Story #3

It was the annual retreat for the local town's music club. The six-person club was made up of four women and two men who shared a love for all things music. Each of them had a specific instrument that they played: Candice played the clarinet, Tom tickled the trombone, Seth was a master at the saxophone, Gladice strummed the guitar, Barbara played the bagpipes and Patricia was a prodigy at the piano. They all brought their instruments with them to the campsite where they would spend the next four days and three nights, all except Patricia who figured it would be a little tough to bring a piano into the woods; can you blame her?

Each night the group would gather around the campfire and play their favorite symphonies. They would find broken tree libs and stumps and create a stage and seating as the creatures of the forest would hear the breathtaking music and stop in to listen. The group was having the time of their lives. They were doing what they loved with who they loved. They became a family.

The next morning, Patricia awoke to a squeal from outside her tent and peered out to see one of the squirrels who attended the concert the night before shivering in fear on the grass. Patricia woke her fellow group members and ushered them to the tiny animal and all of them listened to the squirrel as it attempted to tell the group that it saw something behind the trees that was much bigger than him. The squirrel told them that it was a terrifying beast that was surely here to cause them harm.

"It was ten times my size," uttered the squirrel. "It stared at me and it's eyes were as red as fire."

The group knew that this place was no longer safe for them and that they would need to leave soon, but none of them could forget the feeling of excitement and accomplishment they had from the night before at the concert and they felt like they needed to do it just one more time before leaving.

"We'll be extremely careful and keep our eyes peered the whole time," said Seth. "If at any point we feel uncomfortable, we can stop playing and leave."

So that night they held one more concert before they had to leave the next morning. This concert was even better than the last, tears flowed from their faces as they played and each of them absolutely loved doing it.

As they were preparing to sleep that night after the concert, Candice looked outside her tent and saw a mighty beast circling the campsite. Just like the little squirrel said, the beast was as tall as the trees and had eyes like fire. Candice quietly and calmly woke the others and told them about what she saw. She told them that a beast five times her size with the mouth of a thousand teeth and fiery eyes was outside and that they needed to hatch a plan to escape quickly before the beast found them. Seth would go first. He would get out about a hundred feet and then play his saxophone as loud as he could to draw the beast towards him so that Candice could then start her escape. Candice would then run far away and play her clarinet to get the beast away from Seth. They would continue this plan until it was Patricia's turn. Because she did not have an instrument with her she would need to go last so she had even a slight chance to get away.

It was time. They looked at each other as though they knew the danger that they would soon face and got together for a group hug before Seth grabbed his saxophone, looked out and made a run for it. The beast, who was hiding behind the trees, heard Seth's saxophone and went after him. Then Candice went and played her clarinet so that the beast would stop chasing Seth. Their plan was going perfectly and it was finally Patricia's turn. She took a deep breath and made her way out. She made it only about ten feet before she ran straight into the beast, but the beast was not alone. The beast had each of the five other group members with him and a baby grand piano. The beast had been lurking in the woods while the group had their concerts and saw that Patricia had nothing to play, so he went out and got her piano for her. That night the group had another concert, but this time the beast was their lead vocalist and became the group's seventh member.

Author's Note: I took inspiration for this story from "The Swallowing Monster." In the original story, there was a group of hunters who were looking for deer while on their hunting retreat. Each morning one of the members would find a dead deer outside of their campsite while they were on their way to a creek to get water. One night one of the members looked outside their tent and saw a monster and they hatched a plan for their escape. They would go one by one and scream as loud as they could to get the monster to follow them. The monster, however, caught each one of them except for a little girl who found the home of a spider and the spider kept her safe until the spider's wife got jealous and turned the girl into a frog (pretty odd story). I changed the characters and gave them a musical background, and I also gave the beast (who was a friendly beast) the same kind of love for music that the group had. I wanted this to have a happy ending and hopefully make more sense than the original story did haha. Poor Patricia was feeling left out because she could not bring her piano so, the beast helped her out and she got to play with her friends. I hope you enjoyed it!

Bibliography: "The Swallowing Monster" by Pliny Earle Goddard (1911)