Or wild human appears, depending on the prospective… prosthetic… presspective… POINT OF VIEW! Oh! I mean… if you look at it from my side of things, the strange creature is the human OH! Sorry, I didn’t mean to offend or a
Wild forest surrounded by mountains, rock formations protruding from the rich soil here and there broke the monotony while colorful flowers dotted the moist grass. The peaks of the mountains that surrounded this beautiful valley could be seen over the tree tops. The abrupt terrain meant that there were ravines from which a great expanse of terrain could be gazed upon from above, a magnificent view indeed. I could also hear the murmur of water deeper into the forest, indicating that a river or a creek was nearby.
Despite how wild the place seemed, a network of trails allowed me to conveniently walk along and go… from somewhere to another somewhere. Fresh air and the perfect temperature. I could definitely come here on vacation, because it also had kind of an exotic and mysterious aftertaste.
This was a really beautiful place if it wasn’t for the fact I had absolutely, not in the slightest, the most remote of ideas about what I was doing in here, and I was completely lost.
I got here, somehow, not in a very impressive way, just the regular one, just the boring ‘a foot in front of another until you get there’ kind of way. You go somewhere you think you know; you start walking, you find something that catches your attention and when you turn around, BAM! You realize you are completely lost. Then you start walking to see if you can find any landmark and then you find one that wasn’t supposed to be there and so on.
I did the reasonable thing from that point on. I walked along the dirt path, it ought to go somewhere, and if it didn’t, I could always trace it back and try the other direction. And if there was a path, I was bound to find someone traveling along said path eventually.
***
Eventually, the path did indeed led to a strange village I saw in the distance. It was well integrated into the very vegetation and trees, so it was really difficult to find unless you were following the trail. It had rounded features, almost like hobbit holes on the ground covered in grassy roofs, or tree houses that looked like giant coconuts hanging from the trees. The water current I heard back in the forest seemed to cross this place, and sneaked around the houses. A couple of tiny stalls had an assortment of fruits on them, like a little market, but there was nobody selling them. Several stairs were carved in the wood trunk of the thickest trees and rope bridges linked one tree to another, creating a very unique, wild looking village that seemed taken out of an Indiana Jones film.
And it was completely empty.
Not a single soul could be seen. Just like they had disappeared just a few minutes ago.
And then I heard a rustle behind me. Turning around I was in time to just catch the glimpse of a tail sneaking through the bushes and disappearing in the foliage. More rustling, this time in front of me, and I could see a silhouette of some animal running from one tree to another.
Tails, something with scales, an antler poking out of a bush…
I mean… what kind of predator had scales, and fluff, and an antler?
…And could eat up a whole town?
I panicked and backed away from that place. The dark and creepy path suddenly seemed much less intimidating than the lonely town. Maybe I could run away from those things, I am a human, and we humans can run for long distances, and… and…
Armed with a fallen branch that I shook violently to make myself look bigger and scarier I ran, making as much noise as I could. And it kind of worked, because they stopped following me. I looked back and saw a couple of those creatures standing on the path in the distance. They looked like really big dogs with an antler and a leonine tail. Never seen something like them.
***
I lost track of time as I got myself lost into the forest again. It was starting to get late and I knew I only got a couple of hours of light left. If I was unable to find civilization in that time, things would start to look really grim.
At least I had water and I had seen some ripe fruit hanging from trees, so food wouldn’t be a problem either, but those things scared me. If they were nocturnal, they would get me in the night for sure. I had to hurry.
I was so paranoid of those things following me that I missed the obvious one and when I turned around to look forwards there it was, less than a meter away. I screamed in fear and fell back, the thing just tilted its head at me.
“Oh, please don’t hurt me… Calm down…” I said in what I assumed would be a calming tone, but with how much my voice was shaking, and the stutter, it was probably more pathetic than anything.
It was creamy white, with reddish auburn mane, a red antler on its forehead and green scales adorning its back and muzzle. Her big eyes were golden yellow and it looked at me with what I would classify as a perfect poker face.
I scooted back a little bit to put some distance between the creature and myself, but my great efforts were hampered when it just taking a step forward to keep looking at me with that inexpressive face.
“Okay… I’m gonna get up… and just walk away in that direction… I’m not a menace, please stay there…” I murmured more to myself than the creature, as I slowly got to my feet and regained my ability to walk. Walk backwards and very slowly, I didn’t want to trigger a chase or something…
It snorted and started to do a sound that resembled… laughter?
“Hehe… gotcha! Oh, that was too good, you have no idea how much I miss jokes… wait, did I scare you? Oh, I apologoose… apologeese… I apolople… I’m SORRY! Sorry… Some words I haven’t used in a will, wild, while… Hi! I’m Autumn Blaze, you have just arrived and perhaps you are tired or hungry or reflective and want to sleep and eat and journal?”
“Wait… you can… talk?” I asked her, dumfounded.
I saw her smile go so wide it was creepy, it lasted just a fraction of a second, but you could classify it as ‘does this look like the face of mercy’ kind of meme, and I got the impression I just triggered something in her.
