Lost and Found

Chapter Three: Expanding One's Mind

The Hattrem woke up disoriented, assaulted by multiple strong feelings of happiness. While the happiness itself wasn't upsetting the intensity was, so she grumbled her way from her comfy tent and rubbed her eyes as she made her way to the edge of the forest.

She found a pair of humans laying on their sides and facing each other on a blanket not too far from where she had exited the forest. For some reason, they appeared to be pressing their faces together; at least that's what it looked like at first. When she moved to get a better view, she saw that they had only their mouths touching. Repeatedly. Wanting the emotional noise to stop she decided to address the pair. "Hi," she grumbled.

The humans scrambled to a seated position, both of them red-faced. "What the hell?" the male demanded. "Don't sneak up on us like that!"

"Ouch," she said, pointing to them, then to her own head.

"What the..." the male human spluttered, and she could feel the anger radiating from him but held back from attacking him; she had surprised them, after all. "We haven't done anything to you!"

"Dale, stop yelling," the female scolded. "I think you're scaring it."

"Scaring it?" he scoffed. "It scared us first!" He turned his attention to the Hattrem. "What do you want, anyway?"

"Ouch," she repeated, once again pointing to them before pointing to her own head.

"What?" he demanded with a shrug of his hands. "What's 'ouch'?"

In an effort to tell them that they were giving her a headache, which would make breakfast difficult for her she said, "Ouch. Eat."

"Eat?" he nearly yelled. "What do you...?" His eyes widened and his face paled. "Oh crap, Meg; I think it's gonna eat us!" He bolted to his feet and started to run.

"Dale!" she cried, absently grabbing up their blanket as she scrambled to her feet before running after him. "Don't leave me behind!"

The Hattrem watched, puzzled, as the humans disappeared over the hill. "Hi?" She shrugged before returning to her tent to finish waking up. As she settled onto her mat again, however, she pondered the possible connection between pressing mouths together and happiness.

***

The next few days were similar, and she was starting to realize that it was due to her inability to verbalize her thoughts to the humans. That idea was driven home by a situation where a group of both male and female humans tried to attack her, throwing food and other things while yelling at her or crying out in terror; all she'd wanted was to ask them to move to a different location, as their excessive merriment was upsetting her.

She sat outside her tent, working on cleaning up the mess; even though she had been treated badly on so many occasions she wanted to believe that there were nice humans out there, and she realized that the human male with the guitar had given her a good reason to hold to that belief.

A reddish juice smeared on her cheek smelled good to her so she tasted it. "Eat," she murmured in approval. It was unfortunate, though, that she never got the chance to learn the name of the food.

After cleaning herself up she finished her lunch before heading back out to train. She was still figuring out the best use for a move that allowed her to emit a flash of light from her body; she found that she couldn't use it as much as her other moves, leading her to wonder if there was something about it that she hadn't figured out yet.

She was returning to her tent for a quick nap when she heard a familiar sound that brought a smile to her tired face, and she made her way to the edge of the forest to find the human male from several days prior sitting on a blanket and playing his guitar. Like last time, his eyes were closed.