The Rotifer Beast

I once began to write a story from the point of view of single-celled organisms, several years ago. I imagined parameciums as intelligent and conceived a story about three paramecium knights who had to fight a horrifying beast.

The beast I picked was a rotifer, something I'd seen in a high school biology class, under a slide that was supposed to show paramecium cells. My biology teacher speculated the rotifer I saw had eaten all the parameciums that were supposed to be there. Which proved to be the spark for a story idea that came up years later...

In the story I gave the knights three personalities and accents: one French, one Spanish, one German. My intent was to have all of them fail in their quest, only to be rescued by a "simpler" cell--the equivalent of a shepherd boy in the single-celled world I imagined...

The story wasn't working right, plus it started seeming weirder than anyone other than me would probably enjoy, so I abandoned it. Though it does float around in the back of my mind from time to time that I might finish it in another form.

Anyway, today I ran into a news link showing a picture and a bit of video of a rotifer that reminded me of why this particular microscopic creature inspired me so much. Imagine yourself smaller than such a thing--it would be utterly terrifying.

Posted here now with the intent of inspiring new stories from others...or maybe from myself...

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