Terato

4

   I let my hand trail along a thick tree trunk as I walked through the still woods. The house was a long way behind me. The energy sparked on my injured arm, then raced around my head before going back to my chest. What are you trying to show me? I thought, growing more and more curious by the second.
   I stumbled over a rock, but kept going. The energy went crazy.
   I stopped and turned back to the rock, confused. The energy buzzed and sparked excitedly, hovering over my arm. Crouching next to it, I lifted it up and touched the smooth surface of the rock. There wasn't anything strange about it except that it was smooth and...
   Warm and egg shaped.
   I nearly dropped it. The energy flitted between the rock- egg?- and my arm. What the hell?
   I sat cross legged on the cool ground, pulling the rock into my lap. It was chilly outside. There was no logical explanation for a rock to be warm. Carefully, I rubbed my hand over the rock. There were a few bumps, and they seemed to be in a pattern. I traced it in a spiral. Maybe it was a lantern that some creative artist had carved. It made more sense than it being an egg.
   The surface of the rock cracked. My breath caught in my throat. It cracked again, and again, dissolving into dust that seemed to crowd around something warm sitting in my lap.
   Hands shaking, I reached for the thing. The energy sparked again. My hand met something furry and wet, and the creature squawked. I shrieked and pushed it away, backing up. My breathing quickened and my heart pounded in my ears. What was that thing? That wasn't a normal animal. Normal animals didn't come in eggs the size of a large rock, and things furry and the size of a small rabbit didn't squawk.
   Instead running away or attacking me, the creature chirped a couple times and crept toward me, its feet gently crunching the leaves. I didn't push it away. It seemed too harmless and sweet. The energy calmed down a bit, drifting between me and the little creature.
   It finally stopped in front of me, and I cautiously reached my hand out. It laid down and rested its head in my palm, making a slight purring chirp. The energy finally settled at the touch. The tiny head was soft, and I thought I felt horns on its head.
   What are you? I thought. A vision flashed in my head. It was a little thing, small and harmless, but it looked like a strange version of a Jersey Devil. His head seemed like a goat's with thin, fragile horns. The body was something like a hybrid between a kangaroo and a goat. His back legs had small cloven hooves, but the front ones were smaller with paws and sharp claws. I couldn't tell if it stood on two legs or four. Maybe both. It had wings like a bat's. The rest of his body was brown. I noticed a scaly tail with a spade tip before the image vanished.
   I rubbed my hand along the creature's side, fuzzy already despite having just come out of an egg. I wasn't scared of it, however unusual it was. It was just a baby. It knew it wouldn't hurt me. But another thought crept its way into my head. What about the hunters? They killed creatures like this. There was no way I'd be able to explain it to them.
   I picked up the creature and set it down in my lap. "Hey, little guy," I whispered. He groaned and rolled over, stretching his tiny wings. "Hey, I need you to hide. I'd like to bring you, but I can't take you with me. Can you understand me? I don't want to hurt you. It's dangerous for you where I'm going. You need to stay here. I'll come back, okay?"
   The creature purred sleepily and shrank to the size of a mouse. I reached to touch him again. His wings and horns were gone, replaced with soft fur. I felt his back feet again. The hooves were paws. "Of course," I said breathlessly, remembering what Jake had said about the monsters being shapeshifters. "Stay like that, okay? Stay hidden. Nobody thinks anything of a little mouse." I paused as another thought occurred to me. "Do you have a name?" The creature-turned-mouse squeaked and buried his head in my hand.
   Diablo, said a tiny voice in my head.
I jumped, startling the mouse. What was that?
   Diablo. Name Diablo.
   I leaned closer to the mouse, feeling more insane by the second. "Is that you? Is that what you want me to call you?"
   The mouse licked my hand. Call mouse Diablo. I like name Diablo.
   "If you say." I scratched his head and tried to remember how long I'd been gone. I couldn't remember. Crap. "We have to go back, and I need you to be good. Can you stay small and hide?"
Diablo jumped up and scampered into my pocket. Hide! Diablo can hide! Diablo hide good!
   "Okay, stay still when we get back. Don't leave my side. I'll protect you." Standing up with the mouse in my pocket, I turned back the way I'd come. Now all I had to do was hide a newborn monster from the monster hunters I was living with.
   Great.