“Oh… OH! The joy to talk to another creature it’s been so LONG, you must tell me everything about you, there’s so much to say so much to DO!” She exclaimed as I suddenly found myself victim of a non-consensual hug.
“Uh… I indeed like to… reflect and… journal?” I tried to put some brakes to the train of words.
“OF COURSE! You look really weird, you must be from very far away and maybe you have all kind of interesting things in your journals, OH! I can’t wait, you must tell me EVERYTHING about you and your travels, your people and reflections. Have you seen the… Have you been oh, of course not… what I’m saying, so I’ll just… follow me, follow me…” She talked so quick and so erratically she almost seemed to be glitching.
“Uh… I’m Mr. Patter by the way, but you can call me Peter, I guess…”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you too, Mr. Patter… Peter… Peter Patter…” It felt like she was figuring out how my name sounded for a moment, then she started to trot away, humming a merry tune, jumping here and there, and I did follow her. She seemed so happy, and I had nothing better to do. If I could communicate with this creature, she could help me find the way back.
The path led to a clearing near a cliff, and on top of it there was a crude cottage, made out wood, branches and a decorative assortment of items. The creature didn’t go straight to said structure, but diverted towards the cliff and gazed upon the scenery below.
There was a rainbow in the distance and a great expanse of terrain could be seen, truly an outstanding sight.
“Wow… that’s such a nice view.” I commented.
“Oh! You think so too?” Her face twitched again with that creepy maniac grin for a moment.
“The way the light shimmers off everything like… like it all suddenly woke up the moment you saw it and you realized maybe the water and the mountains and the forest and… YES! The rainbow and the stars in the sky are all looking back at you thinking the same thing? That we are a part of the everything, that maybe there’s just one thing and we are ALL in…”
And she just looked back at me with that creepy grin, but this time it was not a second, it was just there, like waiting for something… wait, should I say something? Of course, she seemed like she was expecting something… Quick! Think something!
“Uh… and you are part of it too when I look at it all? And… we are in… Um… I mean… I have thought that many times when I went stargazing and thought… What if there was a whole new world in that star and they were just also watching back at the night sky and thinking the same thing about my world?” I tried to counterattack.
“Oh! And you have it all in your journal I can’t wait to talk about it and reflect and share my reflections. You look pretty reflective yourself, no matter from where you come from, I’m sure my everything welcomes your everything. You MUST tell me about that star, and we can sleep and eat and…”
“Oh boy… what I got myself into?” I murmured to myself.
“And this is just our first stop on our journey of amazing things to see, smell, tiptoe through OH! I haven’t been able to share all of this with anypony in FOREVER! Since they all took that vow of silence, and you are not even a pony! You must tell me what you are, what you like, what do you like to do what do you like to see and eat and we will go there and do, and see, and I mean… follow me! Let’s go! And there is just a lot for me to proceed, prossess… process, process… To deal with!
“Wait… Vow of silence?”
“That’s why they asked me to leave…” Autumn Blaze seemed suddenly sad.
“I can imagine… Sorry about that.”
“It is a long story…”
“Yeah… if you feel comfortable to talk about it, I’ll listen, I don’t want to press…”
“I would rather SIIIIIING!” And there she goes again…
And sing she did. She sang about her village, how an argument broke out, they turned into something and burned down their entire village. She sang about how their people ended up being silent and holding up their feelings, so they wouldn’t be angry again, and there was a stream of silence and so on… She sang with a full choreography of butterflies and rainbows and got to the point that you shouldn’t give up your feelings because of being scared of a little pain. It was kind of spectacular coming from just one creature.
Once informed about the whole situation I could get a better picture of it and understand her predicament.
“Wait, you can turn into a… what? And what does that have to do with burning down the village?” I asked.
“We kirins are beings of kindness and honesty, but when anger gets in the way, we turn into beings of fire and hate, and we call those niriks, and that’s kirin backwards because it is supposed to be the opposite of what we should be. Have you ever seen a… ? Of course you don’t I mean… I don’t wanna show it because I have to be angry and it is kind of dangerous and I don’t want to scare you, we just met and OH! We still have so much to talk and see and, I mean have you met the boys alrea… Oh, sorry, of course you don’t I haven’t show them to you yet so… I mean… come here, come here…”
So she directed me towards her house, and there were a bunch of various inanimate objects, a watermelon, a basket, a couple of rags on a line and even a carrot, all of them with faces painted on them.
“Uh… I remember a movie where there was a castaway guy and he had to survive alone on an island and he got so lonely that he took a coconut, painted a face on it and called him Wilson.” I tried to break the awkwardness of her showing me her ‘friends’ while trying to convey that I understood how lonely she had been and at the same time gently popping that bubble she had.
“Really? Oh… OH! Wait, what is a movie? Is it something from your people? Please explain it, and don’t forget to add every little insignificant detail and take absolutely all tangents there are to take, I want to hear EVERYTHING about it…” She excitedly urged me to explain.
