Jacob stood nervously on his back porch, a full bowl of food in his hands. He slightly spun the bowl around as he watched the bushes leading to the forest beyond the yard.

It was strange, he wasn’t sure if he was being too nervous, or not being nearly nervous enough. Something he figured was typical when dealing with an unfamiliar situation.

Dealing with an impossible monster of unknown origin would certainly count.

He glanced up to the second floor of his house, keeping his eyes open in case the lights turned on. The last thing he needed was his parents seeing the monster and contacting animal control. Between the monster’s muscles, claws and teeth, that was a fight he didn’t want to see.

Of course, none of that mattered if the monster failed to appear in the first place.

“Maybe I should go back inside,” he said to himself in a disappointed whisper. He glanced down at the full bowl in his hand. “Set this stuff aside for nothing,”

He turned, ready to leave the food on the porch and head back inside. As he set the food down, he heard the familiar sound of rustling leaves from right behind him.

He turned and smiled at the four glowing points of light emerging from the shadows. It poked its head out and looked at him before walking out into the yard. He noticed it was walking evenly, its leg having recovered from the night before.

“About time. I have your food right here,” he placed the bowl on the porch. The monster sped up into what Jacob might call a ‘trot’ before reaching the bowl and digging in.

However, how exactly it was ‘trotting’ with cat, spider and rabbit legs was a question he’d fail to answer if anyone ever asked.

It still managed to earn a chuckle out of him as the monster ate the food he had saved for it.

A few seconds later, Jacob was picking up an empty bowl. “You were hungry, weren’t you?”

The monster shuffled its feet around a bit before turning away from him. For a being that looked like it had come out of a nightmare formed by all the world’s children, Jacob noted it got embarrassed surprisingly easily.

“Just what are you?” he whispered, mostly to himself, as he sat on the porch with the bowl still in hand. A needless whisper it turned out, considering the way the monster’s ears flicked at the words before it turned back to him. It looked at him with a vacant expression, as though it was unsure as to the answer as well.

“You don’t know who you are or where you came from?” he asked the monster, who just shook its head.

“Hey, that’s alright, nothing comes from nothing. I’m sure you’ll figure it out someday, boy.”

The monster rose to its feet and backed away from Jacob, giving him a growl.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to imply you were nothing or anything,” he quickly said, guessing at the issue. When the monster kept growling, he realized he had guessed wrong. He wracked his brain, trying to figure out something else.

“I’m sure you’ll figure it out one day… girl?” he said with a gulp. However, he did guess it right this time. The creature stopped growling and was now pointing its nose upwards instead.

“Oh, sorry for calling you a boy then,” the creature turned back at him and showed him her teeth in what he guessed was a smile.

“You’re really smart, aren’t you? You look like a bunch of animals fused together, but you’re a lot smarter than that. You can understand what I’m saying and get angry at it and everything,” he moved his hand to his jacket and tried not to think about what he had in there.

While he knew the monster was smart, he hadn’t really thought about how smart until now. So when he had been preparing for his encounter with her, he had grabbed a tennis ball from his room. The kind a lot of people used to play fetch with their dogs.

With how vain the monster had already proved to be, he’d be lucky to just be ripped apart if he brought it out.

However, the sudden movement to his pocket caught the monster’s eyes. She tilted her head to the side and then started poking his jacket pocket with her nose.

“Hey, what are you doing?” he demanded. “There’s nothing in there.”

The Monster looked him in the eye before huffing in annoyance. She backed away, accepting what he’d said as the truth.

Meanwhile, Jacob was hiding his relief. He really didn’t want to find out what would have happened if she had found the ball.

“So there was something else I wanted to…” He stopped as he felt something digging around his pocket. He looked down and saw one of the monster’s tails deep in his jacket. He looked up and saw the monster giving him what he guessed was an attempted cheeky grin.

Or at least, until she pulled the ball out and brought it up to her face. She walked up to him and held the ball between their faces, rolling it around in her tails as though she was demanding for him to explain what this object was doing there.

Considering the attitude of the creature so far, he wouldn’t have been surprised if that was exactly what she was asking.

“I thought we could play catch,” he said, realizing just how lame it sounded when he said it out loud.

He watched the monster carefully, trying to get a read on her to figure out how she would react. His heart skipped a beat as she suddenly exploded into a strange wheezing noise. She collapsed onto the ground, still making the same sound as he walked forward concerned. It took him a second to figure out what exactly the sound was.

It was laughter, the monster equivalent of a big belly laugh which had the monster literally rolling on the ground in front of him.

