Flash Fiction Friday – Is this your wormling?

It’s not terribly uncommon for me to write flash fic based on my own dreams but today I’m coming at you with a twist – flash fic based on my spouse’s dream. A silly piece that I hope you enjoy!

Is this your wormling?

Amir was enjoying his entree and the fact that all of the people sitting near him seemed too wrapped up in their own conversations to make small talk when he realized his elbow was wet. Wet and… nibbled on? That was definitely the light graze of a tooth he just felt. Looking down, he spotted something lumpy and vaguely grey sitting on the chair next to him, a fleshy mouth clamped around a good portion of his forearm. It was some kind of Saturnian wormling, about the size of a Cocker Spaniel and with several dark-grey lumps on its large head and down it’s back. In its defense, it wasn’t biting his arm so much as gumming it. 

He was pretty sure he’d seen the lady sitting across from him walk in with one in tow, so he leaned forward a little and cleared his throat, the wormling following the movement unperturbed. “Excuse me, ma’am,” Amir said. “Excu- ah, yes, your…” He glanced down at the thing again, then back to the woman in the purple hat who had now shifted her attention from the person on her right to him. “Your pet appears to have attached itself to my elbow.”

“Has he?” the woman said brightly. “Oh, how lovely! He hardly ever does that. It means he likes you!”

“I see.”

“Just give him a scritch between the bumps if he gets too toothy. I’m so glad he’s made a friend!” With that, she turned back to her conversation partner.

Amir blinked. He wasn’t sure what reaction he’d expected but that wasn’t it. He felt a wet squish around his elbow and looked down at his strange table mate. It blinked up at him with four big, black eyes and made a high-pitched sound that Amir thought was a whine. “You’d be cute if you weren’t so hideous,” he said and reached over, giving  it a tentative scritch between the bumps. It wiggled in its seat, three of the eyes closing halfway in delight. Oh well. It was still better than making small talk. 

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