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The guardian beast, a massive creature covered in thick, dark moss and possessing eyes like burning coals, lowered its head. It had spent centuries guarding the sacred grove, dealing with poachers, rival clans, and hungry trespassers. It knew how to handle roars. It knew how to handle displays of aggression.

It did not, however, know how to handle two overgrown primates standing shoulder-to-shoulder, pulling their lips up over their noses to reveal blinding white teeth and bright pink gums.

Silas let out a high-pitched, wheezing giggle, his body shaking with the effort of holding the ridiculous face. Barnaby’s eyes crossed slightly as he tried to maintain his own flipped-lip posture. They looked less like majestic wild animals and more like a pair of eccentric uncles who had consumed far too many fermented berries at a family gathering.

The guardian took a slow, hesitant step backward. It snorted, a cloud of gray vapor curling from its nostrils, but the intimidation factor was entirely gone. It looked genuinely uncomfortable, as if it had accidentally walked into the wrong clearing and interrupted something deeply private.

A Staring Match for the Ages

The Art of the Flip

To the untrained eye, the expression Barnaby and Silas were sporting looked like pure panic masked as comedy. But in the highland territories, the “gum-flash” was a rare, desperate evolutionary gamble. It was designed to confuse predators by mimicking a rare, highly toxic jungle disease.

Or, in Silas’s case, it was just the only thing he could think of doing when his brain froze from sheer fright.

“Is it working?” Barnaby muttered through the side of his mouth, careful not to let his top lip snap back into place.

“I think… I think we’re winning,” Silas whispered back, his voice vibrating with suppressed laughter.

The guardian beast tilted its massive head to the left. Then to the right. It let out a soft, confused whimper. The sheer psychological dominance of the two goofballs was too much to bear. With a final, embarrassed huff, the giant creature turned on its heel and melted back into the deep fog of the jungle, leaving the two friends entirely alone on the cliffside…..