“Uh… huh… A movie is like a… um… do you have theatre?”
“Oh! Yes, of course, I like the one with a kirin living under an opera stage and fell in love with one of the singers and played the organ pretty loud but then the singer fell in love with another dude so he took her away on her underground gondola I mean… Who doesn’t love musical theatre!? Wait… did I already sing about… OH! Of course I did, sorry, sorry. Oh! Please, keep going, keep going.”
“Oh, sorry, I forgot. Well, it is like a theatre, but it’s just a flat screen and images and sounds are projected on it and you can watch something just like if you were there. That’s called a cinema, yep, just like a theatre, but there are no actors. They were recorded long time ago, so you can watch it as many times as you want, uh… wow, now look at me, I’m going on and on…”
“…And don’t you dare to stop…” She had that maniac look to her, but then she relaxed and looked at me with half lidded eyes and a dreamy expression.
“I mean… okay, if you say so… So, there are a lot of movies you can watch if you go to the cinema, or you can buy a TV, that is, something like a miniature cinema that you can install in your own house and then watch the movies you want. You can buy them, rent them, borrow them, or even if you have a computer (That is a more advanced version of a TV, kind of…) you can directly download it from the internet…”
“WAIT! What’s an internet? And what is doveload… doeload… doomload… Oh, the THING you said?”
“Um… it is a network that spans the whole world… and computers can connect to it and share all kinds of information, like songs, movies, pictures, news and… well, other things. Download is when you get something from that network.”
“Oh! That sounds AMAZING! Can you send letters to your friends? I wish I could have a computer and send letters to the whole WORLD! That would be incredible! Oh, the things to say, the things to share!”
“Yes, you can, and the ‘letters’ can arrive literally the same moment you send them, so you can even have a conversation in real time.”
“Oh! I NEED to see that, do you have a computer!? Can I see it? Can you show me how it works?” And back with the maniac smile of hers.
“Uh… key… let me see. It’s not exactly a computer, it is a phone, but it kind of works like a portable version of the computer and…”
And I got my face full of auburn fluff as she squeezed her head through the gap between my body and arms to plant her muzzle on the phone the moment I pulled it out of my pocket and turned on the screen.
Shifting to a more comfortable position with her cloven hooves hooked on one of my arms and my phone on the other I checked and… well, still no signal. What a shame, I forgot I lost it the moment I got lost.
“Well, I’m sorry, but the internet is not available, I think it doesn’t reach here.”
“Oh… that’s so bad. I wanted to talk to all of… how you call yourselves?”
“Humans.”
“With all the humans in the world. BUT! You said the internet was everywhere! How can it not be here!? How does it work? We need to look for it, or fix it or…” She seemed to deflate and immediately came back with her excitement.
“I have seen many weird things here. Heck… I’m talking with you! I have never seen anything like you, and I didn’t expect you to talk. You must be an alien from another world!”
“Oh! But it is a matter of prospective… prespective… protective… POINT OF VIEW! I mean… I have been living in this mountain for my whole life, and you just came here, and I am so happy you did, but oh! you are the alien in here.” She explained her perspective on the issue, and that got something across for me too.
“Uh… Oh no… you are right! Um… Autumn Blaze, I need to find my way back home! I might be on a different whole planet! Why… how…”
“YES!” She suddenly screamed, reared up and put each foreleg on each of my shoulders, and she looked at me, kind of scared and nervously looking left and right.
“Uh… Autumn?”
“But… Peter! You might want, you might be, you should absolutely… REST! And maybe have dinner and then go to sleep here, I have enough space in my house, oh I had to leave the sofa behind but I’m sure I can come up with something for you to sleep on and before that we can have dinner, we can talk about what are our favorite foods, we can cook them and eat them, and smell them and practice our cooking skills and go foraging to get the ingredients and… We still have so much to DO!” She seemed to somehow talk faster than before, and was kind of panicking.
“Hey… calm down. Yes… that’s a good idea, Autumn. I will stay the night at your place.”
“And after we do all of that we can… we can… search for a way back to your home… TOGETHER! We can explore the whole valley Oh! I need to find the flower that cures the stream of silence, I haven’t seen it in a wild, and I have checked the whole forest and you can help me before you go and we can check the forest again, or a couple or TEN more times and… and… please don’t live... leaf… idontwanttobealoneagain…” She just hugged my middle section, and I could see the tears start to form.
“Um… Please… calm down, I’m not going anywhere. I’m here, I will stay the night here with you.” I tried to comfort her gently patting her head.
“And tomorrow I will help… I mean… you can… Can you help me search for a flower? Can you help me tomorrow? I will help you search for a way… home too but… can you stay a little? I mean… You have just arrived and I still have so many things to… Have you seen the… Oh, of course not, sorry… Just… follow me, come inside and tomorrow I can show you the sunrise and the morning breeze and we… we…”
“Yes, Autumn, I will stay tomorrow, I’m not leaving.”
“Oh, thank you thankyouthankyou…” And she just hugged me again.
