Primary-- 1st Place

"Fang" by A.J. Sullivan, 2nd grade Kennedy School

     Fang the cobra was just waking up from his bed of leaves. He was five years old and about two feet long. His mom, on the other hand, was eighteen feet long. Their nest was in an Asian forest in India. It had a lot of tall pines, oak, and palm trees, thousands of bushes, and hundreds of animals, such as elephants, insects, tigers, frogs, and snakes like Fang.

     It was warm and Fang could hear the frogs croaking, the elephants tramping, and the crickets and cicadas chirping. There were some monkeys, too. Howler monkeys, to be exact, and they were screeching like crazy.

     "Mo-m!" said Fang. "Mom, wake up!"

     "What?" said Mom sleepily.

     "I want to go practice hunting!" said Fang.

     "I'm tired, Fang. We'll go later," said Mom.

     "Well, okay," said Fang, a little disappointed. 

     Meanwhile, the sun had risen and its light cast shadows through the forest. It was warm and the monkeys were as loud as ever. But even their yelling could not disturb the great, warm morning. A little while later Fang and his mom were up and moving through the bushes, across a field, and across the river on a log. Finally, after the sun was all the way up, the monkeys' yells were faint. They were a long way from their nest when they reached the field where Mrs. Cobra usually hunted for food.

     "Now, Fang, watch what I do, okay?" said Mrs. Cobra.

     "Fine, I'll watch you, Mom," said Fang.

     There were some mice (actually a lot of mice) in the field not paying any attention to Mrs. Cobra. She snuck up on one, rose up, opened her mouth, and bit. The mouse squirmed, trying to get away, and failed. Then Mrs. Cobra went back to Fang. 

     "Okay Fang, did you see what I did?"

     "Yes," Fang replied.

     "Good," said his mom. "Now you get to try."

     And Fang did just that.