Foes of a Different Kind

Asher faces more than what she's expecting.

 

 

 

Chapter 2- Realism

 

 

 

Adorably carnivorous was the only logical  way I found I could define them. The baby creatures pranced around the meadow, playfully harassing each other. Three of them was all I could uncover. They gave out tiny, hoarse screeches when they were tackled; I was assuming it was a giggle. They leapt on top of each other, scratching and biting-though not too hard-and ran around chasing each other. Their inability to see signaled me that  I was well obscured behind some thick shrubbery. They were in a dipped, huge clearing while I was hiding in the trees around it. The scenery was lush and had  gorgeous landscape. There were blossoming flower and berry-covered bushes, grass that seemed to pulsate in the sunlight, and the trees-they seemed so elderly and wise from long years of living, yet muscular, with bark covering their smooth body and green, silky leaves covering the branches that stuck out of its head. The sun shone brightly, crisp white clouds dotting the clear blue sky behind it. The creatures were still giving little chuckles as they chased each other. They seemed as if they were merely children, but there was no one giving orders or harassing them-where their parents were was a mystery. I felt an obligation-or somewhat of a need-to join them, but I didn’t know how to go about it, so I decided to study them a bit more prior to revealing my existence. I decided to try to capture every detail that I could, and maybe I’d even be able to draw them later-as a sort of keepsake. They had long, red veins invading their eyes; the eyes were bulging, yet little, and were shaped like diamonds. They had long, thick tails with oddly pointed arrows at the end, that silently swayed behind them. Their ears fanned out from their heads and had spiked edges all around them. Huge jagged,  half-circle shaped crowns were sprouting from their heads and in various places on their bodies. In rows like bushes, enormous teeth were planted in their mouths-neatly placed but still fairly untamed. They had a dinosaur-like structure, with their smooth bellies sticking out and their figure hunched over. They had double-edged swords protruding from their slightly stubby hands that curled in, with giant burly legs sprouting from their the torso. Their bodies were covered with glimmering, crusty scales that lined their bodies like a dragon’s, and pointed triangles lining their back from the top of their head to the tips of their tails. I was guessing they had various eye colors-like most creatures- though checking wasn’t an option. The creatures were detailed in various hues.

One of them was a greenish, swampy color with purple streaks across its body, and a bit of the same purplish hue lining its eyes. It was the one that seemed to always rebound when attacked; I’m guessing it was trying to prove itself to the other ones.

The other one was a darkened blood red that had deathly black streaks down its back and another black layer of skin covering the top of its eyes.

The third one was a kind of electric yellow with a slab of blue streaking it’s body and having a tad of blue above it’s eyes, like the others.

I could now see miniature pairs of wings tucked into their back, with little claws sticking out from the middle of them, and thicker skin crossing the center and the sides. They were basically the height of basketball players, except the yellow one was a little taller. I wasn’t sure what in my intuition told me, but I rightfully assumed they were all young men. I decided to name them so that I wouldn’t get confused.

The yellow one I named Velocity, because electric yellow reminded me of that word, plus velocity suggested it had a sort of fighting tense in it, and that bugger seemed ferocious.

I named the red one Surge, because he was always breaking up the extreme quarrels among the other two, like a boy scout, and thankfully, he did have enough persuasive mind and power to do so.

I named the smallest one Green-Shard, because I thought of diamonds and a sparkling, yet ravenous, personality when I saw it.

I didn’t even realize how weird it was that those names just popped up into my head, they were just the first words that came to me when I saw them. They still seemed to be enjoying themselves by hurting each other-I found hilarity in the whole scenario. Apparently, I found too much though, for all of the little guys stopped and turned around toward my direction. They sniffed the air and gripped the floor with their vicious claws. Their nails dug into the soft earth like a knife digging into a lizard’s underbelly, all the while making a little crunching noise. I leaped behind a tree before they could see me. I waited a few seconds, and then-with a dire stillness I began to rise.  I silently hoisted myself, still being conscious of my invasion. The creatures had they’re heads high in the air, sniffing around. Velocity shot out a beam of red light from his eyes, which didn’t seem to hurt anything, but it looked like an infrared detector. I ducked behind the tree, grabbing hold of the coarse bark, as the beam of red passed by. I shut my eyes and held so tightly to the bark that my hands started to sweat.  I didn’t want it to be like a corny horror movie where the victim comes out too early and then they die a gruesome death, so I stayed-eyes closed-not moving, for a while longer, breathing slowly, with a fear of being caught surging through my body. I counted to sixty in my head, my mouth stirring with a couple of the numbers, and then opened my eyes.

