A story I wrote several years back. Hope you enjoy it.
It is very short.
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Ching stared at the bars of the cage, the cage that had been her home for almost a decade now, ever since the men had come and taken her from the bamboo forests of China. She had lived happily in those forests for a long time, but now she was in this cage, and what little attempts the men made to make it like her former home, the paltry bamboo and scattering of stones, where useless, this cage would never be like her glorious former home. There was no freedom here, there were boundaries here, boundaries which didn't exist in China and freedom which did, the food (Bamboo) was not fresh, neither was the water, unlike the fresh bamboo forests and springs back in China.
The bars of the cage may have been tall and straight like bamboo but were completely different, these were hard, inflexible and black, whereas the bamboo was soft, flexible and a pale yellow. She stared sadly at the shadows outside the cage, at the shadows of other cages, cages such as those of tigers, lions and penguins. All of them were trapped too, in the same bleak surroundings with the same weak attempts at the recreation of their former homes. She turned fromthe bars and shifted her huge bulk on the thin layer of straw attempting to get comfortable, attempting to sleep.
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Sunlight and excited voices, intermingled with the sound of feet broke her from her deep slumber, shifting her into reality and out of the dark twisted realm of sleep and dreams. A little child one hand clutched protectively by his mother the other holding an icecream stared at her, laughing and squealing in delight. A part of the seemingly endless torture she would have to endure, children and adults alike, pointing and yelling at her, some throwing things, food and objects, objects like balls with no intent to harm, but others like rocks with every intent to harm.
A torment that would never end, unless she escaped this place, a feat she had attempted often when she was younger but now in sadness and age, she could not bring herself to do, much less have the capacity to succeed. Her thoughts were no relegated to making the most out her days here, which would never end as far as she knew.
"Look the panda's sad, Mummy"
It was the child who said it, the child who unlike so many others understood her emotions enough to read them. Looking at the boy she saw hope, not for herself or the other residents of this Zoo as it was called, but for future pandas, elephants and other animals, a hope that they'd be better off, left in the wild or if taken, If, then at the very least they'd live comfortably.
She was still sad, but now something accompanyed that sadness; Hope.
It is very short.
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Ching stared at the bars of the cage, the cage that had been her home for almost a decade now, ever since the men had come and taken her from the bamboo forests of China. She had lived happily in those forests for a long time, but now she was in this cage, and what little attempts the men made to make it like her former home, the paltry bamboo and scattering of stones, where useless, this cage would never be like her glorious former home. There was no freedom here, there were boundaries here, boundaries which didn't exist in China and freedom which did, the food (Bamboo) was not fresh, neither was the water, unlike the fresh bamboo forests and springs back in China.
The bars of the cage may have been tall and straight like bamboo but were completely different, these were hard, inflexible and black, whereas the bamboo was soft, flexible and a pale yellow. She stared sadly at the shadows outside the cage, at the shadows of other cages, cages such as those of tigers, lions and penguins. All of them were trapped too, in the same bleak surroundings with the same weak attempts at the recreation of their former homes. She turned fromthe bars and shifted her huge bulk on the thin layer of straw attempting to get comfortable, attempting to sleep.
---------------------------------
Sunlight and excited voices, intermingled with the sound of feet broke her from her deep slumber, shifting her into reality and out of the dark twisted realm of sleep and dreams. A little child one hand clutched protectively by his mother the other holding an icecream stared at her, laughing and squealing in delight. A part of the seemingly endless torture she would have to endure, children and adults alike, pointing and yelling at her, some throwing things, food and objects, objects like balls with no intent to harm, but others like rocks with every intent to harm.
A torment that would never end, unless she escaped this place, a feat she had attempted often when she was younger but now in sadness and age, she could not bring herself to do, much less have the capacity to succeed. Her thoughts were no relegated to making the most out her days here, which would never end as far as she knew.
"Look the panda's sad, Mummy"
It was the child who said it, the child who unlike so many others understood her emotions enough to read them. Looking at the boy she saw hope, not for herself or the other residents of this Zoo as it was called, but for future pandas, elephants and other animals, a hope that they'd be better off, left in the wild or if taken, If, then at the very least they'd live comfortably.
She was still sad, but now something accompanyed that sadness; Hope.