We sat outside, it was a lovely afternoon as the sun was setting. Suddenly, it disappeared and in a swift motion it became nighttime, leaving me discombobulated.
“Wait… what did just happen!? I thought it was afternoon, and suddenly is nighttime?”
“Of course! The magic that moves the sun and moon and all the stars comes together to give us the different times of the day and also sessions… seesons… shesho… Winter and Autumn Oh! That’s my name, and Summer like my friend Summer Flare! Oh, it’s been so long since I was able to talk to her, I miss her a lot, Oh! And Spring too! They come and go, and do you have them in your world? Does the sun and moon move at all?”
“Uh… yeah, we have those and they happen, but… The sun! where did it go!?”
“The arcane magic that keeps the balance, it is said that two sisters keep track of it and they live in a faraway kingdom, and they are powerful and benevolent and kind and… and… Oh! We do have Rain Shine! That’s our leader, do you have leaders too? Do they have powerful magic? What magic do you have? I haven’t seen anything yet, please do tell!”
“Um… magic? That’s how you explain it?”
“Yeah! Magic is everywhere, in the air, the water, the soil… You can help plants grow, you can make light, and move objects and…”
“Wait… magic is not real.”
“Oh! You think so!? Hehe… then how can you explain THIS!” Her antler began to glow and one of the watermelons she had painted a face on began levitating.
“Oh, nice to meet you, Mr. Peter, my name is Summer Sauce, but you can call me Wilson if you like it more.” She said in a slightly off voice, like imitating that of another person… kirin? And she moved the watermelon as a puppet with every word.
“Woah! It is flying! And your horn is glowing!”
“Yep, that’s magic! Oh! I can show you more magic… I mean… I know other kirins that know more tricks, like making plants grow, and make orbs of light and… and… well, they used to do that, but now they are all silent and they don’t want me in the village anymore, so…”
“Are you… moving the watermelon with your magic to make it look like it talks!?” I asked.
“Oh! Of cou… um…” Suddenly she trailed off and bit her lower lip, looking down in embarrassment.
“Uh?” I was confused at her sudden change of behavior.
“I have been so alone…” The watermelon slowly landed in its previous position and she looked down to the floor.
“Uh… sorry about that, I didn’t mean to… I mean, the magic! Can you cast magic!?”
She simply nodded.
“That’s amazing! I thought that was impossible! Um… and…”
“Thank you… Oh… you maybe thing I’m crazy, right?”
“Absolutely batty BUT! You know what? I wouldn’t have it any other way. I like you; you seem nice.” I grabbed her cheek with a hand and messed with her curls with my other hand. She giggled at the attention.
“So, will you stay for a while?” She hopefully asked.
“Of course. We still have so many things to talk about and… see? smell? tiptoe through?”
She smiled and climbed onto my lap, resting her head on my shoulder. We sat just like that on the floor, and I started to pet her back. She had scales and it felt weird to pass my hand over them and feel the weird scaley texture. They were big and hard, almost like a collection of small plates fitting together perfectly, they could slide a little bit over each other, giving her back a feeling of flexibility, and they were warm to the touch. That contrasted starkly with her soft fur coat, both textures really smooth in their own particular way. Green scales on cream fur and auburn curly hair, such a nice color combination, it was somewhat familiar. Have I seen that on a label of something? I couldn’t remember.
For a few minutes, only the sound of the gentle breeze moving the fallen leaves around and the crickets could be heard. It was a peaceful night, and a pleasure to enjoy it. Being so far apart from any source of light contamination truly paid off, the night sky was gorgeous.
I tried to trace any known constellation, but for my growing frustration there weren’t any to be recognized. As my suspicions were slowly turning into evidence, this was not the planet Earth. I was therefore thoroughly fucked. At least I was in good company.
“Uh… Autumn?”
“Oh! Yes?”
“I don’t want to impose, but is there something I could eat? I haven’t eaten anything for the most part of the day.”
“Oh! Of course! Have you tried… of course not… I mean… would you like to… I have a variety of tasty fruits I foraged this morning; I usually get more than I can eat, just in case. Right there! Come here, follow me…” She stood up and directed me towards the small selection of baskets and fruits she had. Some of them with faces painted on them.
“Uh… is it okay to eat those? I mean… the one with the… faces?”
“Oh! There is absolution… absolute…abyssolutely… I have no problem! I mean… those will go bad eventually if we don’t eat them… I do it all the time, I mean… the faces… Don’t worry, it’s just something to pass the time and talk. Talking alone also gets old pretty quick, I have to do both parts of the dialogues but oh! That way I can practice my conversation in a way it’s not a monology… monologos… monogeese… JUST me talking alone!”
So, it was set and we had dinner. She had a selection of fruits and vegetables that we ate raw. I could see a scorched mark on the floor and some cooking utensils, but no pile of wood. I didn’t want to comment it, as she seemed pretty much set on making me feel welcome. If I asked something cooked or a hot meal, I think she would volunteer to go search some wood and prepare something. I was hungry and didn’t want to make her do that for me, so a fruity dinner it was.
