Andre and the Alien

A retelling of Aesop’s fable, Androcles and the Lion

Photo by Bill Adler

The three-meter tall alien with alligator-like flesh and a head that resembled a great white shark limped through the dense woods, passing frightfully close to Andre’s hiding place in a hollowed-out tree trunk. A four-inch thorn speared the alien’s green foot, but because the alien was tall and lacked segmented joints, it could not remove the thorn. 

Andre had been hiding in the hollow for two weeks, ever since the invaders slaughtered his mother and father. Andre slipped out, and in one swift, compassionate motion, removed the painful thorn from the alien’s foot.

The alien vaporized Andre with his blaster.

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Andre and the Alien is a centina, a story that is exactly 100-words long. Writing a story that’s a specific word length adds extra challenges, but also makes crafting the story fun, too. For this centina, I decided to update one of Aesop’s most famous fables, Androcles and the Lion. Aesop may have been too much of an optimist.

I hope you enjoy Andre and the Alien. I had fun writing this 100-word tale.

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