One day while walking in the meadow looking for plants to eat, I came across a weird looking insect on the daisy stalk. It looked thin but I thought that would do because I was hungry. When I was about to eat it, it said, “Hello!”

I was startled! I got goosebumps; my fur was standing on end throughout my whole body. “Hello, who are you?” I braved myself to ask it. “I am an inchworm,” it replied.

“I am a munchkin cat. What is inchworm? Are you a worm?” I said to it.
“Eww please, I am not a worm. Inchworm is totally different,” it said in an assertive tone.

“How are you different then?” I asked another question. “Well, the worm grows up to be a worm, and I, a geometer moth,” it explained.

“What’s geometer moth?” I asked again with enthusiasm. “Urgh, do I have to tell you everything? Go read a book!” The inchworm was mad.

So I went to the library and look for a book about geometer moth. I read all the basic facts and then went back to see the inchworm at the meadow.

“So, I read that you are also a caterpillar. You will grow up to be a moth. After this, you will become a pupa and then you will bury yourself into the ground,” I said to the inchworm. “Yes, true,” it replied with a sweet smile.

After that we became friends. Every day I would go to meet the inchworm. We would always play hide and seek. Sometimes it took me the whole day to find it while the inchworm took only a few second to find me! So not fair.

One morning, I went to find the inchworm in a panting breath and all wet that I almost looked like a Sphynx or Peterbald. I had been working hard that morning to catch fish in the lake, jumped into the lake, swam and then struggled my butt off to catch the fish. Later ate it until I bloated.

“Why are you panting?” asked the inchworm. So I explained to it what happened, with a burp. “You need to exercise,” it continued.

“Follow after me,” the inchworm said while moving to and fro shifting its body—first one end and then the other—which has the effect of making it arched its long body as it went. No wonder the inchworm looked so thin.

“What are you waiting for? 1, 2, 3… 1, 2, 3…,” the inchworm looked at me wanting me to follow its exercise routine.

So, the inchworm made me do it. 1,2, 3… panting …1, 2, 3… panting…

• 

This is for Prompt #12: An inchworm made me do it, July 2020 writing prompts.

One day, after contemplating for weeks, I decided to climb a rocky mountain. Although I seemed to have the ability to ascend a mountain without difficulty, I was struggling. At every stops that I made, I wipe my sweat and measured it by the bucket. Two buckets of sweat. And then there were tears too; another two buckets. Counted the blood from the bleeding hands and feet from falling several times, the total came up to seven buckets. With ten stops, the big total was seventy buckets. That was the level of my determination to climb the mountain.

So after all the struggles, I finally reached the summit. I was astonished that finally, I got to view the beautiful landscapes with houses that looked so small, cars that looked like insects walking on twigs, fluffy trees with birds flying out of it. While taking in all the beautiful creations of God, I did not realise that a monster was lurking behind the bramble bushes. When I was about to raise my two hands and scream at the top of my lung, the monster pushed me off the ledge and I fell into the ravine. I broke into a thousand pieces. It took me three days to collect all the pieces and glue them all together. I wasn’t the same after that. The cracks changed me.

I walked in the ravine for a while finding my way out. Alone, hungry and thirsty, I hallucinated a lot, I was seeing double. I walked and walked until I fell ill. Right before I fainted, I saw little monsters surrounding me.

When I opened my eyes, the twilight appeared in the sky. The first thing I noticed was the grass that I lay upon. It looked golden when lit by the dawn. The dewdrops seemed like golden pearls ready to roll down the blades of grass and disperse into the earth. I was surrounded by a clowder of cute munchkins with short legs. Each of them carried fish in their mouth to feed me. They accompanied me along my journey out of the ravine. The day that I got out of the ravine, I metamorphosised into a munchkin.

The munchkins taught me everything about life; about taking a path that can lead to food (food means success). They also taught me if we are happy, then that is all the matters. We can climb trees—instead of the mountain—and aim for the insects or birds rather than praises. Work smart rather than work hard because sometimes after all the hard work, the monster will come and huff and puff all your efforts.

So now we are a clowder of munchkins that do whatever each our heart pleases. We poo together, catch fish together, lick dewdrops together, meow and purr together. We even sometimes bundle up together to warm each other as the night falls.

I am thankful that I am a munchkin now. Never ever shall I be a monkey again.

• 

• Prompt #09 for July 2020 Prompts.