“Are you done?” he asked as the Monster started to calm down. Her laughter subsided to a weak chuckle as it got up to its many feet. Despite not liking the idea of being made a joke, Jacob figured it was better than getting eaten and took it as a small victory.

The monster took another look at the ball before giving him a worrying grin. He wondered what it was she was planning as she backed up a bit and pulled her tails back. They formed into a catapult-like shape, with the ball in the place of the rock.

She let out a sudden bark before flinging the ball forward. His eyes grew wide as his reflexes worked faster than his mind, reaching out with his arm to catch the ball. An idea which may not have been his best option. The impact of the ball stung his hand, and the force knocked him flat on his back.

“So that’s the game,” he laid on the ground. He looked up and saw the monster watching him carefully. “Well two can play that one.”

Jacob got to his feet as memories flashed through his mind. Many years ago, his mother had signed him up for little league, mostly in an attempt to make him more friends. Not only had the plan failed, he’d walked away from the experience with a bit of a dislike for most of baseball.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

However, he had found at least one part he did like.

Jacob rolled the ball in his hand before getting into a pitcher’s pose. The monster would have sworn his eyes were glowing with intensity if she could talk. Her own eyes widened as he chucked the ball at her at a speed she hadn’t expecting.

Her tails lashed out, just barely grabbing onto the ball before it could sail right past her. She wrapped her tails around it, sending it back at him at a much lower speed than either of them had used so far.

He took a step to the right, reaching out with his hand to grab the ball. His heart skipped a beat as he realized that he felt an impact at the edge of his fingers, not his palm.

He laughed at first, before wincing in pain as the ball dropped to the ground. He dropped to his knees, his free hand clutching his burning fingers.

The monster dropped all pretenses and rushed to him, looking at his hand in concern.

“I’m fine,” he tried to wave off her concern. She growled at him before grabbing his wrist with one of her tails. She jerked his hand forward into the light, revealing just how red it was.

“I’m fine, really,” he lied again, getting another growl from the monster. He rolled his eyes at the somewhat familiar feeling of getting mother-henned before clapping his hands. “See? I’m fine.”

It probably would have worked better if he hadn’t winced in pain at the last clap.

The truth of the matter was that he really was fine, just in no condition to take another hit like that to his fingers again. He needed to think of something which could take the impact the creature gave out…

The idea came to him in a flash. There were a certain pair of objects he had finally managed to track down and unpack earlier that day which would work perfectly.

“Wait right here. I’m going to go grab something that’ll make this easier,” he said to the monster as he started heading back to the house.

A few minutes later, he walked out with a pair of tennis racquets.

“Look at what I’ve got,” he held the two up for the monster to see. She smiled before lashing out with two of her tails, grabbing the racquet from his hand. She let out a joyful sound as she waved the racquet back and forth.

Jacob ran to one edge of the yard. The monster followed suit, taking her place on the other end.

The monster hunched down with its eyes narrowed, racquet slowly waving in the air. Jacob grinned wildly as he tossed the ball in the air and smacked it forward.

The monster’s eyes sprang open as she dashed to the side, shocked by just how fast he’d thrown the ball. It sailed past her, forcing her to stretch her tail back. She just barely managed to hit the ball with the edge of the racquet.

A close call, but enough to send the ball back at Jacob.

However, unlike the last time, he was both ready for the monster’s speed, and in his element. Tennis was his game, and he felt both pride in himself and pride in his humanity fueling his limbs as he jumped back and returned the ball with all the strength he had.

The monster, now used to his speed, narrowed her eyes as they locked on to the ball. This time she hit the ball in the dead center.

Jacob grunted as he managed to just hit the ball back.

As the ball sailed through the air, he saw the monster break out into a fanged smile for just a split second. She spun around in a circle, hitting the ball with all the momentum she could muster.

Once more, instincts took hold as he reached out to hit the ball back. He swung… and felt no impact. The sound of a soft ball smacking on wood a half second later just confirmed his fear.

He looked back and saw the ball weakly bounce on the ground next to the wooden fence behind him. He went back to pick it up, trying to block out the sound of the monster’s wheezing laughter.

As he picked it up and inspected the ball in his hand, he was struck with a realization.

This situation, playing tennis in his backyard with a bizarre nightmare monster, was the most fun he’d had in a long time. Long enough he found himself not caring about the monster’s laughter.

The game went on from there. Back and forth, the two fell into what felt like an endless cycle. Neither of them was really keeping score, but they could still tell the monster was in the clear lead. He still managed to take a few points for himself though, so it wasn’t completely one-sided.

However, for as ‘endless’ as it felt, it did have to come to an end at some point.

Jacob was the first to feel it. His muscles were getting tired, and his reflexes were starting to get sluggish. Worst of all, he was finding it harder and harder to keep his eyes open.

