Oneshots and Short Stories

A Date with a Drenix - Part One

The nighttime birds cooed softly in the woods, and the rustling of nocturnal beats in the brush made a soft ambiance to the scene.

Suddenly, a snap, a tortured squawk, and a young bird fell out of the sky into a bare patch of moonlight.

Flapping around, its wing bent, fear drove it to hide in the nearest place it could- underneath the porch of a triangular wooden house nearby.

A few hours passed, and the bird still huddled under the structure, only its red-orange feathers glinting faintly in the shadows.

Across the clearing, a man came out of the woods, with rope slung over his back and a lantern in his six-fingered hand. He walked with booted footsteps towards his home, clunking loudly on the porch. Startled, the injured bird gave an involuntary cry, and the man stopped.

"What was that?" he mumbled, and stepped off to inspect the ground below. The injured creature shuffled away from the lamplight, but the soft shoosh of its feathers against the grass led the man to its spot.

"Well, hello, little one," he said, pulling it out and holding it gently. It was about the size of a pigeon, with red-orange feathers, but it was not a bird.

Its body was scaly and its head was dinosaurian, with a long, stiff tail and no forearms. The little yellow creature wriggled in the man's arms, spewing a few glowing embers at him, which smoldered on his coat.

"Don't worry, little fellow, I'll fix that wing of yours." said the man as he went inside, cradling the little creature. "And while you're here, maybe you can help me add some more to my journals..."

~♢~♢~♢~

"I swear, there are pigeons nesting in the roof!" grumbled Stan, rubbing his gray hair with distaste. "I can hear 'em scratching around at night. It's keeping me awake!"

"Ooh, maybe they've got eggs that will hatch into little bird babies! Peep peep peep!" giggled Mabel, miming the fluttering of baby birds with her hands.

"It's not really the season for that, Mabel," said Dipper from across the table.

"Aww, spoilsport!" Mabel stuck her tongue out at her brother. "Come on, Grunkle Stan, there's gonna be baby birds, right?"

"If there are, we're gonna call the exterminators."

"NO!!" screamed Mabel. "YOU COULDN'T!!"

"Oh, hey, Grunkle Ford," said Dipper, hurriedly avoiding the crazy pigeon-protecting plan that Mabel was clearly coming up with.

"Good morning," responded Ford, but he didn't seem to be focused on his nephew. "Stan, where'd you put my old photo albums?"

"Why do you wanna know?"

"Because they're mine, and I'd like to look through them again."

"Fine, whatever. They're inside the T-Rex skull."

Dipper hopped out of his chair and followed his uncle, and after a few moments of hurriedly cramming cereal in her face, Mabel followed.

The pair found their Grunkle Ford leaning over a few slim leather-bound novels on the living room floor, flicking through the pages as if he was searching for something.

"Whatcha looking for, Grunkle Ford?" asked Dipper as Mabel began to flick through a different album.

He ignored him for a second, then stopped on a particular page and tapped his finger against the picture. "Here he is."

The twins leaned over the album. Inside was an old photograph of a little yellow creature with a poof of orange feathers on its head and a bandage wrapped around its left wing. The dinosaurian thing was lying on a blanket, its eyes closed. It seemed to be recovering from some sort of injury or illness.

"What's that?" said Mabel.

"He's a drenix," responded Ford. Dipper gasped.

"A drenix...! I've heard that somewhere before!" Pulling out the journal from his vest, he turned pages until he found the right one.

"Creature number six seven four... the drenix." Ford nodded. "Yep, there he is again. This little fellow was my model."

"Your model?" whispered Mabel in awe.

"I found him with a broken wing outside my house, took him inside. He got better eventually, but by that point, he didn't want to leave. He was my partner for a long time."

"You had a drenix as a pet?" exclaimed Mabel. "I want a drenix as a pet!"

"Yes, well, I haven't seen Sparky in thirty years." said Ford. "He could be anywhere. Which is why I'm going to try and find him."

The twins watched their Grunkle stomp out of the room, and looked askance at each other for one split second.

A moment later, they began to follow him.

~♢~♢~♢~

It woke up when the humans went outside, slamming the door and shaking the roof almost imperceptibly. Shaking out its feathers, it clambered out of its nest behind the big wooden wall and peered out, curious.

Suddenly, an old, familiar smell hit its nose, and it perked up. It knew that smell! That was the smell of the human, the friend human!

Swooping down, it just managed to get inside the human nest before the door closed, which insued calls of alarm from the humans inside. They waved a broom at it and made loud noises, but it ignored them and sniffed the air again.

Yes, there it was! However, the human was not here. But all things return to their nests one day, so it flew into another section of the human place, finding peace on top of a large metal box in a room full of gaudy color. It huddle on top and viewed the scenery below.

It had waited thirty years for the human's return. It could wait a little longer.