Chapter 4

A/N: Hey everyone, I finished playing The Last Guardian a few days ago and I couldn't stop crying at the ending. Even though I knew how it will end I still burst into tears. It was a great experience and I enjoyed every minute of it! :)

Anyway, on with the story.

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Tomi was in the boy's hut, searching through their belongings and toys. Sighing in frustration, he stood up and went to look in the shelves. It took him a few minutes until he found what he wanted and put them inside the satchel before leaving the room.

He made his way through the village watching everyone going on about their day. He waved at few of his friends and when he passed one of the village's dogs, he leaned over to pet it. The dog sniffed his hand and its face scrunched up. It slowly backed away from him warily.

Tomi stared at the dog and looked down at his hand in confusion. Why was the dog afraid of him? This never happened before. He thought for a while and then realized something.

Could it….could it smell Trico's scent on him?

This made the child tense up and he began walking away fast before the dog could start barking and get everyone's attention on him.

"Tomi!"

The boy's heart skipped a beat at his mother's voice. Did she find out? How!?

He shakily turned to see his mother approaching him with his ball in her hands. "Here, I stitched it for you."

Tomi took the ball and grinned nervously, trying his best to hide the relief he was feeling. "T-Thanks, mom. I appreciate it!"

She frowned. "You haven't told me how it got damaged like that. The tear was huge."

"Oh, it fell in a thorn bush while I was playing." He said with a shrug. "Anyway, I should be going now. Thanks again!" he said and quickly walked away from her.

"T-Tomi wait!" she called, but he was already gone. She sighed in defeat and wondered what the boy does whenever he left like this. He would disappear for hours on certain days and then come out of nowhere later.

A memory from two days ago came to mind. She had taken one of his dirty shirts to wash them and noticed how it smelled weird, like an animal's fur, but she couldn't tell what it was.

The woman shook the silly thought away. There were a lot of animal in the village and her son could have been just playing with one. With a sigh, she made her way back inside the hut.

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Tomi grunted as he wandered through the forest, eyeing the bushes carefully in case a bear or some other predator was nearby. He didn't want to risk being chased by a wild animal for the third time.

He felt his muscles slowly relax once he stepped into the clearing. He went over to the cave entrance and stepped in, making sure to stay in the light. "Trico?"

It didn't take long for the beast to come out and he thrust his face forward with an expectant noise.

Tomi chuckled and placed his ball down. "Alright, alright. Take it easy." He began petting Trico's face and smiling at the pleased sounds coming out of the creature. Trico then moved away to stare at the satchel curiously, his tail shifting in anticipation.

Tomi rolled his eyes. "I'm really beginning to think you like me just because I bring you things." He said jokingly. He reached into his satchel and tossed a chunk of meat to Trico which the beast caught with ease.

Tomi then sat down and began taking out several clay containers from his satchel. Trico sat on his forepaws and watched him curiously, wondering what the child had brought him this time.

Tomi opened one of the paint containers and dipped his finger into the red paint. He then pulled it out to show it to Trico.

That turned out to be a terrible idea as Trico jerked back and made a worried sound at him. It took Tomi a minute to realize what was wrong and gasped. "Wait, this is not what you think! I'm not hurt. This is just paint!" he said, waving his hand to show that he wasn't in pain, but the beast didn't look convinced.

Tomi frowned and opened another container filled with black paint. He quickly dipped another finger and showed it to him. "See? It doesn't hurt." He said, rubbing his fingers together.

He suddenly had a very silly idea and drew two lines on both his cheeks, grinning up at the beast to put him at ease.

Trico looked as if he couldn't make sense of what was he seeing and Tomi knew he probably looked beyond ridiculous right now. His face burned in embarrassment at thought of his friends seeing him like this.

Trico leaned closer and tilted his head to the side, inspecting him curiously.

The child got a mischievous smile. "Hold still," he stepped closer and began painting the beast's face. Trico was tense, but didn't try to move away.

Soon enough, the boy took a step back to admire his work. He had drawn two big black eyebrows and a circle on the beast's forehead. Trico blinked unaware of what he had done.

Tomi snorted and had to close his mouth to prevent himself from laughing.

It was no use.

He burst into laughter and clutched his stomach. Trico huffed in annoyance and knocked him off his feet with his nose.

"Hey!"

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After whipping the face paint from the two of them, the boy sat on the ground and not knowing what else to do he began drawing on the cave wall in boredom. He drew a small black figure and then thought of something else.

He began drawing Trico. He would glance back at the creature every now and then before continuing on. He took a step back when he finished.

