The Finders Keepers

by R.G. Strike

  “Well, this is amazing!” Godfrey said, subsequently ushering cakes and fruit salads into his mouth. Then, from beside him, he whipped his hand as he snatched a piece of steamed chicken, munching as much as he could get into his mouth. Meanwhile, Eliezer was in deep silence as she sliced the thick chocolate bar, drained a glass of sweet, cold tea, and slurped the last drop of banana split. Her hands were apparently shaking out of hunger and eagerness to eat, quite quavering the table.

  “How on earth was this possible, Frey?” she asked.

  Godfrey shook his head, his mouth bulging as he munched faster. When he had finally managed to swallow and empty his mouth, he quickly snapped, “I don’t know. Well, I mean if you’re hungry, there’s no way you’re wondering where it came from.”

  “But,” said Eliezer, taking a glance at Godfrey for a second, “is there – are you sure they are safe to eat?”

  “El,” he replied stupidly, “what a nasty question you’re asking. If these foods aren’t safe to eat, then we should have been poisoned moments ago – or worse, killed.”

  “Yes, of course, Frey. And – well, it’s you who told me that – that Flameflies tell you it is safe, but where are the Flameflies?”

  Slowly and very carefully, Godfrey twisted his head to look at her, who seemed obviously gagged to have been threatened by his brilliant, emerald eyes.

  “Are you being nonsense again? Or is it your nature to be nonsensical?”

  “Nah, Frey, that’s not rubbish! Well, what’s nonsense with asking about the Flameflies?”

  Godfrey did not respond. He was staring at her, quite insultingly, protruding are-you-talking-to-me look. But Eliezer stared at him, too, as though indicating that it was now his turn to speak.

  “El,” he said, very slowly, “I want you to focus your eyes on the apple orchard and tell me what’s there.” He rudely pointed his two fingers on his eyes and directed them towards the trees. Eliezer obediently followed it with her own eyes.

  “Oh.” She gulped after seeing several Flameflies circling the bounty orchard.

  Right after Godfrey had seen her curiosity assuaged, he sighed as he refocused his eyes on the table. For a moment, he knew he was still hungry, but he was stunned to see that they had already eaten almost all of it; the only remaining food left was a piece of unpeeled banana.

  Had they been eating for so long? Godfrey was partially confused. He knew that they had just started eating a couple of minutes ago – or maybe they were outrageously hungry that they had not noticed the time had passed so fast.

  Shaking his head and concluding that it was not a good idea to ponder, he drew up the stick and wished for another batch of lunch. As usual, different type of foods had been popping like giant bubbles out of nowhere virtually immediately in front of them. The mess had been cleaned out.

  “Now stop watching the Flameflies, El, or you’ll have to miss out another load of lunch.” He bowed and plowed on the food again, and so had been Eliezer.

  Just after a quarter of minutes, as Eliezer was rummaging yoghurt and ice cream, she had seen the Flameflies swirling above them, momentarily emitting faint glows, colors had varied from each other, and they were gone.

  “F-Frey?” she asked.

  Focused on his food and without looking, Godfrey said quickly, “What? Is it for nonsense thing that you’re calling my attention again?”

  Eliezer suddenly frowned. “No!”

  “Then what is it about?” Godfrey barked, surrendering his food to look at her. He rolled his eyes away and clinched his lips. “El, if you’re talking about the Flameflies again –”

  “Yes, it’s good that you know I’m talking about the Flameflies because they’re gone, Frey!” she exclaimed very fast, without drawing breath.

  Godfrey shook his head jerkily.

  “Look around you, El, and –”

  “What if you look around instead? Maybe you can check it out yourself.”

  Godfrey hesitated before he wandered his unbelieving eyes on the orchard and into the surroundings. The Flameflies were indeed gone. But, still, he could not make himself believe that they were gone, and so he tried to appear unaffected for his own superiority to condescend.

  “Maybe – maybe they just wandered, er – yes.” He made his eyebrows jump as he smiled.

  “No, I saw them disappear, Frey!”

  “Hey, have you just swallowed all of the food?” he questioned out of the blue. “El, discipline your mouth! Don’t just take advantage when I’m not looking –”

  “What are you talking about? I didn’t eat yet!”

  “Well, what are you doing then when I looked around?” he asked.

  “I was staring at you –”

  “No, El, you were eating –”

  “I wasn’t eating! Besides I’m full now. You can have them all if you want –”

  “No!” he exclaimed. “Have them all for you to get satisfied from stealing opportunities!”

