Short stories by Jade Crispy

Nocturnal Island

I heard a sound that was a mix of a grunt of a human and a growl of a canine; I felt chilly air touch my forehead. I opened my eyes to see the warming darkness and two dark pink circular eyes. I sat up ad glanced at my pet skeleo, Skinny.

Skinny was whimpering at me in its usual high pitched grunts. He- she-its (I am not sure if skeleos have a gender) skeleton-like structure with leathery black shrot fur was shivering slightly. It was of a size of an average house dog, with extremely tiny eyes. The canine opened its jawed mouth wide open, its pink snake-like tongue hanging out, while flapping its bat-like wings. Its feeling hot, it must be nighttime.

I got up and went to the centre of the small green crystal cave not larger than your ordinary living room and threw away the burnt violette tree branches that had warmed us during the island's chilly days. I swept away the remaining blue ashes and replaced them with dark violette leaves shaped of crab pincers and lit them up. The leaves it up instantly, bursting into a lilac flame that blew a gust of cool air. The violette leaves are full of cold potential energy which is useful in many ways; they kept me alive for four years subce that time of the shipwreak and the time I woke up floating on the large lake of Nocturnal Island.

Skinny and I ate the smoked leftover phorix meat from last night that I had cooked as we were nearly running out of food. As we ate, or in Skinny's case gobbled, I looked at the emerald walls of the caves. The shiny green surface reflected myself. The girl with long brown hair as tangled as a sheep's fleece and blue eyes stared at me. Her face was all dirty, as if she didn't take a bath in weeks. Well it's not easy to find fresh water these days. The girl was wearing a plain white singlet that was once originally a shirt and managed to keep intact all these years, brown shorts of a dead leathery skeleo and a jacket of reddish-purple feathers of the phorix, enabling me to blend in the purple greenery outside. I look completely different from before, not like it matters anymore.

When we finished our meal, I prepared a lamp of burning violette leaves. Then I picked up my spear made up of a long stick tied of a large skeleo fang and called out "Skinny, hunting time." Obeying these simple words, Skinny leapt up to its feet and walked towards where he knows we will be headed.

The two of us approached one of the swirling masses of dark green substances along the crystalline walls and walked through it. It felt like walking through water, I held my breath. A habit I tend to do despite the fact I can breathe as I walk through. We stepped out of it and appeared at the entrance of a small cave surrounded by a small spiked fence that I had made. When I opened the gate to this fence that kept predators out, Skinny ran out and started sniffing the ground. I walked out and looked at the glowing purple vegetation along the steeping pit. The swirling masses of my cave which I call entrances lead to several scattered places around the island. One leads to near the top of the island and one right next to it could lead to the bottom where the large lake is. One of the crazy phenomenon of the island I cannot explain.

The pit-lie structure of the island is even more puzzling than the entrances. The oval peak of the island's pit-like structure is at sea level so the island 'sinks' into the ocean like an upturned cone. I often wonder how the island never sinks into the ocean and manages to stay afloat. The glowing violette trees and the thin wrinkling yellow vines grew along the rocky slope. The blue plastic-like fruits that are full of fresh water hung from the violette branches. I could hear the squawking of the phorixes and the chitter of the poisonous black dot beetles.

At the bottom of this pit is a large lake of green salty water inhabited by the piranha-like creatures with fin-like limbs called stormiques. The water level of the lake is high at night, but during the day all the water would be dried out, leaving behind a green residue and forcing the stormique to crawl into the forest until nighttime comes again when water enters the lake again. I hunt for stormique sometimes when hunts are unsuccessful. I tend to avoid them as much as I can due to their sharp teeth.

Skinny raised its head and ran into the forest, its paws hitting the muddy reddish soil. I stooped low and ran ahead, sharpening my senses. Skinny stopped behind a large purple bush with large leaves. I hid behind it, Skinny pointed its snout to the sky. I aimed my spear in the air, I could feel the predator awaken within me. My eyes were focused at the black sky, waiting.

In a split second, a rustle of leaves was heard. I saw a large bird emitting a bright yellow light with magnificent pastel-colourful feathers. At the same time I threw my spear. It whizzed through the air and hit the bird's chest. The phorix gave a loud screech before it fell head first unto the ground. The screech still rang in my sharpened ears, my blood still pounding. The nervous girl on that cruise liner would have screamed and jumped out of fear, but she had disappeared. I am not her anymore- Skinny gave a howling grunt as I relaxed my stance-

I am the great predator of Nocturnal Island.