Beast

When The General and the Counselor were immersed in the memory of the past they didn't notice something was hovering in the sky above them.

Then all of a sudden that white figure, or a big white bird, to be exact, landed on the ground near them, scaring the General into springing to his feet; the Counselor, hiding behind the big trunk.

They did not understand what was happening at first. After minutes of them staring at it, "that thing" did not move either, they looked at each other without words, as if they were afraid of waking it.

Minutes later again, the General finally couldn't help and pulled the saber out and tiptoed slowly and cautiously forward a little to see more clearly.

It was white for sure, without a trace of black, but because its two big wings covered its body inside like two arms holding around, the General couldn't make sure of it. He couldn't tell whether it was a bird or a flying creature.

'Was it a bird? Look at the size! Almost the size of two grown-up men! And it's so white!' the General thought. 'And the wings...they look like arms.'

He was scared to touch it, but he could not take his eyes off it.

After a few minutes, the Counselor came out from behind the tree and also approached the creature.

This creature was standing on its two legs, but it did not seem to be able to stand straight. Its head was bowed to its chest, and its neck was bent forward, making it look like an "n" shape.

The Counselor stood beside the General and stared at it for several minutes.

"What is it?" the Counselor asked with a quite low voice.

"I don't know," the General replied. "But it looks like a creature from the old times. I wonder if it's a monster from the deep forest or a creature from the underworld."

"Maybe it's a ghost."

"No, it's not a ghost. It doesn't have any sign of being dead."

The Counselor walked closer to the creature and whispered to himself, "What is it?"

"What do we do? We should run away?" the Counselor seemed a little scared.

A big strange python killing a soldier, then a big strange bird again? What a day!

Just before the General and the Counselor moved closer to it again, suddenly, the wings vibrated a little, which scared them back behind a big tree again.

Then, slowly, and little by little, the wings opened. Both of them their eyes popped at this "bird".

"Oh my god!" the Counselor exclaimed in his mind.

"I can't believe it!" the General yelled silently.

It was indeed a bird. A giant bird. But it was the figure of a man! Crouching on the ground, slim, so white as covered with lime powder! Its main body was only the size of a man, while its wings were too strong and vast, two times the size of his body.

Then, slowly, it raised its head and looked at the General, who was taken aback by its face.

It was a man's face but somehow with some femininity: eyes staring, nose small and pointed, lips thin and red, teeth thin and sharp, face completely white without a trace of emotion. It was as if it had no soul at all.

The General was speechless. He could not even blink his eyes.

The Counselor, too, was stunned.

The man's head turned to watch them.

The General, putting the saber across his chest, breathed heavily.

He stood there, swallowed, and dared not to turn his back to it and run away, while the Counselor, hiding behind the tree, reached out his head to peek.

The beast tilted its head slightly as if it was trying to listen to some faint sound far away or to think about something in its head.

The Counselor closed his eyes and whispered, "God, what is that?"

Since the beast didn't move, the General and his Counselor didn't dare to take action, and in which way, they came to a deadlock again.

Tentatively, the General move forwards one foot a time little by little, and when it was close enough, he stretched out his saber to touch the beast. The beast growled at the saber, like the sound of a monkey, showing its teeth, which scared the General back to the trunk again.

The Counselor took a look but stopped himself when he noticed the beast's eyes were looking at him. Slowly, the Counselor shrank back his head back, until he disappeared behind the tree.

Scared, though, the General was, he found that this beast seemingly wouldn't attack them likely.

Slowly, the General took a step forward, then another, until he was only two arms away from it.

"Hey, you!" he whispered. "What are you doing here?"

Strengthening his courage, the General circled slowly around it.

"What are you? Sorry, I mean, who are you, with all my respect? Can you talk?" The General tried to talk to it, confused by what he saw.

The beast turned its body, facing the General all the time, without the General out of his sight, as the General circled around it as if it was afraid that the General would attack it from its back.

"Are you a monster? Are you a ghost? Do you want to eat us? Or maybe you're a demon sent by the devil? What is your name? Where do you come from? How long have you been here?"

The Counselor watched this scene from behind the tree, watching carefully. He did not know what to do. Should he go and help the General? Or should he stay where he was?

Of course, General didn't get any response from it even though he was so talkative. Then he continued, "Why are you here? Can you please show us the way out of here? We have been trapped here for more than two years. How sad that is! Right?"

The beast surely did not answer him; neither did it intend to.

"General! Let's run! That beast seems so strange and unearthly, " the Counselor spoke from behind the tree.

