My Dear Pet
Saja was a rather chubby boy. He lived in a small town by the name of Henesys, which lay squat in the middle of wilderness. It was in no way isolated from other towns, but the majority of its residents were confined inside the town. Actually, Saja's life was unusually quiet for someone who lived in real danger.
Like every town, Henesys was surrounded by monsters. Most of the children who lived here never had to face the monsters themselves. Danger never penetrated the protected boundaries of the town, or rather were unable to, with human warriors fighting to keep their haven safe. The boy's parents were two well known protectors of the town.
The only monster Saja was familiar with was his mother's hog, a tamed bear-sized monster that Saja had learned to control. He liked to pet its wiggling nose, and he was allowed to play with him freely. It was alright for the hog to be fat. It was fast anyway, and that was what it was used for.
"I'm taking Piggy for a ride," he called out to his father as he tied the saddle around the hog's back. Recently, his father had taken to knotting feathers on to the end of his arrows. It was the most boring and only thing he ever saw his father do outside nowadays. Saja watched his father lift his head to give his son a triumphant smile.
"Go on then, my son, the legendary monster tamer!" he said.
"The name's Saja, The Lord of Monsters." The boy heaved himself onto the huge hog, balancing easily without stirrups or rein.
"Make that King of Monsters," his father said.
Wordlessly, Saja spurred the hog forward, rushing out of the safety of the fenced backyard. He strode on the hog proudly, wishing someone could see him right now. His parents had told him an untrained rider like him was one of a kind, but he just knew they were exaggerating. The kids in the town had already seen him plenty of times, and they weren't impressed anymore.
Saja quickly reached the outskirts of Heneseys, slowing down and silently daring himself to wander. He strayed from the path a bit, still feeling safe on this invincible pig. It was calming to trot along the dirt path. When Piggy stopped for some water from a dribbling creek, Saja got off the hog to check something moving in the lush grass. In the shade of a boulder was a round, green shell. It looked like a snail, but it was big, about the size of his reaching hand. It poked its grey feelers out and squeaked when it sensed the looming figure of Saja coming near. The snail had to be a monster. This one looked relatively harmless. He carefully picked up the soft spiral, cupping the bottom, and ran for his hog, nearly stumbling on the unpaved land.
As if the hog had been ready for him, Saja easily hopped onto the kneeling monster, and Piggy trotted back home. Saja's excitement grew as he reached his house. Saja leapt off Piggy to stash his new pet in his room, almost forgetting to lead the hog back to its pen.
He shyly approached his dad who was lounging on the bench in the backyard, still tying those boring arrows, though he casually looked to the horizon every once in a while.
"Dad, what do snails eat?"
When his father opened his mouth to answer, Saja's eyes rounded and nearly sparkled.
"I dunno, but I eat snails," his dad said.
"No, really," said Saja. He rocked back and forth impatiently.
"Leaves?"
"OK." Saja shot back into the house, scrambled into the kitchen, then upstairs to his room with a bowl of leftover salad. He shoved the bedroom door open with his free hand, and his eyes wildly searching for the green snail. He nearly panicked when he didn't spot it right away.
The boy had constructed a living space in the corner of his room, but now he saw that the snail had crept up the wall and outside its boundaries. True to its name, the spiraled creature was hardly going anywhere. Saja approached it slowly, shoving the bowl of salad away carelessly, and his hand creeping toward his gun.
"Psh psh psh psh," Saja whispered as he sprayed the snail with his water gun, hoping to coax it off the wall. He didn't hear his mother come in through the open door.
"Saja!"
"Oh! Sorry, mom," he said quickly, hiding the water gun behind his back and shielding the miniature green monster from view. His mother usually let her hair fall gracefully, but today it was tied and hidden from view by a strange and wonderful crown. Her face looked fierce with that helmet on. Her eyes flickered toward the snail. She sighed and lifted her lip in a half smile.
"Come down for dinner," she said. The boy nodded, but stayed rooted to the spot, waiting for his mother to leave so that he could unstick his new pet.
His parents were already whispering together when he came to the dinner table. They both looked at him simultaneously when he sat down, and he felt like they had been talking about him.
"My son, where did you find that green snail?" his father asked.
"Uh. On the normal path. You know. Where I ride," said Saja., picking up his fork. His parents exchanged worried looks. His father looked as if he was about to say something, but he closed his mouth before the words tumbled out.
"So you gonna name him?"
"Of course, but I'm fresh out of ideas..."
"You could name him Bob," said his father with an amused grin. His mother choked in her plate of spaghetti, stifling a laugh. Saja didn't answer, and the silence became tense again. The boy felt very conscious of the scraping sounds of his fork, and he put it down to reach for his glass of juice. He let his eyes glance up just as his parents gave each other meaningful looks again.
"I can't keep him?" asked Saja, not drinking the juice after all. The mother looked at Saja sadly.
"Of course you can keep him, honey." But his mother's eyes held worry. Saja wanted to know. He wished his parents would talk to him, not just look at each other. He tried to gobble the spaghetti quickly and burned his tongue. He slapped his messy fork down and pushed his food away.
