”

“Well, you know, a lady likes to be asked before being photographed.
Daddy, why is the man taking the photo?”

“Well he said we look great together and he wants to enter the photo for a competition.”

“What’s a compition?”

“Competition honey. Where there are other photos and the best photo wins something.”

“Does that mean if we win we have a prize.”

“No, honey, it’s the man with the camera that gets the prize.”

“That’s not fair daddy. It’s us on the picture, so we should have the prize.”

“Well it’s like this. If you want to win a prize you have to work for it. Now did we have to work for it?”

“We had to look in the camera.”

“Yes, but the man with the camera had to organise his camera that he took a nice photo, good enough for a competition. Now that is something we just can’t do. The camera costs a lot of money and belongs to the man.”

“Oh, I see daddy. Does that mean that Marilyn Monro, Jane Russell and all those film stars did everything for free daddy.”

“You know what, honey, what about we go and get an ice cream.”

“Oh, yeah daddy, that’ll be great.”

Daddy?”

“Yeah”

“Oh forget it, I want strawberry ice cream.”

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MULTIPLY United Friends Challenge #165 - The Inter Galactic Race 5460

Northernpat's Challenge

Winning The Game.

Your character in the story is entering a competition.

Of these, the choice is yours:-
Any sport
Quiz Show
Beauty Contest
Cookery Competition

Whatever happens, they are going to win at all costs.

Write a short story about the competition, the opposition, and the tactics and strategies used for winning.

(They are allowed to cheat if necessary)

"What are you intending to do Bill???“

“I told you mum, I am entering the International Galactic Race.”

Now Mrs. Jones was quite surprised. Although her son Bill was one of the best on the planet Earth and had won many medals, she decided he was not exactly equipped to win against the elite members of other planets.”

“But Bill some of them extra terrestrials have more than two legs and can even fly. What chance will you have and what is the prize anyhow?”

“I will have as much chance as the others as well. We all have some sort of advantage and disadvantage. Take the Polypeds from planet Clump, they might have three legs but they are always tripping over one or the other. No mum, I have decided to enter.”

“What’s the prize son?” after all Mrs. Jones wanted to know what was in it for her family.

“I get a medal saying first in the Inter Galactic Race, year 5460.”

“That’s not much is it?”

“Mum the medal is made out of wishstone from planet Everlast, and you know what that means?”

“Oh yes son, you get a year’s wishes.”

The thought of such a prize was enough to decide Mrs. Jones. What could possibly happen, her Bill was one of the best.

The next week-end Bill boarded the ship for Planet Everlast where the race was taking place. He found that was not so bad, the gravity on the planet being quite advantageous for his earthly origins. It meant he could run even faster. When he arrived he was given quarters next to the Polypeds so he had a good look to see how they were preparing. They had entered two runners, and they spent most of the time trying to co-ordinate the movements of their three legs. It was as Bill thought, they had no big chance, they spent most of the time tripping over the leg in the middle that just did not want to co-operate. He was more worried about the Flungs from planet Flugel. They not only had very muscular legs, but had wings on their feet which they sometimes used to hop with, managing to achieve great distances in a short time. Bill himself was a sprinter, one of the best. He just hoped that the gravity would be of advantage to him, but realised it would probably be of advantage to the others as well.

After spending quite a restless night it was the day of the race. He entered the dining room for breakfast. Everyone had been equipped with a translator ear clip, so there was no problem in understanding.

“Good morning, you must be the Earthling; only two legs and no wings, probably don’t have a chance, but neither do I. Am just here for the fun of the competition.”

Bill looked at his neighbour on the table and found it to be a Plonk. Now Plonks were lovable creatures; spent most of the time jumping around and building craters in the ground. They would then jump into the crater and sleep for a few hours. No-one really knew if and what they ate, but they always seemed to be happy and it was thought that they probably found their food somewhere in the crater.

“Good morning Plonk, I hope it will be fun, but it seems to me that a lot of the competitors are taking things quite serious. I saw a Flung having a fight with a Polyped this morning just because the Polyped laughed at the wings on the Flung’s feet. Afterwards the Flung called the Polyped a three legged halfwit and then the trouble started.”

“I wouldn’t worry about such petty stuff” said the Plonk. “We will just do our best. Of course the prize is quite nice; when I think of the craters I could wish for without making them myself.”

“Tell me Plonk, why are you always building craters?”

“Tell me Human, why are you always conquering other worlds?”

As both were not able to answer the question they decided to end the conversation. It was time for the great event in any case. A Magibrain, that only consisted of a brain, so was neutral and did not take part, announced that the competitors should line up on the start line. He explained further

“Everyone should take their places, each groups of hum, hum, err, species staying together. No mixing of sorts, just to keep it fair.”

The start pistol resounded and they were off. At least all were off except for the Boggles. They had very sensitive hearing and lost all sense of orientation from the noise of the pistol. Bill found that the three Boggles were already out of the race.

The next problem arose amongst the Polypeds. As Bill had suspected, they got their three legs mixed up. Not only that, but they also got entangled with the neighbour’s legs and eventually fell into a heap on the floor. They lost so much time trying to disentangle their legs that they were overlapped by all other runners in the field. It was now a race between our human, Bill, the two Flungs and some Plonks.

“Out of the way you puny human” Bill heard as he was overtaken by the two Flungs. “We will show you what speed is. Now time to use the wings” and Bill saw that the two Flungs had really put their wings into operation, leaving the ground and flying very fast. The problem was that the gravity on planet Everlast was not as strong as that on planet Flugel where the Flungs came from and instead of flying in a direct line they flew so far upwards that they were only a small spot in the sky, so they were out.

It was the final part of the race now between Bill and the Plonks. As there were many Plonks in the race it was hard for Bill to overtake them. On the other hand they kept making stops to build a crater.

