Once in a safe spot in the side-chair, Randall watched as the city began to move past him. While one of his eyes was still swollen almost shut from the previous night's beating, his vision had improved since dawn due to the ample light and his risen core temperature. The visual aspect of this particular city that stood out to him the most was that it was very shiny. Where buildings in the monster world were colorful and rather matte in finish, the buildings here seemed to be made of nothing but glass and polished metal. Beyond the shining buildings, there was an area of trees and smaller buildings which he guessed might be homes.
Aside from his vision and his limbs, his mind was beginning to move faster too, as the temperature in the air rose. He thought about his situation, being stuck in a strange world as an outsider. He was still furious at his rival back home for throwing him into this primitive place, but there was something else too. Randall had to admit that he was at least a little afraid of this savage world. Humans may be toxic as he had been taught, but they were very obviously dangerous and violent. Randall was sure that if humans were capable of thinking about such things, then they surely hated monsters or at least feared them for scaring them as kids. Randall was afraid that if the humans knew that a monster was in they're city, they would try to kill him just out of spite. Except maybe Shadow, he thought, she seems different from the others. He quickly banished that thought from his mind. It wasn't prudent to dwell on ideas like that. He didn't want to like her. He just wanted to find a safe place to sleep and learn what he could through observation.
Randall decided to quit focusing on humans and take inventory of his physical state while he wasn't having to move on his own. He wished that he could get in front of a mirror. He was sure that his head looked awful. He knew that he was bruised from head to toe. He had several cuts on his legs and feet from walking in the dark through the swamp. He had a gash of undetermined depth on the scales next to his eye from the shovel. He was lucky that it wasn't an inch to the right, or he might have been blinded. He could feel the same knot in his stomach that had been there since he could remember. He knew that it was tied to negative emotions like anxiety, but he told himself that he didn't have time to focus on that.
Quit being a hatchling, Randall. You are stronger than that. It was the same thing that his father had told him when he was young, and he had to repeat it to himself every now and then to remember. It usually worked. He pushed all the pain that he was feeling aside so he could focus on the world around him. Finding shelter was still the main priority. If Randall had to sleep out in the cold again, he might not be able to wake up if danger arose again. He looked up and saw that he was still in the city, but the buildings were shorter, and not as shiny as they were where he had been. He guessed that he had arrived in the center of the city, and this was somewhere near the edge. Soon, the shadow human pulled up to what seemed to be some sort of large complex with a border around it.
As soon as the vehicle stopped, Randall moved away from it so Shadow wouldn't touch him as she dismounted. He wandered what sort of place this was. Randall looked, and over the entrance of the complex read Zoo Atlanta. The Zoo? Why would she be going to a zoo? Since when do humans even have zoos? He wandered what kind of animals would think to keep other animals in cages. Focus Randall, it doesn't matter why they have it or why she's here. What matters is that you don't spend tonight out in the cold. Just follow her and learn what you can of the layout until you get to a safe place. He watched his guide pick up the bag from the side seat and followed her up to the entrance of the zoo.
"Carol! Hey, what's up?" It was Shadow who spoke to a dark skinned human that was leaning on the wall near the gate. The darker one replied, "Fairy! What's up girl? Just waitin' on your slow ass to get here."
"Sorry about that, I got held up at the art store because I couldn't decide on the paper I wanted to use. And I asked you not to call me that. I sound like a guy that wears too much eye glitter."
"Whatever, Faye then, until I come up with something else." She rolled her eyes. "Come on, I've got him in the perfect spot for you. Did you decide what medium you're using?" The two humans began walking into the zoo, the dark one, Carol, holding up a badge as they walked though the gate. Faye, hmm, is that what I should call you? No, you're Shadow. Definitely. Randall snickered to himself as he slithered after them.
"I'm going with oil pastels, I really want to capture as much detail as I can, but as quickly as possible, without sacrificing color. If I had more time, I'd paint him, but not today."
"Yeah, I don't know why they won't give you guys more time on this stuff. But I guess it's the first year that we're doing it this time of year so there have to be a couple of things that are a little off. But they gave the artists a whole week last summer, now you have to come for one day, and make an appointment, what?"
