I hate language barriers

The blursons stared at him. Kato sighed deeply. ‘I’m really starting to hate language barriers.’ His right-hand ground into his forehead, frustration evident. This should’ve gotten easier by now. He’d talked to enough people who couldn’t understand him to at least be somewhat proficient at it, right?

Kato turned and faced the blursons, letting his hand drop and forcing a small smile. “Hi,” he said warmly, he knew they couldn’t understand him all too well. But greeting strangers was universal… right?

The stares continued, unwavering in their apathy.

Until suddenly, ‘movement’ Kato’s heart quickened as one of the blursons finally began to stir, he’d done it, he’d gotten through!

The world seemed to slow down as its head jerked forward with an odd, twitching moment, not quite settling right on its neck. Then with a slow and deliberate rotation, its head spun in his direction, pausing mid-turn before finally locking into place, staring directly at him, head tilted, wide eyes looking in askance.

Kato grimaced, rubbing his forehead again as he felt the tension build. He thought for a moment, he had to bridge this gap, and perhaps even more importantly he had to seem civilised ‘manners mean something’ he reminded himself. He waved, a universal greeting surely, at least for anyone with hands.

Another blurson tilted their head.

Kato put his head in his hands. “Seriously” he muttered. ‘Could these people do anything but stare at me?’

If civility didn’t work, then absurdity surely would. Without hesitation Kato jumped high, higher than he ever had, flapping his wildly and cawing like a deranged bird.

The poker stared at him, blinking slowly, before shaking its head in what could only be described as bewilderment. His furry friend turned to the others and made a circling motion with a finger near the side of its head.

Kato’s eyes narrowed. ‘Was it, was it mocking me?’ Kato stepped forward, indignant, he would show it who the crazy one was! But before high pitched shrills and tweets could join his one-man symphony a blurson growled, apparently their introductions were over.

Either that, or they hated birds.

Kato turned towards it, that was no way to treat someone, even if said someone had delusions of an avian nature. Then he heard it.

A low hiss, even in this relative safety apparently, he was not free, the hissing devolved into a monstrous sound “woosh” it didn’t sound threatening, but Kato knew what happened next.

‘Fog’. He shuddered, tensing himself. The dome shuddered, and the fog that had so lovingly nestled against its exterior just moments before retreated, then lashed out demanding their love in turn, its gentle embrace warped into something sinister.

Blue sparking lines of electricity wrapped around thin tendrils of the mist whipping out and striking the minute sanctuary that dared defy nature itself.

A low growl filled the calm air of the dome, ‘what do the blursons think growling will do?’ Kato questioned before realising the noise was coming from himself. ‘First bird, now dog?’ Kato tried to restrain the guttural noises of aggression, he was on the fast track to alienating yet another group, but it was to no avail, his control over his actions was slipping, a primal urge taking over and demanding action.

A small hand reached up and clasped his shoulder, he looked down to see the innocent face of the poker staring back at him, “sorry” he murmured “I don’t know what came over me.” The poker gave his arm a gentle squeeze and turned back to the blursons chittering at them in their own strange language.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

‘Great, even the creature who thinks its normal to charge headfirst at a monster multiple her size thinks I’m crazy’ he sighed. He was surrounded by blue people with tusks, a giant rodent and a jealous fog monster yet he was the weird one.

Bang! A particular large offshoot of fog hammered down into the dome, again and again demanding entrance the world inside grew eerily silent, his companions muted and even the attacks above faded into the background. Then… crack, the sound propagated through the otherworldly stillness and with it the peace was broken large sections of barely visible film sloughed off the dome crashing to the ground.

Kato stumbled, reaching out for the poker but she was gone and in her place fog.

“Poker” Kato called out for the little creature his voice barely above a whisper, wary of who else might be lurking in the darkness.

‘No response, don’t even know what I was expecting,’ Kato muttered absentmindedly as he kicked the ground. ‘Ever since I left the tunnel things just keep going wrong’ he kicked the ground again, harder this time. “Argh!” he recoiled back in pain. ‘And perhaps even before then it’s not like things were exactly sunshine and rainbows.’

He circled his chest, “could really use some guidance right how big man”, he looked up but all he saw was the grey oppression of the fog bearing upon him “to be expected” he muttered before lashing out at the ground one final time “ARGHH” he stumbled back crashing against something behind him.

“Sorry Ground don’t know what came over me” he looked abashedly at the floor before cradling his throbbing foot.

At least one thing had come from his mounting frustration; he had stumbled back into the wagon, its cloth exterior compressing under his weight. Wincing, he stood and fumbled around until he found the entrance, making his way inside he found that once again the fog had been repelled and better yet, the poker and the blursons were here too.

He wanted to complain, ‘why am I the only one that seems to have trouble traversing in the fog’ but instead he smiled “hey” he murmured giving the crowd a brief nod before sitting against the aged wood floor.

It was rough and brittle and dug into him at weird angles, but no one else complained so he didn’t either. A warm red torch hung from a sconce on the cloth covered wall, casting flickering shadows across the small space. ‘Surely they know what they’re doing’ Kato thought desperately to himself. He didn’t want to create a new adage; after all, “out of the fog and into the cloth wagon fire” wasn’t exactly catchy.

Somewhere outside, someone or something began to laugh it was quiet at first, just a soft tickle his ears, but over time it got louder and louder until it was all that could be heard, and yet not one of the others batted an eye, ‘could they really not hear this?’

Kato pointed to his ears looking at the others imploringly, but they just looked at him strangely, their expression a mix of confusion and apathy, he was by himself but in his heart, he had known that all along. It was a brutal world and with every second just appeared more brutal, Kato would not stay here, frightened whimpering in the dark like a caged beast, just waiting for the fog to break this sanctuary too, he looked at the others disgust marring his features, were they really so content as to just wait to die.

Kato stood, the poker chittered but he did not look down, he walked towards the door. “We will prevail” a voice whispered in the back of his mind.

Kato jumped down the wagon step, letting relative cool give way to the stickly clamminess once again. “I’m here!” he shouted, “I won’t hide from you” the fog recoiled from him, slowly crackling as the electrical blue sparks from earlier returned.

A crashing pain resonated throughout Kato’s skull, he crashed to the soft wet ground.

“How curious” a distinctly feminine voice whispered in his ears, “you were supposed to run, supposed to hide, like all the others, tell me little mouse why are you here?” The voice in a gentle hushed tone.

Kato paused, shocked ‘did it- did it think he was the poker?’

“Um I'm the human not the poker”

“Poker?” the voice stuttered, then paused “It matters not what you are fool child, why are you here?” the voice did not sound so kind anymore.

“Um, right, yes, of course you’d want to know that I am here because ever since I've left the tunnels all I've done is run and overthink stuff and there was that lizard thing and that bigger lizard thing and the weird poker village and the feather, um have you seen my feather? Oh no, wait, don’t worry, it’s still here.” Kato’s hand reached up and gently caressed the feather. The air crackled warningly, “oh um right, so basically, I don’t want to do that anymore, seize your own destiny and stuff… I guess” he trailed off.

The voice did not respond for a while, clearly Kato had won them over with his superior usage of language, he smiled to himself proud, he’d always had a knack for this kind of thing.

“Are humans usually this stupid?”

“What” Kato stuttered taken aback, he’d done everything right.

“you’ve done everything wrong” the voice sneered “your destiny will be claimed but not by you!”

A sudden rush of air hit Kato then everything went… purple?