SolAxe draws absolutely amazing pictures. And I just keep on commissioning him and writing words with for them. This particular sketch stars a ravenous kangarootaur. One that a friend of mine, Alkali, can easily see himself as!

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Turbulence, violent and prolonged, rocked the plane. Passengers lurched wildly back and forth between their arm rests as the well-worn plastic smacked painfully against their thighs. A pronounced ping, followed by a crackle of static, dripped from the intercoms spaced throughout the cabin.

“Flight attendants and cabin crew, please be seated,” came the Captain’s calm and dulcet tones as did flashes of orange flickering to life within the panels hanging over every seat. “Ladies and gentlemen, we are now crossing a zone of turbulence. Please return your seats and keep your seat belts fastened. Thank you.”

Minutes passed. In silence, passengers and attendants alike struggled to steady themselves while the contents of the overhead bins raucously rattled in place.

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Teeth clenched, the Captain clenched his fingers tight around the yoke of the plane. His knuckles went white as he blindly navigated through the gale force winds whisking by and sailed into a depthless sea clouds. Never had he experienced such pronounced, prolonged, and utterly abrupt turbulence!

Then there was the matter of air traffic control. Sure, the airport he was flying into had a reputation for being understaffed. But even so… no warnings? No anything? The very least they could have done was alert him to the inclement weather.

No sooner had the Captain acknowledged it, however, did the skies calm. Heaving a sigh of relief, he relaxed his grip and knocked against the back of his head rest. Sunlight slowly filtered into the cockpit as the cloud cover burned off.

GRNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

Said relief proved to be short lived. Rumbles, ominous and deep, carried across the atmosphere. As the last of the clouds parted… the Captain found himself faced with their source.

The form of a kangaroo, a rootaur specifically, filled the cockpit and spanned well beyond the horizon. His heaving stomachs, bloated and distended, dragged along the earth and forced apart the towering obelisks of fur and muscle that served as legs.

GRNNNNNNNNNNNNN

Even from hundreds of miles away could the sloshing, the churning, and the groaning of the kangaroo’s stomachs be heard. And felt.

Wide eyed, the Captain could do little more than gawk at the earth shaking entity. Its bloated toes, adorned with city shaming nails, scrunched as the rootaur shifted in place. The concrete metropolis that once dotted the landscape, home to hundreds of thousands, became but a grey smear beneath his chafing digits.

GLURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRK

Smacking his lips, sonic booms sounding out every time he did so, the rootaur’s neck bulged as he forced down his latest meal.

The plane jostled violently at the instantaneous bout of turbulence that accompanied each and every one.

Jaws parted, Alkali sighed contentedly. A dense fog of moisture spilled out from between his flat teeth and shrouded the land with clouds.

The Captain couldn’t help but note, rather nervously, how similar they were to the ones he had just flown through. Then there was the matter of the shifting lumps, disconcerting in size and shape, that protruded out from the kangaroo’s stomachs. The unmistakable impression of hands, uselessly trying to press through the layers of muscle and fur that lined the behemoth’s interior, were plainly visible.

Trembling, his hands gripped tightly around the plane’s yoke, the Captain steered away from colossus. How many thousands had been smothered beneath those tremendous feet? How many more had been devoured?

Rolling his shoulders, the rootaur’s mountainous biceps slapping against his jutting pecs while he did so, he couldn’t help but relish the sensation of the writhing masses churning within his gut. How the earth splintered and cracked beneath his very weight. But most of all…

The kangaroo’s ears perked to attention while he turned his gaze skywards. He loved the fact that each and every meal, without fail, thought they could escape if they just tried hard enough.

Panting, the Captain raced to put as much distance as he could between himself and the colossus. No wonder the air traffic controllers hadn’t been responding. No wonder there had been no warnings.

With an arch of his brows and a deafening slurp, Alkali opened wide. And inhaled.