Innocent monsters

The younglings cowed away from him in fear, some of them making frightened whimpering noises.

Kato stood resolute staring down their apparent leader; he was not the bad guy here.

He hadn’t poked anyone.

The larger poker stood back and dropped its gnarled staff, there was a dull thud as it hit the ground. Some of the others looked at them. Shocked.

The leader paid them no mind, its’ eyes fixed on Kato. For a moment nothing happened then its hands rose, with its tiny palms facing outwards.

Kato looked at it confused, ‘is it trying to trick me?’, he began backing off slowly. He wanted no part of whatever this was.

There was a physical tingling on his skin from the gaze of numerous beady eyes that pressed into him as he retreated.

“///????///” The leader called out to him, making more noises in a language he couldn’t understand.

Kato paused, they were not the sounds of a monster, it sounded desperate, pleading.

Maybe for the pokers it was a completely normal practice to assault, kidnap, then proceed to assault again for good measure before asking for help.

But that was all conjecture, for all he knew they were planning to eat him and knocking off the vines had ruined their evil schemes.

He scanned the clearing once again, there was no large pot but that certainly didn’t rule out the possibility, ‘perhaps they prefer meat raw’ Kato shivered.

“What?” Kato practically spat the word out, “What could you possibly want?” the words were laced with venom and yet the creatures appeared unperturbed.

They stared back at him, with big round, innocent eyes as if just moments before he hadn’t been tortured by the way of poke.

His eyes scanned over the crowd the smallest clearly unable to hide their emotions, its’ eyes refused to meet his, their head slightly downturn and face marred by a small pout and furrowed brow.

One was even crying, silently, as if in fear, that the noise alone would set him off.

He was finding it harder and harder to stay angry.

Kato took a deep breath and stopped retreating, ‘should I let them poke me?’, he shook his head suddenly trying to snap himself out of it. He would not let himself be swayed by sad eyes and innocent demeanours.

“I am not your toy” he stated bluntly.

“///????///” The leader spoke again clearly beyond confused.

“I… am … not … your … toy” Kato stated again this time slowly and clearly pronounced.

The creature looked at him blankly.

‘Right’ Kato awkwardly scratched the ack of his neck. ‘Why would talking slowly make them understand me?’ Kato silently rebuked himself, ‘how should I get this across?’

“Me no understand” Kato stated loudly and turned up his palms in confusion, because when proper grammar fails, broken sentences always worked.

The leader stared at him for a moment later before exploding into action, it began gesturing at its subordinate and barking commands at them.

A couple of burly looking pokers left the clearing moving swiftly.

‘Maybe they are going to fetch a translator’ Kato thought ‘or maybe they just don’t like improper grammar, after all every culture had their sticklers.’

Kato turned back to the leader; “so…” he started before catching himself, no one had ever briefed him on how to deal with a peaceful kidnapping.

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“Nice weather we are having here” Kato knew they couldn’t understand him, but bad attempts at small talk to alleviate awkward silences had to be universal… right?

The creature nodded its head, slowly. Kato was elated, he had done it he had bridged the language gap!

Thump.

Kato’s head spun to the side, the two burly pokers had returned, and they brought gifts. Kind of. It was the lizard Kato had killed; he hadn’t even realised they had taken it.

‘Thieves’ his eyes blazed. He didn’t claim to be a paragon of virtue, but he at least wouldn’t steal the food out of someone’s mouth.

And what was worse, this wasn’t how he left it. The lizard was missing chunks of flesh and was riddled with puncture marks. ‘What was wrong with these guys, could they not stop poking things even for a second?’

Katos eyes returned to the leader, it pointed at him and then the dead beast.

Kato just stared back, ‘did they want him to pick it up?’

It pointed at him and the beast again, before reaching down and picking up its staff.

Kato tensed; the peace gesture rendered meaningless with one action.

The creature strode over towards the body of lizard before pointing at Kato, then at its’ staff before poking the beast.

