Monsters

Monsters
I can't remember my brother, to be fair. Mom told me of him. He was a few months older than I was, but we had the same father, she said. He was the most beautiful orange bear she had ever met. And my brother inherited his pretty orange fur. I didn't, I worried my mommy would not like me as much, but she always told me she was also proud of me and thinking my striped fur was beautiful too. Oh yes, the stories about my family members were numerous. But I never met either my brother or my father in real life, at least not in the times I had memories of.

I remember spending my time sleeping close to my mothers side and listening to her talking about the family members I never met. Her fur kept both of us warm, and I can tell you it was needed. We lived in a cage with a lot of other bears and a lot of even stranger creatures. My mother taught me not to judge a book by its cover, and I had some nice friends among these creatures which I don't even know the species name of, but some of them truly were weird. It was always cold in the cage, sometimes there even was a chilly wind. The neighbour family were bears too, and we often laid down for the night at the same side of the cage, so we could share our warmth.

One day, the neighbour kid was taken. I was utterly stressed by this. I must have been some four or five months old. Mom kept hushing me, telling me I would make his mother sad if I kept asking questions him and if he would come back.

I never realized, but now I see it is all clear to me. It had happened to her before. They had taken away my brother. They had opened her cage, took one of her beloved cubs and left her behind in the cold and dark room with all the cages, never returning with my brother. And it happened all the time, all of the shuffling noises at night, the shrieks and the wailing and sobbing of other creatures. I could not speak with them, but now, after months of being there in that room, I understood how they must have felt. Our neighbour stopped talking to us as much as she did before, she probably felt it was unfair her son was taken away from her while I could still be together with my mom. We tried to comfort her without talking about the case, but nothing seemed to cheer her up.

I never found out what happened to her, as one night, probably some two months after they came to grab the neighbour kid, they took me away from my mom too. It was dark, I was asleep and I could only hear someone coming in and the rattling of the cages around. I was woken by the noise, and was about to fall asleep again since I was used to hearing it, but then there was a lot of noise close to me. They must have unlocked the cage and opened the door. I nudged mom, but she did not reply. Sleeping under her paws, I could hear and feel her heart race, but she did not move a muscle. I was afraid. Somebody raised her paw. I crept deeper in the safety of my mom's body warmth, but before I could respond I was grabbed and taken away from her. I cried out her name when I saw her disappearing in the darkness. Her eyes showed she was afraid and extremely sad at the same time, realizing she would lose another cub. But she did not move. And my own body strength failed me too. I wanted to struggle. The days before, ever since the neighbour kid was taken away, all kinds of daydreams filled my head about how I would fight these heartless captors and how I would bite or scratch myself free, run towards the door and come back later to heroically free my mom, who would love me forever then. And of course I'd free all the other creatures too. Sadly I realized I was so shocked I couldn't do anything. I also realized I had no clue what actually was outside the room with the cages. Never in my whole life I had been anywhere else than with my mom in our cage. Whoever it was that took me, they took me to the door. I heard a soft yelp of some other creature, it seemed like more of us were taken away this night.

We went through the door and at first the light was blinding me. Someone behind the individual keeping me was closing the door, and I heard it being locked too. There went the heroic plans. I would never be able to open a locked door, I was still only a small bear, even though I had grown a lot in my almost nine months.

"Let me see that one." One of the awkward creatures holding us was talking. I could understand what they were saying, even though it sounded really strange. He was probably talking to the individual holding me. "He's been tranquilized?"

"Aye."

I didn't know what that meant, but it sounded like I had some kind of disease. I was being put on a very cold table, and another strange creature came to look at me. He shone an even brighter light directly in my eyes. I wanted to bite, but my body didn't move. He proceeded to look at my teeth, and the urge to bite him became even stronger, but once again nothing happened. I panicked in my mind, not understanding what was going on. Totally against my expectations though, I was being picked up again. "He looks fine for the next release, bring him to the training hall."

The individual keeping me moved to another door. I still couldn't see well because of the sudden bright light in the room and from the examination, and I started to get a bit dizzy too. I don't remember through how many rooms and hallways we went. Some rooms were colder than others, I saw, smelt and heard other creatures I had never met before, was taken away before I could examine them further and finally dropped off after an unknown amount of time in another cage. It was a huge cage this time, it was made for more creatures than just a mama and her cubs. The room was lighter, but it did not feel any better and it was still very cold. I crept away in a corner, just wanted to sleep and pretend as if nothing had happened. Instead, another bear approached me. He looked magnificent, but at the same time a bit horrifying, his fur was green and red and reminded me of mama. He picked me up with his fierce jaw..

---

I don't remember how long I have been here. It is still cold, but I have adjusted. My fur is more dense now. The rumours go they prepare us for battles in the snow. We have been battling for months, when they release those rabid orange, black and purple creatures into our cage. We have to protect the little ones. It keeps going, they keep putting new little ones with us, and we have to keep preparing them to defend themselves or they will be taken by the monsters towards an unknown fate. A new group of younglings had just been released yesterday, and I was just telling one he would have to grow up and not keep wailing for his mom, as she would not hear him and he'd only spill his energy. He was about to stop sobbing when Monter, another of the bears that were released here together with me growled something. I never found out what it was, I felt my muscles give out and the last I saw was Monter taking away the cub who started sobbing again.

"That's him, he's ready... Bring him to the Holiday Lane so he can get used to the snow before they open it for public. Darn people wanting to fight all these monsters... I wish I finished my studies when I was young." "Right ye are.."

Were You Looking For?

 * Monsters encountered in Adventure