Being cruel to animals had always come quite naturally to the boy.
Today he found great sport on this open patch among the trees. He had been chasing the creature for several minutes. He had no idea what it was. At first he thought it was some kind of rat, but it had no tail and its head was too round. It was definitely ugly. The pointy stick he held would certainly finish it off if he managed to catch it. But, of course, that was the sport in it.
Something huge crouched in the thicket at the edge of the clearing. It looked on with pride as its son scampered straight up the trunk of one of the tallest trees.
It too could move very fast.
The nature of its discrete existence meant that it rarely had the opportunity to dine on man. No physical trace of the boy would ever be found. No DNA test would ever be applied to any droppings in the forest. It was a clean erasure. A blot removed. One less genetic aberration allowed to pollute their pool. It had a surprisingly thorough understanding of the evolutionary trajectory of genetic pollution.
After a belch that no one would ever hear, it smiled at the irony of doing the human race a favour.