Submisions: Stone Critters

It was a normal day as ever, at least it was. Aza was doing his usual, exploring, wandering, indulging in curiosity, these new worlds are interesting after all. Though he was always careful about where he went and what he did, he always managed to fail to observe his surroundings well enough on account of his missing eye. While he was certain he knew everything that was going on to the left of him, his right side was very blinded and he tended to forget to check his blind spot ever.

 

So of course he was surprised and caught off guard when a small creature had landed on his head. It felt like someone had thrown a rock at him but it held onto his hair rather than bouncing off. Out of pure instinct and reflex he had grabbed it and just barely stopped himself from throwing it, before just, stopping.

 

Huh, it’s surprisingly cute. He thinks. It looks almost like a rabbit, but rock, mostly just rock. He sits down with it and sighs. “You almost got punted lil guy, don’t do that. Stupid.” as one would imagine he doesn’t actually believe the rock understands and could speak back the english language, he’s just being condescending.

 

He holds the rabbit like eirshale creature up and inspects it, if it was made by anybody they weren’t very good at sculpting. Not that he can really judge what good sculpting looked like, still, it somehow managed to be very cute regardless of the imperfections.

 

“You’re just like me aren’t you, yeah. I think you are lil guy.” He stops and thinks for a moment, he can’t just keep calling this thing lil guy! It needs a name, it requires one even. But what?

 

Just as he’s thinking to himself about this, the creature jumps out of his arms and starts to hop off. “Hey, wait up!” He follows it, without any clue on where it could be going or what it could be doing. It had turned a nearby corner quite abruptly when he had started following it.

 

He didn’t think to watch his feet, next thing he knew following it ended up being more of a chore than he would have liked for it to be. The first thing that went wrong was the creature had tripped him around the corner. “Okay you little-” and then as time went on, another one had joined in the chase.

 

It climbed up his leg while he was in the middle of running, as he wasn’t ready for another creature to show up he jumped and fell backwards. “Dangit- What… oh-” The cat like eirshale creature cares not for protest, it lays on his lap while he’s distracted.

 

“...Another one? Alright- I suppose?” Suppose you shall, because when a cat sits on your lap you do not move. Aza does not really care about cat law at the moment, though the first creature does come back and sit next to him either way. It seems it’s gotten bored of it’s game.

 

Aza picks it up again and looks at it in its little stone eyes. “You. Your name is Arrow.” Arrow tilts its head in only mild confusion, it’s because it’s fast, like an arrow.

 

And as for the cat-like creature, Aza looks at it now. “What about your friend? What do you think for it?” Arrow of course does not respond, Aza lets out a disappointed sigh when he comes to the realization he’s still talking to rocks. He hadn’t realized he was missing Keir so much, even then. Keir is a cat, Keir can’t talk either. Maybe he’s just lonely, or something, he’s pretty sure that’s what’s happening here.

 

He decides until he thinks of something better, the roughly cat shaped creature can be Keir #2, it’s not like Keir would know or even care about this creature sharing his name for a little while.

 

This rabbit creature also manages to remind Aza of Keir, just a little bit though. Maybe it’s the mischievous behavior, probably. Eventually Aza stands up, still carrying both creatures. He decides to walk around some, maybe finish calming himself down from encountering both of these little guys.

 

They probably both live around here somewheres, right? That’s how it works, probably? Aza’s not entirely sure about rock society culture yet, or where these things live. Still, he wanders around with them for a while before both creatures look at each other for a moment. And then escape, again. “...great-”

 

He follows them cautiously this time. He doesn’t plan on making the same mistake again. It takes quite a while, maybe even longer considering Aza’s caution. But eventually Arrow and Keir #2 lead him to the mines, and then further in, Aza is obviously skeptical at this point but the creatures have stopped running and occasionally have looked over at him like they expect him to follow now.

 

He complies and eventually they bring him to what could almost be considered a ‘nest’ of sorts, there are quite a few small creatures around here. Not many, but enough for it to be mildly concerning? He thinks anyway, he’s not sure how often these guys show up, though they don’t seem to be bothering anybody down here, except for him that is. It’s quite dark down here and he almost tripped over a few of these little guys once he got down here.

 

He sits down again and just watches them for a little while, some of the creatures approach him cautiously to check him out, while others go to hide. He waits patiently for the creatures who are approaching him to realize he’s not a threat, and then gives them a small wave.

 

Some of them scamper off to somewhere else in the cave, others continue their slow approach before one in particular rested its ‘chin’ on Aza’s leg. He gave it an awkward pat on the head before it ran off again. Apparently having a ‘normal’ day anymore after discovering the portals is out of the question, at least it’s peaceful, most of the time anyways.

 

Things could be worse, they could be a lot better too, but these creatures aren’t trying to kill him. So he counts this as a win.

 

Word count: 1045