  “Stealing opportunities? You’re crazy, Frey!”

  “You,” – Godfrey pointed over at Eliezer – “especially have no right to call me crazy. You’re just Eliezer my sister. No one has ever told me that in my entire life.”

  “It’s because they weren’t brave enough to tell you the truth!”

  “You think so?” Godfrey stood and kicked the wooden table, foods crashing on the ground with noisy thumps. “You think you’re brave?” He folded his sleeves, moving towards her. “Fight me!”

  Eliezer backed away and walked for a few steps. “I’m not f-fighting a demented b-brother.”

  “Bravery has no exceptions! Demented or not, you have to fight me because it’s what you asked for!”

  “Frey, I – I didn’t ask it in the first place – you offered it –”

  “Then accept it!” Godfrey snapped angrily.

  Eliezer thought for a moment as she walked around, her back still facing Godfrey’s raging face. For the first time, she had the opportunity to answer him. All those times that Godfrey was just pretending to be good only when he wanted favors from her, it was finally over. She had to stand on her right . . . the thing she knew was right. There was no way praising him now. Past is past.

  What she had done before, trying to be at her best to be kind in the hope of lowering her temper to understand the nature of his brother, should not happen again. In fact, it was only Vick (Mrs. Hagaire) who had told her to ease Godfrey . . . to be always kind to him . . . to make him smile. . . .

  On the other hand, Godfrey was a good brother . . . kind . . . loving . . . caring and all you want to wish for a brother. But the moment he got embarrassed or angry, there has to be no point arguing with him. Indeed he would make sure you get crashed into smithereens to never bother again. It was like he would turn into an extraterrestrial being when he was mad, although there were certain benefits if you have him on your side. You would always win.

  But those times had dawned out. The mere thought of directly opposing him seemed to be a bad notion. Would he back off? Of course he wouldn’t back off. But Eliezer had more courage than she ever had.

  “I have the r-right to choose my decision, Frey,” she said nervously.

  Godfrey was incredibly quick to respond, as though he had had his answers rehearsed.

  “If this is what the hell you wanted, then why won’t you take it?” He tightened his grip upon the dark stick. “It’s because you’re just pretentious to be brave. Huh? Why defy your natural being, weak girl?”

  “Frey, please, I’m –”

  “Oh – and because you disrespected me means that you ought not to call me Frey!”

  ARGHH!!!

  From behind them came a loud grunt. Godfrey was startled, as though he was retrieved back to his kindness, and grabbed Eliezer away.

  Walking out of the gloom were three giant monsters, wearing tiny jerseys and tight pants, their bellies bulging out of their toppers, and seemed to be wearing stolen bracelets of snake bones. Their skins were dark green, as t
hough dipped in mud and fine dusts, each having one circular, grayish eye, the size of the Frisbee. When they grunted once more, their incomplete set of teeth appeared out of their saliva-full mouth, stretching from their yellowing upper fang down to their black lower lips.

  “Ogres!” Eliezer exclaimed.

  “No, they’re Cyclopes!” Godfrey corrected, suddenly kind to her. “Just . . . keep still. . . .”

  The three Cyclopes frowned, although it was impossible in their big eyes. Then they moved forward, each step was equivalent to Godfrey’s five fast steps, so that they came in front of them in no more than two steps.

  As the light shone more vibrantly, the three Cyclopes became vivid. The one at the center was the tallest, hairless, with pumpkin-shaped nose and thick, wide lips. He had one large ear on the right and another tiny, crumpled on the left.

  Beside him, on his immediate right, was a Cyclops a few inches smaller, looking almost alike to the tallest, except that his ears were pointed and heavy; his chests were visible, no bulging belly, and dark hairs sprouting from his armpits.

  “What are you waiting, idiot?” the tallest Cyclops said to the creature on his left, who had thin lips curved like a rainbow (no hope for him to look happy forevermore) and who was apparently the smallest.

  “Vulto,” said the smallest, addressing to the center Cyclops, “the Lord doesn’t want little flesh for lunch . . . urgh! We’ve desired to eat children for almost a century. . . .”

  The tallest named Vulto gave him what-are-you-talking-about look. “Nano, are you not contented with the cakes we ate?”

  “Hey – wait!” Godfrey bellowed, and the three Cyclopes looked down at him. “You mean –you ate our food?”

  Godfrey was startled to discover that it was not Eliezer who had been eating their food after all. And for a moment, he felt guilty accusing her. Eliezer, however, had portrayed total relief, as though saying, “I told you so.”