"No. Wait a minute! I have a good idea!"

"What is that?" the Counselor still did not dare to walk out from behind the tree, which between him and the beast made him feel safer.

"How about we catch it? Maybe it can fly us out of here! Look at its wings! They are so big, and I believe it can fly with me on its back."

"Are you crazy? Do you forget the python this morning? All the animals here are dangerous! Just leave it alone and go!"

"If you want to leave, just leave; I'm gonna catch it."

"My God! You stubborn blockhead!" The Counselor left them and ran toward the crowd.

The General's eyes never left the beast even when he was talking to the Counselor, just as the creature did to him.

It was quiet for a while, except for the sound of the wind blowing through the trees.

"Hey! I'm a friend! I'm not going to hurt you, ok? Look!" With these words, the General put down his saber on the ground.

Showing his palms to it, he said, "Look! I'm unarmed! Ok?"

The beast stared at him, without reaction.

"Do you like fruit? Here, come get it!" The General took a fruit out of his tattered bag and stretched forward his hand with it.

The beast's eyes followed the fruit, and the General put it down on the ground and stepped backwards a little.

Then he pushed his fingers against its hand, suggesting and encouraging it to pick up the fruit.

Still, the beast did not respond.

Then the General thought he should try something else.

"No? You don't like fruit?" He dug into his bag and brought out some jerky. "What about meat? Do you like meat?"

He took a piece, and with his right hand, he rubbed it against his mouth, saying, "Yummy, yummy! Here! It's all yours."

The beast looked at the jerky, seeming interested. It moved forward a little to the General.

"Come get it! I will not hurt you! I promise!" the General encouraged.

It seemed that its legs were not strong enough to support its huge body, so it tottered forward to the General.

'How should I catch it? I should, maybe, take its wings first; or, I should make friends with it, and let him carry me out here, which is probably a better choice..." the General thought.

When his thoughts talked in the background of his mind.

"General! General! Where are you?" someone shouted far away.

The beast seemed scared by the voice, bent his legs, then jumped upward to the air, flapped its wings, and flew away.

"God damn it!" The General smashed the jerky onto the ground.

Then the Counselor and three soldiers ran to the General after they saw him.

"Where is it?" a soldier asked.

"You stupid motherfuckers! Where is what? You scared it away!" the general yelled in frustration.

So, the Counselor didn't run away, knowing the General would insist on catching that beast, and he went to get three soldiers with him to help the General.

The three soldiers were confused, who were told by the Counselor that the General was trapped in danger with a beast.

"What's going on? Where is it?" the Counselor asked.

"Just when I'm building a friendship with it, you people came to scare it away! Excellent! You are geniuses! God damn it!"

"Friendship?" the Counselor was confused by the General's words.

"Forget it! I'm not going to explain. Just leave! All of you leave! Right now!" the General shouted.

All the people left with puzzlement.

"Go collect as much jerky as you can from the soldiers, and bright all of it to me here!" the General shouted to their backs.

Three days following, the General sat at the foot of that tree, putting a pile of jerky on the location where that beast landed, hoping it would come back.

The Counselor and the other four men stayed with the General.

They spent a whole day sitting under the shade of this tree waiting for that beast to return. But nothing happened.

After three days, nobody showed up again except the Counselor.

On the fourth day, the Counselor came to see the General and said, "Today is the last day to be stuck here. Tomorrow, we must leave."

"Don't tell me you've already given up on this?" The General was angry at him.

"We cannot wait here forever."

"So what?" The General didn't seem bothered at all. "Send some soldiers to collect some dried branches to make a campfire here right in that spot." He pointed to the location where that "bird" landed.

"But—"

"And hunt for some fresh venison. Since it won't come back, I will attract it back with the smell of meat." The General waved his hands in dismissal.

"Yes, General." The Counselor nodded, without further words.

While the Counselor was busy with the work, the General sat under the tree and waited for that beast to come back.

"I wonder if it's hungry," the General mumbled to himself. He took out some jerky and started eating it.

The Counselor and the soldiers finished gathering all the branches and started a campfire.

That night, they roasted meat over the fire, while the General kept his eyes fixed on the place where that bird landed.

When it was dark deep into midnight, the soldiers were too tired and fell asleep as soon as they lay down on the ground. The General and the Counselor had been waiting there together until the sun rose. The Counselor was exhausted and slept in his clothes.

The General was still there, staring at the same spot as always, with his eyes wide open, until the Counselor woke up at dawn, yawning. "You haven't slept for days," he said "Get some rest! I will take your shift."