Short Stories

Fathering Knight

Summary: Johan discovers a little baby creature while trying to discover the cause of the disappearances of the people in and outside the kingdom. Johan takes the baby home with him, and is unsure what to do when the baby suddenly imprints on him.

....

When Johan learned something was wrong he knew he needed to investigate. He believed in the power of good. He was friend to the Smurfs, enemy to Gargamel. He needed to find out what the cause was. It could be serious.

But when he did find the cause, it was gonna change his life forever.

By the time Johan arrived, he was shocked. He saw many lifeless bodies, blood pooling around them. What shocked him the most was the sight of a giant creature.

The creature was big. About forty feet tall, and its jaws seemed big enough to snap Johan's body in half, the razor sharp teeth giving him the scary message.

The giant creature, while being all snake-like, had a pair of arms with sharp clawed hands. The creature was gray, with a few white spots. It had long black hair.

Johan was lucky this creature was dead. He was a brave knight, but he knew that if this creature was still alive, he wouldn't stand a chance. It would've snapped his spine in three seconds flat.

He looked at all the people in the area. They were dead. They couldn't tell him anything since they weren't alive. Since the creature wasn't alive, it couldn't be a threat anymore.

Johan was about to ride aboard his horse, Bayard, when he heard the sound of cracking. Now, Johan's full attention was on the cave behind the creature.

Johan was too focused on the dead people and the creature to notice the cave until he heard the cracking.

He walked in. The cave was dark. That he had trouble seeing and making his way. He went further though, and one walk through the tunnel was a part of the cave that was less dark.

The area of cave was lit with beautiful glows of blue and green. Johan looked around, until his full attention was on a nest, with a small egg.

Looking at the egg, Johan couldn't think straight as it shook and shook, cracks forming, the top was broken and a head popped out. It was some reptilian creature, with purple scales.

Johan could see its little nose, its mouth, and tiny ears, tipped dark purple. The rest of its head was covered by the top of the egg that was broken off.

Before Johan could process what was even happening at the moment, the tiny creature started rapidly shaking its head until the top of the egg shell went flying off its head.

The creature now had a head of dark purple hair, and let out a tiny sneeze as it slowly began to open its eyes. Bright pink.

Johan found himself looking into the creatures's eyes in a bit of shock as the creature had laid its pink eyes on him. It stared him down, before smiling and letting out happy little squeaks and chirps, surprising him a bit.

The creature bounced a bit, causing the bottom of the egg shell to shatter, giving Johan the full look at its body. It was snake-like, and it had a pair of functional arms.

"What...are you?" Johan asked curiously, crouching down and slowly and carefully picking up the little creature. The creature made no effort to get out of his grip and made grabby hands as it was brought to his chest.

The creature purred as she grabbed onto Johan's shirt, and nuzzled her face into his chest. Johan thought to himself, paying no mind to the creature's acts of affection towards him to think.

It didn't take long for him to piece everything together. He realized something. Why the giant creature, who he assumed to be this baby's mother, killed those people. She was trying to protect her baby. And now she was dead, and the baby was alone.

Feeling guilty for what had become of the baby's mother, Johan walked out of the cave, having taken off his cape and wrapping it around the baby creature to keep it warm.

The baby creature rested its head on Johan's shoulder as he got aboard Bayard and rode him on the way back to the kingdom.

.....

Johan told the King of what he discovered. Apparently the people inside and outside of the kingdom have been killed by a giant creature. Johan hasn't left out the fact that the creature was a mother that was just trying to protect her baby, since the King had gotten more curious about the small creature that had been held in Johan's arms, wrapped up in the knight's cape for warmth.

The giant creature's actions were malicious, she was just trying to protect her baby from harm's way, and was killed during all the effort. The King was quite understanding. He did think the little baby was cute, and who knows what his people would've done to it. Kill it, skin it, or try to sell it for cash. Who knew?

Johan didn't know what to do with the baby. He couldn't just leave it behind at the cave. The fact that Peewit asked a troubling question didn't help his case either.

"Are you gonna keep it, Johan?" Johan remembered Peewit asking him.

"What, Peewit, I possibly couldn't," Johan answered, a little shaken back. Peewit was holding the tiny baby in one arm. The baby was chewing on the fingers of his other hand.

Since the baby didn't have teeth yet, Peewit's fingers weren't hurt from its tiny bites. "Well, it's pretty cute," Peewit said. "And its mother is dead. You might as well take care of it."

"I don't know," Johan shook his head in doubt. "It is cute, but it's a wild animal. It will grow as big as its mom. What if it becomes as vicious as her and...hurts people?"

"I'm sure it won't do that as long as it has a good parent to teach it better," Peewit said. "Though, since we don't know what it is and anything about it, so the parenting part would be difficult. But it's up to you, Johan, since you found it. Do you decide is best."

....

The thing is, Johan didn't know of any other decision rather than keeping the creature. Sure, it was adorable, and deep down, Johan wanted to take good care of it, but the thought of the creature growing up into a giant vicious and aggressive being was a scary possibility.

Later, that night, Johan couldn't sleep. The creature was laying in his bed with him. It curled up, and gripped onto his night shirt with its tiny hands. She was purring as she slept, Johan wrapping an arm around it to keep it warm.

Johan started to think. There had to be a better solution to the situation, other than keeping the creature. Parenting wasn't really a thing that was on his mind, he had just turned eighteen, and this creature comes along into his life.

Johan's thoughts were interrupted when he heard something from the small creature. At first, it was squeaking, then her sounds started to form into words. "Pa...pa....pa..."

Johan didn't know what to think at this moment. Was the creature really trying to talk? The next thing he knew, the creature finally spitted it. "Papa..."

Johan froze. He didn't think this creature could actually talk. The creature spoke no more words, and buried its head further into Johan's chest and started to purr again.

Now, things were gonna be harder. Johan had a new problem: the creature thought he was their real parent.