Bugbear Bureaucracy
November 07, 2015 - 211 words
Twenty bugbears lined up in a perfect row, their effervescent uniforms sparkling in the blinding light of the mess hall. Nobody knew what was going on. More bureaucratic trouble, thought Bugbear #15. Fifteen was #15’s favorite number so there was no complaining there. Just got lucky on that one. They’d all been summoned for another exercise. Bugbear training. What was the point of these drills? No point. Just more roses in the rose garden. That was a saying that his father liked to say. He’d never explained it, so Bugbear 15 just said it whenever he got the chance. It made him sound literate in any case. And you gotta stand out in a crowd however you can, especially when you’re a bugbear.
Where was Bugbear #1? The confused chatter of this ridiculous menagerie was too much; gossip leaked out of their mouth holes like sap from a dying redwood. Man he was thirsty. Just the thought of sap made him shake like a feather in the desert. Like a rose in the rose garden. He’d used that metaphor already. He had to start thinking laterally. That’s how you stand out! Like an iris in a rose garden. Yeah that’s more like it. That’s deep. That belonged in a holy book.