Impact!

Tasmanian Tigers
by Theodora Downing
February 9, 2009

“Mommy, where are you going?” Lolu asked .
“Out hunting,” she said boldly.
She jumped out of the tree trunk.
“Mommy, what’s for dinner?” asked Lolu.
“Emu,” said Hina boldly again.

Alright — let’s introduce the family:
Lolu, female cub
Kolo, another female cub
Marklu, male cub
Hina, mother Tasmanian Tiger

Back to the story–

Hina ran out of sight.

I, Kolo, am telling the story.
Lolu, Marklu and I cuddled together waiting for Mom to return. Then I heard a sound: klunk bonk bonk poaw klunk bonk.
Don’t ask me — I’ve never heard it before.

But I was worried about Mom. Marklu seemed to be worried too but Lolu did not look like it.

Then Mommy came back with a small weird animal that was fluffy and white like a weird thing that I’d see every now and then in the day and then Marklu or Mom would say “It’s the middle of the day, go back to sleep.” Or Lolu would say to Mom, “Mommy, Kolo’s not sleeping and it’s the middle of the day.”

Well anyway, the animal said a weird sound like this: “baaaaaa.”
I thought about the poaw and all that and I thought one thing: baaaaaa is for bad.

We ate the weird animal and went to sleep. I saw a big orange thing rise into the sky and then I saw the fluffy thing again in the sky and then Mom woke up and said “Kolo, go back to sleep.” I had been caught.

So I went to sleep and the next day we ate Emu. Then we heard another klunk bonk sound.

The next day was even weirder. Big animals with big manes came when Mom was hunting. When she came back we told her about them. She said “Nonsense, cubbies. Sometimes you have to be careful about tricks.”

This repeated day after day and when we told Mom about them she said “Don’t repeat a joke, cubbies.”
But not informing Mom would be even worse…

One day when we were asleep, something was strange. It was hotter than average weather is Tasmania. Smoke sizzled and… and…

All of a sudden, Mom said, “Cubbies! Wake up and run! Now!”

We ran and ran. Then I heard a PAOW PAOW PAOW. Marklu and I turned around and saw Hina and Lolu dead.

We hid as the animals with manes came. I realized they were humans with big hats. I looked up at the fluffy white thing and Marklu said “That’s a cloud.” “So, we ate a cloud?” I said. “Maybe,” he said.

Years and days passed and we learned that our relatives were dead. I forgot how, but Marklu and I remained. Marklu seemed to be sad. I did too.

One night, Marklu went out hunting. He came back with Emu. “This is the last one,” he said.

All of a sudden, people came and ran after us. I put my paw out to Marklu’s, but he was gone.

The people took me to a silver cave with no roof and no opening. They gave me strange food that was dark brown and was in the shape of a circle. I heard them calling it ‘doggy treats.’

Sometimes children come and look at me.

I’m all alone and I wonder if Marklu is still out there.

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