Satisfaction

• Andrew Petersen, Grade 9
• Short Story
• 2015

It was a normal day in Verdeviste, the forest of joy and honour. Fin slithered out of his cave. He was hungry. He looked along the ground, looking and smelling for some trace of food that could satisfy his hunger. He hadn’t eaten in days, and he was in more of a rush than usual. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed something. He could smell it, too… a mouse.
“Mmm,” Fin thought to himself, “This’ll make for a nice meal.” He slowly crept towards the mouse. However, after spending some moments navigating the vast and mighty, majestic forest, he soon found his path blocked. He had come across the Lake of Destiny, a lake that Fin’s ancestors had never dared to cross. A shiver ran down his long, scaly spine. Surely, he could not cross the Lake, for he would be doomed to the mercy of the demons that lay resting at the bottom of it! Fin began to turn away - until his stomach grumbled, and reminded him of his need. He needed to get to the other side, for otherwise he would surely starve to death. Fin snuck back to the lake’s edge, and looked down at the lake. He saw the ghosts of the lake’s previous victims glaring up at him, staring directly into his soul. He had to do it. He had no choice. He had to get across. Fin started smoothly gliding through the deep, freezing cold water. It was as if the water was piercing through his skin. Fin had never experienced fear like this in his life. He started panicking, and started rushing to the other side of the lake. Then the unthinkable happened – he felt something brush past him.
“This is the end,” he thought to himself as he closed his eyes. He was expecting to feel the blow any moment, the fatal strike that would be the last pain he ever experienced. He heard it before he felt it. After that, his vision went completely black.

Fin awoke – he was even hungrier than before. The memories of what had just occurred flooded back into his mind. How the serpent that rested at the bottom of the lake had been disturbed by him entering the water, and how he could hear his ancestors fighting against the serpent. That was all he remembered, before he’d woken up on the other side of the Lake. Fin then remembered his task. The mouse was obliviously still sitting there, within reach. Fin silently slithered through the long grass, around and behind the mouse. He struck out. The taste of fresh blood and meat satisfied him beyond what words could describe. He had never eaten a better meal in his life. He slithered away to find somewhere where he could rest once more, his long, scaly body moving slowly along the warm ground. Fin was satisfied.