UnderLove

8: Don't Pick Fights!

The journal entry was poorly spelled, but you understood well what the calf meant. You started reading the next entry.

"Today we all took a owting to the daimind distrikt. we met A authur who rites about this guY he sed is reeL called Shadai. hE savd his villig from a strong monstur tring to hurt evrEyone. The authur told us that Shadai was real. I belived him. he red us som of a big book he said he just mad and will have monsturs bui soon. after meeting him we all weNt home. Im glad the humun left last Week. She wAs alwayS frouning and leeking red. Zili told me tHat the humun sEd she wanted to die a lot. Wai would anyone want to die? we weRe all told she was beEing moveD, but I think shEs deAD now."

Okay then. This brutal child didn't have any sympathy, interest or any sort of understanding for this suicidal girl. You flipped through the next few pages, skimming the words, it didn't mention any other humans or anything really interesting.

You put the "dairy" back where it belonged in the drawer and quietly slid the drawer closed. You climbed into the basic quilted bed standing alone, not connected to or supported by any of the other beds. Your tiring journey wore you out, so this was a good rest for you.

When you awoke from your sleep, the sounds on the other side of the door were loud but muffled by distance and the door. You approached the door and turned the knob. The door opened to your command, allowing a glaring face to look upon yours.

It was a small calf in an oversized grey T-shirt, just a few inches shorter than you. The monster's name appeared to be Kampf according to his dialogue box. "I knew there was someone in here. You shouldnun't be in here anyways. You'll be in trouble because I'm telling." This calf stood with his paws on his hips looking superior. This didn't intimidate you at all. This just annoyed you. He put up his little fists and stood at an offensive stance. "I'll fight you and be a hyumun slayer when you die of my awsum shreinth!" He didn't have a weapon.

Your defensive box fell around you. *Kampf picked a fight with you! You checked your options in PURSUE, *Reason, *Surrender, and *Intimidate. You tried to reason with him. *Kampf seemed to be offended by your words. "You can't tell me whatta do!" Fists warped through the glass of the box, you dodged most of them but you didn't dodge two attacks. He hurt you poorly, but he kept fighting.

You checked his status, 2 HP/.5 ATTK. That was lower than any other weak monster's status youv'e encountered yet. You tried surrendering, *Kampf was confused. "Why're you doing that? You're a human, you're visshiss!" You tried reasoning with him again after he threw a few dozen weak punches your way.  He got a total of 2.5 damage done on you. *Kampf seems to be listening. "Not all humans are bad, just maybee." He threw a few slower punches, his name appeared light green, your strategy worked. You went to REFUSE, Kampf was spared.

The box around you disappeared and Kampf put down his small fists. "I thought all humans were werse than you. But maybe some aren't so mean."  You stared at him and he stared at you for a brief awkward moment, "Well, it's almost dinnur time. Bye."

He ran out of the room and down the hall. You had nothing else to do in there, so you followed him to the kitchen through the open room. Small calves sat around the long banquet table with what looks like lots of courses made from mostly grass and vegetables. All the seats were taken and the adult cows were standing around the table waiting for any assistance needed by a calf.

All the adult cows looked very similar, height, largeness, clothing, spots. But you could tell Shima apart easily from the others, she was somewhat smaller than most, but the white sleeves on her purple dress stood out along with her milky white eye on the spotted side of her face. One of the adult cows noticed you, his name was Headus, his clothes were purple with red lining, "Uh, do- do you need something?" No. Shima didn't see you at first, but when you walked up to her she saw you right away. "Oh, hello child. Are you hungry after your nap? I didn't think you would like what was being served for dinner, so I made you some more milkshakes for your journey to the safe house. They're all in the fridge in the cow stable."

Cow stable? Is that what that other building was called? Well, nothing seemed very appetizing on the table, it was all mostly grass courses and vegetables mixed in. You strode across the empty room floored with plush carpet and opened the shaggy door. The purple walls of the corridors seemed slightly lighter than when you were last out here.

You walked to the save point to save your progress. The time was 2:12. You entered the empty hut and approached the fridge, you opened the tall box to find five whole white bottles on the cold shelves next to jars of crimson gel-like rich strawberry juice, they were all labeled AJA. The letter combination seemed as if you knew what it was, but you didn't know what. You took the white bottles and put them in your two pockets, which apparently had lots of space even though they didn't.

You set off on your journey again to this "safe house" Shima was talking about.