Small Creatures Society

“There,” said Diamondra in Malagasy as she set out the last bowl of insects for her guests. The mouse lemur leaped backwards to survey her handiwork, “Worms for the tenrecs, ghost mantids for the panther chameleons, grubs for the lemurs…”

The Small Creatures Society of Madagascar gathered for game night every other Friday. This week it was housed in the old barn Diamondra's great-great grandmother had built. By human standards it was barely a rundown shed—but to the small creatures of the Madagascar rainforest it more than served its purpose. Tonight, they would be playing charades.

The mouse lemur, measuring 27 centimeters from the tip of her nose to the end of her tail, picked up a jug of flower bug dew and lovingly caressed it. She took a sip of the sugary liquid straight from the jar and then wondered if she should stash the treat away for later instead of sharing it with her friends. Flower bugs drink sap from the trees, it took her hours of carefully timed consideration to collect the dew that dripped from the insects. The insects crowd around branches looking like soft pink flower petals, hence their name.

“No crickets for me?”

Diamondra squeaked, hopping in a circle to see who was speaking. Mahaleo, a satanic leaf-tailed gecko, blended in perfectly with the walls of the old barn until she lifted her head from the worn planks, red tongue slipping from her mouth to lick one eye.

Diamondra squealed, “How long have you been here!”

“Hm, an hour? You twirl your tail when nobody is watching,” the gecko said, climbing onto the floor to a chair. Her profile thickened. She looked more like a dead leaf now.

The mouse lemur rolled her large eyes, “Had I known you had come early—”

She stopped when a group of tenrecs ran to her, begging for her attention, each of them less than ten centimeters in length. Fanantenanirany’s children were nearly the same size as their mother now and just as spiky. The mouse lemurs eyes widened even more, “Hello my sweets! Mind your quills please.”

Their mother entered the barn, long nose scenting the air. Like her children she had bright yellow and brown colouring, quills sticking out from her back in a sporadic looking pattern. As her children swarmed the buffet Diamondra had set out, the tenrec rasped her specialized quills. Her children ran to her and then hurried outside.

Fanantenanirany snagged a particularly fat worm from one of the bowls and then took a seat beside the satanic leaf-tailed gecko, “Thanks so much for hosting Di, sorry I had to bring the kids along. Hubby had to work tonight.”

“No trouble at all,” Diamondra soothed. She set her jar of dew on the table. They made small talk while they waited for the rest of the group to arrive.

Kamora and Tana, a panther chameleon couple, were closely followed by Jaona the lemur. When everyone had exchanged greetings and settled in with drinks and snacks Diamondra separated them into two teams. Team one consisted of Diamondra, Fanantenanirany, and Kamora. Team two included Mahaleo, Tana, and Jaona. The mouse lemur looked around, “Where is Nofy? We need a sober score keeper.”

The paper clipped sized leaf chameleon always came late to these bimonthly games. It took time for him to move like a leaf through the forest without attracting predators. Kamora laughed, “Darling, he is right on Tana’s shoulder there.”

“Merci pour l’ascenseur,” Nofy shouted. His French had always been better than his Malagasy.

Kamora moved the tiny reptile from her partners shoulder onto a table where she had set a plate of assorted insects. His tongue lashed out, picking the smallest ghost mantid from the plate.

“Should I start?” Diamondra asked. With encouragement from her team she got on all fours and began stocking around the barn. She held her tail straight out and occasionally paused to raise her head and sniff the air like a dog, ears erect and pointed forward. Her teammates shouted guesses. She pretended to take a bite out of Jaona the red-ruffed lemur. Jaona, oblivious, licked a large millipede that he had pulled from a jar, smiling as colours swirled in his vision caused by the psychoactive poisons of the arthropod.

Kamora’s skin flushed blue, eyes rotating, “Oh! Oh! A fossa!”

Diamondra clapped her hands, “Point to team one!”

“Oui madame,” the tiny chameleon agreed as the satanic leaf-tailed gecko took his place before the group. He changed the shape of his body and walked in an awkward manner as if he was a leaf blowing in the breeze. Jaona giggled while Tana made wild guesses.

Nofy began counting down to zero in French. Jaona pointed to the chameleon, still laughing, Tana finally clueing in at the last second shouted, “A leaf chameleon!”

