Jack (Part Five)

A strangling sense of grief built up inside the newborn, and he fell down on his tail, staring blankly in the area that the golden creature had left. If not even his own kind was nice here on this dark mountain, how would he ever get off? How would he ever go home? How would he ever be safe again? How would he ever see Mom again? A lump formed in the newborn’s throat, tears welling in his eyes. He wasn’t going to get off this mountain. He wasn’t going to go home. He was going to be stuck here, an easy target for every creature.

Through his depression, something twinged at the newborn’s senses. Yet another creature had arrived. Blinking away the tears, the newborn frowned at the strangely beautiful creature. It was only slightly taller than he, but it only stood on two legs. It had pale, smooth skin and black eyes shaped like his own. Two limbs like legs came out of its side, but they didn’t seem to be used for walking. The newborn frowned at it as it glided closer. On its toes and the toes of what weren’t legs the skin was no longer smooth, but scaly like the newborn’s skin. The thing seemed to smile at him with its flat face, reaching out what wasn’t a foot towards him. The newborn drew his head away from the creature, but didn’t back up. He was mesmerised by the strange beauty of this thing. But something gnawed inside of him, trying to tell him not to place his trust in this. He ignored it. He only was afraid because everything else here had been terrible and mean. Just because his own kind wasn’t going to help didn’t mean that nothing would.

Timidly, the newborn began to reach out his neck to let the creature touch him. When what wasn’t toes touched his scales, a slight shock rushed through his body but he didn’t back away. Instead, he pressed his face against the smooth skin. More shocks ran through his body with more strength. After a while, as the creature placed more and more contact on the newborn’s scales, the newborn realized something was wrong. These shocks were painful. This wasn’t good. In alarm, he opened his eyes to see it wasn’t just one creature touching him anymore. It was several, all of their black eyes gleaming with something frightening. The newborn tried to shake them off but found he couldn’t move. Panic and terror building up inside of him yet again, the newborn shuddered as the shocks pulsed through his body, his knees giving way. The creatures started humming, and the newborn closed his eyes, simply waiting for it to end.

Then the humming stopped. All contact with the creatures disappeared, and the mountain seemed to turn deathly quiet. Too exhausted to move, the newborn simply stayed where he was, legs and wings splayed out and eyes shut. Something was very wrong, he knew, but he couldn’t move. And, really, he didn’t want to.

Again, I apologize for the break, but I'm back! Next part will be posted tomorrow and there should be only a couple more parts left.