Wicked

When a strange creature whose life was filled with war and despair, how does it react to kindness? This story is intentionally left unfinished.

It walked along the field, alone with its thoughts. Looking around, it saw naught but for the grass and the sky. Its mask tinged everything with a deep green, but it could tell that these pastures were not greener. It had walked for years now, eating barely anything. It was barely a shadow of its former self.

The man fell over, bleeding from his back. It stood over him, watching. It slowly removed the mask and began to devour the man. The whole process was as quick as it was bloody: not at all.

It looked about, wondering what triggered the flashback. Perhaps thinking about its former self?

It ran, fast and far. Bullets and arrows whizzed past, a thrown axe nearly hit its leg. An arrow struck it in the arm, but it kept running as though the injury did nothing to it.

It realized suddenly that it had run forward a few meters during that last flashback. Perhaps it would be best to continue walking and stop thinking...

It walked, miles and miles. Its mind was empty of everything; it had nothing to think about. Now it recalled the map it had memorized; in a few miles, it would reach a small town. Hopefully it could find a way to live there in peace.

The miles dragged on. Flies buzzed around it, unable to puncture its thick skin. Mosquitoes tried to suck blood that wasn't there. It continued walking, for miles.

Up ahead, it saw smoke.

The factory was burning. It didn't know what it did, but somehow it had started a fire. Now the evil men were running from the building. It used its claws to quickly dismember them. Taking a nearby sack, it...

It continued walking.

As it neared the town, it saw a road. It decided it would walk along the road, for that would be easier traveling than the woods.

A highway. It ran along, trying to escape its would-be captors. The sound of rotor blades frightened it, for it knew that a helicopter was a dangerous beast. The spooling of the guns was the only warning it got before gallons of lead pelted its back. The bullets were so little, however, that they did nothing to it but bounce off.

Forgetting the fearful sound of the helicopter, it continued walking to the village. It looked itself over, thinking that maybe the villagers would fear it.

"Seven feet tall upright. Claws 8 inches. Retractable. A mask to hide its face. You really deal well in terror, doctor."

Definitely. It fled to the forest and began forming the leaves into some semblance of clothing. It used grass to weave threads, and patched leaves together to form a crude shirt and pair of pants. It also fashioned a hood out of leaves so that it could at least partially cover its face.

Feeling confident in its fashion sense, it walked into the village. Nobody paid it any attention, save a small boy in the market with his mother. The boy stared at it, and said to the mother, "Who's that, mommy?"

"Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you: the perfect warrior. It's fully alive, but doesn't have blood. It has 8-inch claws for melee combat, and an intricate knowledge of weaponry both crude and advanced! It's born from a tank, so it has no family to return to! All the fighter, none the man."

It looked away from the child and started exploring the town.

It was a nice little town, clearly without much money. Most of the people looked to be poor farmers, but there were some more middle-class workers; bakers, blacksmiths. The local guilds were in their hiring seasons, so the amount of apprentice workers was increasing. It looked to find a tailor to create better clothes for it, but suddenly realized it had nothing to trade.

It decided it would go to the tailor anyways.

The store was small, like the village, tended by a young woman, probably around 19 or 20. In the back was an older man, almost certainly the master tailor. Politely, the woman asked, "How may I help you?"

It looked at her, unsure of how to respond. It had only ever been met with screams of terror or direct attack. Nobody had ever tried being nice to it. It was at a complete loss.

"Are you alright, sir?"

It looked around for a way to converse with the lady. It held up two fingers, implying it needed a writing utensil. Taking a leaf from its cloak, it wrote in crude letters: Clothes. Looking at the leaf, the young lady seemed to be in thought.

"Master? There's a man here asking for clothes. I think you might want to take a look."

The old man got up from his stool, and sized it up. Suddenly his eyes widened.

"Tania, what is wrong with you? Don't you see? This is one of the Wicked! Get out of my store! Get out!"

Realizing it was no longer welcome, it calmly left, fully unfazed by the old man's broom-related onslaught. As it walked back to the center of town, it heard shouting from the tailor shop. It went to the fountain and sat, thinking about how it would be able to live under the title of Wicked.

Another person realized its identity, and it was chased out of town. Unbeknownst to it, the tailor girl, Tania, watched the whole spectacle. As it sat in the forest, deep in thought, she sat in the tailor's shop, deep in thought.

The night advanced quickly. In the dead of the night, it still sat on a stump. Not interested in eating, it simply sat, thinking about what it would do. A rustling in the bushes caught its attention. It stood, and extended its claws, ready to fight off whatever its attacker was. From the bushes came a human figure, definitely female. It recognized the figure.

