The Handmaid's Tale: A Short Story

1241 Words5 Pages

“Sorry, Pandesal, you can’t come. I don’t want you to get hurt,” Arleyne told him with a true sympathy. He whimpered as she petted him goodbye. Then Arleyne turned to the forest that bordered the Ocampos’ few acres of land. The perfect line of trees on the horizon signified the beginning of Arleyne’s adventure to prove herself. Then, she started walking towards the forest and started her search for the duende. Arleyne looked at her surroundings. The sun was nearly blocked by the enormous canopy of amugis trees above her. The bark of numerous tree trunks were scratched and mauled by something she did not want to encounter. Therefore, she continued walking down the unweathered forest floor that had scarcely been in contact with human foot. The sudden tweets …show more content…

The duende strolled over to a nest it made out of crushed twigs and grass that Arleyne didn't notice before. He put the bag in the nest and quickly disappeared back into the forest. “I think he’s gone,” she gulped and crawled out of the scratchy bush. Then, she and Pandesal walked over to observe the duende’s nest. “I wonder what’s in the bag.” Arleyne timidly opened the bag and saw that it was filled to the brim with rice plants. It was from her family’s farm! She realized the importance of stopping the duende. Despite that, how was she going to do it? “Pandesal, I have an idea. We’ll set a trap for the duende when he comes back.” They set out to work. Arleyne found a spider plant near the bush they hid in and weaved a cage out of the long leaves with rocks to weigh it down. She also braided clivia leaves into a sturdy rope and tied it to the cage. Next, she climbed up a raintree and draped the rope over a branch. Then, she tied it loosely to a lower branch, which left the cage dangling over the ground. Arleyne placed some rice from the duende’s bag under the cage. When the duende was under the cage, Arleyne, who would be in the tree, would drop the cage onto the

Open Document