El Fuego y La Flor - The Storm

Chapter 14 - I do something stupid... again.

Cassia

He didn't have to shush me to shut me up. I already did that on my own. We listened to the voices, which, although not completely monstrous or frightening, still didn't sound human. Leo stared at me with wide eyes, too scared to even breathe. I imagined I looked the same. The voices got closer but also drifted away again. Deep and steady, a bit slow. It were three people (?), maybe four and they talked loudly and slurred, as if they were drunk. Great. Drunk monsters were my favourite kind of monsters. (That was sarcasm.)
I would really like to tell you that I, as the smart person I am, decided to stay put in our alcove and listen to the things wander around in the container hall, but that would be a lie. Curiosity overcame me and I got up. Leo looked bewildered and outraged at the same time, as if he was thinking No way in Tartarus is she more stupid than I am! Well maybe I was. I snuck quietly to the edge of our hiding spot and lurked around it.

One, giant eye stared at me from across the hall. I flinched back, my breathing hitched and uneven. I listened to the voices and almost awaited the steps of the cyclops to draw closer and to push away the container in front of the alcove, revealing us completely. But nothing happened. After sometime, I lurked around the corner again. The cyclops, and its three, one eyed companions, were busy pushing and opening other containers. They still talked with each other calmly, and kept making jokes about club beating, and, for some reason, a (presumably cyclops) guy named Kevin. Poor guy. Being born a cyclops is one thing but your parents naming you Kevin is another.

I listened to them talk for some more time before I decided that it wasn't worth it and that I may as well just sit down again. When I turned around, Leo was standing right next to me, trying to lurk over my shoulder and also eves-drop on the cyclops group. And unfortunately, I was not expecting that, and I may or may not have dropped my backpack. Okay, dropping that thing isn't that dire though, you may think, after all it's all cushioned and won't make a loud noise, huh? Wrong! If you had about a dozen cans of soup in your backpack, you'd know the noise it made. And this time, the cyclopses did hear us.
Leo looked at me with an expression that could be anything between anger, awe (for my stupidity, I assumed) and sheer panic. He signed and gestured wildly for a second, while we heard the monsters draw closer. I gestured back, just as exasperated and desperate for an idea. I wished I had listened to him better, when he had explained morse code. That way I'd be able to defend myself now, without talking. Or I could at least swear a little.

Leo rolled his eyes, lurked past me, and quickly snapped back again. The Cyclopses were almost at our hiding spot, it seemed. I carefully took hold of my backpack again, clutching it tightly and silently praying to the gods (which I really didn't do all that often) that the monsters wouldn't see us. After all, each had only one eye!
Leo and I withdrew until our backs hit the wall. The container in front of our alcove blocked our view and our only chance of survival. If it was pushed away and we were discovered... I gulped.
Subconsciously, I took hold of Leo's sleeve again. For some reason, it helped me to hold onto him like that. He didn't seem to mind either. We pressed our backs against the wall, held our breath and watched the shadows of the monsters play in that little space between ground and container. Then they vanished.

I didn't dare breathe just yet. Only when the voices backed away and became quieter and quieter. Almost comically, Leo and I exhaled sharply.
»Are you out of your mind?!«, Leo then said, not wasting another second to blame me for almost ending up as Cyclops food. I simply shook my head, not having found an excuse for my actions just yet.
The more I thought about it, the more I realised that Leo was actually the smarter of the two of us. And that was really like a punch in the guts.
»Sorry. I - I just thought... we should know what we are dealing with here. And hey, we do now!«, I replied with a crooked smile. If you thought about it that way, what I did was actually rather cunning. Well, not exactly the 'dropping my backpack' part, but that wasn't entirely my fault either.
Leo still looked bewildered. He set on to say something else but decided it wasn't worth the hassle. He simply shook his head and sat down again. For some reason that made me feel bad.