"Hello?" called a quiet, feminine voice. It looked at her, and recognized her as Tania. It sat on the log again with a quiet thump, and continued its thought.

"Mister Wicked? I'm sorry about what the master did. Everyone else may call you evil, but if you were evil, wouldn't you have just killed us all?"

It looked up. Behind the mask was an emotionless face. It thought about this for a moment, considering what the girl said. In the end, it thought that she was correct in her assessment, and grunted in affirmation.

"This is almost certainly forbidden, but I want to make you some clothes. You don't mind if I take measurements of you?"

It looked at the girl again. Unsure of her skill, it stood up. It held out its arms for her to measure. She set straight to work, measuring the length of its arms, its legs, its torso. She measured its head, presumably to make it a hood.

"Alright, that's everything. Thank you."

The girl started walking away, but it held out its arm and stopped her. It wrote on a paper: "Teach word."

"Teach word? You want me to teach you how to speak? Uh, I'm not sure if..."

It made a soft noise, "eee oor"

"Alright, I'll try. But not tonight. Tonight I need to work on your clothes."

And she walked off. It sat back on its stump, thinking. What a world it would be if it could speak! It knew the laws: if it were humanoid in shape and spoke language, it was human. If it could speak, it would no longer be Wicked, it would be human.

It spent the rest of the night hunting for food. Rabbits and deer, though it didn't catch much. Being malnourished as it was, hunting was difficult. By the end of its hunt, all it had to show was two rabbits.

The following night, the girl, Tania, returned. She had a crude burlap robe.

"I'm sorry, but I couldn't get very much good material. This should suffice to cover your more... telling areas. Your mask will be covered if the hood is up, your claws won't be visible unless they're extended. Again, I'm sorry about the material..."

"iih ayye. uuur-eh"

"It's... fine? Perfect?"

It grunted and nodded in affirmation.

"You've been practicing speaking? We need to work on your consonants."

"awawah?"

"Consonants." She followed with various consonants: S, K, T.

"ssss... khhh... t"

"Like that! Now repeat after me: 'stick'. Stick." For emphasis, she held up a fallen branch.

"Ssst-ihk"

"Stick."

"Sst-ik"

"Yes! Like that! Now we need to expand your sounds and vocabulary..."

"Ssso, kahn uun?"

"Yes, you can learn. It'll take time and I can only come at night, but..."

Tears formed behind the mask. "Taak uu"

"Oh, it's no problem. Until you can speak better, don't come into the village, by the way. Some soldiers are staying in for a while, and we don't want them finding you."

Months went by. It learned language well, and the head start was very helpful. Soon its words were mostly coherent. It began forming sentences, and had approximately the literacy skill of a four-year old.

"Tahn-eeya. I wann tu go tew thu viilayge."

"I don't know if your language..."

"Tahn-eeya. Pleez."

"Alright, fine."

The two went back to the village. This time, nobody noticed the Wicked as a Wicked, but as a tall robed man. It rather liked this treatment, and with its happiness, it began eating a proper diet again.

The diet of a Wicked is similar to that of a man. It eats mostly meat, and some vegetables. In a pinch, a Wicked could eat grass for basic sustenance. It explored the village more freely now, but avoided the tailor. The shop was closed for the night, but it still avoided the place. Tania's robe felt strangely comfortable, despite being made of such a rough material. It wondered how much it would take to get a new one...

...But no. That would require the master tailor taking measurements. And it would have to remove his robe, which is something it couldn't do in front of such a prejudiced person. It would have to ask Tania to try and convince everyone that a Wicked-turned-human wasn't a bad thing.

"You know," Tania suddenly blurted, "I think you need a name."

"Naymm?" It asked curiously, tasting the word.

"Yes. A name. Mine is Tania. The master's is Roy. I think you should have something to identify yourself by, other than 'It'."

"Buut iht liyks iht," it protested.

"But it's got nothing identifying! Hmm, how about Jason?"

"Jayysun? Noo." it responded.

"Steve?"

"Noo."

"Henry!"

"Noo."

"Well why don't you find something?"

"Iht ree-mehm-burrz. A wurrd,"

"A word?"

"Yess. The uhtturs cawl-ed iht Ayy-jiss. Ayy-jiss."

"Aegis? Seems like an odd name, but I guess it fits you. Alright, Aegis. We need to find you work, come morning. You can't live here without money."

"Wurrk? Muhnee?" Aegis questioned, "Wutts them?"

