The Caged Bat Sings

The darkness is never true darkness. It is never what we once knew. The bright lights just beyond our tiny exhibit, this small, damp mockery of a cave, shine in our small, beady eyes, blinding us. The quiet stillness of our old cave is gone, replaced with loudness and movement and constant sounds, so many sounds, everywhere and all the time. There are no creatures besides us, not here. They are also prisoners, no doubt, locked away from us in more of these cramped, miserable, false versions of our home.

It is nothing short of cruel, what they have done to us. It is the very definition of the word. It is not right, this life. It is not real. This is not what we had. This is not what we want.

Slobbering, greasy human children peer through glass windows at us, all day every day without fail. The children hate us, even from afar. When one of us gets close, simply flying a short distance to land somewhere new in this cramped, ugly place, they back away or shriek or cry, clinging to their mothers. The best we can hope for from them is an excitable point in our direction, perhaps a a wistful, curious smile.

It is not as if it makes a real, true difference, though. I desire no skewed sense of approval from these humans. I want no such thing from these little fiends. Their people are the reason we are stuck in this place. They do not know who they disgrace. They do not know what I am, where I once dwelled. What this small, spindly, wicked body can do.

The might of me, of us, has always been underestimated. To them, the humans, this is enough. The immense aura of us in this small exhibit alone is frightening to them. If only they had come across my family in the cave! The disgust on their twisted human faces beyond these thick glass walls would morph into looks of fear if they saw how many of my brothers and sisters gathered in one place, if they knew how fast and far these thin black wings could glide.

If the glass would just disappear and I could return home to that darkness, my true darkness, I would give it all. I would fly for miles, fly and fly and fly. I would pump my wings and soar around this wretched place in the broad daylight if I had to, as many times as I could possibly manage. I would circle these children until the phantom sound of my flapping and fluttering rings in their ears for all their lives and they cannot dig it out. I would bare my small, sharp fangs against any opponent to take back what is mine. The owls, the snakes, even the lions outside. And I would fight them with all I have. Even if the result leaves me in tatters, as it surely would, the opportunity would have been enough. The chance alone would be worth it.

That is all I want. That is all we want.

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That’s that! I hope you guys enjoyed. Bats are some of the most unique, incredible and fearsome creatures on this planet and I hope I did them some justice here.

Please check out Belle’s unofficial In The Animal’s Mind challenge before the deadline, tomorrow May 31st! Think about writing a little something. I would love to attach it here down below for all you guys, but I am an absolute dupe when it comes to links and files and I have no idea how to do that on my phone 😂

Thanks to everyone for reading!