"Well this isn't the same thing as what they did this past summer. That was way more publicized, and the proceeds went to the zoo. This is a new thing they're trying and everything goes directly to rebuilding habitats. They decided to make it like a competition. The artist has one day to capture the essence of a vulnerable or endangered animal of their choice, and for every dollar which that one work raises, the zoo will match it and donate to habitat builders in that region. We only had fifteen people volunteer to do it this year, so the higher ups don't know how well it's going to work. So we are making our pieces now, during the slow season, and they'll start advertising after the holidays. If we make more than 3,000 dollars, then they'll give it another go next year, but each piece has to sell for more than two hundred. The Art Gone Wild summer auction is still going to be a thing and they don't want to take focus away from it or make it look like this is just a copy of the same event."
"Yeah, okay, that makes sense. It's still pretty cool that they're trying this. I wonder how they got he idea."
"Who knows, probably one of the artists from last year had an idea and got in good with one of the directors."
"Probably something like that. How's your mom?"
"Same as ever, worried about me being in the city by myself. Speaking of which, I told her you would come with me to Lenox after the session. What about it?"
"Nah girl, I wish I could, but I promised Jake I'd watch Stacy this afternoon. He's finally got that interview you know?"
"Oh? That's awesome. Tell him I wish him luck. And say hi to Stacy for me."
"Will do. Ok, here we are. What do you think?" Carol gestured to a glass wall with a drawing table in front of it and a chair. Or at least, that was what Randall noticed first. Shadow was looking with rapt attention at something beyond the glass wall. Randall took a closer look. Inside the enclosure was a reptile. It was a muted grayish color with a hint of green in it's scales. It was big, not as big as Randall, but at least ten feet long. It stayed low to the ground, and it appeared to be unable to rise onto it's hind legs. It was turned so that from Randall's and the human's position, you could see it's entire body from the side. And it was eating something that smelled like meat.
"Oh wow, Carol! How did you get him to pose like that? It's perfect!" Shadow was clearly excited about this.
"Made sure today was his feeding day. Been planing this for a month to get him on the right schedule. I know, I'm awesome. He'll stay there and eat for the next hour without moving, should. That enough time for you? He probably won't move much after that either, gave him an extra portion to slow 'im down." The dark human sounded like she was very pleased with herself, but Randall could not make out her facial expression without getting too close.
Shadow moved from the wall and excitedly approached her friend. "Thank you so much, Carol, I owe you one." Shadow hugged the other human with the bag still in her hand.
"Ok, ok, I'm gonna let you get set up. You want me to stick around?"
"It's probably better if I work alone. I need to concentrate. You understand, right?" She sounded apologetic.
"No problem, chicka. You get in the zone. I'm expecting big things out of you." Carol winked, and cheerfully walked away. Randall wandered for a moment what she meant by that. What was going on here? Shadow went back to the glass wall and stared at the large reptile beyond it.
"You beautiful, beautiful creature. You magnificent dragon, you. You stay right there, and just be perfect. Just you wait, your portrait is going to make a bunch of other dragons very happy. This charity is going to be great." She smiled and went over to the chair that had been set up for her, sat down and began to sort through the items in the bag that she had been carrying.
Randall sat and observed, still unsure of what she was doing. He knew what a portrait was of course. But since when did humans of all things even have charities? Why would humans care about another animal's habitats? Damn it Randall, none of this matters. Why am I even here? I should be looking for shelter, not watching some ridiculous human custom. He clenched his fists at his own foolishness. Then he reminded himself that he did not know the layout of this city and it would be unsafe to just pick a spot at random for fear of being discovered while sleeping. Remember the spot this morning. It seemed safe, but it really wasn't. You need to be patient Randall, wait for her to lead you to a safe place. It might even end up being her living quarters, and once you study her movements, you will be able to avoid her. Just be patient. Damn that big blue bastard! I can't wait to get back to Monstropolis. I'm gonna kill him. I'm going to skin him alive and put that big blue pelt on my floor so he'll be beneath the soles of my feet everyday. That will be fitting. He almost chuckled to himself at the imagery in his head and the poetic justice of it.
