The Finders Keepers

by R.G. Strike

  “Alex?” Eliezer called teasingly after a short while.

  “Yes?”

  “I don’t wanna hear from you anymore, okay?” she asked, gulping harder this time.

  “Okay,” Alex finally responded, smiling so that his dimple on the left cheek became visible through the nightfall.

  “But you’re handsome. I mean, yes. My brother was a big ogre, and you’re handsome.” She smiled, looking innocent as the pale moonlight glinted on her pupils.

  “Honestly, why were you saying that?” Alex asked sheepishly, although he was, in fact, convinced.

  “Oh, nothing!” she snapped, bowing quickly as her hairs poured down to cover her face.

  Alex was at loss to explain what was happening now. The last thing he knew, he and John had quarreled and he stumbled into a dais of salty-aired seaside. There was a structure of a wrecked cabin standing on top of sharp boulders beside the foamy waves. He had tried to stay there for many days, but the salty wind hyperventilating was making him cold and sick.

  So he left the wrecked cabin and wandered the sands with no actual people around (could have been tourists etc.) until he found a mossy surface leading into a scary woodland. He had lived there for days and was actually fortunate to have perfectly survived the wilderness with scorpions and tarantulas.

  One night, as he was toasting fish on the flaming grate, the three Cyclops Vulto, Hugo, and Nano, captured him. As they had done with Eliezer and Godfrey, Hugo tied him with the same vine as tightly as he could so that Alex could no longer breathe. They marched and marched for dry hours until they arrived before a gigantic tree.

  A scarlet griffin met them. The griffin had been there before they arrived. And when they did, the three Cyclops bowed and offered Alex to him. He accepted hard-heartedly.

  When Alex was left with the griffin, the Cyclops had gone. He panicked severely that he sweated so much, making the griffin’s scales shone vibrantly. Then, without any word, the griffin clomped his claws upon Alex’s ankles and fled him to a giant and nest resting above the enormous tree.

  He had been there for a couple of days, but he never noticed the time, until tonight, when a young girl was dropped too, except that she wasn’t, at any rate, tied. Anyway, he wasn’t happy that someone would join him at last. He saw pity upon her face. Alex wondered who Godfrey was that she had been crying for.

  Eliezer was still crying; only her voice was audible against the silence of the night. Alex was not sure how he could help her, but he talked convincingly.

  “Are you hungry?” he asked her.

  Eliezer did not subside as she answered, “Yes, I’m h-hungry.”

  Alex smiled secretly. He, too, was hungry, but for her sake, he said, “I have bread in my pocket, if you like? Come closer and take it because my hands and feet are tied.”

  Eliezer wiped her tears, and then she smiled in return.

  “Really?’

  “Yeah, sure. I’m not hungry, anyway.” His stomach groaned.

  Eliezer stood, though with quite difficulty, and sat beside Alex. They did not talk for a while, but Alex was looking at Eliezer, as though indicating her to get the bread.

  “You don’t want to get it?” he softly whispered.

  Eliezer just smiled as she slipped her hands to get the bread inside Alex’s pocket. Taking it closer to her eyes, she was partially mystified.

  “How will I eat this, Al?” Eliezer asked kindly.

  “Al?” Alex repeated, little bit shocked, and then he giggled. “Never you mind. That bread is just – well, it was just covered in plastic. You can tear it and eat the bread inside, okay?”

  “Ahm, okay.”

  Once again, Eliezer showed Alex her pleasing smile before chewing in the victual. When Eliezer was finished, she stared at the wrapper.

  “Al, how did they make this?” she asked, inching closer to Alex, and finally resting her head upon his shoulders.

  “That,” said Alex generously, “was out of plastic. It’s actually factory-made.”

  “Plastic? I haven’t heard of that word before.”

  “Ahm,” Alex began, “it’s a synthetic material used instead of paper.”

  “Can you eat plastic, then?”

  “Oh, now, you can’t; otherwise you’ll get poisoned.”

  “Okay, I won’t,” she said. “But,” she paused momentarily, looking away as though thinking, then turned back towards Alex, “can I . . . can I hug you?”

  Alex was initially speechless.

  “Why, yeah, sure, but – oh, I’m not a teddy bear!”

  Eliezer immediately swung her arms around Alex, giving him a very tight hug. After a short minute (and it did not seem to be minute but rather longer) she did not remove her arms anymore.

  “You’re – you’re hugging me too long,” said Alex.

  “Yes, I’ll hug you until I fall asleep,” she complemented almost immediately. “You’re making me remember my teddy bear named Hannah, except that you’re a boy, yes. And all that’s making me miss her was her sort of pinkish crooked little hat. And all of those floral dresses, yes, of course, how could I forget?”

  “Nah, okay. I haven’t been hugged for so long, anyway. Well, you’re teddy bear was so odd and it scares me.”

  Eliezer chuckled. “Well, I’ll hug you until I can’t hug you anymore. And if you won’t let me explain about Hannah –”

  “Shh – shut up!” Alex quickly warned, utterly startled.

  “How can you say that?”

  “The griffin is approaching,” Alex quickly whispered.

  “Oh,” said Eliezer, suddenly gagged.

  From behind the distant canopy of dark leaves emerged the black star-like creature. As usual, it was very fast to approach them, that in a second or so it was already landing around the nest.

  For the first time, the griffin’s scales sparkled through the moonlight, though the illumination was insufficient. There was something different, Eliezer had fuzzily sensed, because, for a moment, this creature did not resemble a human’s head. It had looked, if anything, less horrible.

  “That’s not him!” Eliezer silently muttered to Alex, but he did not seem to mind. In fact, he stayed frozen but his pupils quickly clicked upon her, obviously warning her to stop.

  Alex was hoping for the griffin to burst into outrage, but to his greatest surprise, it slowly turned aback. There were tiny needles of light coming out of its pores, as though there was a ball of illumination trying to escape from the inside. The lights were enlarging now, flashing at different angles until there was only one great light which was almost blinding.

  Then maybe three seconds had passed, and the light was gone.

  A dark emerald reptile was lying there, in crawling position, but was not moving except for its sharp, snake-like tongue popping out of its mouth. Any additional feature was barely visible: dark spikes, recognized only through helpful silhouette, ran from its neck down to its resiliently twitching tails; a pair of thin bat-like wings sprouted angrily.

  Alex and Eliezer were inching backwards slowly as the reptile began to hiss a sound that was hard for their ears to bear. Its long, thin tail was madly whipping the air like a scorpion’s.

  “Ah,” said the reptile unbelievingly in his echoing, hoarse voice. “Let’s see what I’ve got here. . . . Hmm, a lame boy with this unprecedented girl. Oh, well, what a nice combination.”

  Eliezer locked her arms around Alex before she gulped and wailed, “You don’t know what you’re talking about, do you?”

  “Brave girl, eh?” the reptile said before it burst into a laugh, which sounded like a scraped metal. “Well, let’s see, let’s see. Yeah, of course, stupid! I know what I’m talking about!”

  “Oh, but I know that you’re talking completely nonsensical things. And, well, if you actually know what you’re talking about, then you’d better shut up to learn that animals will never talk in English.”

  The reptile tilted its head, obviously amazed.

  “Well sa
id! Well said! Now, if you mind mediocre, clap for her!”

  “He can’t clap!” Eliezer snapped flourishingly. “And because it’s perceptibly – ooh! Ha ha ha! You tied his hands and you’re expecting Al to clap? Ha ha ha! You’re really a crazy, baggy, nocturnal, daft bimbo!”

  “Enough,” said the reptile in an entirely different tone. It was not a response. It was more of a command.

  “Uh-huh,” Eliezer moaned. “What is enough in there?”

  Alex shot her a calculating look. However, she seemed determined to stand before her words because she raised her eyebrows towards the direction of the reptile.

  “I said enough.”

  “Why won’t you stop?”

  “Enough is enough.”

  “Then get the crazy stuff out of –”

  “ENOUGH!”

  There was a loud banging as a tall palm tree burst into flames behind them. The ground shook momentarily but the nest stayed still. Eliezer appeared to have been gagged by this, and now she was frozenly shocked, wide eyed, as she stared at the reptile’s direction.

  Alex mumbled something to Eliezer but it was vague. He tried to resist the vines binding him but it was impossible.

  “Now, obey to my rules and you shall not end to ashes like that palm tree.”

  Alex and Eliezer were looking at each other, then back to the reptile.

  “First,” the reptile continued, “you must address me ‘lord Alfrendo’ or ‘Your Highness’ but, as you probably haven’t known, I prefer to be called lord. Any breach or violation to my very simple rule shall be punished extravagantly by my well-defined power. In fact, there are much more that you might not know.”

  There was silence all around. Simply looking at any angle was terrifying, as though Alfrendo might scorch them in an instant.

  “It seems that I can’t hear any heart-warming response,” Alfrendo continued bestially. “Oh, well, let’s just call it the end of your existence at our world.”

  “Oh, no, no, my lord,” Eliezer snapped fearfully, in a quavering tone. “We have, of course, admired your name.”

  “Shut up!” Alex muttered. “You’re not suppose to address him that!”

  “Just go with me, Al,” Eliezer replied softly as she smiled.

  “And how about the boy?” Alfrendo added surprisingly. “Why on Switzarnel can’t I hear his voice?”

  “Yes, he will, in a short moment,” said Eliezer. “My lord,” she added.

  “You might not be aware that I despise you responding on behalf of him.”

  “There’s literally no way I’ll be calling you –”

  “Just say it!” Eliezer warned.

  Alex found no reason to continue arguing with Eliezer, so he said in a casual tone, “Yes, of course, my lord.”

  “Ah, better,” said Alfrendo. “Now, you shall be informed of my purpose of dropping you a short visit tonight. It’s actually a great deal – well, let’s get to the point. As you might know, I am fond of children like you – oh, but not just children, no – people.

  “You shall tell where the others are. If you did, you will be highly rewarded with the most secret present that I have prepared.”

  “And what if we failed to tell you?” Alex challenged. Alfrendo immediately dispatched from his mood. “My lord,” he added weakly.

  “If you . . . failed to tell me? Simple – you die.”

  Once again, Alfrendo rejoiced, flapped his wings, and chuckled in his hoarse tone, then suddenly returned to being angry.

  “You have until tomorrow to think about it, of course. At any rate, I still have my own way of showing a little luck of mercy to you. And you, brave little girl, shall be bound to restrain from any attempt to escape from my nest.”

  Alfrendo hissed a trend of sound. Almost instantly, the heap of hay collated and formed a thick loop, gradually coiling Eliezer’s body flat on the nest floor. She was at her best resisting the force, but it was too much. The hay was as thick and strong as Hugo’s vines.

  “That will do,” Alfrendo finally said, and the hay hardened just as he dropped his sentence. “I shall be resting here in my invisible form to guard you from any misbehavior, and tomorrow – yes, there will still be one tomorrow for you if you stay obedient to your lord – I shall be waking to hear your sweet decisions of whether or not to tell me the location of the other human. You will not need your mouth now.”

  Just as he had finished his sentence, his invisibility started from his wings down to his tail. After a moment or so, Alfrendo was gone.