Pursing my lips was the only thing humanly possible to do to keep from screaming-I didn’t dare try to move my hand over my mouth. It had too many legs to count, and I could see black fur caking its body. It dangled in front of my face, but it was so close that I couldn’t tell what it was. I saw dozens of tiny red eyes looking at me, they lay above lengthy, yellow fangs that were bared. The legs were long and twitched and flinched while the body just suspended a few inches from my face. I wanted to swat it away, close my eyes and scream, but moving an inch of my body seemed like a death sentence. Several distinct red and purple markings cased its shaggy, petite body. I gradually looked up to see it was suspending from a thin, white string that came from behind it and tenaciously gripped onto a tree branch. I could now assume that it was a spider of some kind. It looked over me, a lingering, soft hiss rolling off the miniature pink tongue that crept out of its mouth. Its eyes rolled around in its head as it looked me over once more, still hissing, drool dripping from its ugly teeth. Then, with one swift motion, its legs began to push up and down, and it ascended, back into the greenery, the only trace left behind being a diminutive rattle in the leaves. I indefinitely concluded it was a spider…maybe some mutated or rare spider, but a spider nonetheless. I stood frozen for second longer-just in case the spider decided to pop back down-and then rested my head on the tree, tiny beads of sweat beginning to form on my forehead. I opened my mouth and began gulping air in by the gallon. The thing scared me to death, and yet in an odd way I wanted to see it again-even though it was scary, it had a certain beauty to it. I couldn’t believe I wanted to look upon it again, but now I was longing too. I shivered though, it was so…furry and spider-y and spiders weren’t my favorite animal.  I slowly looked back over to the creatures, still breathing roughly, and the creatures were back to roughhousing; however, Velocity seemed to look around every now and then, probably sensing my presence now. I knew they were intelligent enough to realize I was there, but it puzzled me why they didn’t just be done with me-maybe, I wasn’t an immediate threat or something along those lines. It was exhilarating to call the creatures by names; it seemed to give them a sense of pride, especially as opposed being called “it”. Then the thought hit me-I needed to give the species a name. But what would it be? I thought of a couple of things but nothing would suffice, these magnificent things needed something particularly extraordinary. I decided to figure out the name elsewhere, for I wanted to observe the creatures as much as possible while I could. I had a sense that this was all a dream, but my mind-set claimed it was something much more.

Squeals of joy and fury were audible, they were having a ball, I could tell. Surge never got bored,  he was always breaking up the hard-core tussles that escalated out of hand. But, as innocent as a teenager, Green-Shard would always decide on brawling with Velocity all over again, laughing along the way. It was such an amazing and hilarious sight to see the little guys. Through they’re dinosaur-like features, they still had such a gorgeous and sweet liking to them. I knew I could just watch them forever-but they looked friendly enough so I figured I would have to venture out there sometime. I was finally getting ready to go down there when something curious happened. It seemed as though the sky and earth got darker, like a immense shadow was sweeping across the land. Thoughts of deliria crossed my mind, but the creatures heeded to it also. The three creatures abruptantly stopped, and Velocity gave a shrill, ear shattering squawk-I had a feeling it was some sort of warning to his brethren. Surge and Green-Shard hastily filed behind Velocity, as if he was in charge of the two smaller ones, though they all seemed ready to fight and protect one another. They did not sniff the air or send out their rays of red, they seemed to know what was coming. The land just seemed to quietly and slowly get darker and more lethal. Suddenly, a deafening ruckus like the shaking of an earthquake filled the atmosphere. I braced myself, trying to get prepared for anything that might happen. Green-shard hopped up and down, screaming tenaciously, as though eager to fight. Thoughts were racing through my mind, but I knew I had no chance to try to predict what was going to happen, I just had to wait and see. I was steadied; I had braced myself, although I had no weapon, I knew I would just have to use the little hand-to-hand combat strength I had, and my speed to help me overcome whatever that was approaching. The air was now a darkened gray, and the grass and trees were still with a sense of death that silently enticed everything. The clouds grew horribly black and the sky seemed to light up, though no rain or lightning had started. And then, I had that feeling once again that this was bigger than nature.