The monster served, and he kept his racquet in an iron grip as he lunged to serve it back.

His feet slipped, and soon he found himself falling through the air. His racquet likewise slipped through his fingers and into the air above.

He hit the ground on his back, his racquet coming back down and conking him on the forehead a bit later.

“Ow,” he muttered as he rubbed the spot and looked over at the monster, who was fast approaching. She came to a stop right in front of him and leaned in with concern clear in her eyes. “I’m fine, just give me a second.”

The monster, apparently not taking that as an answer, dug her head under his arm and helped him to his feet.

“Thanks,” he knelt back down to grab the racquet, the monster helping to steady him as he did so. “What time is it anyway?”

He mumbled it, once again forgetting the monster’s impressive hearing. She walked him forward, sitting him down on the porch before glancing into the house.

“What are you looking at?” he asked as she turned back to him. She raised three of her tails before putting them back down and raising two more, then doing the same and raising two more.

“Three, two, and another two?” he asked as the monster gave him a quick nod. He concentrated and tried to figure out what the numbers could mean, only to let out a yawn. He rubbed his eyes, trying to keep the sleep out. “Wow, I’m tired. It must be really late.”

That was all he needed to figure it out. He looked up at the monster and asked, “Three twenty-two AM?”

She looked into the house again before using her tails to give him a three, two, and three.

“So it’s three twenty-three AM now?” The monster gave him a quick nod as he looked up at the sky. “I should get some sleep before the sun comes up.”

He got to his feet and opened the door, the monster following him as he closed the door behind them. The monster stood still, watching him as he went into the first-floor bathroom.

A quick shower and change later, he walked out feeling refreshed and just a tiny bit less tired. He let out a yawn before looking at the monster, who was still standing still, looking right at him.

“Waiting your turn?” he asked jokingly. Despite the questions status as a joke, the monster nodded and walked past him into the bathroom.

He poked his head in, watching the monster stare at the shower.

“You know how to use it?” he asked as the monster suddenly turned to him with her four eyes narrowed. She used one of her tails to grab ahold of the shower handle and pull it open, the water splashing next to her.

“Well, okay then,” he said, not sure how to feel about the fact the monster knew how to use a shower. He stood there awkwardly for a second before the Monster turned to him again and made a shooing motion with her tail.

“Oh, sorry,” he said with a slight blush as he closed the door behind him and sat on the couch. He slumped back, the couch feeling a lot more comfortable then when he’d laid on it earlier in the day.

He woke up to the sun shining in his eyes. He groaned, suspecting it was his mother’s doing, only to realize he didn’t remember going to sleep in his bed last night. He let out a yawn before walking over to the kitchen.

One giant glass of water later, he noticed the sliding glass door was closed. The same sliding glass door the monster had proven to be unable to close by herself.

She was still in the house.

The first place he checked was the bathroom. It was exactly like how he had left it the night before, no giant dog monster in sight there.

He closed the door as he wondered where else it could have gone. He walked to couch and jumped atop of it, his brain going through the places where the monster could both hide and sleep comfortably.

An act which proved unnecessary if the growling and skittering noises from under the couch were any indication.

He flipped himself over and leaned over the side of the couch until he could see what was underneath. Four annoyed red eyes looked back at him.

“Why are you still here?” he demanded. “My parents could come down here any second. You have to get out before they find you.” The monster’s eyes narrowed before one of her tails slinked out of from under the couch and pointed at the kitchen table.

Jacob snatched the paper off the table and read it. His father had finally started at his new job, and his mother had apparently gone off to North Palm to deal with some last-minute complications. They had tried to wake him up when they had found him early in the morning, but he had been sleeping too deeply for that to work.

He checked what time his father would be back, then compared it to the time on the clock. He had a few hours at least until his dad would be back for lunch.

“I guess it’s safe to come out,” he walked over to the couch. She stuck her head out from under the couch, and Jacob had a feeling she’d be rolling her eyes at him if she could.

He watched in fascination as her body shifted and changed as she got out from under the couch. In order to fit under there, the monster must have made her body flatter, there would have been no way she’d have fit under there otherwise.

Just another thing which set the monster apart from any normal animal he’d had ever heard of.

The thoughts he’d two days ago began swimming in his mind. He thought about everything he knew about the monster, as a theory formed.

He had already established the Monster could understand his speech, and it being able to nod yes or no. So the easiest way to test his theory would be to just ask her.

“Can I ask you something?” he asked plainly.

The monster titled her head at him, but took no other action.

“Do you think you used to be… human?” he let out as he watched the monster carefully.

His eyes widened as the monster gave him a careful nod.