I could recognize carrots, the watermelon, pumpkins and the sort, but also there were some other fruits I didn’t know of. Considering this was most likely an alien planet, I stayed away from those. It was a surprise there were some familiar edible plants at all! Or maybe those were alien versions and they were actually poisonous to me or… okay… no more thinking.
Thinking hurts right now. I’m in another world with a talking alien that, for some reason speaks my very own language… Uh, maybe I am in the Stargate universe after all.
And she is kind of nice and relatable. Quite a little bit crazy and very chatty but overall, she is nice company. Yeah, focus on that, not my life on Earth, not how I’m even going to try to go back and so on…
“So, I see you have cooking utensils, do you cook often?” I provided a theme of conversation, knowing that she really appreciates chit chat.
“Oh! I do it very often. We could get those carrots and roast them, or put them in a pot with water and make soup and add spices… Oh! Did you know that the stems of the fire flower is… Oh! Sorry, I never told you. We could probably cook together sometime!”
“That sounds like a plan. Well, I guess we are kind of late to start doing it tonight, isn’t it?”
“Would you rather have the… carrots and um… would you… Err… We can make pumpkin soup and roasted carrots if you prefer it that way.” She seemed unsure of herself all of a sudden.
“I’m fine, I don’t want to inconvenience you, you are inviting me to dinner, after all. Appreciating a fresh meal and the natural taste of mother nature, I guess? Maybe tomorrow. Sounds like a plan.”
“Uh… yea… seems like a plan.” She seemed to relax.
“It’s getting a little bit dark. I have seen some torches and lamps around. We might want to light up some of them, don’t we?” It was really getting difficult to see. My eyes were getting used to the dark, but with only the moon and the stars it was getting pretty hard.
“Oh, okay, let me go inside and light up the lamps, be right back… in a moment… please don’t go anywhere.” She seemed nervous again, looking left and right and bolted back inside her cottage. After a couple of seconds, I could see a flash of reddish-purple light, and then, back came Autumn Blaze with a couple of oil lamps light up.
“Nice, thank you, Autumn. And… Uh… that candle has a weird color, doesn’t it?” Said lamp had a pink-blue color that flickered into the reds.
“Oh! Don’t worry, it will go away. It’s just… that color when it begins to burn.” She smiled awkwardly.
“Yeah… whatever… I’m way too tired for this.” I yawned. It had been a really exhausting day, getting lost, scared and all of that.
“INSIDE! Oh! Yes, we can go inside my humble house, I hopeit’snottoohumblebut Oh! We can have a peejamas… paajamas… a nocturnal party! Oh, did you bring your paa… your… night clothes! Errr… I mean, you probably didn’t because you weren’t expecting to spend the night in here BUT… I don’t even have any clothes actually, but you seem to do, so I thought… Oh! I have a lot of fluff; we can use that instead! I mean… for my… night clothes… and in case you didn’t bring yours it’s okay because I have waaaay too…”
“Okay, okay… Yes. That’s sounds nice. I will spend the night here.” I interrupted her after it got way out of hand.
“Oh! We can tell stories about my world, then your world, then you can describe how do you used to… I mean how you LIVE in your world, or maybe you want to reflect on your day and JOURNAL! Oh! You said you liked to journal, we can reflect together and I can offer some insight to your reflections and we can go over all and every single detail that happened to you before we met and if you want, we can go over all the things we did together tod…” And it still went out of hand.
“Autumn… I’m way too tired for all of that. Maybe a little chit-chat and then go sleep.”
“Oh, yeah… sorry… Heh… just… I mean… follow me!” She motioned me to follow, and she walked backwards, looking at me like if I was going to suddenly disappear or run away, moving deliberately slow as if to prevent scaring me away. She held the little oil lamp in her magical aura and it floated around.
It was a two-story building in a loft like distribution, with a small platform and a ladder going up. I had to duck a little bit to avoid hitting my head against said platform, as it was built with Autumn height in mind. the structure was crudely built, the walls were not perfectly sealed and I could imagine some leaks through the thatched roof in a rainy day. Luckily, this cool but pleasant night was clear and the light breeze was not too much. It was slightly chilly though.
Putting the oil lamp on top of a very well-crafted, classic looking bedside table, she climbed the ladder by hooking her hooved around the steps and showed me the bed on the high part of the structure.
The bed was partially illuminated by the moonlight that filtered through a round window and it just consisted on a pile of branches and leaves covered by a blanket.
“Heh… sorry, but I couldn’t fit the bed through the door. I had to left them behind, I mean, the sofa AND the bed.” She said.
“I see… That’s why some furniture pieces look so nice and well-made whereas others are kind of improvised.”
