Story-A-Day #75: Heron Pond

HERON POND

My world is a misleading one, dude. Sure on the surface, it seems all safe and tranquil, especially in the shallow waters near the shore. I’m not even kidding when I say this though: that’s where the danger lives man.

Still, I like it by the shore; the warmth from the sun is nice. A little further out, you can feel the cool water flowing in from the underground springs that feed this pond and even for a cold blooded creature like me, it’s a noticeable difference. Yeah, that sunshine is nice.

Still, the spring water keeps things fresh. There’s other ponds out there that get all skanky and covered in slime, but here, there’s enough movement to keep things clear. We’re lucky that way.

Still, it’s best not too get too comfortable, you know what I mean?

I’ll swim around all day, but the closer I get to the shore, to the delicious larvae and crayfish that hide out in the rocks, the closer I get to them. Death comes from above, man: they are the sentinels, evil long legged beasts that will pluck you right out of the water with one vicious stab.

They’re tricky, those birds. You can keep one eye on the surface all you want, but half the time, even if you do spot one, you’ll just end up thinking it’s a stump anyway. And when you get them against a blue sky, they’re that much harder to spot.

I know. It probably sounds like I’m just whining right now. I suppose I am to a degree, but still, it’s a simple life we fish live, and these damn blue herons just complicate things.

I miss the good old optimistic days where all we would do is try the best we can. You know, big fish eat the little ones, and so forth. There was a natural order to it all and then these big blue brutes flew in and threw it all into chaos.

I used to dart and dash around this pond. Hell, when the sun went down and there was still a soft glow in the sky during the summer months, I would jump right out of the water. Seriously dude. I’d do these crazy aerials and fill my face with flies. Those days were heaven, man.

Now you gotta watch out everywhere for their twiggy little legs and that cold flickering burst of instant death.

Still, things could be worse. We’ve got a healthy population here. I met this school a few days ago and they were telling me how they had migrated from a pond that tasted like iron. There was all this junk in it that had turned the water sour. Can you believe it? Those guys had it rough. Seriously, every one of them was this ugly grey colour and their scales were going all smooth and fleshy. They did not look good.

So I guess having a few herons to watch out for is a pretty mild concern. Plus, it keeps you sharp you know. You see the odd fluorescent worm bouncing along and you know it’s gonna end bad, but when you can barely see death coming… It’s kind of a buzz man!