Meanwhile, as Sebastian snuggled happily in his tank as he awaited his next meal, a cricket named Scottie was busy at work with the other crickets in the hold. He was Master Scott, cricket ninja. He taught the crickets survival skills to avoid being eaten by the reptiles when time comes. Basic skills like running away, staying alert, power by numbers, and the best of all, hiding out until sunset, when the crickets can take over the tank and take revenge on the sleeping reptile. It was a hard life, but Scottie hoped that his hard lessons paid off. He heard of a few survival stories, like a mass escape tactic, where most of the crickets got away with only a few fatalities.
Scottie is one of the older crickets, and one of the wisest too. He has been avoiding The Hand ever since he was young, and lo' and behold, now he is the oldest cricket. The thing about Scottie was that he was fascinated with fruit flies. A creature that was smaller than himself! Now that was bizarre.
Anyways, later on in the day, as he was idling around on an egg carton, he saw one. It was the tiniest think he'd ever seen! So, beautiful! He was so amazed at this sight he didn't notice The Hand coming down. It grabbed the egg carton, and before he could jump off, he was dumped into a clear bag. "No!" He screamed, "not now!" His hands slipped down the clear plastic bag. The cries of the other trapped crickets drowned his own voice. "Not now."
The next ten minutes were a chaotic frenzy. his fellow crickets ran around banging on the walls and screaming for help. They were walking over each other, trying to find a way out. They even tried biting into the walls but to no avail. Scottie remained calm, hoping a miracle would happen. The other crickets asked him what to do, but Scottie couldn't think of anything. Everything he taught the crickets before couldn't be done.
Suddenly they were picked up again and the bag was opened. Some of his friends tried to jump out of the bag but it was too high up. this white stuff was sprinkled over them and the bag was shaken. He tossed and turned and did somersaults all over the bag, stunning him momentarily. Still, he didn't know what was going on, until he saw the Reaper. A grim, ashen looking cricket wearing a dark cloak, holding a curved stick. He was standing upright, looking straight at him. He winked and vanished, just like that. He knew the Reaper had marked him, and that death was inevitable. They were then dumped out of the bag and Scottie was momentarily stunned.
The next thing he knew, he was staring into the face of a bearded dragon. Scottie hopped incredibly fast and hid somewhere, Sebastian right on his tail. It seemed that the lizard lost sight of him, and went to pursue the other thirty crickets that were hopping around. Soon though, he was the only one left, but Sebastian hadn't seen him yet. Scottie was famished, so he found some lettuce in the tank and was nibbling on it as silently as he could, but Sebastian's ears had perked up. The lizard looked straight at him, and walked over to the source of the noise. Scottie froze, and moved so slowly he didn't appear to be moving. Sebastian did the same, knowing that any sudden movements would involve the cricket hopping away so fast he couldn't catch it. So they continued to move in slow, steady movements, one pursuing, the other fleeing, until Scottie noticed the oddest thing; a beautiful fruit fly that slowly drifted around the tank. He turned around to get a better view of it, then Sebastian attacked. Swallowing Scottie whole.
So was the end of Scottie the Cricket.
The fly then drifted around and landed on the Reaper's stick. "Fate is an inevitable thing." He chuckled, tapped his stick against the ground twice, then he faded and vanished without a trace.
The End.