Gnat Wind

The short story of Wilden the Gnat.

The winds of March blew strong, hard and long. But Wilden knew his day had arrived. He would swarm today. Then find food. Then a mate.

Being as small as a gnat has its trials. But it also has its benefits. Being small you’re not easily seen. But the winds are tough!

Finding shelter isn’t hard, but a gnat must be cautious. You never know what lurks just beneath the next leaf: warmth of home or belly!

Gnats don’t need much to eat. A bit of juice. A tidbit of rotting meat. But March is not an easy time to find either. Life has trials.

Fortunately for Wilden, the sun decided to shine on this blustery March day and he found a bit of fruit tossed aside by a human. Bless ’em.

Wilden’s little eye beamed with delight when he picked up the scent of the fruit. He flew straight for the juicy smell. Just as he…

approached the fruit, he noticed a large dark shadow covering him! As fast as his little wings could beat, he made for a crumpled leaf.

No sooner had he ducked in, when the whole leaf crushed down on top of him; pinning him to the cold earth below. He couldn’t move.

Suddenly there was a loud bursting sound and light began to appear in random parts of the leaf. Wilden didn’t know what to make of it?

After all, he was only 24 hours old. He’d not been around long enough to learn much yet. But his education was quickly catching up. He was

in grave danger. And somehow he knew he was, too. Wilden tried to squirm free; no use. Four of his six legs were pinned down. He was in

big trouble! The holes of light were multiplying and getting closer to him. Suddenly the area around him exploded and he was tossed up.

Up, up, up … past the beak of a giant black monster with a golden eye that somehow missed Wilden’s blast to freedom. Amazingly his little

wings began to beat and off he went. Just as fast as he could fly, he beelined it for a bush. When he made it he was a mess. Scared and

bruised, Wilden took stock of his condition. Nothing broken – banged up – but not broken. His wings were a bit wrinkled, but they worked.

He was alive and could tell about it! Hooray! Boy, could he use a bit nibble of that fruit juice. But he wasn’t going in that direction.

As Wilden contemplated his situation, he caught the faint whiff of a sweet aroma. Popped back to reality, he began scanning the area.

The scent was coming from off his right wing. Though Wilden had over 300 complex eyes, he couldn’t see what made the scent. Maybe he did

but just didn’t recognized what he was looking at. Wilden was still pretty shaken by his recent brush with becoming a meal himself, so he

was bit leery about venturing across the open space to find the source of that sweet, sweet smell. But hunger took over and he slowly

crept out toward the edge of the leaf and into the light. He didn’t see any danger and the odor was making him so very hungry. As he

neared the edge of the leaf, Wilden began to see color. White and yellow- though he didn’t know them as such – he recognized them from

deep recess in his tiny clump of neural cells. Somehow he knew that was food. Nervously glancing back and forth, ratcheting his next back

back and forth in rapid succession, Wilden scanned the open area for danger. He didn’t see any. He was scared beyond his wits – which

meant he didn’t have to go to far to be beyond them. None-the-less, he was scared! But hunger took over. Suddenly he was up and flying.

Once again he was buffeted by the cold March wind, but relentlessly, Wilden made for the colors and the smell. Up and down, back and forth

his course haphazard his little soft body across the opening. Amazingly, he flew right to the colors. When Wilden finally settled on the

wide green leaf, he was nearly knocked out by the power of the aroma. He just thought about sucking the air; surely that would be enough?