Chapter One: A Fruit Bat Named Bruce
Life is hard out there for a young fruit bat.
Hi there!
It’s time for a new story!
I think this will be a fun one. It’s a little story about a fruit bat named Bruce.
Life is hard out there for a young fruit bat. Food can be tricky to track down. Sometimes you need a friend to help you out…
There will be another chapter or two to come.
Would love to know what you think! 😊
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Now, please do enjoy!
Although Bruce was still only a young fruit bat, he was now old enough to hunt for himself. Well, not hunt, but gather.
He would spend his nights searching the trees for fruit to feast on.
He was still quite new to the whole thing. He was still figuring things out. There was a lot of trial and error.
Apples were delicious when they were rotten, but they hurt his teeth when they were too fresh. When they were too fresh, they also tasted overly sour. Speaking of sour, he had gotten himself into trouble by biting into lemons on more than one occasion.
Passion fruit was a favourite, except their tough leathery shell was a nightmare to get through. The best fruit was mangoes. Oh, how Bruce loved mangoes. Soft, velvety, not too sweet, not too tart. Nothing beat a good mango. If Bruce had his way, he would be eating mangoes for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Sadly, though, life out in the wild wasn’t that simple. Finding fruit wasn’t always easy.
Bruce had some nights where he wouldn’t find anything to eat at all. He would search and search and search, but wouldn’t find a single bite-able thing.
He had other nights where he would find something but couldn’t get it off the tree. Those nights were terrible. His prize was right there, but he couldn’t do anything about it.
And then he had some nights where he would feast on something he shouldn’t be feasting on, biting into things that turned out to be foul or that gave him a nasty stomach ache. After all, there’s a lot of things that grow on trees out there in the world. It’s hard to know what’s good to eat and what isn’t. For that, you need experience. Something poor Bruce was sorely missing.
On one particular night, Bruce wasn’t having any luck at all. He was searching and searching and he wasn’t finding anything. His tummy was rumbling and he was feeling defeated.
The air was cold and tasteless and he hadn’t seen another fruit bat in ages. The usual spots hadn’t been any good and he was having to explore a new area of the forest.
That’s when he stumbled across a very familiar and magical smell… mangoes.
If he had been getting tired, he was wide awake again now.
His little nose twitched as he tried to track down the wonderful smell of the mangoes.
He flew down low to the trees and then ducked under the canopy, searching. Eventually, he saw it — the mango tree.
Tummy rumbling, Bruce flew straight for the tree. It was a big one, covered with bright yellow and orange mango spots.
Bruce landed on one of the branches and shuffled out lightly to the edge to check one of the mangoes.
He made it to the mango and picked at it with his teeth. The yellowish skin was tough and he couldn’t quite manage to puncture it.
Bruce hopped across to the next branch to check another mango. It was the same situation. Too tough, too young.
He tried to bite a little harder. His balance was shaky as he finally plunged his teeth into the mango flesh. The tart taste gave him a great big shiver and, in the same moment, he felt his grip slip.
Suddenly, he was plunging through the air.
Bruce landed on the forest floor with a hard thump. His whole body ached.
When he finally opened his eyes, he was greeted by a most strange sight…
A guinea pig.