The Wombat and The Dingo by Tia Hood

The Wombat and

The Dingo

By Tia Hood

The Wombat and The Dingo Written and Illustrated by Tia Hood

© Tia Hood 12/19/18 edited by Elizabeth Swann Self published in Creative Writing 1 NFHS 1400 A O Jones Blvd, Fort Mill, SC 29715

For Mima Unlikely Friendships are Often the Best Kind

It was a warm September afternoon and Wallace the wombat was enjoying a nice leafy acacia bush.

As he was chomping on a particularly chewy leaf, he noticed that the sun had gone down.

He turned his head curiously and looked for the other wombats.

“Guys, where’d the sun go?”

His only answer was a low growl.

He turned around slowly, eyes widening.

Wallace’s mouth dropped open.

Towering over him was a dingo, his ears pricked up and mouth open.

Wallace was scared.

He took off as fast as his tiny legs would carry him.

Everyone knows dingoes are nothing but trouble!

He was going to be eaten!

He was going to be devoured!

He was going to be slathered up, sliced apart, and be positively, almost certainly ingested!

Wallace panted.

He had eaten one too many berry bushes, and Wallace was a little out of shape.

His paws frantically hit the ground and then – he ran head first into a tree.

He was cornered!

The dingo opened his mouth, and Wallace began to think of all the leaves still left to eat, all the forest he still hadn’t explored, all the burrows he still wanted to dig.

And the dingo said, “Why’d you stop running?

Don’tcha like a good game of tag?”

Wallace blinked. What? Tag? He stuttered, “Sorry?”

The dingo nudged the wombat with his snout. “You’re it!” he yelped. And he took off into the leafy bushes.

Wallace couldn’t believe his ears.

They had been playing tag?

All this time he had been imagining his tasty end– and they had been playing TAG?

Wallace smiled and began to run after his new friend.

Maybe dingoes weren’t so bad after all.

Tia Hood is a sophmore at Nation Ford High School, and she hopes to attend college after taking a gap year. She is from South Carolina and enjoys reading, running, and spending time with her sister.

Wombats are marsupials native to the continent and country of Australia.

They can weigh anywhere from 44 to 77 pounds! They eat mostly grasses and enjoy burrowing underground. Their main predators are dingoes, dog like creatures also from Australia. They have sandy colored fur and are extremely common.