Shadow was now staring intently at the lizard in the glass cage, and making quick movements with a pencil in her hand. Out of curiosity, Randall moved close enough to make out what she was going on the paper. He saw several isolated sketches of the enclosed reptile. She had captured each of his body parts separately on different parts of the page and was now tracing a proportionate outline of him as a whole. Randall was surprised to see that the sketches were very accurate, even though they had taken her less than a few minutes to do them. He shrugged it off and looked at the materials around her. There was a large board with a rectangle of thick paper clipped to it, and a box full of colorful rods that he guessed were the "pastels" that she had mentioned before. She hadn't even touched them yet. He realized with some amount of frustration that she would be sitting there for a while. He clenched his fist again, but reminded himself that he didn't have to stand there the whole time. He decided to take the opportunity to find a bathroom and a mirror, assuming humans were even sophisticated enough to have them. He remembered seeing a mirror in a child's room once, but it wasn't a common thing. He would just have to search.
He didn't have to search long, since he quickly realized that humans marked their facilities with similar icons to the ones that monsters used. He was relieved to find a lock on the door when he entered. He would be able to become visible without fear of being caught. He made sure it was secure, deblended, and approached the mirror. He was prepared for a sorry sight, but the extent of the damage still shocked him. As he had guessed, his right eye looked awful. The gash had to be down to the bone, given how thin his skin was on his head, and the whole area was swollen and bruised. His fronds were pale in color and drooping low to his head, and the one in front was also bruised. His legs were covered in scratches and dried blood along with the mud that he could not get off in the grass that morning. It was a miracle that no one had seen him. Humans must idiotically unobservant. But that's better for me.
He didn't see any first aid items, but he knew that he needed to clean the wounds before they got infected. Reptiles were not known for their hardy immune systems. He began smelling the things on the sink counter. One was pink, and smelled sickly sweet. He didn't trust it. He picked up a clear bottle. It read Hand Sanitizer. It smelled like alcohol. Perfect, he thought. It would hurt to use it, but it would kills the germs in his cuts. He decided to use it after he had gotten the dirt out. He was surprised to discover that humans used similar paper towels to the ones in the monster world. He turned on the faucet and hoped that humans were not so barbaric that they didn't have hot water. He was relieved to find that they did, but the faucets were switched, which annoyed him more than it should have.
He began the painful process of cleaning all the dirt out of such deep wounds. It was all he could do to keep silent as he did so, but he managed out of sheer will. It wasn't until he got to the deepest one on his head, the shovel wound, that he realized that he was going to have a problem. It had stopped bleeding the night before, but once he was done cleaning it, it would be open and bleeding again, along with a few others. The alcohol in the Sanitizer would only make the bleeding worse. He also couldn't afford to make make-shift bandages to stop it, or he wouldn't be able to blend effectively. He cursed and accepted the fact that there was no way around it. He would just have to improvise, keep to the shadows and hope that humans remained so stupidly unobservant.
It was about a half hour later when Randall emerged from the bathroom. He felt like his scales were on fire, and his jaw hurt from staying clenched for so long. All I want to do is just find a place to sleep. Is that too much to ask? The strength of self pity in that thought almost made him want to cry out of sheer frustration. Stop it you hatchling! This isn't helping. Focus! Damn you Sullivan. Damn you for doing this to me. It's all your fault. I hate you. It's your fault! Yours and Fungus, and Wazowski, and Waternoose. They're all pathetic. I'll kill them all, starting with Sullivan. I'll make them mourn the day they did this to me. Maybe I'll leave Fungus alive, just because. He chuckled to himself again. It felt good to have something to focus on. Hate was easy, and it gave him strength.
He found Shadow still sitting where he left her, this time with the beginnings of a colorful image on the paper in front of her. He looked closer out of curiosity, careful to stay out of her line of sight, since two of his wounds were still bleeding freely and the red smears where he was wiping it away were most definitely visible. It was a masterful work, even as unfinished looking as it was. The creature had been captured almost perfectly in the drawing. It was going to be a very life-like image, but also exaggerated just enough to make the lizard look even more regal than he already did. There was almost a magical quality to the creature in the drawing, compared to the seemingly ordinary beast in front of him. Is she doing that on purpose, or is that how she sees him? Whatever, it doesn't matter. She looks like she has another hour of work left, if the image is going where I think it is. I have until then to get the bleeding to stop. He suddenly felt grateful that this human was being stationary for a time. He hadn't thought of needing it, his priority being shelter. But he needed to do this too, and this was a good opportunity for it. He went back to the bathroom, and got paper towels to press onto his wounds. He took a large pile of them and climbed to the rooftop of a small building where he could keep an eye on Shadow in case she moved before he was expecting her to.
