“You’ll be perfectly safe as long as you remain on the path”, the large burly guide gruffed as he led the mangy group of rowdy schoolchildren onto the property. The teacher smiled apologetically as she tried to herd the dancing monkeys into a line. He would never understand why parents and teachers would allow their 6-year-olds to come to a farm full of the considerably most dangerous “domesticated” animals.
“Please, listen to the nice man, we must follow the rules.” A single bead of sweat rolled down the petite lady’s face. Why 6-year-olds? 6-year-olds and Xs should never mix. One of them was bound to be hurt, and then she would get in trouble all because the school system insisted that knowing where their food came from would make these little balls of energy more appreciative and well-rounded.
Suddenly there was a screeching howl in the distance from one of the barns. The teacher jumped back, eyes widened, then quickly regained herself to take a glance at her students. Surely, they must have been frightened, now she would have to try to calm a bunch of screaming 6-year-olds. But no noise protruded from their tiny mouths. They were silent. It was beautiful.
Their guide took this opportunity to get their attention, “Don’t worry children, Xs can be whiny sometimes, that’s all.” His voice was low and calm, and all the children were immediately focused on every word. “Although, since we have a tour today the adult Xs are all in their pens. We do believe in free roam so some of the Xlings are wandering around loose on the property.” The teacher’s eyes narrowed. Xs were loose?! The guide immediately saw the fear and anger in the lady’s eyes, “You mustn't worry, Xlings are more playful than dangerous, plus they will not come on the path. Therefore, I must remind you, children, to remain on the path at all times. Xlings may not be dangerous in the same way as their parents, but they are still animals and if angered they may become hostile. So, let's stick close to me.”
The guide's eyes passed over all the children doing a quick headcount before locking on one child in particular. The boy had floppy charcoal hair, with piercing blue eyes just barely peeking through. His clothes, although like his classmates, were clearly of higher end. He waved the teacher over.
“That boy—” the man started.
“Austin Mayor,” she interrupted.
“That explains his clothes and resemblance to Mr. Mayor.”
“If even a scratch is placed on that boy, the Mayor will have both our heads.”
“Yes, I assumed, I will alert my coworkers to keep a closer eye on the Xlings.”
“Good, I quite like my head”, she turned on her heels and stood behind the line of children, as the guide nodded and started the tour.
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Austin Mayor. 6 years old and unsure why he was forced to go on this field trip. All he needed to know about Xs was that they were delicious, which he tried to express to his father, but his protests were ignored because “field trips are a vital part of childhood”. He dragged his feet, not bothering to listen to the oversized man, who he had caught gawking at him before the tour. Watching the ground and kicking up dust, he trailed the pack. By this point, his teacher no longer held the caboose as she had to deal with some of the children, who Austin wondered if they even had parents with their unruliness.
Suddenly, the charcoal-haired boy was lying face down in the dirt. The guide was too busy talking to notice and his teacher was always busy with someone. He sighed and pushed himself back to his feet, dusting off the clothes his mother had just bought him. He scowled at his shoes. One of the laces had decided to rebel and trip him. If you could arrest laces, he would stick his father on it immediately.
He looked up waiting for the teacher to come and tie it for him, but she was still trying to pry the jaws of one of his classmates off another. Well, he obviously couldn’t keep walking, he would just trip again, and he was not in the mood for a lecture about how the Mayors had to uphold a certain standard, and filthy clothes were not it.
Austin was running out of patience. Why was she not paying him attention? But as he opened his mouth to complain, 4 small hands grasped his arms and shoulders and he was dragged into a bush, off the path.
Austin slowly opened his eyes, his whole body shaking violently. His blue eyes were met with six wide red on black eyes. Xlings. 3 of them, one with brown hair and two with black. All staring him down, not blinking. Austin’s eyes became glossy and once again his lips separated. Just as a cry was building in his throat, a tiny hand covered his mouth. It was the tallest of the three, its other hand raised to its mouth pressing a finger to its lips. Quiet. They wanted him to be quiet. They had just kidnapped him and were most likely going to devour him whole. And yet they wanted him to be quiet.
--------------------
“~Why are the small ones always so loud?~” The Xling in the middle glanced over to her taller friend.
