1 Picture 1000 Words

31 August 2026

Written for the 1 Picture 1000 Words writing competition. I didn’t win, but you can read the winning texts using the link :) The picture is at the bottom – I recommend looking at it while you read, as the story is hard to follow otherwise.

First, it was the giant that appeared in front of him. Up until then, it was a perfectly normal day and he was following his usual routine: looking for food with his tribe and helping carry it back. After emerging from the deep, wet underground system they had been exploring, they followed a trail that they had recently discovered. The trail went through a strange ravine that had many straight sections with occasional turns. Some had climbed up to the plateaus above the ravine but discovered that the trails below had more food, and so the tribe stayed there.

The giant appeared suddenly. Though the giant startled him and he had never seen one before, the tribe knew about them. The giants would appear, usually passing quickly or settling nearby, very rarely paying the tribe any attention. They had also noticed more food where the giants roamed, but they never thought it was worth approaching them. Sometimes the giants stepped on them, but even that was usually safe, especially down in such ravines. At least, that was what survivors had told them. He hoped it would be true now, too.

As the giant went past, everyone froze and then ran back to the underground system. He followed at first, then stopped. He could see the blurry figure of the giant in the distance above the ravine wall. He had always wondered about them, and though everyone feared them, deep down he wanted to see one up close. What kind of creatures are these giants? What do they look like close by? What do they smell like? Maybe the giants are friendly once they notice us? And what if they are not? In a split second, curiosity and his survival instinct battled, and this time curiosity won.

He rushed over the ravine wall towards the giant before it moved and disappeared. As he got closer, he began to see that, rather than resembling a huge smooth boulder, the giant resembled a hill covered with a tan-coloured forest. Then, after crossing the final couple of ravines, he was within arm’s reach of the giant.

He stopped at the edge of the forest and hesitated. Should he enter the forest and perhaps never return? He paced for a while, mustering courage – his survival instinct had rallied for a second fight against curiosity. As the battle went on, the giant rolled slightly onto him, then back. Curiosity’s charge was cut short – he was suddenly picked up by one of the trees and scooped into the dense forest.

In the darkness of the forest, he could sense a rumbling beneath him and feel the ground moving rhythmically. He took a moment and decided to keep going uphill. The ground seemed smooth, but the trees were so dense that he sometimes had to climb a tree to move forward. He was tired, but he kept going and eating whatever he could find along the way.

Then the earthquake struck. Everything shifted while he was at the top of a tree, trying to discern anything new or interesting. In the distance, he managed to see a blurry yellow horizon above a huge blue ground. He had never been able to see this far before, and the mesmerising beauty made him want to keep looking. But the ground moved so fast that his vision was blurred, and he could not make out anything else. All he could do was latch on firmly to the tree – he was not going to let go anymore. Curiosity had won the war. The movement became regular and more predictable, so he could lower himself to relative safety. That brief glimpse alone felt worth all the struggles that had brought him this far. If he could only see the horizon once more. He was going to see it once more. At any cost.

Just when he had grown accustomed to the shaking, there was a metallic clink, followed by another jolt in the ground. Water came flooding from everywhere. He could not breathe; the water was pulling him in all directions, and all he could do was latch on to a tree trunk and hope it would hold and that this ordeal, too, would not last long. He had to see the view again, so he held on tighter. The intense flood was soon over, but then the worst earthquake yet struck – the most violent shaking he had ever endured. He managed to hold on. Thankfully, the shaking also flung much of the remaining water away, and he could finally breathe.

It seemed the giant was now resting. He started going up again through the wet trees. The remaining floodwater was draining away as the giant rumbled under his feet. As he climbed up, he came across darker and shorter trees and eventually found himself in a forest with black shrubs. He decided to move past them quickly because the ground was less stable there. Soon, he crossed into the tan forest again and realised that he was at the top, so he picked a tree and climbed it.

He could see the whole breathtaking world from up there now. He saw the ravines and the plateaus stretching towards a distant yellow horizon. He imagined his friends roaming among them far below him. He wanted to tell them of the beauty of the world but could not. He saw the blue expanse before the horizon and realised that it was the sea that had brought the flood. Now he did not mind the flood anymore. He could see the tan forest covering his giant, broken by a few scattered black patches. He saw the brown plateaus that his giant was now resting on. He hugged the tree and thanked his giant.

And in the distance, he could see a couple of other giants. Even though he was not familiar with their gestures, he thought they were pointing something at the dog he stood on. Exhausted but elated, the ant smiled at the camera.

Spoiler alert: show the picture