Shadow's friend appeared an hour later, just as Shadow looked to be putting the final touches on her work. Randall was almost sorry that he couldn't see the finished piece from that distance, but he didn't want to get closer at the moment. He heard the humans talking, but didn't bother paying attention to what was being said. He did catch the words, "done already" and Shadow sounding pleased with herself, but he payed it no mind. He was busy burying the blood-soaked paper towels in the ground behind the building that he had perched on. He got back within sight of them just before they began to walk away together. He followed them. He followed them into another building, one where the inside looked like an office one might find in his own city. He watched from behind a flag as Shadow put her art work into a machine and take it out after a light flashed across it. Moments later, a copy of the image appeared in the drawer below. She rolled up the copy, and put a rubber band around it, and handed the original to her friend.
"Hope it makes it. Do you think people will like it?" Shadow asked.
"Are you kidding? You make him look like a dragon dragon! Like he's going to sprout wings and breath fire any second. He looks regal as fuck in this. Girl, they're gonna love it. I can't believe you got this much detail in two hours." The dark human raised the drawing in her hand.
"Thanks, Carol. I hope you're right. Sure you don't want to come with me?"
"Nah, chicka. I've got to get going here soon, and I still need to put this", she gestured to the drawing, "in with the others. I'll see ya 'round, Faye."
"Okay, see you soon. Thanks again." Shadow hugged the other one.
"Don't mention it. Ride safe." The darker human returned the hug, and the two humans parted, the dark one going deeper into the building, Shadow leaving and walking towards the entrance of the complex. Randall followed, confident now that he was clean, and no longer in danger of leaving a blood trail. He knew that the places that his color-changing scales were not covering were still visible, so he still stayed above human head level when he could, going across walls and staying in shadow when he couldn't. He took his place in the side-chair when Shadow got back to her vehicle and crank it to life, and off they went. The next place that she stopped was a single, enormous building with what seemed like hundreds of cars in front of it. She took the art supplies and copy out of the floor of the side-chair again before walking to the building. Randall wondered why she would need them again, until he realized that she was probably worried about someone taking them. What kind of human would steal something so trivial? He spit the word, human, as if it were made of sewer water.
Shadow spent the next hour walking through the giant building, which Randall realized was shopping mall, ducking into stores to look at an article of clothing, only to duck out again without speaking to anyone. She made one longer stop at a store called Teavana, and bought a few different items. The rest of the time, she wandered around and seemed to be observing the other humans. Randall observed as well, and while they seemed to teem and scurry like insects, their behavior did remind him a little bit of the way monsters carried out their daily lives in his own city.
Shadow seemed enraptured by the movements of her own species. There was a period of time when she simply sat on a bench, eating something that registered as very cold, maybe frozen on Randall's heat sensors. As she sat, she turned her attention to specific individuals as they passed. Each time a new subject came and went, she smiled. Randall couldn't help but wonder what she was thinking. He carefully went behind the bench, hiding in the shadow of a large potted plant, and looked at them from her perspective.
First, he saw an older human who leaned over as he walked, surrounded by three scaring age humans. Each of them was noisier than the last and all clamoring for his attention. The old one smiled the whole time and held the hands of the two smallest ones while the other one chattered, walking in front of them. He must be their grandfather. I didn't know humans got that old. He had no idea what Shadow thought of them, but she smiled again, and waved to the little ones as they passed.
Next was two average sized humans, one with long hair and a much taller one. Randall could not tell how old they were, but they were obviously in love. The one with long hair was hanging all over the taller one and talking in an annoyingly high pitched voice. Randall could not really tell the tall one's gender, but it was obvious that the long-haired one was female. The taller one was silent, but kept it's hand around her waist like a child holding on to a toy that they didn't want to be stolen. Either humans are strangely insecure about their mates, or those two are very young. Maybe both. Randall felt disdain at the display that they were making, but Shadow seemed to watch them almost wistfully. Randall caught himself wondering if Shadow had a mate. He laughed at his own folly.