“~Do you think if I remove my hand, he will stay quiet because my arm is getting tired. ~”
“~Who knows, these things are so unpredictable and annoying. Why did we take it again?~”
“~I dunno, ask 19.~”
Both turned their heads quickly to the smallest of their group, whose eyes had not moved from the terrified human.
“~It's scared,~” the young X muttered, as his eyes widened. His friends immediately understood and shook their heads.
“~19, if we get caught—~”
“~If we get caught we already are in trouble so why not put his mind at ease?~”
With a sigh, the larger Xlings agreed. After knowing 19 for 2 years, they knew that he would not change his mind once it was set on something. That was how they were talked into taking the tiny human after all.
19, took a breath and smiled at the frightened child. Austin’s eyes widened further. Its teeth. They were so pointy. They could easily tear through his flesh. That was it, he was dead. He didn’t even tell his father goodbye, as he was ignoring him for making him go on this deadly trip. He closed his eyes ready to meet his fate.
Nothing happened. Several minutes went by and no pain. He slowly opened his left eye. He was met, not with the 3 Xlings, but with three human children. The smallest met his gaze with a soft smile. No canines.
“What the heck? Who are you? Where did you come from? Where did the-” Austin’s eyes locked on the children, “WHY ARE YOU NAKED!”
“~Ugh see 19, it didn’t work it’s still yelling,~” the girl in the center pouted.
“~Just wait 3, it probably is just surprised, we would be too,~” 19 pushed back, as the taller boy on the other side of 3 just rolled his eyes.
“Wait, what are you saying? That sounds just like the gibberish the Xlings were just saying,” Austin inquired, his 6-year-old heart pounding hard.
With the word Xling, all three jerked their heads back to the human.
“Oh, you know that word.” His eyes scanned the children up and down. They were about his age, and they all lacked clothes. The one farthest left was the tallest, with unruly black hair. Austin did a quick scan, “Boy”, Austin thought. The next one was shorter than the first and smaller in stature, “Girl”. She too had a black tangled mess for hair although it was slightly longer than the first boy’s. Finally, the shortest of three had thin limbs, a brown mop instead of black for hair, “Boy”.
“Two boys and a girl. Two with black hair and one with brown. Naked. Wait- Y-you. No that can’t be.” The three mysterious children cocked their heads. The smallest then crawled over to Austin and stood up straight. He placed his finger gently on the confused human’s chest.
“Boia beck gaia?” 19’s eyes widened curiously.
“What? Boia, gaia uhh. Wait boia. That sounds like boy, so gaia must be girl. You’re asking if I’m a boy or a girl?!”
“Boia beck gaia?” The small X repeated.
“Boy. I’m a boy. Uhh... Boia?”
The brown Xling smiled and turned his finger towards himself, “boia”. He then turned his finger on the girl, “gaia”. Then pointed towards the other boy, “boia”. He wiggled his body proudly. He had communicated with the little human.
Austin pointed at them in the same order, “Boy, girl, boy.”
“Boia, err boy?” 19 looked hopefully at the human. Had he said it right? “Gaia, girl,” he continued, seeing the widened expression of the boy across from him.
“Y-You just spoke English.” Austin’s shoulders relaxed, and he locked eyes with the English-speaking mystery child. He couldn’t help but smile. He didn’t know where the Xlings had gone and who these naked children were but the excitement that was radiating off the one was contagious. “So, girl is gaia?” Austin questioned. 19 hearing his own language and his newly learned word, nodded quickly, without breaking his smile. “And boy is boia?!”, Austin said, basically jumping for joy, the tiny boy didn’t hold back, he jumped up and down, clapping his hands. 3 placed her hand to her face, “~So much for quiet~”.
After several minutes of 19 pointing to the different pieces of clothing on Austin, and Austin telling him how to say it, an alarm started blaring.
“~Oh no! Is that because of us?~” The 3 Xlings heads snapped towards the loud booming noise.
“~Of course, it is 10! We took a human child,~” 3 snapped.
“~Why are you yelling at me, it was 19’s idea, plus you’re the oldest so you should have pushed back harder~” 10 fought back.
~Oh yeah, cause he is known for listening to me.~”
“~Hey you two, if you’re done fighting we have a very loud problem to figure out.~” 19 still faced the location of the alarm, eyes not breaking away from the speaker.
