Season 3, episode 2
In this third season, I am sharing chapters from my short novel “Zunzuncito’s Adventure”. This week is chapter 2! Zunzuncito, one of the tiniest hummingbirds in the world, flits from flower to flower in search of delicious nectar. However, some flowers are occupied. They are occupied by larger hummingbirds and insects. In this second chapter of “Zunzuncito’s Adventure”, our tiny bee hummingbird finds himself in a battle with his namesake bees.
This story is told in the the present tense. Repeated words and phrases include bird, hummingbird, wings, flies (verb), flowers, bees, and stingers.
Chapter 2: Bees
Zunzuncito is a special hummingbird. He is a bee hummingbird. He is the smallest bird in the whole world. He is only 5 centimeters long! Zunzuncito lives in Cuba. Right now, Zunzuncito is flying from flower to flower looking for nectar. He needs the nectar of more than 1,000 flowers every day to sustain his activities. Zunzuncito is a very small bird, but he needs a lot of nectar. Other birds also suck nectar. There are other hummingbirds that are bigger than tiny Zunzuncito and they block the flowers. Zunzuncito needs to find flowers and he needs to suck their nectar!
Zunzuncito flies high in the air to see all the flowers. He flies quickly, so it doesn’t take much time. There are a lot of flowers in the field, but there is also a lot of competition for the nectar. There are many creatures that need to drink nectar. Hummingbirds drink nectar and many insects also drink nectar.
From his position in the sky, Zunzuncito sees a blue flower. It is a very pretty flower and Zunzuncito is convinced that there is sweet nectar in the blue flower. He quickly flies to the blue flower. Zoom!
The flower is very pretty and smells delicious. Zunzuncito is about to put his beak in the flower to suck the nectar when a bee appears.
“What do you think you are doing?” the bee asks.
“I am going to suck nectar from this flower,” Zunzuncito responds.
“No way! This is my flower!” the bee exclaims. “Look for another flower!”
“I am really hungry, Mr. Bee,” Zunzuncito says. “Please, let me suck the nectar.”
“I said that it is my flower!” the bee yells. The bee isn’t enormous, but compared to Zunzuncito, he is not very small either. Zunzuncito decides to look for another flower.
He sees a flower that is not very far and he flies to the flower. He puts his beak in the flower to suck the nectar, but he doesn’t touch the nectar, he touches a bee.
“Occupied,” the bee announces. “Look for another flower.”
Zunzuncito flies to another flower. When he is close, a bee yells, “Occupied!”
Zunzuncito flies to another flower – zoom! – and another flower – zoom! All of the flowers are occupied. There are bees in all the flowers! Zunzuncito is hungry and frustrated. He needs to find nectar to eat. The bees don’t need all the nectar. They can share, can’t they?
Zunzuncito flies to a flower. The bee yells, “Occupied!” but Zunzuncito ignores him. Zunzuncito puts his beak in the flower and sucks the nectar.
The bee in the flower is angry with Zunzuncito. The bee doesn’t want to share the nectar with a bird. Zunzuncito is a little bigger than the bee, but the bee has a plan.
The bee flies to the other flowers and talks to the other bees. The bees look at Zunzuncito. They are not happy with the little hummingbird. They are annoyed. They don’t like Zunzuncito. They don’t want to share the nectar from the flowers with a little hummingbird.
The bees are annoyed with Zunzuncito, so they form a group and fly towards Zunzuncito. Zunzuncito sees the group of bees and he is scared. The bees have stingers. They can use their stingers to sting animals and Zunzuncito does not want to be stung by a bee. He is scared of all the bees and their stingers.
The group of bees flies towards Zunzuncito to attack him. Zunzuncito doesn’t think about sweet nectar now, he doesn’t think about the flowers, and he doesn’t think about where he is. He just thinks about all the bees and their stingers. Zunzuncito quickly flies away from the bees.
Suddenly Zunzuncito stops. He tries to fly, but he can’t. He can’t move his wings well. He can’t move his head. Zunzuncito is trapped! How is that possible?
Zunzuncito sees little lines connected to his wings and he understands. He understands that he is trapped in an enormous spider web.
You can also watch a video of this story on YouTube!
Zunzuncito’s Adventure is available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle formats.
I really enjoy creating and sharing simple, comprehensible stories. I work hard to provide tools and supports for those who want to learn. Please, consider buying me a taco to support my work! You can also find me on Venmo and PayPal @Small Town Spanish Teacher!
