Islands of the Sky

Chapter 4- The Animals Keeper?

"Always be careful around a wild beast you never know how they will act."

---------------------------------------------

I slowly pushed my arms under my body and brought my knee under me. I examined the giant beast in front of me, trying to pin down what it was and how it fought. As my eyes stared at the massive claws on its feet and the scarred earth around them, I slowly moved my gaze up to its torso. It was covered in fur and rather large, but nothing too deadly about it. A strange marking was on its chest looking like a crescent moon but with stars within it. I lastly reached its head with small gray horns curling behind the ears and jutting out forward.

There is no way it could be that! I shook my head in disbelief of what kind of beast was before me. Standing in front of me was a Koptroll. They were said to be extinct at least 500 years ago.

I slowly rose to all fours, careful not to alert it that I was awake. When I had reached my knees, I checked the beast again. I soon regretted this choice as the beast shrunk in size and its features changed until standing in its place was a boy maybe a bit taller than five foot.

His clothes were rugged and dirty and his face was covered in dust and dirt. He gave off such a strong odor that I could smell him from where I was, and that was almost 5 feet away.

I reached up and banged the back of my head to make sure I wasn't dreaming and could feel something. Sure enough, the pain from the hit echoed through my body and seemed to stay more in my left arm. I looked over and saw a long black and blue streak running from my forearm up to the middle of my bicep.

I muttered in annoyance of the pain and slowly moved my right hand over the mark and whispered.

"Leah," I sighed in relief as the pain faded from my arm. I turned my gaze back to where the boy was but he wasn't five feet away any more. He was walking toward Griffin and seemed to be mumbling to him self. I stepped up to my feet. The boy, oblivious to me, kept walking towards Griffin. I opened my mouth to scream but couldn't as he turned reaching Griffins underside and the look on his face wasn't cruel.... it was concern. Curiosity took control, freezing me in place.

"What is he going to do?" I muttered under my breath and watched closely. The boy reached out and stroked Griffins under belly and surprise exploded onto his face as he saw there weren't any cuts on Griffin.

"What are you doing to my friend?" I walked toward him refusing to stand still any longer.

The boy looked up, panic replacing his surprise. He stood quickly and fur started to grow out of his skin, but this time, it was green instead of the brownish tan it had been before. I backed up and then decided to play it safe and get my friend out of there.

Griffin if you're able to stand, we need to go... I sent the message to Griffin and then turned my attention to the changing beast.

"Elbisivni," I said the one word and watched as my vision of the rest of the world turned to blurry white and black shadowy figures. I crawled along the ground, getting closer to Griffin, looking back at the massive black shadow that I knew was the boy who could change his skin. I heard marbled garbage in the air as the giant shadow spoke and I paused, curious to see what it had said and listened in closer fine tuning the words.

"Where have you gone invader?"

Invader? I thought to myself. This must be his home and we are on his territory.

I frowned and started moving again towards Griffin's body and when I reached him, I saw that the boy had healed him. Now why would this stranger heal him? I paused to think. I almost got too involved within my own thoughts to notice the beast slowly walking towards me with its eyes closed but sniffing the air as if following my scent.