“It was instinct, I just let go of them.”

Barnaby gave his partner a withering glance. “I don’t think that was instinct.”

Ellie just shrugged. “I am telling you, mate, that this was absolutely instinctual. I didn’t mean to let go of them but it just happened. I don’t know what it was. Maybe they move too quickly or they were stronger than they looked.”

Barnaby couldn’t hold back a snort of disdain. “Call it what you like, dear, I am going to call it fear.”

“Why on earth would I scared?”

“I don’t know. Maybe it is because they could eat you.”

Ellie turned her back on Barnaby because she did not want him to see that he had touched a nerve. She had been afraid, of course, she had been afraid. She didn’t know the fear of being eaten exactly, but the hurt was definitely high in her thoughts. “Or maybe I just think that they are better in the wild. They are wild animals after all.”

Barnaby gave the swish of his tail to show his annoyance. “You are aware, of course, that so are we. You have just let our lunch slip away for no reason.”

Written for flash fiction for the purposeful practitioner