“Out of necessity I had to be crafty to cover for my needs. It’s been a hard but rewarding rediscover of what I am capable of, how strong, how inventive and… quite solitary, I might add, BUT! Now I… I mean… WE have company, we as in… each other, we have each other now, so it won’t be solitary tonight. So… I mean… You are probably ti… I mean, yes, you said you were tired so here is the bed, you can use it. Make yourself comfortable, you can leave your things here, no worries about anypony stealing anything, it is just the two of us, so…”
“Yeah, yeah… Just… give me a second. I didn’t bring a pajama, so I’ll just sleep with my trousers and shirt on, I guess, it’s kind of cool here.” So, I took out my jacket, emptied my pockets and put my bag on the bedside table.
The bed was kind of rough, but okay enough. I could foresee some difficulties trying to get comfortable, and it was kind of small. Half of my legs were out of the bedding, but it didn’t matter that much, as long as I was comfortably lying, my legs and feet could deal with the slightly harder wooden floor. I was wriggling into position when a thought crossed my mind.
“Uh… did you just say this was the bed I was going to use or… did you mean this was THE bed… I mean… the ONLY bed you had, which would make sense, given your situation. I mean… I don’t want to be a burden and make you sleep on the floooWOAAAH!”
Yep… she slipped in too.
And wriggled into position as the little spoon, she would still be the little spoon no matter the position, because I was bigger than her, but yep, you get the idea, in conclusion, my arms full of kirin.
“Here, no need to sleep on the floor, if that’s what you were going to say, we can totally share my bed OH! So many nights sleeping alone in the cold, you have no IDEA how I missed some company. We can sleep together and tomorrow we… OH! So many things to do, see, smell…”
“…watch, do and tiptoe through. Yes, Autumn, I got the idea.” I ended her sentence for her. Clingy little thing she was. Kind of made sense, given her predicament.
I meant that as a way to make her just stop pouring words, and for a moment I thought that could have been rude, but to my surprise she craned her neck to look at me with the brightest smile and sparkles of joy in her eyes.
“Oh, the loving warmth of another living sapient being who is there and you can just feel it through your fur and scales, I’ve missed that. It means you are here, the simple protection from the cold means you care about me, and I care about you, without even saying a WORD we are telling each other how important we are as a part of the everything we belong to… OH! And what does it mean to you!?”
“Without saying a word, such an interesting way of conveying it… Um… it… I mean… you are kind of adorable like that.” I stroked her curly mane. It had a kind of coarse wilderness to it while at the same time it was smooth and slippery in a fibrous way.
“Oh! That… oh… yeah, that’s nice… your fore hoo… I mean claws… paws… whatever they are called… yeah, those are nice. I like them too.”
And talking about things to smell… there was a smell.
It was a weird mix between how your clothes would smell after spending the whole night near a campfire or a barbeque, but with a weird tinge of something flammable. Imagine putting off a fire and when it was completely extinguished you added some gasoline to it, and then add some kind of wild fresh thing, like rolling on green wet grass and dirt. That’s how Autumn smelled. Homey in kind of a wild way, if that makes any sense. Yeah, wild, grass, dirt but like if she had just been near a fire and her fur got impregnated in that smokey smell… with a tinge of something else that felt like some kind of fuel. It also made sense, as she was probably cooking her food in a campfire.
And then Autumn muzzled my cheek and it took me by surprise, so I flinched a little bit.
“Oh, sorry. Didn’t meant to scare you. Since you were showing me how humans showed affection, I thought I would… you know, show you how we kirin do the same thing.” She explained.
“Uh… sorry about that. It took me by surprise, is all. I don’t mind it, I don’t want you to get offended, I didn’t mean to reject your affection or anyth…” I was half trying to mend the situation and half apologize when I got a faceful of cream fur as she rubbed her cheek all over my face.
“OH! We totally need to explain to each other how our species show their affection in a nonverbal way. Did you know that sometimes little gestures and actions carry more information than actual words do!? It’s called nonverbose… nonverbiale…”
“Nonverbal communication.”
“EXACTLY! We don’t even NEED to say a word if we reach that level of understanding of each other.”
“Yeah… that would be nice. A good long night to sleep and rest. Silence, peace…”
“Oh, OH! And… and like… the sound of rain! Yeah, that is really soothing and calming. I love hearing the sound the droplets of rain make against my roof, but that usually meant I had to adjust the buckets because of the leaks. I’ve never been really good at thatching, so I didn’t get it completely right and I ended up more stressed than anything. Do you know how to fix a roof? You are pretty tall, so it might be easy for… OH! Humans must be excellent roof builders! What materials do humans use to build them?” She went on.
“Autumn, we can leave that for tomorrow. I’m too tired to talk about roofs right now.” I tried to make her understand tha…
“OH! Right… Something less technical, more relaxed, like… how do humans cuddle? Oh, yes, your claws… paws…”
“Hands…”
“That, yes… hands. It feels like a mix between being brushed and licked OH! Do humans lick each other? We kirins kind of do and…”
“No, we don’t, uh… it is weird for…”
“…right. No licking I MEAN! Then… that cla…HAND rubbing oh-it-feels-so-good-please-don’t-stop… is that how humans show affection? and what else do humans DO?” She asked.