"Oh, uhh, money is the stuff you use to buy things and work is how you get money."

"Iht - uh, Ayy-jiss wuud liyk to wurrk. Wenn to starrt?"

"Morning. You can sleep at my house until then."

"Ayy-jiss hazzent sleeep-ped ihn munnts."

"Months? What the heck?"

"The Wicked cahn goh furr munnts witowt sleeep."

"Months? But everyone needs sleep. And, according to you, you'll need to sleep soon anyways."

"Ayy-jiss ag-rees. Haow ihzz Tah-nee-ya's how-z?"

"Well, it's not much. It's pretty much a shed, but it's comfortable."

The odd pair started walking to Tania's house. The house was, as Tania had said, fairly small. It was situated just outside of town, and its only connection was a rough dirt road. As the girl and the Wicked walked up to the house, fairyflies glowed.

"Aren't they beautiful?"

"Bee-yoo-tee-fuhl? Wutts that?"

"Beauty? You've never seen beauty!? What kind of torture were you put through?"

"Ayy-jiss cahn geev yew a dee-taled ree-port. But Ayy-jiss woodent wahnt tew, and iht gesses that Tah-nee-ya woodent wahnt tew eether."

"Of course not, I'm sorry for mentioning it. It was improper of me. Shall we go in?"

Tania opened the door for the tall creature whom she was calling friend. Aegis had to bend its head so as to prevent breaking the doorframe. Once inside, it could stand full-height and just barely brush the ceiling. Tania followed it inside.

"Well, this is home. You like it?"

"Yess. Ayy-jiss duz nawt dees-liyk thees playce."

"You don't dislike it? Did you really never learn to like, or love?"

"Ayy-jiss wood wahnt tew lurn."

The remainder of the night was spent working on Aegis' language skills or the basics of liking and loving. Come morning, Tania took Aegis with her to the tailor's shop.

"Master Roy? I've brought in someone to help..."

"Tania, welcome back. What's this about someone-"

The master looked up to see the massive creature standing before him.

"Hello." said the former Wicked.

"Hello, sir. You're here to work?"

"Yes. Tan-eea says yew can give Ayjis wurk, and money."

"Right. We could use someone to take the scraps to the dump, I suppose. I guess Tania doesn't have steel for a brain."

The day started, after that. Aegis carried sacks of scrap material off to Tania's house (as Tania asked it to, so that she could piece together better clothes for it). Tania helped Master Roy with his work. And after hours of work, the day was over.

"Alright, Tania. Good night."

"Goodbye, Master."

"Aygis wil bee back to-mor-ro."

The pair walked back to Tania's house. The night was spent furthuring Aegis' language. While Tania teached it to speak, she pieced together the scraps it had brought to make it a marginally more comfortable robe; one that at least made it look less poor. As the night came to a close, and both were in bed, it asked a strange question.

"Tania, do you love it?"

"Love what? Wait, it means you. We need to assign you a pronoun. You're male, right?"

"Aegis is it. It was purposefully given no gender, so that it wouldn't have as many base desires."

"Well, your figure it very masculine. You're no longer it, you're he. Alright?"

"Alright. Well, does Tania love him?"

"When you refer to yourself, use 'I' or 'me'. Come on Aegis, I taught you this."

"Sorry, Tania. Do you love me?"

"Oh, Aegis. That's a very difficult question to answer-"

"It's yes or no. Aegis will feel the same about Tania no matter what she replies."

"Well, how do you mean love?"

"Love. Like liking, but stronger. That's how you put it, right?"

"Well, I suppose so. Yes. I love you."

"How much?"

Tania sighed. "This isn't a yes or no question. I don't know-"

"Compared to Roy. Do you love Aegis more or less than Roy?"

Tania laughed, "Definitely Aegis. I like Roy as a teacher, but I don't love him by any meaning of the word."

Aegis thought about this. So how much did she love him?

He would never find out.

Author's Note

Aegis' early speaking moments are purposefully spelled strangely.

Reviews

[David Kennedy]

This is a really interesting story that draws the reader in with the emotional intensity of the main characters plight. The sort of humanized "Frankensteins monster" narrative is not a new one, but the perspective, the raw and unaided introduction you've given for him and the bizarre setting gives it a unique and compelling quality. All that being said, you should continue working on character building and honing your writing style. Aegis as a character seems confused at times; alert and aware of some things that it feels like he shouldn't be. As well, Tania's character seems strangely helpful, almost to the point of it seeming suspicious. I would work on clarifying her motivations as a character. All in all, continue writing and exploring this world and these characters, they are definitely worth it.