"What do you think?" the child asked, pointing at the painting. It was of a tiny human with a huge beast looking down at him. It wasn't anything great since he used his fingers, but he tried his best.

Trico stared at the wall painting for a while curiously and then gave him a low bark though he didn't know if it's a sign of approval or not. It was always hard to figure what Trico was feeling since he wasn't a very expressive creature to begin with.

Deciding that he probably will never get an answer for that, he turned to the wall and dipped his finger into the yellow paint container. He then stood up and made a circle, intending to draw a sun. He managed to finish the outline and then moved to paint the center.

And that's when Trico let out a loud cry that Tomi never heard before, his eyes flashing brightly in the dark.

"T-Trico?" Tomi stammered, worried that he enraged his friend somehow, but the creature didn't seem to be angry. He almost looked…scared.

"What's wrong?" the boy asked in concern, trying to figure what came over his friend. Trico didn't seem to hear him as he pressed himself against the wall making low noises and attempting to make himself look smaller.

He was acting like a cornered animal, trying to be intimidating and at the same time afraid.

The boy soon realized he wasn't the cause of Trico's distress. He followed the beast's gaze to see he was actually staring at the unfinished painting. Trico was staring at the shape, captivated by it.

The boy looked between the painting and the beast confused. Why was Trico bothered by it? What was it about this shape that caused such fear? To a huge creature like Trico nonetheless?

Unsure of what to do, Tomi went over and whipped away the shape with his hand, leaving a smear across the wall. The violet light finally faded from Trico's eyes and he blinked as if he was waking up from a dream.

"Are you okay?" the boy asked. Trico grunted, but still looked tense.

"I….uh…." Tomi was lost on what to do. He suddenly caught sight of his ball and immediately fetched it. "Do you want to play with me again?"

Wanting a distraction as well, the beast sat up and walked out of the cave. Tomi hurried after him, trying to put this incident at the back of his mind. Whatever what happened back there was, it was over and he didn't want to think about it.

The two played in the clearing for about half an hour before Trico finally made his way back inside the cave and lay down yawning. Panting, Tomi dropped his ball and lay against the beast's soft feathers. He found himself gazing outside of the cave for a while until he slowly drifted off to sleep.

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Tomi slowly opened his eyes and let out a soft yawn feeling Trico shifting behind him. He looked outside and gasped.

The sun was setting.

Tomi scrambled to get up and quickly reached for his satchel, putting everything back inside. Trico looked down at him in confusion.

"I need to go back!" Tomi said urgently. He reached for the ball, but then changed his mind. "You know what? I'll leave it here. Then you can have something to play with while I'm gone. Just be careful with it, okay?" He told him with a smile.

Tomi quickly said goodbye and left. He hurried down the forest path as the sun slowly disappeared in the distance. He hoped he could reach the village before it got dark or else he'll have no way to see the path.

It took him some time, but his village finally came into view. The boy sighed in relief and he stopped running.

"Tomi!"

The boy was surprised when his dad and another man came over to him. The man was taller than his dad and had a thick beard.

His dad bent down and immediately began checking on him. "Are you okay? Where were you?"

"I….I took a nap under a tree and lost track of time. Sorry." He answered and that wasn't a complete lie.

Akira, his dad's friend, smiled. "See? The boy is fine. I told you were worrying over nothing."

His dad sighed and turned to Tomi. "Just don't do that again. I was so worried about you." He said and the two led him back inside.

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Later that night while everyone was asleep, Tomi woke up to the sound of the bell ringing outside. The bell was only used in case of an emergency or if the village was in danger. He sat up and looked around to see the other boys were awake too. They could hear yelling and screaming from beyond the walls.

Their caretaker suddenly entered the room looking breathless. "Children, stay away from the window!" she muttered and closed the window shut. The kids grew frightened now.

"W-What's going on!?"

"Is something outside?"

"I'm not sure, but we need to we need to stay here until it's safe to come out." The woman tried to seem calm, but they could see she was just as scared.

Tomi gulped nervously and sat down with everyone. They waited for several tense minutes until the cries outside have all died down. For a while no one knew what to do expect murmur nervously to each other.

Tomi suddenly heard someone enter the room and looked over to see it was the Elder.

"Is everyone alright?" he asked in concern.

"Y-Yes," their caretaker answered shakily. The children didn't waste any time asking the old man about what happened and if their village have been raided by another tribe.

Tomi waited anxiously for the Elder to answer. The old man hesitated for some reason and sighed.

"A Trico has attacked the village."

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A/N: Well, that took an unexpected turn. I haven't decided on how many chapter are left of the story, but I'll let you guys know once I do.

Thanks for reading and please review!