Monster

Too Scared

"Look what you did! He made stinky water!"

"I didn't do nothing! We were just playing a game!"

"Well, he's scared of Witches. Why did you have to scare him like that?"

"It was just pretend. He is such a baby... His name shouldn't be Hero. Heroes don't cry like that and they don't wet their pants."

"Yeah! He's not Hero the Brave! He's Hero the Briny! Because he cries so much!"

"Briny Hero!"

"Yeah... Humans are disgusting."

"You're disgusting! And mean!" Margol heartily says as he grabs his sobbing little brother by his hand and begins to pull him away from the group of older children, now standing uncertain. More of them run up, some still pretending to be creepers and zombies, while Janik holds a hat with a stack of wheat stuck beneath its edges and a rope tied around it and trailing to his feet to imitate Rapunzel's long hair. Marish, playing the Witch in the story, scowls helplessly.

"What happened?" Terik hurries over and frowns at them, holding a stick that's supposed to be a sword as he helps fight monsters spawned by the Witch while she takes Rapunzel away to her tower – a lonely tree growing at village's edge. Now with several weeks passed after the near-drowning incident, the grown-ups are already forgetting to reenforce the rules and the children have a little more freedom about where they go to play.

Here, at the village edge between the houses and the wheat fields, they now run and play hide-and-seek and tag, and act out the stories that they heard the old librarian tell them.

"Nothing! I pretended to be a Witch who took Rapunzel away to the tower. And I guess I did it too well? Hero got scared and made stinky water." Marish winces with resentment and disgust, sticking out his lip. "Margol is going to take him home to change." He points at the younger villager who pulls his human brother with him.

Noticing that they are not going in direction of their house, but heading for the woods, Terik startles and runs after them.

"Margol! Margol, wait!"

The little villager refuses to pay attention as he keeps striding away. Still sniffling, the white eyed human runs along with him, a small wet patch showing on his trouser leg beneath his villager gown. At the sight of it, Terik wrinkles his nose and frowns.

"Margol, wait! Where are you taking him?"

"To the woods. Our cabin is too far. I'm just going to change his clothes and come back, all right?"

"Margol, wait! You're not supposed to go to the woods by yourself!" The older child helplessly protests, before he remembers to put on a stern tone and image. He is the leader of their group, after all. The elders said so.

"Margol, stop right now!" This time he speaks firmly and the younger villager stops, glaring back at him defiantly.

"What?"

"You cannot go to the woods by yourself! The elders said so!"

The younger villager hesitates and sniffs. "But it's right there. Just behind those bushes. I'm not going far. It's still within the village boundary, so it's safe." He stubbornly points to the sparse trees and the berry bushes growing right beyond the wheat fields, where a faint trail leads further up into the hills to the forest covering the wall of cliffs.

"And anyway, we don't have to be scared of monsters when Hero is around. His special magic will protect us. Right, Tnul?" The young villager turns to his brother, who runs up to him and joins him at his side. Immediately, the smaller villager readily nods his head.