Kadian

The Great VeeVee

Kadian's legs wobbled as she struggled to hold the unfamiliar stance. The longer she didn't see the enemy, the tighter her stomach twisted. She shut her eyes and steadied her breathing. Just as she was beginning to calm down, the voice spoke again.

"Wow, you just want to die, huh? You never close your eyes when you think trouble is near by, never! That's like jumping into the ocean when you think you're going to drown, dummy."

Kadian's eyes flew open, and in front of her stood her three foot tall enemy; a vulture. She could tell it was the same one she had been chasing since her arrival, seeing that she hadn't noticed any others wandering around.

"Did he just talk? He couldn't have! This has to be some sort of prank." Kadian thought as she quickly spun around, looking everywhere for the true perpetrator.

"Geez, you're even slower than I thought kid," the voice spoke again. The sound didn't come from any of the bushes, trees, or greenery outside of The Patch, but from the very center. The voice couldn't have belonged to anyone else- it had to be his.

Kadian scanned the place once more before looking the vulture dead in the eye and quietly asking, "Is that you?"

The vulture rolled his bright, beady eyes and sighed. "No, it's God. He just dropped down to say 'hello'. Who else dummy?" His mouth didn't form the intricate shapes that a human's would have, but it moved with every word he said.

Kadian knelt down, and the vulture took a couple of steps back as she did so. She scooted closer, and reached out to touch him. She suspected that there may have been some sort of sound box, or microphone inside of his -

"SHIT!" Kadian fell back as she grabbed her hand. A drop of blood emerged from the side of Kadian's index finger where the vulture had nipped her. Terrified by the sight of the fluid, she quickly wiped it off on her kapris before focusing her attention on the bird again.

"What was that for?!"

"Keep your filthy hands off me, will you?" he responded cooly.

"I tried to touch you! Keyword, 'tried!" Kadian snapped. "But I forgive you, because you're just so adorable."

The vulture cocked his head as though Kadian had said something offensive. "I don't have time for your games, kid," he said as he held up his head, causing the loose skin on his neck to jiggle.

"But I'm serious!" Kadian insisted. "I'll call you...VeeVee."

The vulture grimaced. "What the hell did you just say?"

"You know, 'V' for 'vulture'. Then you say it twice, and it sounds nice."

"It sounds like shit."

Kadian rolled her eyes. "I don't care, that's what I'm calling you from now on." She stared at the bird, stupefied that their conversation was still taking place. At any moment, she expected someone to hop out of the bushes, reveal that it was a trick, and laugh at her for being silly enough to believe that animals could speak.

Or, she thought she may wake to the busy sounds of a hospital, realizing that everything, in fact, was only a dream. A dream in which birds talked, rocks had sinister abilities, and dangers of great proportions threatened adolescents.

But it didn't appear to Kadian that either of those things were truly the case. Before her stood a vulture who could genuinely, never mind the reason, speak. She didn't know what to feel initially, but found herself growing excited.

"So how can you talk VeeVee?" she asked.

He spat at his name, but answered "The same way anyone else can talk."