“Uh… yeah? Kind of? I did that without thinking…”
“OH! That means you love me already in a subconscious level?” She beamed at me.
“Maybe? I don’t know? I mean… your fluff is nice to the touch. This is how humans show affection to a critter with fur I guess?”
“And what about scales? Do they count? If I only had scales, would you also do that? I mean the rubbing… OH! I didn’t ask, how is that called?”
“Petting.”
“Oh, okay. And can you also pet scales, or is it only for fur?”
“I guess I can try?” And so, I switched from petting her mane to pet the scales on her back.
“Hmmm… it is better for the fur, you are right. Maybe… can you scratch a little harder?”
“Like this?” I rubbed with a little more pressure.
“Uh… it causes more itch than it takes away. Weird, I guess it doesn’t work as well. Oh! Do you know how to preen scales? Oh, sorry… I mean… it is hard for a kirin to preen their own scales, even with magic, and they get itchy so I rub my back on some tree bark, it helps a little bit. I mean, sorry, you don’t have scales. Scale preening is cleaning under the scales. Kirin scales are big and can catch some dirt or sand or ash and they get itchy. You can rub them and take baths but, in the end, the most effective way is to lift them by hoof or horn one by one and clean under the…”
“Like this?” I used a nail to lift a scale.
“GASP!” She tensed, and I noticed her tail was coiled around my ankle as it gripped it harder. I felt as her fur stood on end, fluffing her out and all her scales lifted a little bit.
“Oh, sorry about that, I didn’t mean to…”
“Oh please oh please do it again do it agahihi… oh… Mmmmmh… it’s all itchy now, I need… uh eeeeh…” She wriggled in the bed, rubbing her back against my chest.
“Okay… like this?” I lifted a scale again.
“Oh OH! YES! Yes… do that, scratch it just like…”
“Like this?” I rubbed a finger through the scale lying underneath until I reached the root of it and found a little bit of warm smooth skin.
“Hmmmm…” She arched her back like a cat being petted.
“Interesting. So, is this scale preening?”
“Uh…mmmore or luss I meeeea… ggont stup…” Even her words were melting now.
Interesting. I inspected the finger I used to scratch under a scale and found it blackened, like if there was some ash or soot there, and the burnt smell combined with that spicy thing that felt like something flammable was very strong now.
Welp, it was worth a shot. I started to preen her scales and she continued to melt in my hands. It was a tedious process. Lift a scale, scratch underneath and clean it. I started to use some tissues I found in my pocket and they also came out blackened. One by one, lift, scratch, clean and for the next one. Starting from the first scales near the leonine tail base and up, one by one. After a few minutes I was two thirds of the way up, and she had stopped wriggling and producing melted words, she started to snore instead.
Yes…
I finished the job and tried to get comfortable, only for her coiled tail around my ankle to get in the way. When I tried to move her a little bit to adjust myself, she grabbed my hand and hugged it to her barrel with her forelegs, securing me in place beside her.
The thin blanket wasn’t enough to protect me from the cold autumn night breeze filtering through the crude boards that made out the walls. The kirin had her fur, so probably it was enough for Autumn Blaze, but not for me. Thankfully, I had a warm critter between me and the cold, urging me to take refuge in her fluff, and it was surprisingly okay. Not bad for a straw mattress with a thin blanket and sleeping on my regular clothes.
“Well… Guess this is how it goes.” I got comfortable and let myself drift to sleep.
***
I stirred awake. I shivered from the sudden cold of the morning. Luckily the warm rays of sun were filtering through the windows already. Something moved nearby.
“Peter? Are you awake? I mean… no need to answer if you aren’t OH! Yeah, forget what I said… I’ll leave this here just in case you are not so it will be a surprise just when you are… I mean…” She deposited a tray on the bed and looked awkwardly left and right.
“I mean… I thought it would be nice to prepare you breakfast in bed since you were so nice to me tonight and preened my scales for me and I wanted to thank you and you said you wanted something cooked so I did just that and prepared some sap… sip… soap… PORRIDGE! Uh… it looks like porridge but it’s really not… maybe a creative kind of porridge? Yeah…” Assuming she assumed I was really still asleep; she went on in whispers talking to herself.
“Ugh… yeah, yeah… not asleep anymore…” I stirred a little bit.
“GAH!” She jumped into the air like a startled cat. When she landed, she tipped the tray that was precariously balanced on the irregular bedding and the bowl of absolutely genuine porridge that totally didn’t look like pumpkin soup went flying through the air by the magic of Newton’s action-reaction and the Law of the Lever, and it landed squarely on Autumn’s head, covering her in the tasty looking goop.
“Oh dear. Are you alright!?” Now I was fully awake.
“Excuse me for a second…” Her voice sounded strange, her eyes were white and I could almost see a whisp of smoke coming out of her tail. She turned around and trotted away. The room now smelled like if I was just sniffing a petrol pump and I could swear it was a couple degrees warmer.