“~YEAH AND WHO’S FAULT IS THAT,~” the older Xlings barked finally getting 19 to turn from the alarm and narrow his eyes at them.
The 3 mysterious children stood arguing in their unknown language completely forgetting about the equally worried Austin, who was just trying to figure out if that alarm was going off because of him.
All of a sudden a screeched howl echoed throughout the farm, “~NINETEEN!~”.
The smallest child winced, seemingly recognizing the voice. All three turned their backs on Austin. They understood the howl. But the howl was surely from an X. How could they understand? What was that language they were speaking? Austin’s child mind raced trying to get even the slightest hint of what was happening. His eyes fell on the children again, and for the first time since he had been kidnapped, he fully took them in.
Their backs and legs were red. A bright red. In unorderly streaks. They were covered in long and deep cuts. Why would they all have cuts all over their backs? His eyes continued the scan. Bruises too. All along their arms. Some even handprints. Large took the shape of handprints. These children must be very clumsy. If they were so hurt all over. That would be the only explanation. How else would they get those prominent bruises and cuts? Then again Austin was clumsy too. Tripping over his shoelaces is what got him into this mess after, but he never had been that beaten up. “It must be since they are not wearing clothes. Their skin is more in danger that way,” he concluded under his breath.
Finally, his eyes settled on the girl’s wrist, as she was the closest. She had a black mark right below her palm. Austin squinted his eyes trying to make it out. It was about an inch long and she was about 2 feet away, so it didn’t take much eye strain to see that the mark on her wrist was a number. The number 3. Why did she have a number on her wrist? Did they all have one? Austin shifted his body to get a better look at the taller boy’s wrist, the number 10. He shifted back, his eyes darting after the smallest boy’s wrist, which he was flailing all around, while emotively arguing with his friends. Hold still, Austin thought. And as if he had read his mind the small boy placed his arms down by his side, giving Austin a clear view of his wrist. The number 19. What did these numbers mean? Who are these children? He had so many questions, but no way to ask.
“~NINETEEN!~” The howl was louder this time, sounding almost desperate. 19’s face grew more and more worried. His dad was going to be mad at him for going missing. But not as mad as the Master if he learned about their taking of the human. Master’s mad was much worse than dad’s mad, so 19 stood his ground, ignoring his brain begging him to go running to his father. He was scared, and his dad would hug him and comfort him. But the Master was surely waiting for that.
“Let’s search over here,” an unknown voice ordered. They were close.
“This is too close to the path, why would the Mayor child stray from the path just to remain right next to it,” another unknown voice argued, “Let’s check over there instead.”
Mayor child. They were looking for him. Austin wanted to burst out of the bush and be reunited with his group, but something held him back. The 3 children were watching him, the fear in their eyes prevalent. They would get in trouble for sure. Although he could reassure everyone that they weren’t the ones that had taken him, yet for some reason, he wasn’t sure that was true anymore.
“~If he goes out there by himself, he could get in trouble,~” 19 worried.
“~Well it’s either him or us and I personally don’t want it to be us,~” 10 chirped in.
“~Yeah, but we’re the reason he went missing in the first place. It wouldn’t be fair. I can’t let Master get mad at him for something we did.~”
3 and 10 looked at the ground. They knew 19 was right. The human did not deserve to be punished by the Master just because they were curious.
Austin could tell they were planning something. Finally, all three turned to face him again, the fear in their eyes now joined with sadness. What were they going to do? The tallest one was the first to turn away. His body started to change. Black hair spurted from all over. His ears grew outwards, changing shape. His fingers became longer and his nails sharper. Little nubbed horns poked from the hair on his head. He didn’t turn around before he jumped out of the bush. The girl was next. The same process started again, but no horns were present this time, she followed the taller boy’s example and jumped from the bush. The smallest one looked the saddest, seeing the horrified look on Austin’s face. He gave one last smile, but as he transformed, he didn’t turn away, and Austin was able to see the boy’s soft brown irises go blood red with the whites turning black. His teeth sharpened and his mouth curved into a frown. Even with his new eyes, Austin could still see the sadness radiating off them. He raised his tiny claw and with a wave, he too left the bush.
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