“She doesn’t,” a gravelly voice spun Will around on his heels.

Barely visible beneath a wide-brimmed black hat shone two steely grey eyes above a wide and confident grin. He knew he’d startled Will, and it didn’t look like he had plans to apologize. The individual wore a dusty brown button up shirt covered mostly by his deep brown leather jacket. His grey jeans were tucked into his snakeskin boots, and though he didn’t yet have a beard or mustache, it looked as if it’d been quite a long time since he’d last had the chance to shave.

Will’s bird immediately pressed itself close to the side of his head where it attempted to make itself as small as possible.

“Who are you?” Will said.

“Me… just a friendly neighbor man,” he said. His smile never left.

“Well, I’ve gotta get back inside. It’s getting dark and I really shouldn’t—” Will started to move but the man touched his shoulder.

“Don’t you want to know what you got there?”

Will hesitated.

“It’s a rare find, and I bet you got a lot of questions about it don’t ya. Questions I can answer. See, this sort of thing is kinda my specialty if you will.”

He shouldn’t talk to strangers.

“It’s not mine. I’m not keeping it.” Still the bird cowered at Will’s shoulder.

“Oh yes it is,” the man said with a short burst of a laugh. “It’s yours more than you can possibly imagine. In fact, there’s quite a short list of ways to change that.”

“But I didn’t do anything. Just gave it something to eat,” Will said.

“Yeah? Whatcha feed it? It must of liked it quite a bit.”

“Why?” For some reason the question made will very nervous.

“Relax,” the man said. “I’m trying to help you out. I already know what you fed it, and here’s my advice. Don’t give it any more. From here on out give it regular sort of bird stuff. Worms, bugs, berries, actually it’ll probably find most of it. At least you linked with something that’s easy to keep fed.”

“What do you mean linked?” Will desperately needed to go, but what if what this man said was true? What if the bird wouldn’t leave him. He couldn’t take it back in the house and It certainly seemed attached.

“That there’s a Cakrit. Not many can keep one. You got some dark in your blood boy, otherwise it could never have happened.”

“I can’t have a pet. I… just can’t.”

“Well,” the man’s smile faded to a serious look, “I could take it off your hands. Might be for the best.”

“No,” Will’s answer came quick and fast, and immediately he felt the bird step a bit from where it hid.

“I understand. I understand.” The man patted his hand in the air gently as if to calm Will down. “Listen, I won’t hold you up any longer, you gotta get back home.”

“Who are you?” Will said as he began to back away.

“Name’s Murden, just a simple man interested in the wildlife of Alabayma. Good luck tonight.” He then turned, adjusted his hat, and began to crunch away into the dark of the trees.

Alabayma? That’s not how you say it. Who said it like that? How could you not know the way Alabama was pronounced? The idea of it left him feeling uneasy. Will began to run toward his house. He’d been out way longer than he’d expected and what if his parents had come to check on him? Or maybe they’d already locked up for the night. He had to get back now,  He began to sprint forward, but almost instantly he was knocked to the ground as if his feet had been kicked from beneath him.

He fell face first into the grass and stumbled to get to his knees. As he rose, he he didn’t have time to try and understand what he saw before him. Only ten feet or so away stood a creature that he could only describe as a four-foot tall praying mantis. It was deep blue in color and had several sharp spikes that protruded from its arms and shoulders. It swayed back and forth, its eyes fixed on Will.

What should Will try and do?

Yell to Murden for help

Fight the creature

Run as fast as he can

This Poll is Closed