He heard mothers scold their children and couples laugh or argue. He saw groups of females all traveling together and laughing. For these groups in particular, it was very difficult for him to distinguish one individual from the other. And there seemed to be several different groups of varying sizes, all consisting of nothing but females. So humans do that too. I thought only monster girls formed cliques. Randall also noticed that every time a clique came by, Shadow's posture changed, as if they made her nervous. Why would that be, if she's a female too? Unless she was rejected by them. And an image of a child sized Shadow being laughed at by a group of identical girls and crying entered his mind. What am I thinking? There's no way they're that complex. I'm reading too much into this. He could not admit to himself that he reason he thought of that image was because of his own struggle as a monster child. Fitting in was always hard, and a part of him wanted someone else to have experienced the same thing. After a while, Shadow finally got up and began to leave the mall. On her way out, there was another female standing at a table just outside the entrance, handing out fliers for something. She called out as people passed.
"Conner Smalls is a criminal! Sign and save lives!" She said it repeatedly. Shadow paused, as if considering talking to her, then began to walk past. The other female put one of the fliers up in Shadow's face. It was clearly an aggressive act. Randall was surprised when Shadow's only reaction was to take the flier in front of her and stop in her tracks to look at it.
"You can't ignore it just because it's ugly." The other one said. "This is real, and Conner Smalls has to be stopped." Shadow just stood there, in the way of traffic, holding the flier. She was shaking, ever so slightly. The other one didn't seem to notice. "Well say something. If it really doesn't affect you than you're worse than him."
Randall got curious. He angled himself to look at the fliers that were sitting on the table next to the angry human. They were all the same picture, copied and printed. It was a gruesome sight of a four legged animal that had been severely mutilated. It was covered in blood and deep cuts and puncture wounds. One of it's paws was missing and it's tail was hanging on by a small thread of skin. The image made Randall's stomach turn. He was capable of inflicting pain on other monsters with relative ease, but a helpless creature in pain bothered him.
He thought of his machine, and how Fungus had looked after he had been subjected to it. Randall hadn't known that it was that strong, and if he hadn't been preoccupied with hating Sullivan at that moment, he would have been more bothered by the fact that he had almost tested the thing on a helpless human child when it clearly had more adjustments to be made. Now he did think about it, and he thought about the look of agony on Fungus's face. I almost tortured that little human. I thought it was ready for subject tests. All the data came back safe, but it was too strong. If Sullivan hadn't of stopped me, what would have happened to that kid? He allowed these to thoughts to linger a moment before dismissing them. This was something he knew that he needed to feel the weight of, even if now was not the time. He shuddered and decided to deal with it later.
He looked back at Shadow. Her knuckles were white as she gripped the paper in front of her. Randall saw her open her mouth to speak, without moving her head up or looking away from the horrific image.
"Only a monster would do this." She said nothing else.
Randall was shocked. He had not heard any other humans speak of monsters. The man in the truck had called him a mutant, and the woman in the swamp had called him a gator. It was the fist time a human had said the word in front of him. And now this human is saying that a monster would do this to an animal in the human world? It wasn't a monster that injured me like this! It wasn't a monster that almost killed me! It wasn't a monster that made me run in fear! It was humans. You things are terrifying! How can you say that? A monster would be too afraid to come to your world to do something like this. Randall's inner rant was stopped suddenly by the angry human.
"There are no such things as monsters. You are just trying to dehumanize someone because they did something no human should ever do. But guess what. Humans do this kind of sick shit every day, because people like you don't want to face reality. You wanna bury your head in the sand, do your shopping, wear your leather coats so you look cool, which was once a beautiful animal too, I might add. And you don't want to do anything about the reality that people are doing this" she shook the flier in her hand, "every day. Wake up and do something. You think this guy is a monster, help me put him behind bars. Sign the petition to get him to trial and we can fight back." The angry human looked smug like she had just won something. Without hesitating, Shadow turned to face her. Something had changed. Shadow didn't look horrified. She looked furious.
"You have no right. You have no right speak to me or anyone else like that. Look at you. You're standing here yelling at strangers because you're just as useless as the rest of us. You're upset because some reject shoved this picture in your face and you can't do anything about it. You want to make a difference? Even if you get enough people to sign a petition and get someone like him into a courtroom, you have no control over whether or not he actually gets convicted. You know the system is corrupt, or you should, and you know he has enough money to get out of this. You want to make a difference? You want to help? Quit standing here with these graphic pictures where little kids might see them. These people don't want to help you. All you're doing is pissing people off."