"Thank you for the dinner. I'll go back to my room now," he said loudly, getting up from his chair, annoyed by the loud grating noise of the chair legs.
"Wait, my son," said his father. Saja stayed standing, stiff with uneasiness.
"Sit down, Saja," said his mother. Obediently, Saja sat in his seat.
"We might have to leave for a while. There is something going on out of town." She paused. "Unfortunately, both of us have to leave."
"Is it the monsters?" Saja asked, moodily staring down at his rejected dinner.
"Yes. The monsters are approaching in waves again." His mother stared intently at Saja.
"And no," his father said. Saja looked at him confused.
"You'll be safe here, but we volunteered to shelter some of the townspeople who live in the edges of the town," his father leaned across the table and whispered. "You'll be alright with that?" Saja nodded vigorously, knowing how serious this business was. "I guess that's it. We won't have to pay for babysitting." His father laughed, but it was weak, and it faltered quickly, leaving behind worried wrinkles in his face.
"He's just a baby," his mother whispered. Saja's heart lurched.
"I-I'm eleven now, Mom. I'm almost tall as Dad. I'll be an adult in no time." He wanted to sound brave. He was a warrior too, even if he wasn't out there with a weapon in hand.
"Saja, you won't have to worry about us," said his mother.
"We're well prepared. My son, we're worried about you. Who could protect you better than we could? Oh my poor son." They laughed, hoping that the their laughter would shake off the heavy dread in their gut. The weight remained, and the days closed in. Saja found himself saying goodbye to his parents, who were no longer his parents but a god and a goddess, out to protect the defenseless. He felt sick thinking that this was the way of life.
His falcon eyed father dressed his sturdy warrior mount, his stiff dark robe folding without a crease. It seemed that everyone was outside chattering in muted sighs. Much too soon, a heavy wind came and blew them away. Saja ran back into the house instead of watching his parents disappear from his vision. He knew visitors were coming, but he didn't care. He was alone.
He had been playing around with his green snail, nudging the tip of its shell to make it chatter, when the house resounded with the sound of knocking at the door. He fetched the door open to see a group of girls about his age, all looking annoyed as he felt to be there. They were dressed similarly in some uniform too, all matching sharp and green.
"Who are you?" Saja asked. He glanced around at them. His house couldn't be filled with girls!
The girls were talking amongst themselves, and Saja guessed that only the one who had knocked heard him. She was right by the door facing Saja with determined eyes.
"We're bowmen cadets. We train on the outside of Henesys, and the adults moved us here because we can't fight monsters yet." The girl stared at him again, almost insolently. The confused boy stood there, unable to connect these mini-bowmen to his father, the bowman warrior. Right when Saja decided to edge back to let them in, a girl from the back spoke up.
"We'll stay outside and train." She looked to Saja like a cadet old enough to be their guardian. She was much taller so she stuck out.
"Yeah, who wants to stay cooped up in that house anyway," another girl from the back piped, and they all sidled away, including the girl who had been waiting to go inside. Saja closed the door with relief, and marched upstairs to his room. He was disgustingly shocked to see a bowman girl standing right in the hallway upstairs, blocking the door to his room. She was tiny, but quite energetic as she paced back and forth to study the clutter of his father's decoration that lined the hall.
"How'd you get in?!" he demanded. The girl looked blankly at him, motioning toward his window.
"We live in a tree-house," she said slowly. Still, to have vaulted through a second story window, she suddenly didn't look human. She poked her face into an old set of armor, turning away from him in her curiosity. Saja noticed she had a brilliant blue bow and a small quiver of arrows slung across her back.
"Hey your dad is a bowman. He looks high ranked." She lifted up one of his father's old bows off the rack, though it was bigger than she was, with its worn leather wrapped wood arching over her head.
"Don't touch that!" He snatched it away from her, who let him take it in surprise because his movement had been so sudden. Her eyes darted at him, then she shrugged.
"What are you going to be?" she said, taking another casual step as if she was strolling in a museum, and had all right to be here.
"What?" he said, not understanding.
"Your dad is a bowman. Are you going to be a warrior when you grow up?" she said doubtfully, looking pointedly at his round stomach.
"I'm only eleven. I don't know what I want to be yet."
"I'm ten. I'm going to be a bowman. I bet I'll be stronger than your dad." She smirked triumphantly at Saja's glaring face as if she had won the battle. The smirk slid off her face as Saja turned into his room and slammed the door.
-
Saja was groggily roused by gentle knocking at his bedroom door. Spurred by the urgency of a waiting visitor, he forgot why he had locked himself in the first place, and ran to open it. A short girl stood there, a puzzled grin lighting her face as she said, "We set a campfire outside. Do you want to come join us for barbeque?"
"Yes. I'm coming," he said, distantly reminded of a dinner with his parents. His parents were fighting in a war and he was going to enjoy barbeque.
