My Story

• Lucian Samuels, Grade 5, Neutral Bay Public School
• Short Story
• 2018

Excellence Award in the 'Horizon of Dreams 2018' competition

I always knew I was different, unusual blue stripes over my chest. My herd say I'm bad luck and there'll be a drought if I don't go away. I wipe those thoughts from my mind.
I'm grazing, when I hear a noise. It sounds like Old-Lion roaring. Humans step out of the growling beast. I've heard about these humans. Once they took you, you never returned. They were holding weapons that spat fire. I start to gallop across the grassy plains.
Gunshots are fired. I fear for my life.
Something hits me in the leg. I collapse, hit the ground with immense force. Everything goes black.
When I wake, a light is shining in my face, I think I'm home, however, this isn't home, I assume I'm in a cage. I try to move, but realise I can't, I'm trapped. My throat, dry as a river in a drought.
I wonder what my family are thinking.
Stop worrying, I scold myself.
I ram the cage, something feels different. My antlers are gone. They must have taken them. I feel useless without my prized possessions.
One of my captors approaches the cage and opens it. He holds a small tube filled with liquid. I remember this instrument from when other animals have been stabbed by this.
He says something that I do not comprehend, but it sounds mean.
I realise that I haven't escaped my cage yet. I start to gallop out, whilst the man stands in my way. I can't turn, I'm going too fast. I knock him over.
I also hit the cold floor. Everything goes black again.
When I awake, more people are present. A young woman and an elderly man. I hear them talking "Taxidermy". I don't know what that means.
The first man is talking to them. I despise him.
The young woman with the icy eyes holds shears and an elderly man holds a plucking instrument. I hide in the back corner of the cage, like a timid baby. The woman ushers me out. Whilst leaving the cage, I feel a pinch. She takes a hair to examine under the microscope.
The elderly man stabs my back. My blood stops rushing. When I come out of my deep sleep, I feel different. The sensation is unnerving, now I have no eyes!
My soul is missing, my antlers and my eyes are missing....I am at a loss.
I struggle to move. I'm on a wooden pole. I'm blind. I now have glass eyes. This body is no longer mine.
I've been here for two years now.
Those terrible people have put me up for show, a museum artefact. I have to be on display for all the gawking eyes to see. This is worse than being dead.
If you ever become a taxidermist, you're one of the worst people in the world. All they do is kill, kill and kill. They are a disgrace to the living.
So that's my terrible story, what's yours?