Kato’s left eye twitched. ‘They had a problem’ and what was worse now he kind of wanted to poke it, this was not a healthy environment, not at all.

The creature continued in its motions, looking at Kato expectantly.

“Fine” he sighed and walked over to the creature, he picked up one of the sticks discarded on the ground and proceeded to poke the lizard.

“You happy now” he looked at the poker’s leader.

It stared at him and then blinked a few times, as if it couldn’t believe what it had just witnessed.

It waved its hands in front of it frantically and shook its head firmly, ‘was this not what it had wanted?’

It began to mime at him, before giving up; clearly not trusting Kato to understand its message.

The leader gestured for Kato to follow it and they walked a short distance, until they reached a barren patch of dirt.

The poker then did what it did best, poke, The tip of its staff dug into the ground, and it began to draw.

Kato watched as the patterns went from incomprehensible to a work of art, the creature was truly skilled.

After it had finished, there was a rough drawing of him fighting a lizard, then fighting another lizard and another one, then a final diagram showing Kato being rewarded by the pokers.

“You want me to hunt lizards for you…” Kato paused; these creatures had some serious nerve.

‘Should I just pretend I don’t understand’ Kato had no particular desire to hunt the creatures nor was he inclined to aid a race of barbarous maniacs, but something stopped him from rejecting them outright.

The young had looked so scared, what type of man would he be if he just walked away?

“Fine” the word came out slightly choked and Kato had to actively fight down the bitter taste that came with it, it was hard to say even if the pokers wouldn’t understand.

The leader looked at him questioningly.

“I said yes, alright.” Kato glowered at it a bit, trying to make his displeasure known. The little creature just smiled and clasped its tiny hand together, the oppressive silence that had settled over the clearing lifted and the young started tittering and smiling again, picking up their sticks and dispersing.

One came up to him and tugged against his leg, Kato stared down, he was starting to miss the relative seclusion of the last few days.

“Yes?” He asked, the creature jumped up and down pointing at the stick in his hand.

“This is yours I suppose” Kato muttered and handed the brute the weapon of mass destruction.

Kato breathed out a sigh of relief as it turned and scampered away, he had half expected a poke in the side for his troubles.

“////???///” The leader began speaking to him again, it was now holding his knife, which apparently the little thieves had pinched.

“Thanks, I guess” Kato took his blade back.

“So, what now” he looked at the poker waiting for an answer. It pointed its staff in the air and began stabbing forward, ‘of course more poking’ he sighed, ‘what did I expect?’

A thin agile poker bounded over towards him, it was speckled with flecks of white unlike its counterparts and stood at around a foot and a half tall. It had a long thing tail that arched over its back unlike the other pokers Kato had seen.

It gestured at him, clearly asking him to follow it.

Kato looked back to the leader, but it just nodded at him, apparently their interaction was over.

“Great guess I’ll just follow you, then” the poker just stared at him. ‘Great’ he was more lost than he had ever been, and his only guide didn’t like to talk.

Kato followed the poker out of the clearing, constantly scanning his surroundings, he didn’t want to be ambushed again.

The poker looked at him strangely but didn’t comment, scampering along surefooted and confident, ‘perhaps it has a death wish’ Kato mused. He had seen how quickly this idyllic landscape could change and he had only been here for a day, it should have known better.

After some time had passed the grass began morphing into a darker shade of green and the mannerisms of the poker similarly shifted. Every few seconds it would look over its shoulder and the confident demeanour had all but disappeared.

The pair crested a hill moments later, and the poker hunkered down gesturing for Kato to do the same.

Ahead of them was a massive beast at least 20 foot long and most definitely a lizard.

‘Was it only a baby I fought’ Kato recoiled shocked; he couldn’t beat this thing.

Frantically he grabbed the pokers shoulder, “we need to go” he pointed back the way they had come, they just shook their head.

The wind shifted, a black forked tongue tasted the air and a pair of yellow baleful eyes settled on the two, they had been spotted.