The gecko licked an eye, nodding and returning to his seat. The game continued for a few more rounds but was periodically interrupted by an awful scratching sound. It was like nails on a chalkboard, followed by tapping noises. Gradually, everyone became unnerved by it except for Jaona who had taken a few too many licks of his Madagascan millipede. Diamondra, despite the fact her team was winning, refused to continue until the source was determined.

Egged on by his partner, Tana the panther chameleon turned red and puffed out his chin. He flung the door open, everyone cowering behind him. A hunched creature clung to the side of the barn. It had large rounded ears and wild fur on it’s back and tail. One long witch finger tapped and scraped at the barn.

Suddenly recognizing the Frankensteinian monster, Diamondra gasped, “Tatamo! Get off my barn.”

The aye aye lemur, Tatamo, turned his pale face to her. He raised a clawed paw, “Oh. Diamondra? What are you doing here?”

“You are scratching up my barn!”

“I’m sorry. I was just looking for grubs.”

Despite how frightening her neighbour looked he was completely harmless—unless you were a grub. Diamondra sighed, “Won’t you come in then? I have a bowl full for you.”

“So generous,” the aye aye lemur said, saying hello to each guest in turn. He waved his long and spindly fingers. With the nightmare resolved they returned to their game. Fanantenanirany took a turn, she curled her long nose upwards as she raised her head and then swung it about, grasping at leaves and tossing them aside. An elephant, her team guessed correctly. Nofy declared team one to be the winners as Diamondra passed around shots of flower bug dew. The gathering dissolved into idle chatter, circling around to concerns over their disappearing homes.

“Did you know we only have 30% of our rainforest left?” Tana said between bites of ghost mantids, “Soon we are all going to be living in Diamondra’s old barn. Sleeping right on top of one another.”

Fanantenanirany the tenrec bristled at this, “Di, Ma, double Ta, Ka and Ja. Oh, and Nofy. Listen up. My loving husband has been keeping a close watch on this. The humans have started digging in the ground and putting tiny trees in the holes. Perhaps we should do the same—start planting and tending to seedlings.”

The group looked thoughtful for a moment, nodding until Nofy let out a shrill cry. Jaona had mistakenly picked him up from the plate of insects but dropped the creature, startled by the noise. Everyone froze until the tiny chameleon was safely located and placed back on the table.

“It’s never a real party until someone almost eats Nofy by mistake, right?” Diamondra laughed. The joke was quickly forgotten as Fanantenanirany’s children ran inside the barn.

“Fossa! Fossa! They called, frightened. They surrounded their mother, quivering in fear.

“Quick!” the mother tenrec encouraged, “Hide everyone!”

The gecko immediately scurried onto the roof of the barn, vanishing from sight as she flattened her profile and blended with her surroundings. The chameleons also used their camouflage to their advantage while the lemurs hopped out of sight followed by the tenrec family. The fossa, with its incredibly long tail walked into the barn, sniffing at the bowls of insects. It passed over everything, reaching out with its tail to grab the jar of flower bug dew that was still mostly full. The cat-like mammal lapped at the clear liquid. It must have enjoyed it because after pacing the barn once more it left with the jar.

Everyone let out a collective sigh of relief except Diamondra. She buried her large eyes in her hands, “My precious dew! That monstrous thief.”

“Tough break Di,” Tana agreed.

“Was that the flower petal dew you’ve been collecting?” asked Tatamo, long fingers curled and large eyes bulging, “I’ll help you get more.”

She sniffed, “Thank you.” Then after further composing herself, “Thank you for coming everyone. Perhaps we should call it a night before a tree boa comes along and gobbles us up.”

Kamora and Tana collected Nofy before leaving. The tenrecs finished off the last of the worms and followed suit. Mahaleo simply climbed back onto the side of the barn, camouflaging herself as she had done earlier while Jaona leaped into the trees. The aye aye helped her clean up.

“Such a lovely party, I hope you’ll invite me to the next gathering,” Tatamo said before the aye aye also slipped out of the barn. Diamondra wearily climbed up a tree to her hollow, curling up inside to go to sleep before the sun began to peak through the trees. It had been nice to see all of her small friends of the Madagascar rainforest.

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Written by Kelsey Reich on July 13/2021 in Ontario, Canada.