Lions lounged in the shade, panting.
I threaded through the crowd of glistening bodies, protective of my cornetto.
A zookeeper entered the enclosure, bucket in hand. “Unlike you, lions have few sweat glands. Thus, shade, panting, rest and… frozen bloodsicles. Would anyone like one?”
Enough to turn me off my cornetto, well, almost.
Afterword
The mission was to write a story of exactly 53 words about ‘sweat’.
Unsurprisingly, my initial ideas involved people sweating. But I resisted, looking for a more unusual and creative angle.
In the animal kingdom, sweat is a fairly rare. Humans are in the minority in sweating to stay cool.
On really hot days, zoos may distribute frozen blood-filled treats, known as bloodsicles, to certain animals – like lions and tigers.
Photo attribution: thanks to Vlad Kutepov on Unsplash.