  “Shut up, son of a butt!” Vulto cursed. “What we hold is what we own!”

  “Yes,” Nano agreed happily, though his emotion was hardly audible in his bass tone. “Hugo, show them what we are!”

  The second tallest Cyclops opened its mouth and roared loudly, spilling out strands of saliva and splinters of chicken bones.

  Eliezer wrapped both her arms around Godfrey as they both drew a step backward. The three Cyclopes were not impressed as it was visible in their hideous faces.

  Hugo glanced over at Nano and conveyed a facial message. Nano got what he meant almost immediately, nodding and protruding a weak, imperfect smile.

  He moved forward towards Godfrey and Eliezer, then suddenly closed his big hands around them.

  “Gotcha” he yelled. “Hurry up, Hugo, and tie them so tightly that they couldn’t breathe!”

  Indeed, Hugo was obedient to Nano, an even smaller Cyclops than him. From the back pocket of his worn-out pants, he rummaged for a thick and flexible seasoned vine, long enough to hold Eliezer and Godfrey perfectly tight. Then he took a half step forward and rounded the vine around the siblings with amazing skill. In less than a minute, Eliezer and Godfrey had been bound together, lying on the filthy ground.

  “I ha’ ‘em not much tight,” said Hugo, slapping his hands together. “Live chil’ren is more ‘elicious.”

  “Unless you’re a complete fool,” said Vulto, scratching his little ear. “Dead or alive, it will still satisfy hunger. Doesn’t make a change.”

  “You – you,” Eliezer stammered. “You’re going to eat us?” Vulto frowned at her. “Sir?” she added.

  “If Lord Alfrendo refuses you, we’ll have you instead. So best that you know, girl,” said Vulto, bending as he grabbed them at one large hand. “There’s no point delaying hunger.”

  “Wait!” Godfrey called out once again. “Why us? Why – why not just eat those knights? Oh, in f-fact, they’re bigger. They’ll satisfy you more!”

  “Har’ to munch, boy,” Hugo said. “We want your flesh. Flesh of chil’ren, much softer. . . .”

  “No, please! No!” shouted Eliezer loudly as Vulto began walking into the darkness, holding them single-handedly.

  The three Cyclopes protruded a bass laugh, nearly deafening Eliezer and Godfrey.

  “Good to hear you scream for dear life,” said Vulto. “‘No – no – no – please, help!’” he had imitated imperfectly Eliezer’s voice, then bursting into another laugh, harder this time.

  “OUCH!” Nano had barked loudly. Vulto and Hugo stopped laughing, and a total silence fell. “OUCH!”

  “What?” asked Vulto, but the rest of his sentence was drowned when a swift, speedy green thing passed in front of him, ripping his scarlet jersey, and then disappearing in the darkness of the pine forest.

  He groaned in pain just as he accidentally dropped Eliezer and Godfrey on the ground, rolling together around being roped. Vulto groaned again, louder as two other green thing swept around them, ripping and scratching their skin so that blood streamed from their wounds into the ground.

  Groaning still in pain, Vulto raised both of his enormous hands and smashed it all around him, as though hitting an invisible opponent. What had once mystified Eliezer and Godfrey as green things, were now evident.

  From Vulto’s big hands came subsequent loud thumps as he swished it over. Three young alligators with human’s head were whipped one after the other, bouncing against the trunks of the pine woods, then falling on the earth with less energy.

  Eliezer and Godfrey had seen them crawl back weakly, but Hugo swung his foot and kicked them away, landing on the lower part of the forest. He grunted out his success.

  “Light creatures,” he said. “Lucky because if I caught yeh, I’ll break yeh like a perch!”

  None of the Cyclopes had seen this coming: two pearly-white-furred rabbits descended from an overhanging branch and headed straight at the summit of a mossy boulder. On each of their back were a bow and a bucket of long, silver arrows.

  The male rabbit had whispered something to the female before he stretched out the arrow on his bow and withdrew it confidently. As he had expected, the arrow soared fast and pierced Vulto’s gray, large, and bulging eye.

  Vulto jumped and whimpered as he turned around several times, blood trickling from his only eye. Just as Hugo and Nano turned to look at him, two more fast-moving arrows hit their eyes too. Both of their cries and yells submerged too loud to deafen anyone around.

  Without noticing, the two rabbit’s had crawled swiftly into Eliezer and Godfrey while the three Cyclopes fell on the ground, crouching their faces in pain.

  Then the two rabbits slashed the vine wrapping the siblings and led them on the trail down the forest, and into the nothingness of the darkness.