beast and critters

Gulruthul peeked into the large burrow in the hill. He thought he saw a fire inside the other day, and he wanted to get a closer look at it. The burrow turned out to be more cavernous than he had expected, and by the time he came to the end of it, down a small pit, he saw the source of the reddish light. A congregation of a dozen or so little animals with large heads, big eyes, and arms not so different from his own, were dancing around a fire. Gulruthul tilted his head to the side in surprise, and made a short howling sound. The dancing stopped as the little critters all stared at the dark, monstrous silhouette backlit by daylight. Gulruthul carefully crawled down the wall of the little dugout pit.

The little animals shook in fear as Gulruthul began growling. It was a low, chattering growl, changing in pitch and timbre in a most disconcerting way. The animals cowered in fear as the beast approached, growling and chattering and howling. Of course, Gulruthul was only trying to talk, but the little animals couldn't understand this at all. One of them reached for something. She was going for a rock, but she found a cooked fruit instead. She tossed the fruit at Gulruthul, and then cowered behind her mate.

The fruit landed just in front of Gulruthul. He sniffed the fruit, looked at the cowering crowd, and looked back at the fruit. It smelled very different from the meat he was used to. It had a sweet scent to it, but it was almost flowery. He picked up the fruit with his hand, considered it for a moment, and took a bite. As he chewed, he stopped to appreciate the flavor, looked that the little animals, and continued chewing while making high pitched chattering sounds. He crawled back out of the dug out pit, and back out of the burrow.

Over the next few months, Gulruthul would return to the little burrow, politely asking for some more of the fried treats and receiving them from the terrified little animals.

The little animals held a meeting to discuss the problem. Wuolum said that they couldn't keep giving up their fruit reserves to the beast, or they wouldn't have enough surplus to make it through winter. Nowalowun was terrified, she thought that if the beast didn't get any fruit, it would find some other way of filling its belly. Njalu said that they would have to prove that they're not passive. It took some convincing, but eventually the critters agreed: it was time to strike!

At night a few months later, the plan went into effect. A dozen little animals, clad in wooden armor, carrying spears and torches, marched through the forest, looking for the beast's home. Instead, they saw something much worse. As they cleared out of the forest and into some meadows, they drew the attention of something... enormous. Their beast wouldn't have struggled to hurt them individually, but this monster... it looked as though it could swallow them each in one bite. It was a feathery monster standing on two enormous, thick legs, with a beak the size of Gulruthul. It bared its enormous, sword-like teeth at the little critters. Some of them dropped their torches and ran, and the monster charged at them! The remaining critters scattered, and each took turns running at the monster with their weapons, stabbing their spears through the thick feathery hide, trying to burn the monster's skin. But it seemed as though the monster took this as a nuisance. It picked up one of the critters in its mouth, and that was the last anyone ever saw of Njalu.

The monster roared, and attempted to crush Humvoon with its foot. Humvoon's spear kept the monster's weight off of him, and then he heard a sound which made him shudder. The chattering growl of a familiar beast. It was running right towards him. He ducked, and the beast jumped right over him and onto the monster, his own giant fangs digging into the monster's hide. The monster roared at this, turning around to try to get rid of this new foe. The little critters rallied, running for the monster again. Humvoon stabbed the monster in its eye. More of the beasts could be heard chattering all around. The critters looked around at the reflective eyes of the beasts all around, and felt their hearts sink. The beasts charged out of the bushes, holding great long shining daggers, and the monster began to run away. Humvoon noticed that the first beast had taken a dagger of his own out of a pouch on his leg and was now stabbing at the beast's back, pulling out feathers and raining blood down onto the ground. Wuolum realized that the beast who was hanging onto the monster was the one who had been terrorizing his tribe! He drew his spear and focused his attention on Gulruthul, trying to reach up and jab at him. Gulruthul, hit in the thigh, chattered angrily, and seized the spear from Wuolum. He pointed it at Wuolum, chattered something, then pointed it at the monster's head, pulling himself up further onto the monster's back as he went for the neck. Wuolum was surprised as it was that he did not seem to retaliate directly, instead Gulruthul threw his dagger back to Wuolum--with the leather sheath still on. Wuolum stopped to examine the brown shining blade, but the roar of the monster brought him out of it and he went stabbing at the monster's head.

The monster didn't like that at all, and he picked up Wuolum in his mouth. Wuolum would have been so terrified he couldn't move at this point, but the adrenaline from the fight kept him going. He drew Gulruthul's dagger, and thrust it into the tongue of the monster, just before the bone-crunching teeth could reach him. He didn't have the strength to slash with the dagger, but he did pull the dagger out just as the monster spat Wuolum out, along with a nauseating mix of blood and saliva. The monster roared once more. Wuolum could see now that the damage being done by the other beasts was significant. The monster, previously blue and gray toned, was now dyed red by its own blood, with feathers all along the ground. With this gash in his tongue, the monster could not go on anymore, and it collapsed onto the ground. Gulruthul took the spear and thrust it with all his might into the eye of the monster, and finally it stopped struggling.

Gulruthul and the other beasts howled in celebration! They looked at their comrades the little critters, chattered to them, and they immediately ran away.

The critters were heartbroken. Though they had managed to make it out of the fight with the monster alive, they couldn't help think that this only proved to the beasts that they were nothing to them. During their meeting, they were interrupted by the silhouette of two beasts. Not again. One of the critters reached for the food stockpile, but Wuolum said, "not yet!" and picked up the dagger. The others followed Wuolum with their spears if they had any, and they approached the intruders. On a wooden sled that the beasts had dragged in were leather-wrapped packages. Gulruthul presented the package to Wuolum. He chattered at Wuolum, looked at the other critters, and he and his companion took away the sled.

The critters inspected the package. Inside was an enormous amount of meat, from the slaughtered monster! On the top of the package, Wuolum recognized... it was the tongue of the monster and four of its teeth! All of the meat was cooked, chopped up, and covered in salt, save for the tongue, which was not chopped up. Each critter inspected the gift. They had never smelled anything so savory, and they all had a feast, saving the remainder of the food with their reserves.

And so the critters and the beasts built up an alliance. Whenever one would see another in the wild, they would greet each other. The critters would bring fruit to the beast camps, and the beasts would bring monster meat to the burrows. And whenever a monster would terrorize the critters, the beasts would come to their aid.