The human with the fliers looked like she was about to interrupt, but Shadow did something odd. She snapped her fingers and held up her index finger in a single gesture while she said the word "No". In the same movement, she both stood up taller and leaned forward a bit, looking authoritatively into the other human's eyes. "You had your turn," she ordered. "You'll get another one when I'm done speaking." Her tone was very even and controlled. It sounded like it was taking a lot of will to make it so and keep from shouting. He other human's posture changed and she slumped just a little and looked down and away from Shadow's gaze before meeting it again. Shadow put her hand down and continued her impromptu lecture.
"Go help if that's what you want to do. Go join the police force and arrest the guys that do this. Go volunteer at the ASPCA and rehabilitate the survivors. Go talk to kids about non-violence, or better yet start a program that lets troubled teens work with abused animals. Or if you want to go global, do what I did this morning and and go to the zoo and make an artwork for their charity auction that sponsors habitats for endangered animals. You stand there and judge me for wearing a leather coat, and you think I don't care. You need to take a good long look in the the mirror, because unless you're a vegan that doesn't use glue and rides a bicycle with recycled rubber tires, I don't want to hear it." She stopped and stared the girl down. The human with the fliers was silent, with a look of shock on her face.
"Get out of here. Get the fuck out of here before I kick your skinny ass." The angry human looked like she might cry. "You don't wanna sign, fine. I don't need your crappy signature. We'll get someone on board that actually knows what the fuck their talking about. You weren't at any goddamn zoo. They don't even do that kind of thing. Zoos are prisons and they should be outlawed just like that ugly ass coat. Next time you try to lie to make yourself sound important make sure the person you're talking to isn't as ignorant as you are. Why are you still standing there, you like getting told off? I said get the fuck out a here. I don't want your help!" She pointed to the parking lot.
Shadow didn't say another word. She put the flier that she had been holding back on the table, at the top of the stack. Then she nodded her head towards the other human, smiled, and walked away. Randall was still processing what he had just witnessed when the two-wheeled vehicle was moving down the road. He was impressed with the way Shadow had carried herself when angry. She had forced the other human to listen to her, even though she was not scary or particularly intimidating. Even if it didn't work in the end, it was still interesting, and she hadn't lost her temper either. Randall would have to remember that move. What was more shocking though was the the thought that humans knew about monsters, but did not believe they existed. It floored Randall that any human would say that monsters weren't real, since a great percentage of them had been frightened by monsters as children for the past several hundred years. How could they possibly think that there was no such thing as monsters? It was such a puzzle.
Then, Shadow pulled over on the side of the street and stopped the vehicle. Randall moved away when he thought she would dismount. Instead, she took out the device that she had been talking into earlier and pressed a few buttons on it. She put it to her ear and waited a moment. It must be some kind of cordless phone. He thought.
"Hey mom. Yeah, yeah everything went great. Yeah, I think it's going to turn out great. Carol was really impressed with it..." She began pacing up and down the sidewalk as she spoke. "No, that's not how it works. The directors weren't there that day. No, Mom..." Randall could not hear, but it seemed that Shadow's mother kept interrupting her and talking for several seconds. "Listen, I'll be home in about an hour and a half, okay? No, I'm still in Atlanta... Because I went to the mall to get you some of that tea you like. No, no Carol isn't with me anymore... Because I'm riding home, and I just stopped to let you know I'd be on the road... Of course I'll be safe, you know me... Yeah... Mom... Yeah, Mom, I know. It's fine. Would you please not worry? I don't even speed." Shadow was pacing up and down the sidewalk in front of her vehicle, gesticulating as she spoke and looking stressed. Randall chuckled to himself. Parents can have that effect. He found himself sympathizing with her again, in spite of himself.
It was at that very moment, Randall heard a screech that sounded like the breaks on a car. Even in the human world, that sound was the same. He looked up at the same time Shadow did to see a large, green car swerving away from a smaller, silver one, right into the path of Shadow. She was still on the sidewalk, a few feet away from her own vehicle, now standing in the way of an out of control car. Forever after that moment, Randall would not be able to say what exactly was going through his mind at the time. He would come up with many different plausible rationals for his actions, but what it really boiled down to was sheer impulse. And that impulse was to dart forward and push Shadow out of the way of that car. He didn't have time to think. He just moved. And then his world went black.