Ogre

Third Conversation from the Bestiary

Ogre: Noun. [A] hideous giant represented in fairy tales and folklore as feeding on human beings.…The idea of the ogre can also be seen, more broadly, in a metaphoric sense in literature. The seducer who devours his or her victims in a sexual sense is a kind of ogre, as is a political tyrant or dictator who controls and exploits others and in a sense swallows them up.” (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

I am everything, says the Ogre.

You are a lion?

I am a lion.

You are a serpent?

I am a serpent.

You are a wolf?

I am a wolf. I am all of these things and more. I am everything.

Then you are a mouse? A child? You are a dove and a moth and a rabbit?

The Ogre roars. Within his red-black maw are rows upon rows of endless, shifting teeth. Heavy yellow tusks and the sabres of canines and arrowhead shark teeth. Fangs dripping venom, jagged molars, a phalanx of white spears. In the center a hooked beak opens, snaps, and melts back into the darkness and the scent of blood and rotting meat.

I AM EVERYTHING THAT MATTERS.

The girl tosses back her head and laughs. Her teeth are small and her hands are soft. Her voice is high and clear and trembling with mirth.

You are nothing.

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Thank you for reading this, the Third Conversation from the Bestiary.

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Seek the forest. Feed the wolf. Be brave, be clever, be kind.