An earthquake began and the rumbling drew closer and I could hear it rise up in the dirt. My three amazing creatures got even more astounding, despite my idea that they couldn’t possibly get any more commendable. Out of the tip of Velocity’s tail shot electric waves that seemed to radiate around his body, not shocking him or his brothers one bit, but disappearing into the sky, beyond my vision. It was blinding and vibrant, putting an unearthly light around them, my eyes twinkling as I watched in amazement. I felt the static cling ascend on my clothes and in my hair, the leaves obtaining a zesty zap to them. From Surge’s tail came thick lines of burning flames that shimmer like the sun. I could feel the heat of the flames lick at my skin and dry out my throat, despite the fact that he was yards away. I could smell the singing of the grass and the leaves and the dirt and the bushes-it was a harsh, diminished kind of fragrance that seeped into my nostrils. Despite the fact that my mouth was closed, an ashy taste was found in it and I was on the verge of gagging, but held back. And last but certainly not least, out of Green-Shard’s tail came vines that whipped out with immensely sharp thorns jutting out from all sides. The thorns were so piercing that I felt as though my skin was coming off and I felt my blood flowing in my veins and around my body. Curiosity slithered through me, but terror also showed itself, my hair standing on end. They all  had their powers under control, able to use them at their will. They stood ready though, seeming to be quite prepared, yet frightened to fight-knowing the consequences could be utterly lethal. The sky was ultimately pitch black, but Velocity and Surge together illuminated miles of land in every direction imaginable. The reverberating got ever so much closer and obnoxious shouts and laughs of impending evil were audible from the distance. I attained the fury in my heart to wrestle the apparent malevolence, along side my creatures of beauty. My muscles seemed to pulsate and grow stronger as I stood there, adrenaline pumping up my veins. I clenched and unclenched my fists as energy rushed, the urgency to fight growing more furious. I had a new strength inside me, and I had a feeling my three friends had something to do with it, gratitude made me grin.

“Here it comes…” I murmured softly to myself.

Suddenly, a gaseous black glow filled the air in front of the creatures. Shrieks and battle cries filled the air-though I couldn’t see who it was coming from. The screams seemed to overwhelm the oxygen and stifle the heat. My friends let out a vicious, penetrating scream that seemed to shatter the heavens.  I had a sick feeling at the pit of my stomach that something horrible was about to step out. The rumbling was defining now and the blackened haze made me incredibly nervous but also curious. I stared at the fog, feeling slightly dizzy now; my breath was hushed but quick, and I waited and was ready for what ever stepped out…

“NOOOOO!” I bellowed as I shot up from my bed, perspiration dripping down my face.

I took shallow, shrill gulps of air and shot looks ubiquitously.

I calmed down after I realized I was just waking from what was apparently…just a dream.

“But…it all…seemed so real! Arg!”

I hated dreams if they were fantastic, because they never turn into reality, so the fiction goes right into your head with all your other wants and wishes. I slammed my hands soundlessly on the bed and gave a sigh of exasperation. It still had a sense of reality to it. I cursed silently at myself for not realizing it was just a dream.

I could see my dog at the foot of the bed, his head slowly rising at my ruckus, but then he drifted back to sleep after realizing it was nothing. I took a deep intake of air and scratched his head, a downward slit crossing my face, I hadn’t meant to upset anything else.

“Erg! Dream or not, I still want to know what happened and fight with my friends!” I exclaimed vociferously, furious with the dream, and myself.

I supposed for some reason I felt obligated to call them my friends. It was so weird; it seemed so much like it was real. I had a sensation that even though it was just a dream, something had changed in me-I had no clue what it was, but the alteration existed. Furthermore; it was something even more powerful than my newfound love for nature.

 

I sighed loudly-a bit for fear and a tad for joy.

This was this path that started the weird transformation inside of me.

I stood at a path surrounded by bushes and lofty trees. I yawned loudly as I began walking down the path toward the school. My nose drank in the aroma of the lush greenery and my eyes tasted the majesty of how the trees beautifully towering everything, I used that to call them the sentinels of the forest. The bushes were like miniature shields that helped the guardians. The shrubs seemed as though-through their cute- chubby outlook, they could whip out a lethal vine to attack rivals. And the grass was like an army of ants, not of much power alone but as deadly as a tornado when allied with its own kind. I was kind of boggled as to why I had thought of war when there were thoughts of the grass and whatnot. But then Velocity, Green-Shard and Surge wrapped themselves around my contemplation, and the realization hit: they were forever in my mind. All the nature and everything else seemed to be as clear to me as 2+2 was to a mathematician.  It was like I was seeing a whole new side of the world. I always had loved nature, but I never really interpreted how elegant it could be!

I picked up a leaf that had floated onto the path in front of me. It was a faultless emerald on one side and a fuzzy green on the other. I saw the little wrinkled lines etched into the leaf and the tiny holes originating from a caterpillar’s dinner. I put the leaf gently back on the tree, somewhere on a branch with its other young friends, and headed off; I didn’t want to be late to school. A wild pang of frustration overthrew me as thoughts of school and civilization materialized, and nature’s diminished.

 

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[Beth Wilcox]

I loved all of this very much! I hope to see more!