The Talking Animal

A flash fiction on a talking animal

She was a beautiful child. But, she was a very different type of baby. Bright golden hair adorned her head and piercing blue eyes held the gaze of anyone who looked at her.

Her mother Akila couldn’t explain how her one baby was so unlike the others. She named her Maya because she seemed like an illusion. But Maya was very real and a delightful child. When she was young, she played all the games with her brothers and sisters. They treated her as one of them.

At first, Akila thought Maya would never walk. All she did was crawl around when her siblings had already started running around.
Maya watched them with sadness. She couldn’t understand why she was so weak. Akila sensed her daughter’s feelings and hugged her tightly in her warmth.

A day came when Maya got up and took her first tentative steps. Maya turned to her mother with a big smile. Akila had never seen that before and knew her baby had grown up.

Soon, Maya was running around and proved to be smarter than others her age.

Then, something happened one day.

It was late afternoon and Maya had wandered off alone deep in the forest. Suddenly, she heard footsteps. Before she could hide, they were upon her. She had never seen such creatures before. They walked like her but covered their bodies with something.

There was a little girl in the group. She approached Maya. “Hello, what are you doing alone in the forest?” she said.

Maya didn’t know understand the sounds but she was able to form, in her mouth, one or two words the girl had spoken.

She was excited and couldn’t wait to go home and tell Akila about her new found skill.

Her wolf mother would be very proud!