What is It?

Okay, so this is my science homework for tonight. Write an ending to this story in three paragraphs, one explaining why Katrina thinks it’s alive, another why she thinks it’s dead, and the last her final decision and the conclusion. The first block-quoted part is the part that was not written by me, but by my science book.

Katrina peered at the…thing…in front of her. Definitely unusual. Peculiar even. She has walked this path a thousand times in the three months she’s lived here and had never seen anything like this before.

She walked around it, once, slowly. It had a regular shape, sort of like a hexagon, but its surface didn’t look shiny and synthetic like plastic, metal, or glass. Instead, it looked almost biological: sort of scaly and wrinkled and, well, something like a snake’s skin. The object had strange colors, too: sort of purplish-greenish with amber highlights. It looked out of place in the weeds and low shrubs along the path, yet somehow it didn’t look manufactured either.

What was it? An egg? A cocoon? A mushroom? Some type of dormant reptile? Or maybe it wasn’t alive at all. It really didn’t look alive, but neither did it look dead. She almost expected it to…but then again, she also wouldn’t have been surprised if it…

The organism wasn’t moving which played on Katrina’s suspicions and caused her to think that the creature was dead. She was too frightened to creep closer for a better look and couldn’t tell if it was breathing from where she observed, but figured that there was no life in it. Why would something that was alive be in the low shrubs, not moving or doing anything? Her curiousity was refreshed as the thoughts brushed her mind. As she took another walk around the peculiar object, she found another discovery. There were some animal tracks in the dirt which could mean that the creature had been eaten and killed by a predator. With a nod, she decided that was what had happened and started to continue home.

Just then, another thought stopped her and caused her to return to the organism for another look. What if the predator had come by and the prey had hid using its camouflaged hide? Maybe that was why the creature was not moving and was just resting on the path. Once again, Katrina felt the exhilirating thrill of mystery as she pondered over the bewilderment. As she wondered, a slight breeze passed by, kicking up a leaf and gently placing it on top of the unfamiliar organism. In response, the creature suddenly blinked an eye, revealing its camouflaged irises that matched and continued the pattern along its skin. Green and purple specks decorated with flecks of amber surrounded the slit pupil. Katrina gasped at this discovery with a slight surprise. The creature had to be alive!

Finally convinced that the foreign creature was a living organism, Katrina decided to confirm her hypothesis. Glancing around the ground, she found a stick resting beside her and picked it up within her hand, firmly wrapping her fingers around it. Slowly and carefully she brought her hand forward, the end of the stick slightly bobbing closer and closer to the being. At last, the stick met with the creature’s side, prodding it gently before the organism swiftly lashed out with bared fangs, latching onto the stick with a death-granting crunch. Katrina was sent screaming down the path, her fear of the creature now overbearing her curiousity of it.