The Mysterious Visitor (and other short stories)

The Monster (M)

Maria climbed through the forest, leaping from limb to limb. She was miles deep but she knew as long as she stayed high in the trees she was safe from the monsters who roamed the furthest reaches of these woods. Several weeks had passed since she had been forced to return to the forest. After several reconnaissance trips back into the empire, DJ had found that her face was plastered over every message board in the empire. She could not return to her home. 

“Home?” she thought bitterly. Where was home? The forest had always been her home, but she hated it here. There were too many reminders of her father and too much apathy about  the injustices that happened every day in the empire.

The king deserved to die for the things he had done-- murdering innocent people for his own enjoyment and killing her father. Her father... he always said that no one was beyond redemption. Her father even saved the king's life on two occasions. And what thanks did he get? He was tricked and publically mauled by monsters captured from the very mountains where he lived! It just wasn’t fair. 

“Not fair.”

Maria froze. 

“Home? Where is home?” The voice continued. It was strange voice, high pitched and raspy. “Kill the king?”

Careful not to move, Maria looked around. A hundred feet below her, there was a rustle of movement in the undergrowth. A large, purple, snake-like creature with legs running down its sides emerged. 

“Who are you? You scare me.” It called, without seeming to take any notice of her.

“It’s echoing my thoughts.” Maria whispered, relaxing slightly.

“Echoing thoughts!” It called cheerfully. It began nosing around on the ground, looking for food.

Maria sat and watched the creature for several moments with fascination, careful to keep her emotions light. It seemed to pick up on her feelings, sniffing around and exploring the ground. It began to mosey away, and intrigued, Maria followed it at a distance.

Rob carefully followed Maria through the forest. At first, he thought he had managed to avoid detection, but then she climbed high into the trees where the branches couldn’t hold his weight and he was unable to follow. Determined, he continued on, hoping to find her again when she came back down. 

He was unsuccessful, and presently became frustrated. After almost two hours of searching, he gave up and angrily punched a tree before settled himself on a branch to brood.

The silence was broken by a low growl. Rob leaped to his feet in alarm, his eyes narrow. There was a rustling noise and a large, purple, snake-like creature stuck it's head out of the bushes below him and hissed. Rob whipped his knife out and prepared to throw it. 

“I'm going to kill you!” The creature rasped. It reared up and locked eyes with him. 

Rob suddenly felt dizzy. He swayed and would have fallen off of the branch he was balanced on if Maria hasn't appeared suddenly out of nowhere and grabbed him. Rob struggled, momentarily disoriented. 

“Rob, calm down! It feeds off your thoughts!” She barked.

“Calm down!” The creature shrieked.

“Oh, shut up!” Maria snapped. 

“Shut up!” The creature crowed. It paced restlessly back and forth beneath them, hopping up and down in excitement, agitated.

Rob still seemed unable to control his own flailing limbs and nearly pulled her down with him. Annoyed, Maria briefly considered just letting him fall. Then she glanced at the creature prancing about below them, and her eyes narrowed in suspicion. She shoved Rob hard so he tumbled off the branch. As she expected, rather than tumbling a hundred feet to the ground, he grabbed the branch and expertly swung himself back up. 

The creature rolled over onto its back and kicked its many legs up into the air and cackled.

“Thanks, Maria. You... you saved my life.” Rob gasped dramatically. 

“Save the story telling, Rob.” Maria said coldly. “Do you really think pissing off a dangerous monster who lives in this forest and then pretending to be in trouble is funny?”

The creature below them growled in response, “Danger.”

Rob opened his mouth to protest, but Maria turned and headed back to the base, fading into the trees before he could say a word.

“Some day you'll be mine.” The purple reptile hissed as Rob watched her disappear into the distance.

--------
Authors note:
This is an except from an old unfinished story that I was playing around with before working on The Protectors. Hope you enjoyed it!