Return of the Berry Monster

Well there's all kindsa berries. There's blueberries, raspberries, thimbleberries, huckleberries, blackberries, (western and eastern) mulberries, elderberries, strawberries...

And none are safe from the Berry Monster. The Berry Monster walks the ridges, valleys, and hills looking for the slightest glint of color. Down a well trodden path it plods, glancing not straight or up, but down to the right and left. This Berry Monster walks on two legs, grubby meat hoofs at the ready to pounce on tiny blue orbs, or red jewels, packed with the juice and nutrients to sustain the Berry Monster for another hour. At a large patch, the Berry Monster may regress to a previous evolutionary state, stooping to all fours, crawling on hands and knees, looking up under the leaves for shaded fruit, out of the harsh fruit-shriveling light of the fierce sun. Grubby meat hoofs become a blur, shoveling tasty morsels from bush to madly chomping jaws. Juice flows obscenely from red stained teeth. Extremeties change color from dirt stained brown, to juice stained red and purple. The Berry Monster has total disregard for others in it's presence and greedily defends the berry patch from other invaders and rarely leaves fruit for other creatures.

Occasionally the Berry Monster will pass through an area of significant human population. It pulls its bedraggled self together and dawns human-clothes, pulling sweat soaked money from a dirty rucksack, makes its way into the nearest grocery store. With dirt and juice stained paws, slaps the soggy currency down at the register in exchange for more fruit.

This pattern continues and becomes mare severe as summer progresses. As fall approaches, the Berry Monster must find other ways to survive until the first strawberries of spring.