Devon’s Bird of Prey

Well it’s that time of the week. Quilly’s Three Word Thursday #5.

Definitions

1. Apanthropinization – The process of the broadening of the ambit of one’s preoccupations and concerns away from a narrow focus on those things most palpably human and most closely pertinent to humanity.
2. Paucity – a. Smallness of number; fewness b. Scarcity; dearth: a paucity of natural resources
3. Zither – A musical instrument composed of a flat sound box with about 30 to 40 strings stretched over it and played horizontally with the fingertips, a plectrum, or a bow, or set into vibration by the wind, as in the Aeolian harp
4. Opprobrious – a. Expressing contemptuous reproach; scornful or abusive: opprobrious epithets b. Bringing disgrace; shameful or infamous: opprobrious conduct
5. Quondam – That once was; former: Formal of an earlier time; former: her quondam employers
6. Casuistry – a. Specious or excessively subtle reasoning intended to rationalize or mislead b. The determination of right and wrong in questions of conduct or conscience by analyzing cases that illustrate general ethical rules c. the branch of ethics or theology that studies the relation of general ethical principles to particular cases of conduct or conscience d. a dishonest or oversubtle application of such principles.
7. Fracas – A noisy, disorderly fight or quarrel; a brawl. See Synonyms at brawl
8. Numismatics – The study or collection of money, coins, and often medals
9. Perspicacious – acutely insightful and wise; clear-eyed, clear-sighted discerning – having or revealing keen insight and good judgment; “a discerning critic”; “a discerning reader”
10. Cynicocratical – Pertaining to or a reference to a ruling body of cynics
11. Isangelous – equal to the angels
12. Volgivagant – Of or pertaining to the uneducated masses; the “little people”
13. Hitonious – For those of you who do not know, hitonious means beyond horrid. You use it when something is horrendous and hideous and horrid combined.
14. Teterrimous – This means most foul.
15. Mellifluous – a. Flowing with sweetness or honey b. Smooth and sweet: “polite and cordial

Devon’s Bird of Prey

All that Oscar could see happen was the harrowing escape by the two volgivagant grasshoppers. He doesn’t know how they escaped the clutches of the cynicocratical bird of prey, but they did and the fracas that they created made him forget all about the beautiful music he yearned from the zither he had imagined. She was a beauty, Oscar noted. Every talon of her perfectly formed claws were isangelous to one another. Her beak: sharp and pointed like that of a perfectly formed arrow. It was as if she knew she could be opprobrious to all the small creatures as she saw fit, even though her kind was a very paucity society. Her keen eyes sparkled as if full of shiny gold coins displayed promptly in man’s numismatics. They spoke volumes of the perspicacious attitude she flaunted. The feathers that covered her muscled body were in perfect form. Anyone looking at her would know it was casuistry in order to deceive her prey from attack. And her voice. Oh that voice. It was fierce and piercing just like the time when she took his quondam spouse into her grasp and devoured her right before his eyes. He hated her and everything she stood for. But her beauty was stunning.

Within an instant, she was winging her way into the still air, soaring higher and higher. Escaping the reality that she didn’t capture her prey, she let her mind begin its apanthropinization. She was such a failure today. Her third miss. She knew back home, her two young ones were squawking wildlyand loudly. They need their nourishment and she is failing. She was so hitonious it disgusted her. She continued soaring over the weald and vowed she would never be a gravid mother again.

“What kind of mother am I?” she thought as the tears began to well in her eyes. “I should have taken Oscar. But oh no. I wanted two for the price of one.” She continued her flight, feeling the hot sun beating on her back and the cool breeze speeding through her long luscious quills. Looking down with her piercing eyes, she sees Devon and Gracie. “I will get you one of these days, I promise you that” she spat!

Oscar, being very mellifluous, bid the two grasshoppers goodbye and quickly swam away. He had enough teterrimous thoughts for the day, and it was only mid morning.

Grace and Devon starred at each other and began to laugh.

“Wow Gracie” Devon said with excitement. “That was a close call. We were near death,” he said as he looked up and saw the bird of prey flying away. The beauty of the blue sky made him feel safe for the moment.

“Touche’ Devon,” she whispered. Her eyes moving back and forth, thanking her lucky stars to still be alive and knowing that Devon wouldn’t mind if she had bit the dust. Or so she thought. And at the same time…..

Oh the life of the lightning bug.