#werecreatureoc

~*~

Mystic

That evening was the fastest Matchstick had ever fallen asleep. The apparatus that hooked him up to the facility wall couldn't compare to the comfort of this plush square of softness.

Time passes.

The weather gets colder.

The miracle cloth rectangle and square of cloud fluff made it bearable, though. He could sleep on the soft dirt of the den floor, wrapped in the blanket and resting his head on the pillow. The best damn sleeps of his whole life. Nightmares didn't come back to torment him when he slept with the soft stuff cocooning him. Must be some kinda magic.

And every day, he'd find a platter of food waiting for him on the steps of that house with the 'bird' feeders. It wasn't always the same food, but it was tastier than 'birdseed' and the sticky syrup from the cylinders.

He saw the fish-looking lady only occasionally, ducking in and out of their house to leave the plates of food, or heading out in their blue 'truck' to go god knows where. He saw the silver forest beast even less, the only signs of its presence being the fresh hole it dug into the earth a short distance away from his current hideout. It didn't leave any other gifts for him, either. Where had it gone?

Spooky

His breath was visible all the time now, even when he was calm. He noticed the people in town, in the times he ventured close, were starting to wear more and more stuff. And more noticeably, something seemed to be wrong with the trees? They were changing colors to something more red and brownish, and they were... shedding. A lot. The entire entrance of his den was getting crunchier and crunchier as the wind kept blowing the tree bits in. He would be lying if he said it wasn't fun to go bulldozing through piles of it, though.

Still, despite his naturally high temperature, the cold wasn't very pleasant. It seemed like the only time he was comfortable was when he was safely tucked away with the nesting stuff the silver beast had given him... So he started taking them with him whenever he ventured out.

He didn't have clothes like the people in town, save for the now VERY ratty and worn form-fitting shorts he'd been outfitted with at the lab... but the cloth rectangle was closest thing he had besides that, especially if he pulled it around his shoulders and over his head. At the very least it helped keep in his body heat and made him feel a little safer in regards to how easily a camera drone might spot him. The bad weather seemed to bring fewer of those, and it probably helped that he didn't actually enter the town in a while. He didn't have to, not when that one building with the pond had food out every day. It may not have filled him up entirely, but the feeling like he was going to die didn't crop up like it did when his food sources were less... certain?

...Part of him still wasn't sure about it, but he'd been going there daily for a while now, and still no ambush of any kind, save for the one time that person leapt out of the pond.

It was weird. He didn't know them, but he'd sort of gotten used to the routine with them. He knew when the food would be left out. Sometimes he'd arrive a little early and hide, watching from the safety of the trees until they went back inside, but it wasn't like they tried to look for him.

....Still had no idea what to do with those little metal things, when those were there. They almost looked like they could be some kind of weaponry- a blunted knife of some sort and a little four-pronged pokey thing- but they seemed kinda flimsy, and probably wouldn't be more effective in combat than the abilities he already had at his disposal... Not really worth the extra effort of carrying with him, so he left it be. Was it a sign of concern to want to arm someone...?

Either way, he would go there, eat, and somewhat cautiously go check on that second burrow on the way back. Still no sign of the silver beast.

...

Soon the day came when he poked his sleepy head out of the burrow, only to see the ground covered in a layer of... dust? No, as he climbed out and it melted around him, he realized pretty quickly that it was a powdery layer of ice. How'd all this get here? He shivered a little and pulled his cloth rectangle tighter around himself. His back stung when he did, but that feeling had almost turned into background noise for him at this point, and he gave it little notice.

The icy ground and dead tree stuff turned out to be a pretty slippery combination, especially since his footsteps melted it a little and made it more wet. Eugh, it was a quick way to make this walk completely unpleasant, though it still wasn't as bad as the days where water fell from the sky. He spent as little time outside the burrow as possible during those days, but would still accumulate mud on him regardless, that would bake in his body heat and come off in chunks.

...Okay, flaking it off was kinda fun, when he was bored. Which was kind of a lot of the time...

As he walked, he glanced over at the other burrow, which remained as quiet as usual. It didn't look like anything had come out of it, otherwise there probably would've been fresh marks of that big spiny tail dragging in the icy stuff. He was starting to wonder if maybe they left, and this had only been a temporary den...

Mystic

....

crnch

shfff

scrnchhh

Something was coming this way.

thnk

A mass of the powder fell from the branches of a tree at the edge of his vision. It lands with a dull whump.

"...hrmf."

The sound of a chain link fence rattling.

scrnch

thmsh

Then- the sound of something big letting out an equally big sneeze.

