pho ramen soba: [New post] Tease (We Odd Assortment)

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Tease (We Odd Assortment)

by Emily Lira

Demetri hunkered down in his hiding spot in the woods, peeking out every so often. He waited, fidgeting with his sharp nails and checking his pocket watch.

A fleck of bark landed on his shoulder. Whipping around, he looked up to see a little green imp crouched on a branch above him.

"Creel!" Demetri hissed. "Get down here; someone's going to see you."

Creel's face broke into a mischievous grin. He gripped his branch harder and began bouncing it up and down. The shaking leaves swished and rattled, setting Demetri's teeth on edge.

"Creel! Stop it!"

Creel did stop, for a solid second, staring Demetri dead in the eye. He proceeded to shake the branch again, this time with more vigor. He was a blur of green on the now very noisy branch.

Demetri's ears perked up at the sound of a twig snapping in the distance.

They're here, he thought, heart filling with dread.

Demetri turned back to Creel. He found the little imp had stopped his prank and was now dangling from the branch like a sleepy sloth.

Creel's eyes widened when he saw the panic in Demetri's expression.

"Run," Demetri whispered.

Creel didn't argue. He let go and landed in a somewhat graceful tumble which morphed into a full on sprint. Demetri dashed after him, checking behind his shoulder.

The chasing footsteps were getting closer.

Demetri knew they wouldn't be able to outrun their pursuers.

Demetri caught up to Creel, keeping pace with the much shorter creature.

"What were you thinking?" Demetri cried between breaths. "Now my family is after you!"

"I know!" Creel laughed, vaulting over a tall root. "That was the plan!"

"What?!" Demetri sputtered, almost tripping on a rock.

They continued running and dodging in silence. They saved their talking energy for when they were in the clear.

At a small incline beyond some dense trees, Creel pointed.

"This way," the imp said.

They ducked between the tangled branches. The base of the slope melted into a swamp with slender white trees. Demetri's nose stung from the smells rising from the putrid grey water. Creel grabbed Demetri's hand and pulled him into a little hollow under some spidery roots. Water lapped and eddied at the edge of the muddy patch of ground under the tangle.

They struggled to slow their breathing without being too loud. But both boys held their breath when they heard their pursuers nearby.

"Gwah, it's ripe in here!" Said one voice. It sounded like one of Demetri's older cousins, Alexander.

"We won't be able to track the little green-grabber in here." That was another of Demetri's cousins, one closer to his age, Ikov. "Not with all this smell."

There was a moment of terrifying silence.

Demetri jolted when he heard the voices again, this time right above them.

"Come on, Ikov," said Alexander, irritation lacing his tone.

"We have to find something," Ikov said. "Grandfather will be most displeased if we come back empty-handed."

"We will, we will," Alexander assured him. They continued to bicker about where to search next as their voices grew fainter and fainter.

After what felt like an hour, Demetri finally breathed easier. His next order of business was to glare at the boy crouched next to him.

"That," Demetri seethed, "Was about the stupidest, most dangerous, irresponsible-!"

"We were fine," Creel waved a hand, more to swat at a buzzing insect, but the gesture only made Demetri more angry.

"F-fine?! We could have been in some serious trouble! They could have caught us and killed you!"

"But they didn't," Creel shrugged, giving a nervous laugh. "It was scary though."

"Why did you do it then?" Demetri asked, confused and horrified.

"To irritate you," Creel admitted. "That, and I needed to throw them off your trail. I wanted to find you, but I knew you wouldn't be out here alone. This is the Krowe Family Hunting Grounds."

"It was still incredibly dangerous," Demetri muttered.

"I mean, I knew there was a chance it might go wrong, but you don't live on your own for five years without learning how to survive. I had it under control."

Demetri opened his mouth to scold him again, then paused.

He squinted at the imp, who didn't look much older than himself, twelve or thirteen, if imps aged at the same rate.

"Five years?" He murmured. Then something else stuck out to him. "Wait, what do you mean 'on your own'? Don't imps have, like, big colony thingies?"

"They're called hives. But my parents died when I was six, and no hive wanted to take care of me." Creel averted his gaze to fidget with a rock in the mud.

Demetri stared at Creel in shock. The imp sensed the tense silence and turned to look at Demetri.

Creel waved a hand again, as if calming a spooked animal. "It's fine! I found a home about a year ago and I'm okay now. But, like I said, this forest taught me how to take care of myself."

Demetri frowned, studying Creel more. He started to notice how many faint scars covered the little imp's arms and legs. Imps were notoriously rough-and-tumble. But somehow Demetri knew it wasn't normal for an imp to be this marked up.

Creel shot out of the hole without warning, climbing over the edge.

"Hey!" Demetri protested, scrambling after him. "Where're you going?"

"Follow me!" Creel shouted behind him. "I wanna show you where I live!"

***

Note from the writer: Hey! Another new one! I've posted the synopsis for this story before, but I'll probably be editing it a bit; a lot has changed already.

I wanted to include some quick sketches here so you could get an idea of how I imagine Creel and Demetri. Granted, these are doodles of what they would look like when they're older than they would be in this scene. But these capture the gist of their appearance: