‘Is it a trap?’
They both looked at the orange in the middle of the path. Then they looked at it each other and shrugged simultaneously. Moving in the opposite direction, they circled the fruit.
‘It doesn’t look like a trap,’ one of the sisters muttered.
‘No, it doesn’t. But neither did the mango.’
The joined each other at the other side of the orange. The tallest one moved towards it.
‘What are you doing?!’
‘Kicking it.’
‘No! Remember what happened when you kicked the apple!’ She shook her head. ‘Of course you don’t remember, they did a proper job then. They deserved to win, that day. ’
The youngest stopped moving towards it and stepped back. Frowning at her sister, she took the bow from her back and nocked an arrow. An eyebrow shot up while she looked next to her, questioning.
‘Fine. Shoot it, we’ll see what happens. Ugh, if only we could ignore it. Just, let’s walk back a bit further. I haven’t done well yet, protecting you.”
With a grin, the tall one stepped back several steps alongside the other woman. She hurriedly nocked the arrow again and let it fly, before her big sis could say anything else. They both ducked as soon as the arrow let loose. It hit, perfect shot. Nothing seemed to happen.
‘At least it’s not trigger-fire,’ she heard whispered beside her. ‘I’ll get your arrow, you stay here. You’ve been the victim often enough.’
She walked up slowly to the pierced arrow. Cautiously, she pulled at the arrow. It was stuck in the ground but after a few good tugs it came loose, orange and all. Even more careful, she touched the orange slightly with the tip of her smallest finger. Nothing happened, so she moved to slide it off the arrow, squeezing it first. From the moment it was freed, a sparkling purple cloud flowed out of it, and she looked up in disgust.
‘Siestasmoke. We lose again.’ She collapsed.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Inspired by finding an abandoned orange while on our way out of a nearly empty mall. I asked my partner: ‘is it a trap?’