Spooky

He had been crouching at the entrance of the second burrow, peering into the darkness to see if he could catch a glint of light shining off one of those armor plates, when the sound of something huge slogging and crunching through the ice jarred him from what he was doing. He stood very quickly at the huge sneeze, looking like a kid who'd just been caught with his hand in a cookie jar, and turned around to look.

To his credit, he didn't try to hide this time. He was genuinely surprised to see the huge creature after days and days... How many days was it? A lot of days.

Mystic

He's greeted by the sight of- no surprise- the big silver beast. It's shaking its head back and forth, which... is covered in the white dust, freshly fallen from the tree. Said tree is making subtle vibrations, as though-

-it just ran right into the tree, didn't it.

Shaking its head wasn't doing the trick, so the shaking increased until it traveled all the way down the length of its body and tail. The chain link fence noise returned- ah, so that was what it sounded like when it shook out that pelt of metal plates. By the time it settled, a substantial amount of the white powder had fallen from its back.

At this point, it notices him. Squinting in the bright albedo from the icy coating all around them, they regard the kid, then hang their head, letting out another big sigh.

Stepping into the clearing, the shake off their limbs one by one, like a dog. A low humming rumble passes from their throat. Was that supposed to be a greeting? It didn't sound like words, but it didn't feel hostile.

Spooky

As... kinda silly as it was to witness a huge creature, the size of the trucks he had seen at Aria, go bonking into a tree... it was hard not to still feel somewhat intimidated when it approached him. Something about being near a living creature that enormous made him feel small, and that wasn't a very common feeling for him. At least he didn't feel like he was in danger this time.

It sighed again, he was pretty sure of it. Between that and how it hung its head while trundling along, he sensed it probably wasn't a fan of the cold, or the ice on the ground. Maybe wasn't feeling its best. Made sense though, it was covered in what looked like metal, and that would get really cold when exposed to this kind of temperature.

He stood there in thought for a few moments, then walked over cautiously... and after a few moments of uncertainty, he pulled out the pillow from his makeshift blanket cloak. He'd been hugging it for additional warmth and softness, and he gently pressed it against the side of the silver beast's snoot. It was kind of dirty by this point, but it was warm, very warm, like it was fresh out of the dryer.

"Aa.. hh..."

He'd opened his mouth and sounded like he was starting to try to say something, but his voice was a weak rasp from lack of use, barely above a whisper, and it was mostly lost beneath the sound of the wind.

Mystic

The beast blinked in surprise as- of all things- the kid approached them rather than ran away. It looked even more confused when the pillow is presented.

However, once the pillow is pressed against their cold snout, the frilled ears perk up. Their eyes widen, holding this strange position of mid-shaking a limb while the odd kid in the blanket burrito holds a pillow to their muzzle.

...they let out a snort. The edges of their mouth curl up. That was definitely a smile, and perhaps a laugh.

They enjoy the warmth for a minute or so, before retracting their head. Lifting one forelimb, the silver beast gently places their thick clawed digits over the hands holding the pillow, and pushes them back towards his chest. Plopping back down onto all fours, the beast stretches its back, tail curling into a spiral as they do so. Their tongue flops out as they let out a big yawn, showing off all those big teeth before they close the mouth again, rubbing at their muzzle with the opposite hand-paw from the one that nudged the pillow back.

"Mmmrf," the beast rumbles, the thudding steps continuing once more as it crunches its way through the snow towards the hole in the ground. Crawling through the entrance, it slips down to the base of the burrow, and wraps itself up in its tail at the bottom of the den. Faint shivers run through their chilled body, and they tuck the tail closer around themselves like a pointy cinnamon bun.

Spooky

Wrapping his arms back around the pillow, he felt himself smile a little as well, watching the big creature crawl into their den and get comfortable. Sure, the pillow was small, but he still felt like he helped, if only a little bit.

Also... it was weirdly kind of a relief to know they weren't gone.

Remembering why he was outside, though, he turned and walked back along the usual path he took to the food building. Curiously, as he walked along, he could see the big path in the snow the silver beast had taken to get to their den. Seemed they also walked this way. Actually... huh! He slowed a little, his eyes following the big footprints and lines where the tail dragged. It kinda looked like it swept its tail back and forth in some places, but for the most part...

He hopped from footprint to footprint as he followed that instead of the usual path, since it seemed to be running pretty parallel. It was kinda fun, though he cut it out when he slipped on some leaves and fell on his ass.

Ow.

Okay, had to be more careful walking in this stuff.

Still, it was strange... The trail was visible through most of the walk, but he lost sight of it somewhere around the time he was approaching the food building. Guess it was still a mystery where the silver beast had been... Oh well.