The girl motioned at her forehead. Saja looked at it and saw nothing was wrong. The girl blushed and said, "By the way, there is a snail on your forehead." Saja's hand reached up and grabbed at his green snail, which had glued itself right below his hairline while he had been asleep. The girl giggled when the snail chattered.
"He'll be coming too," said Saja, stepping out of his room, and closing the door behind him. The girl nodded, leapt down the stairs, and vanished through the back door. Saja followed, his exit not as aerodynamic.
But when Saja stepped into view of the older guardian bowman, she closed the distance between them in a few wide strides squinting at Saja's forehead. Her hand struck out and tried to grab the snail on his forehead. Saja automatically jumped backwards and slapped her hand away.
The older bowman was taken back at first. Then she leered, "Why do you have a green snail on your forehead?" The girl who had invited Saja out laughed.
"He's mine." He stalked forward as if it didn't matter. He noticed the other girls were staring at him now. They had only seemed like a handful at first, but now their eyes filled the backyard. The guardian bowman stood her ground, and crossed her arms.
"You know it's a monster? What your parents are fighting?" she said, her voice sounding through the backyard. He ignored her, marching away and finding no place to go in his own backyard.
"Could I help with the barbeque?" he asked suddenly, catching the attention of the nearest girl. She rolled her eyes at him.
"That thing on your forehead isn't a pet," she said smartly.
"Yeah? How would you know? Just cause someone told you so?" he said, puffing up with anger. She narrowed her eyes.
"I know, OK? I've killed those for training. You should just kill that thing. Maybe if you trained you wouldn't be so fat."
Saja's hand flew up and knocked the raw plate of ribs out of her hand, making her flinch. He wouldn't do it. He would never kill his pet. This girl was his age and she was so violent.
The bowman girl, with the unexpectedness of Saja's attack wearing off, reached out toward Saja's forehead, ready to crush the snail and tear its soft body into pieces. Her fingers locked onto the snail, but its abnormal monster shell could not be broken as easily as a garden snail, and the girl stood baffled, squeezing the shell as hard as she could.
Saja broke out of his frozen trance and shoved her hard, forcing her to let go. He ran into the house, trying not to cry as he locked all the doors and shut the windows. Then he cried with his snail.
As he cried, he plunged deeper into his sadness, feeling worse as he thought about it. He thought about his parents and how they were fighting horrible monsters. Because they were heroes, they were probably sent after the toughest challenges. He saw them trying to be brave as they forced their bodies past endurance, and at last succumbed to the incoming wave of monsters, their effort forgotten. He saw the unmerciful monsters with their heavy eyes and gaping, screaming mouths stepping closer to fallen bodies.
When he opened his eyes, he saw the snail sliming the bedpost right above his face. Annoyed at the mess, Saja prodded its eye sharply, at which the snail hissed. The mouth that Saja had never seen was suddenly bared at him. It rose slightly, threateningly, and the boy felt the pang of fear. It was a monster, just like the ones his parents were fighting. He had to kill it. He would use this first kill to strengthen himself, to train himself into a warrior like his mother. He would join them side by side, rescuing his parents in turn instead of hiding out with a bunch of bossy girls.
As if the snail felt Saja's resolution to murder, it backed away fearfully, at the same time bracing itself for an attack. The boy's eyes scanned the room, searching for a weapon. He didn't want the touch the snail himself.
As if his nerves weren't strained already, outside, screams shocked Saja out of reality. He could hear the chaos of people stampeding around the back. He tore his window open and shoved half his body out, looking down at the scene. Below him, he could see the top of the older bowman who had her knees bent, and was holding herself steady in a stance. About ten feet away from her, Piggy crouched, its hooves plowing the dirt. He could guess the situation from up here. His mother's hog was ready to charge. Its eyes were dancing madly, and the bowman girl didn't know what to do, or even what the hog was about to do.
"Piggy!" he screamed out the window. If the bowman girl could jump from a second story window, he could do it. He jumped out. In mid-air, hoping to land in a bush, he felt his soul fly up and out of his body. Piggy charged, not at the girl who ran away in alarm, but underneath Saja, catching him before he fell completely. Saja hung onto its bristly fur, most of his muscles melting into helplessness. His hands busily searched the hog, who peacefully knelt down to the ground now that he was with Saja.
He found no note. Although his heart thumped frantically, wondering what Piggy was doing without his mother, he led Piggy to his pen and closed the gate, making sure to hang the sign, "Warning: Wild Beast. May appear tame," on the door.
The bowman cadets remained spectators, hiding around the back of the house, some daring to peep around to tell her peers what was going on. Saja crept back into his room unseen.
There he tried to reconcile with the green snail, which was frantically trying to escape as if it had been trapped in a slaughterhouse. He wanted to take the snail with him. It didn't belong here. Maybe Saja would set it free in a better, richer land.
He slipped into the rooms around the house, packing what he needed into his father's old travel pack. For now, he wanted to search for his parents. He knew something had happened. At least he had Piggy to help him.
-End