The Daily Lives Of Team Crafted

A Young Bacca

The small, furry animal watched his prey closely, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike. Silently jumping from tree to tree, he followed quietly beside the group of savage humans walking on a path through the woods, eyeing each and every one, looking for an easy target. He had come to the conclusion a couple months ago that all humans were monsters after they had rulthlessly murdered his parents, leaving him to fend for himself.

The Bacca's eyes fell on a human falling behind the rest of the beasts. It seemed no younger than him. An easy kill. It stopped for a second, calling for the others to stop and wait for it, but none of them stopped. Now was his chance. He gripped his favorite diamond axe, Betty, and let loose a low growl. The human heard it and looked around, eyes wide with fear. It pulled out a stone sword.

The animal leaped out of the trees, pouncing on the human and knocking it to the ground. It gasped, letting go of the sword as he pinned it down. It struggled to move, but couldn't. He raised his axe over his head, and froze. Because he saw genuine fear in the creature's eyes. Fear that he had experienced before, when the humans had attacked his family.

He tried to bring down the axe, but found that he couldn't. But he had to. All humans had to suffer for what they had done to him. Yet, this one seemed different. It didn't try to reach for its sword, it didn't try to call for help. In fact, the only thing it could do was start crying. Pathetic. But the small Bacca lowered his weapon anyway. He knew how it felt. He knew how afraid it must be. He stood up and held out his hand. The human just stared at it, not moving.

"MITCH!" he heard something shout from behind him. He spun around quickly and saw the humans running at him, swords drawn and bows pointed straight at him. He knew he couldn't take on this many of them by himeself. He was only a little Bacca at the age of eight, and these were grown-ups. With weapons. Sure he had Betty and he wasa Bacca but even so, he was outnumbered and outmatched. He hurried off into the trees.

"After it!" the human who the Bacca assumed was in charge shouted. But he was too quick for them. He climbed up high into a tall tree, disppearing in the leaves. Arrows shot past him, always missing as he climbed higher. Shouts could be heard from below as some of the...small-minded humans tried to climb up the tree after him. He sat on a high branch, overlooking the path and being able to see all the people easily without them seeing him. The "leader" rushed over to the human he had attacked, who was wiping tears off its face and standing up straight, grabbing its sword and saying something to the human.

Suddenly, an arrow hit him in the shoulder and he cried out, falling backward off the branch-toward the ground at least thirty feet below.

"I got it!" He hit the ground hard, his vision going dark.

"I told him not to come on this expedition, but no! He never listens!" Mitch's father shouted as he slammed the front door. His mother frowned as she went to hug him.

"What happened?" she wondered. Mitch's father closed his eyes, rubbing his temple.

"We were attacked by a Bacca. Mitch was lagging behind and...it jumped on him. By the looks of it, it was young. About his age. It almost got away, but one of my men, Bradley I think his name was, shot it off a tree and it fell to its death." Mitch's mother gasped.

"Oh my. Even if it was a Bacca, it was only a little one. I hope its death was a quick one." Mitch's father frowned, looking at her. He started to argue that it was a savage beast that deserver to die a horrible death. She didn't agree. While they faught, Mitch slipped away out into the busy village. Being the small child that he was, he was able to slip out of the front gates without being noticed. He still had his sword on him, just in case. He hurried into the woods and down the path to the place where he had been attacked. In the chaos of the moment, Mitch had been able to see the tree the Bacca had climbed up. So he easily found the furry creature laying on the ground, an arrow sticking out of his shoulder. He knelt down beside it.

It was still breathing, but barely. Mitch carefully pulled the arrow out of its shoulder. It flinched in its unconsciounceness. Which meant it was slightly awake. Mitch shook it gently, and it groaned, swiping its claws softly across Mitch's face to swat him away, leaving a thin strip of blood on his cheek. He didn't mind. He just continued to try to wake the apparently stubborn Bacca up. Finally, it opened its eyes. Realizing it was the boy from earlier that it had let go, it got up and so did Mitch. They stared at each other for a second.

"Hi, I'm Mitch," Mitch introduced, holding out his hand like he had been taught. The Bacca stared at it, but didn't take it, not knowing what to do.

"My name's Jerome." Mitch smiled.

"Hi." They stood there awkwardly until Jerome spoke up.

"Well, thanks." He started walking away, pressing his hand to his shoulder.

"Wait!" Mitch called after him. He turned around. "Let me take you back to my village. I can get a doctor or someone to help fix you." Jerome shook his head.

"Sorry but I'm not going to risk going to a village full of humans who want to kill me. Besides, I only let you live because you were to weak to accept death like a Bacca. Next time we meet, I'll take you out before you even know I'm there." He walked away, still injured. Mitch did feel weak. But he also felt strong at the same time. Anger built up inside of him. He shouted at Jerome's back.

"That's because I'm not a Bacca. I'm a human, and in my village, people like to die fighting. I can't accept my death if I don't die fighting!" Jerome stopped. He slowly turned around.

"So you're saying you want to fight to the death?" Mitch shook his head.

"Not yet. But some day." Jerome smirked.

"You know, I kind of like you. Maybe we can be friends." Mitch frowned. He had just threatened to kill him and now he wanted them to be friends? He needed to make up his mind. But he smiled.

"Maybe." It was then that he realized how late it was. The sun was sinking lower in the sky. His eyes widened. "Crap! I've gotta get home!" He turned around and started to run off.

"See you tomorrow?" Jerome shouted to his back.

"Yeah!" A secret friend. Better than no friend at all.