There was the white disc in its usual place on the steps, though the food seemed like it had been out for longer than usual. There was a very thin dust of ice on the two pieces of bread with meat and stuff in the middle that had been left out for him. No little stabby things this time, but whatever, he would've left them anyway. Maybe the person was in kind of a hurry this time.

Weird, though, their truck was still here...

Didn't look like they were inside, either. The windows were dark.

Mystic

The food, even though cold, was still delicious. It must have been sitting outside for a while. A few hours, maybe.

Sitting on the porch, wrapped in the blanket, he's able to sit back and take in the peaceful scenery. Despite the thick coat of white powder and ice on everything, the cylinders of food for the 'birds' (and ambitious fluffy rodents) were still out on their hanging hooks- with the exception of the sticky syrup ones. Those were put away somewhere he did not know. The tiny buzzing birds that used that feeder- which gave him a heart attack the first time one flew by his head- were absent once it got too cold outside.

...huh.

That was odd. There were scrape marks in the snow here, too. A lot less noticeable, due to the jumble of bird feet stamps around feeders, and snow mostly being replaced by thicker ice on the black stone path, but they were there for sure once he paid close enough attention. They looked like- scratches. Had a scuffle taken place here?

To the side of the house, on the small juncture of black path where the blue truck off-and-on rested, the scratches were deeper, and more numerous. Some wooden structure he couldn't fathom the purpose of had broken planks in the center, as though pushed by great force.

A small corner of something colorful poked out from underneath a haphazardly placed box at the side of the house.

Spooky

The pond was too frozen to drink from, so he scooped up a handful of snow into his mouth, letting it melt into water as his eyes traced the path of the scratches to the strange structure. Huh... he'd never really noticed that thing before. Mostly because there weren't any tubes by it, but the corner of something bright and colorful stood out like a beacon among all the white and gray and muted brown.

Soon, curiosity got the better of him, and the signs of damage and scrapes were concerning... He got up and moved closer to the box to investigate, too curious to just leave it be. What happened here...?

Mystic

The colorful thing was a piece of fabric, sticking out from under the edge of the box.

Removing the box entirely revealed it to be-

…a tattered shirt. It had been torn asunder, but even he would recognize this article of clothing from the shredded remains.

It was the fish lady’s shirt, the one she wore almost every day on her trips out of her house. Blue strings hung off the edges where something sharp had rent the once-whole article of clothing into many, many pieces. Most of those pieces were shoved under the box, and some were caught under the edge of the wooden porch.

Spooky

Realizing the implications of what he was looking at, he dropped the box in shock, eyes wide. The claw marks, upset snow and broken wooden structure- signs of a struggle, and now a torn piece of clothing, looking like it was hidden... And the fact that the trail seemed to lead back here...

Did the-

...Did the silver beast EAT the fish lady?!

There wasn't any blood, was the weird part, but maybe it swallowed them whole?? ...Minus the shirt? Somehow? It tore off the shirt, and then ate them?

Shit... Why didn't it just eat the food left out for him instead? It was a little cold but that's no reason to eat the person that made it!

Mystic

What was he even supposed to do, now? If the beast did eat them, his reliable food source was gone. He’d have to go back to swiping from trash cans as his primary method of scavenging. And on top of that, the bird feeders would be left empty, too- not only was he getting shorted on bird seed, but so were the birds!

If big silver animals ate people, how was one so close to town? And- why didn’t it eat him, then, when it found him trapped in that hole? Maybe he was saved by the trash smell- but then, it didn’t eat him earlier, and he was a bit less stinky now after a few rain showers. The beast never seemed hostile or territorial- or hell, even hungry.

…

Was that house just- going to be empty, now? It felt sad, in a way he couldn’t place.

Spooky

He paced anxiously in the yard as he tried to make sense of it all. If this happened- if the fish lady was... dead... there was nothing he could do about it, and that upset him even more. For the first time, he ventured up to the windows and peeked inside in hopes that he was wrong, but the place was indeed dark and empty.

...This was awful. He'd never really gotten to know this person, but... To feed random creatures outside even if they weren't people, just because they could...

Man, he didn't trust people, as a general rule... but this one seemed different. And they were gone now.

He sat on the porch for a while, staring blankly at the snow. Finally he got up, went back to the box, scooped up the tattered shirt remains, and marched all the way back to the silver beast's burrow. While it might have been a dangerous idea to confront it... It looked like he was gonna have to start risking his life for food again anyway. And he wanted some fucking answers!

~*~

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~*~

Mystic

…

Aside from the distant whirr of vehicles driving by on the road, nothing reaches him in his hiding place. He’s left alone with the pile of garbage he’d used for warmth, and his fears that kept him cold.