After that little stunt I followed her outside with the intention of apologize or telling her it was alright or something when she stood on the little patch of charred dirt and…
“GAH HAAAAAA!” She erupted into pink and blue flames and screamed in an unholy distorted voice; her mouth now had glistening white-hot fangs and her body took a charcoal black color. I could feel the heat radiating from her like if I was near a giant campfire, but it was more intense, so much in fact that I had to recoil and cover my face with my hands.
And just as sudden as it has begun, it stopped. Back was the now smoking, but still adorable Autumn Blaze. The stains of sou-porridge were gone now from her coat, mane and scales, most likely pyrolyzed by the extreme heat, like a self-cleaning oven.
“Wow… was that… what you said about backward kirins and fire?” I asked, still cowering a little after the display.
“You… saw that…” She looked back at me, finding me taking a step back, but instead of the fury and flames I’ve just witnessed, I found the eyes that belonged to a scared deer in front of the headlights of a speeding truck. She suddenly curled into a trembling ball of reddish-brown hair and protective scales.
Was she still a little angry at what happened? Was she scared? Sad? I couldn’t tell, and I was not keen on touching her or getting any closer after that.
Out of the ball of fluff and scales emerged a cloven hoof, holding a twig between the two parts and with crudely charcoal painted eyes on each side and a smiley mouth.
“You saw that…” It was Autumn’s voice, but distorted. In this case not the unholy distortion from the nirik, but the distortion of the girl’s voice trying to be artificially deeper to imitate a guy’s one. The hoof nodded when she talked.
“Uh… yeah…” I hesitantly answered.
“Don’t be scared, Peter. Between you and me, she is perfectly safe, she is very tame and cool.” The puppet explained in a calm tone.
“Uh… this nirik thing, does it happen often?” I asked, slightly shocked about having cuddled the whole night with a literal clockwork incendiary bomb.
“Only when angry. Kirins can turn into niriks when they get mad, but Autumn is always calm and controlled, if she feels like exploding, she goes to the nirik corner to do so and only when she is done and calm, she comes back. That way, it is always safe to be around her.”
“I see…”
“So, please, don’t be scared of her. She’s been very lonely all this time and is worried of scaring you away when you see for yourself how a nirik really is.” The puppet continued.
“Oh, I see, you are worried about me being scared of you becoming a…”
The puppet tilted its head in confusion.
“…I mean… SHE is worried about me being scared of her and running away.” I corrected.
The puppet nodded.
I calmed down a little bit, I slowly approached her and put a palm on her scales, almost flinching away because they were still hot to the touch, but resisted the urge to do so.
“Hey, Autumn… what’s going on? Are you okay?”
“I… are you scared? Will you tell me to shut up and never show my emotions again?” She asked with tears in her eyes.
“Girl… the heck are you talking about? OH! I mean… sorry, I guess you have some emotional baggage about the whole nirik situation and the vow of silence your fellow kirins made…” I remembered from her song and connected the dots.
“I just don’t want to be alone again…” She sniffled.
“Don’t worry. I am kind of fond of you, I don’t mind spending some more time in this place. I am so fired anyways after not showing up for work these two days…” I kneeled down and hugged her.
“You are not… *sniffle* leaving?”
“Not at all. And If I leave, eventually, I’ll make sure to come back and visit or… Oh! I got an idea! When I go back to my world, I’ll bring you too so you can meet my family! My nephew will be delighted! I guess after my rent is due, I will also lose my home there, so I’ll have to stay with my family for a while.”
“R… really?”
“Yeah.”
“But… but what if a portal opens up and you can’t come back after you…”
“I don’t see any portals like that anywhere around. And if that happens… Uh… well, I’m not leaving you behind. We still have things to do, don’t we?” I petted her mane.
“We have to search in the forest for the flowers I need…” She muttered.
“Yeah, a lot of things to do and see…”
“…And smell, tiptoe through…” She started to smile again.
“We need to make the bed bigger tho...”
Through the glistening tears she flashed me that maniac smile of hers for a moment and leaped, hugging me with her four legs. I rubbed her back and she nuzzled my cheek. After a while like that I felt a tap on the shoulder. Turning around I found the pupped again, staring at me with its sloppy eyes.
“Hey, Peter…” The puppet said.
“Uh?”
“Thanks for not breaking her heart, between you and me… you are a good guy.” Sh… he… they concluded in Autumn’s artificially deeper voice.
“You are absolutely bonkers…” I chuckled.
“Uh?” She tilted her head.
“And I wouldn’t have it any other way.” I nuzzled her cheek, imitating her gesture. She recovered and continued nuzzling me.
Her mane now lacked that flammable spicy scent or the dirt or wet grass ones, the dominant smell now was smokey, like a recently put down hearth, it smelled like home.
Author's Note
It was the autumn equinox and I thought "Hey! It's Kirin season!" So I thought I would write a story for the occasion but... so many words were needed and I ended up finishing it now. Well, it's still kirin season, despite being almost winter.
Hope you enjoy it and I didn't make too many mistakes writing it.
