Scene: There's Gnarcles Everywhere
Exercise: Write a scene, not a story
Seed: "They shouldn't have come back"
Time: 15 minutes
Genre: Fantasy
"They shouldn't have come back," said Matilde.
"I don't know what happened. I could swear the potion had worked."
Matilde threw herself backwards against the wall with a thump. She felt completely worn out after dozens of attempts to get rid of the gnarcles. They had run out of ideas, and she was starting to lose hope that they could drive away all those critters before their parents got home.
Why would the potion have failed? They had followed the recipe to the letter. And at first, it had seemed to work.
"Ahh!" Matilde exclaimed, her eyes wide open, startling Pedro. "I know! That must be it."
She pushed off the wall with new hope and started searching for something among the gnarcles.
"What? What are you looking for?"
"The potion. The book said, 'Green verbena drives the gnarcles off the scene. Except when pitying the fauna unseen'," she said clearly. Pedro, however, looked just as confused.
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"At the time, we didn't understand what the book meant by 'pitying the fauna unseen,' but it’s obvious now. The gnarcles are creatures that raise sparrows for various reasons. And what if they refuse to leave a place where they have chicks?"
"How didn't we think of that! Of course!" said Pedro, raising his eyebrows, and joined the search.
They searched and searched around the living room. They moved armchairs and consoles, looked under cabinets, shoved aside several grumpy gnarcles. And finally — peep peep — a very faint chirping was heard, coming from a cluster of gnarcles on one of the shelves.
Carefully, Matilde pushed the creatures aside to see what they were hiding. Behind them stood the small porcelain pot with blue and green floral decorations — the one their grandmother had given them — and inside, three tiny baby sparrows, featherless, mouths wide open, waiting for more food.
"You were right. But now what do we do with them?"
"We have to find them a new home."