…

The gurgle in his stomach came back.

He ignored it.

…

The next day, it hurt more.

He ignored it.

…

After two days, he couldn’t stand the ache anymore. His throat hurt, too. He felt parched. He needed something to drink. This was something he’d never had to worry about before, in the facility. Whatever they did to him- or gave him- it only eliminated the need for food and water for so long.

Spooky

Regardless of however the fuck his body was supposed to function, it was making one thing urgently clear- this was not it. He was going to fucking die like an animal in this hole in the ground if he didn't do something.

The moment he tried to get up from where he was laying, though, it felt like his limbs were made of lead. His arms reached out and felt around him in vain hope of finding anything edible in here that he hadn't eaten yet, even though he knew what little stores he had were gone within the first day.

He did find some paper trash and tried to eat it out of desperation, though it burnt to ash so quickly and his attempts to swallow it just made his throat feel even more dry than before. This wasn't working, he needed to get out.

With no fuel left to go on other than fear of death, he managed to force himself up onto all fours and clumsily crawled towards the entrance. As he did, he feverishly tried to remember if he'd seen any water close by, but the only one that came to mind was that little pond in the place with the sand tubes...

Mystic

…crnch

crunch crinkle-crnch

That was footsteps. Walking over leaves.

Getting closer.

crunch crunch

thud crnch thd

Oh that was heavy. Whatever it was, was big.

thmp crunch thd crnch

The footsteps pause. Something snuffles at the edge of the hole.

Then- all of his light is promptly blocked out, as a hulking, spiny shape blocks the entrance.

He has no visual reference to know what the hell this is. All he can tell, silhouetted by the sun, is that it’s large, reflecting light off the edges of their shape, and has two yellow eyes peering down into the hole.

Oh- and the big claws they’re using to brace themselves at the edge of the burrow. Can’t forget those.

The yellow eyes widen at the sight of him in the pit, surrounded by… trash. The head- which has two frilled-looking ears on the sides of the pointed head- tilts slightly to one side. A rumbled noise emits from its throat, staring down at him.

Spooky

Cast into complete darkness save for the weak glow of his eyes and mouth, he shakily backs away from the tunnel, terror gripping his heart. He had no idea what the hell that thing was, he had no way to even describe what he was looking at beyond huge and pointy, and that was all he could gather from the initial silhouette.

The worst part was, it filled up the whole tunnel. There was no getting around it. He was trapped. Like... Some kind of small thing in a trap. He'd been hunted before, but confronted with this huge creature that snuffled at him, he felt distinctly like prey. Was he gonna get eaten?!

Out of the sheer stress of the situation he was in, he could feel his body trying to ignite. 'Trying' being the key word, because he was running on empty at this point and any strength his powers had before were completely shot in his current weakened state. The occasional lick of flame would crawl up his body, flutter into the air and promptly die, but for the most part he just huddled against the back wall, shaking and sparking.

Mystic

The hulking thing tilts its head the other direction, blinking once as it regards him. Another rumbling sound comes from its chest.

…it leans forward slowly, taking a cautious step into the hole. The giant claws on the forelimb sink into the soft dirt.

Another step. It’s so big that each step crosses nearly four feet of distance. The spines- which appear to be some sort of silver-colored plates, once the sunlight is no longer directly shining on them- scrape faintly against the ceiling of the den. Bits of earth shower down the spines with the sound of a chain link fence, landing on the floor of the burrow with a drizzle of sand. A long tail of similar plates drags behind it, curling slightly at the end as they get closer.

The thing pauses as embers and sparks flicker at his skin. It blinks some more, looking at him curiously. It leans in, sniffing.

Then it recoils back, muzzle scrunching up in- disgust? That was a very palpable expression of disgust on that inhuman face. They stick their tongue out at him, huffing a snort out of their shiny black nose. It shakes its head. Another rumble, and it- backs up? A heavy breath, in and out.

Wait- was that a sigh? Did this thing just fucking sigh at him?

It turns around, leaving him to face a veritable wall of pinecone scales, and starts trundling back out of the hole.

Spooky

He curled up in as little of a ball as he possibly could the closer it got to him, squeezing his eyes shut as he felt its nose get close enough to sniff him.

However, instead of the sensation of teeth sinking into his flesh, the snout suddenly withdrew. He peeked up through his fingers as it reacted with disgust. There was little space with the creature in there with him, so he continued to hug close to the dirt wall as the creature turned around and another veritable wall of heavy armored plates moved past him with about a foot to spare. Soon the den emptied out as it moved back up the tunnel and out.

