Native Growth

A flash fiction tale of territorial terror

For the Prompt Response with Jay & Andrew

I have been here for centuries.

Long before the people arrived. Long before they built their towns at the edges of my skirts.

I have cared for the animals, provided them shelter and sustenance.

But the people have slowly encroached onto my land. Killing my fauna. Foraging my flora. Hacking at my limbs. Exhuming my extremities.

But no more.

For I have had enough.

I will no longer succumb to their will to shrink me. With the rush of a windblown storm, I now expand, sending tendrils outward to the invaders: uprooting their homes, consuming their flesh, rending it all into so much mulch; drinking their coppery blood, nurturing my roots.

I have been here for centuries.

And this land is mine.