Hypersensitivosaurus sat down in the shade of an old fig tree. He didn't know it by that name though. He didn't even know about the existence of fruit. Raptors ate meat and fish after all.
And let's be honest, it felt far from a vic-t'ry to him. He was at a loss, about to give up.
This night he had not been able to make his last hunt - a highly important one - a success. And now he was literally starving. He felt so very tired that the only thing he could think of was sleep, even though he had to eat.
He was still young and didn't really grasp the gravity of the situation, the fact that he was getting weaker and weaker. He wasn't aware yet that he was slowly changing from the hunter into the hunted.
But, then again, all this took place long before ( the law of ) gravity was discovered, so he couldn't really help it.
And then, when he had laid himself down and was about to doze off in a dreamless sleep, it suddenly hit him.
POK
What was that?
He opened his raptor eyes, equipped with automatic night vision, scratched his head where the thing had struck him and focused on the earth next to him.
There was a small round thing that hadn't been there before.
He sniffed at the clearly ripe, sweet smelling fruit and swept it towards his mouth with his long tail. His short, funny looking arms weren't of much help with grabbing stuff.
He popped the fig into his beastly mouth and let it lay there for a while on his huge tongue, as would someone treasuring his last piece of candy do.
It didn't taste meaty, nor did it taste fishy ( the latter was a good thing. In fact, it wasn't too bad at all.
That night, he got himself a stomach full of ripe figs. Something that he would regret in the next couple of days, as it lead to severe bouts of diarrhea.
But, all in all, you could say that this was the moment where what seemed to be a defeat, got turned around into a victory. All thanks to the fig tree.
Some Notes on the Process
Although I mentioned recently that I'm working on changing my 50 thousand Nanowrimo words ( that were meant to be a novel ) into a children's book, I have had some more ideas lately. One of those ideas, that got more detailed today, is to see if I can come up with 52 little stories ( like today's ) on Hypersensitivosaurus, who I also like to call Little Hyper or Li'l Hyper.
I know it sounds like a lot but I have my nove material to forage from, so that helps a little bit.
For those of you who haven't been following my creative process so far,
the main character of my yet to be finished novel is hypersensitivosaurus ( that is, besides the writer figure who's working on his novel called 'The Story of Hypersensitivosaurus' ).
In other words, the 'dino world' is the story inside the story. This overly sensitive velociraptor, kind of started to live his own life and outgrew the book. And now he's trying to steal the show.
It's a story about hypersensitivity, mindfulness and transformation. The little lizard goes through a change from hyper- towards supersensitivosaurus. The latter is almost like a superhero / -dino.
Today - while going on a little hike and sitting down in the Portuguese nature ( or should I say 'natureza' ), I pictured stories like the one with the fig tree ( where li'l hyper is still kind of a loser ) to be alternated with those where he's changing into Li'l Super.
I imagined the Supersensitivosaurus part to be on the other side of the page.
The reason I came up with the number 52 is because I picture this to possible be a year calendar or some kind of mix between a notebook and a calendar and there's 52 weeks in a year.
In Conclusion
My creative process is unique ( we are all unique ) and inpredictable and - although I could be more focused - this is how I am. I honestly have no doubt that just going with the flow and following my gut feeling - while taking the time - will lead to the best result.
Meanwhile , I hope you enjoy the bits and pieces of my journey that I throw to you.
Signed,
Hypersensitivosaurus
For those who even read my footnotes... The image on top of this post was drawn by me, an hour or two ago. For the color black, I used small pieces of burnt wood, that I picked up days ago, on a walk. These chunks of charcoal are remnants of the devastating wild fires that took place here - and in other parts of Portugal - in October 2017.
In case you have to and want to catch up on the journey of my favorite lizard, here's a recent Hypersensitivosaurus post, where I'm linking to a couple of even older write ups, dating back to September:
Hypersensitivosaurus - From Computer Game to Novel to Children's Book