...What just happened?

Fuck it, he didn't care. He was so relieved that he fell back to the ground and glowing tears spilled from his eyes despite being in limited supply at this point. He needed a moment.

Eventually he regathered enough strength to climb back out of the den. He couldn't tell what time it was for the life of him. The sky was partially dark but whether it was dawn or dusk he had no fucking clue. Either way the light, as limited as it was, hurt his eyes after he'd been underground for days, and he was forced to squint.

His body still felt clunky and hard to move, but he had to get to that fucking water, so he forced his protesting limbs to move. It felt like he almost had to walk on all fours half the time to avoid falling over, but whatever worked. At this point he felt like if he fell over, that would be it for him. There were a few points where it felt like he couldn't go on, and he might've slumped to the earth and eaten some grass off the ground- it was kind of a blur honestly- but somehow by some miracle that familiar building came into sight, and that tree, and those food tubes.

He plunked down next to the pond, and had a very strange moment in which, despite being deathly afraid to get his face near the water before, thirst seemed to take over and the next thing he knew he was leaning down with his hands gripping the sides of the pond and his face practically half submerged, greedily gulping down water like... Well, his life DID depend on it.

Mystic

The water was nectar from heaven. It soothed his throat, which had cracked and ached from the ashy paper dust. Not even the sweet sticky water from the weird hanging tubes had tasted this good, or eased the pain of thirst quite this well. Even the cold temperature didn’t deter him- if anything, it felt even better! Steam puffed out of his mouth every time he had to stop to take a breath.

Nothing attacked, assaulted, or ambushed him while he drank his fill. The pond was empty, with no surprise fish people waiting for him. He could drink in peace.

By the time he’s finished, the pond water level is noticeably lower, about an inch or two. Steam is curling up into the air around him from wherever water touched his heated skin in the fervor to drink.

…his limbs feel sore. Sitting down by the water’s edge felt so nice, even though he was very exposed right now. The desperation to sate his thirst overrode self-preservation for the time being.

…hm?

He smelled something. Something- good.

Even though his stomach was feeling a bit waterlogged, it cramped in protest. He was still hungry, and whatever that smell was, it was making him hungrier.

The smell wafted from something sitting on the porch of the house. A flat white disc, with some kind of- something he didn’t recognize. He didn’t recognize a lot of things.

Spooky

He moved closer to inspect the food. It looked like a piece of meat of some kind, with little speckles of something on top of it... There were some sliced-up lumps of something else that were kind of light brown and yellow-ish, and something that looked like tiny green trees. There were some little metal instruments placed down by the white disc, but he ignored them and picked up one of the tiny trees between his thumb and pointer finger and looked at it curiously.

He could recognize this as human food easily enough- it smelled too good to not be. He wasn't sure what it was, but food was food, and he dug right in.

He was so hungry that the food disappeared before he had much of a chance to really taste it, but like the cooked patties he'd managed to snag before, what he could taste of it was so good compared to what he'd been scavenging that it nearly made his eyes roll up in his head. Sure, he'd been taking food from the town, but they seemed able to prepare the food in a way that it was even better somehow... The meat was especially good, having an interesting flavor along with it that he guessed was the stuff sprinkled on it?

Either way, the food was gone quickly and he picked up the white disc, licking it clean.

Mystic

Once the food has all vanished into the furnace that was his gullet, he finally has the opportunity to sit and think without being plagued by demanding organs and various pains.

If that was human food, why was it left out? Surely not to feed any of the animals about. He'd glimpsed people in this place chase off fluffier grey animals with ringed tails from their trash cans or their own food discs. Could those be the 'raccoons' everybody complained about?

This food was left out with the intention to feed a person. But- he'd never seen anybody besides the weird fish-person go into or out of that house. And the only person who went anywhere near the property was-

-him.

...was the food meant for him? And if it was, why?

Was it- bait?

Spooky

He put the disc back down, unease settling in. They had seen him the last time, so they knew he'd been getting food here. But at the same time, it didn't make sense to him why they would leave more food out after knowing he was taking it. The only other possibility he could think of was that it was that person's food and they just forgot it outside... But who would actually do that?

It felt like maybe this was some kind of attempt to trick him, but to what end he had no clue. It wasn't like any traps had sprung and captured him, and there was plenty opportunity for that to happen.

...

Ah shit, that's right, he was in the open! His eyes turned upwards and scanned the sky for any sign of camera drones, but there weren't any. Just open sky, and the high branches of trees. Still, not wanting to take any chances, he retreated back towards the forest.

He could try to figure this out once he was somewhere safer.

~*~