Eventually the finishing line was in sight and the last two in the race were Bill and a Plonk. However, just before the finishing line the Plonk decided to build a crater and so Bill was the winner of the day. Bill’s mother was so proud of her son and Bill? He had a feeling he had a good chance of winning. He did some reading before the race about the characteristics of some of the inter planetary organisms and the atmosphere of planet Everlast, so what possibly could go wrong?

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MULTIPLY Creative Challenge #63 - The Kiss

No-one wants to kiss a snake
We have feelings like the others
My mother loved me and so did dad
I had lots and lots of brothers

Brothers say the same, they are so disliked
The humans always scream
I was so unhappy, felt so alone
For me a kiss was a dream

And then one day in my lonely cage
the keeper opened the door
A snake sleeked in, had such beautiful eyes
Seen nothing like it before

We stared at each other and intertwined
She said kiss me and make me feel good
I did not need a second invite
And did just what I could

The result was almost forty eggs
It really was a bliss
It's funny what can happen in life
The result of a passionate kiss

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MULTIPLY Poetry Posse Week 41 - Routine

Up in the morning go to the shower
clean your teeth and it takes an hour
Eat the breakfast bread and jam
Drink the coffee and the door will slam
In the car and off to work
The daily routine of an export clerk

Then one day you have got to old
Your life no longer feels controlled
So up in the morning and go to the shower
clean the teeth taking more than an hour
Eating breakfast with coffee to drink
Just take your time at the kitchen sink

Clean the home in your very own time
No rush or stress, it is not a crime
You are now retired, you are not a machine
Do what you want, but keep a routine
Every morning doing the same
But life has now become a game

There is no have to, or must, it’s a choice
You only listen to your very own voice
Humans are organised, that is a fact
So keep the pattern to stay compact
We will have routine until all is passed
We are nicely organised, until the last

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MULTIPLY Week 9 - The Arrival

“10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 landed. Ok men we are back on the planet earth again; those that have been here before, I don’t have to explain anything, but the others should know that we have had our station on this planet for a few thousand years transmitting its changes and keeping us up to date on the developments. It was a long journey from planet Chilopoda and I am sure that we would like to relax for a few hours and rest our bodies. However the men in our station are impatiently awaiting our arrival that they can return to our planet and be replaced by those of us that will be taking over in the station.”

The space ship’s doors opened and the space visitors left the ship. They were overwhelmed by the height they had to overcome before reaching their target. The Chilopodans were a small sized race in comparison with the now human inhabitants of the planet earth and so sizes were in a large relation to the space ship crew. They were confronted by two high mountains. Wedged between the tips of the mountains was a large round boulder.

“Captain Polyped is that the station, high up between the tips of the mountains? My ancestors that had already visited this planet described the path.”

“Yes men, that is the way to go. For us Chilopodans a long way, but we are experts at walking and it should be no problem.”

And so the brave space visitors began to climb up the path to the space station. They were almost at the top when the scouts that had been sent in advance returned to the Chilopodan team.

“Sir, we have a problem” said the chief scout.

"Tell me” answered the captain.

“The humans are occupying our space station. One of them is standing on the surface.”

“Explain further chief scout. I can see no reason why an inferior human would climb to our station and possess it. Our electronic tracking devices are all inside the boulder. Our ancestors built the station many years ago, and our windows are so small that no human could see them.”

“It seems that the human tendency to show off has again taken the upper hand, sir. The human standing on the stone was placed there by a helicopter. The helicopter is still hovering near bye and a group of humans are filming the human on the stone with cameras; probably to show others how clever he is.”

“Yes, scout, this is the sort of human stupidity we are often confronted with. Not only do they crush our fellow citizens with their feet and not even notice it, but they like to risk their lives climbing places where they do not belong.”

“Shall we attack captain?”

“We have been known to injure members of the human race, but I would advise this only in a Man versus Chilopodan confrontation. We have a mission and this is more important. We will now take a rest and wait for the human show to come to an end. We will remain here well hidden and not approach our station or the humans. In time they will leave when they have their photos. When we placed the stone between the two mountain peaks, there were no humans on this earth. Over the years they developed and are more nuisance than anything good. Our colonists on this planet are forever in danger of losing their lives from the ignorance of the human race. They look upon us as something inferior, but we were here long before they crawled out of the swamps and developed. Through our super telepathic powers we embedded the stone containing our space station between the mountain peaks.”

“It is true captain; I have heard many stories of our colleagues being crushed by the humans, the humans not even noticing that they have taken our lives.”

So the visitors decided to take a rest on the lower slopes. They even found some food whilst they were waiting. The mountain slopes were covered in grass and other vegetation and animals that the Chilopodans preyed on were in abundance. They suddenly heard an ear splitting noise and from their position on the mountain side saw the helicopters rise. The scouts left the group and proceeded to the mountain top.

“Chilopodans, I have just received a message from our scouts using the higher wave lengths. They say that the human has left in the helicopter and everything is now clear. We will advance.”

Eventually the visitors from Chilopoda arrived at their earth station and were welcomed by those that had been working there for the last hundred years. Time has another meaning on Chilopoda. The new arrivals soon took their place in the station, sitting at the radio machines and operating the cameras, observing the humans and registering changes in the earth’s atmosphere. They also had many colonists on the earth who supplied them with useful information.

“10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 lift off. Ok, men I am sure you will be glad to return to our own planet after so many years on the earth, but I hope you enjoyed your stay. It is valuable work you have completed in our station and you have collected valuable knowledge for Chilopoda.”

So the next time you see a centipede crawling along, avoid treading on him. He might be a scientist waiting to return to the planet of Chilopoda after his stay on the earth.

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MULTIPLY Images and Words - Week 12 - Trees

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