ANGEL

MORTUARY - PART 7

-if i were you, i would not take that chance so freely, the Tonda are very treacherous and cunning- i said trying to threat him as some way to shoo him away forward the place where he came from, maybe i won´t devour him, but at least don´t help him, that´s correct, i cannot have any part at the matters of Grona and that man, now i really know, besides that´s very risky, i am bold, i am a hunter, but at the matters of hunt and prey, not troubles...

And the way he spoke- " i have waited for more than a hundred of years to come here, you cannot deprive me of that"; afterwards that strange and thorny laugh, diabolical and sad, harsh and despaired at the same time; all of sudden, that same thought came back to my mind as if nowhere:

So many secrets.

But everyone have secrets, small or big, thorny or soft, hard or easy, monstrous or forgivable...

What´s he hiding from me? What´s Grona hiding from me?

-i know perfectly you are, but if i am asking that to you, that mean i know you will help me, don´t you think?

No, i have changed my mind, certainly i will bite, slaughter and devour that fool, i cannot endure that anymore.

-what will you do there? At the Mortuary forest? - i ask harsh and impatiently.

He doesn´t answer readily but avert his gaze and look away instead, to someplace i don´t know where is and become sad and sullen again, seems distant, so far away.

-i have one thing to search there, Logo, and it will change everything- he put his gaze upon me again- but please, don´t ask me nothing more, not now.

I found myself consenting to him, i don´t know why, but it automatically happened.

-May i expect your help? - He asked hopefully and softly, almost dreading an immediate negative.

No! Say to him, No! it cannot be, say to him that you will not do that, it will be better, i even know what he´s hiding from me, that´s risky and my perception as crocodile never fool me, i am smelling and feeling that´s something very wrong here and something that you will not like and will regret of afterwards if you do and Grona... well, Grona may has her secrets to you as well but you... you know you will convince her to speak clearly and freely with you and she will stay by your side once again, you know she will. But Mako... I am very enraged and confuse at the same time, and what does he expect that i do for him at the forest? He´s thinking i will kill and devour each creature and reptile that i find there just to keep him safe? He wants that i catch some hunt to lie afterwards saying to Grona that he were who took the thing? But he said one thing to search there, if that thing was some prey, he would be more clear and explicit; damn it! How i hate to be fool that way, without know what´s going on, crocodiles can be treacherous and dangerous, but not so powerful and cunning as the snakes and serpents and he´s claiming he´s one of them and that thing he made with his eyes, the sneaking...

-look- i begin very unease, but trying to be menacing as well- if you play false with me or even if i feel some disgusting scheme coming from you, you can bet, slug, you will have the most painful death that i ever provided to most of my enemies and hunts, is that understood?

-well, you don´t know still, but i am dead already, crocodile- he said with a wide smile on his face- that skin it´s just a kind of cloak, shield, even dwelling to us, from Gray.

-it´s just a warning anyway- i say looking at him out of the corner of my eye- follow me… slug.

-my name´s Mako- he said shrugging and suddenly sneaking down with his snake-like movements into the swamp at our front and vanishing at a matter of seconds of my sight.

-what? – I asked to myself when I was completely alone and very astonished.

Well, the only thing I could do, it was just follow him and then we went to the Mortuary forest where honestly I was ready to go, but not what he had into his mind to.

Getting there, both of us realized that the forest was very calm and peaceful, no sounds but those of the trees, waters and little creatures, I knew that the big ones we would find more forward, and that they would be waiting for me; by the sight, the peace and the absence of strong smells, obviously the hunt´s over.

Better, Logo thought, every time I hunt I like to do it all by myself, it´s only a pity that this time I have one company, rather a prey that´s by my side and I cannot devour… what a joke!

While Logo were slowly walking get down on all fours as a true crocodile, entering into the dim and gloomy aspect of the Mortuary forest, watchful to everything and everyone and clenching his fangs as if to scare from the smallest and helpless little bird to the biggest and more monstrous beasts and reptiles that lived there inside, Mako had came into the forest too and were perched up around and old, black and thick trunk of the nearest tree he had found and as a snake, holding tight and fiercely the trunk as if it was his last salvation from some terrible danger, death or something like that, the strange it was that with a skin of human being covering and protecting his disgusting slug internal part he seemed to Logo much more an rubber man than an snake, it was simply surreal and pathetic, besides, it granted to him, an aspect far more helpless, weak and vulnerable than that one of strong and even better than most serpents because his cunning of serpent it´s lacking to him right now, an true serpent never would expose itself climbing up so high to a tree just to search I don´t know what… well, I think I am demanding too much from him, the man´s only an half Tonda, not completely, even so, the most menacing and destructive appearance it´s all mine, of course, my hind paws never failed me, my hard and powerful jaw and my not-perfect, but sharp and piercing teeth are my pride and granted to me countless easy and not so easy preys to my belly, my sense of smell and perception are simply perfect and I can feel even the fear of my hunts leagues away, every time I want to be very fast I am and finally my dark green hard and rough scales give me an unshakeable and stiff resistance, so enormous that neither the boiling and dirt waters of the local swamp can hurt me or melt my scales away, but I cannot say so of the slug up there, rather snake man.

I get control, concentration and feel the smells all over me with a good and deep sniff… nothing, no one fish, no one maritime animal, no one other small crocodile, alligator, tortoise, lizard, even a little bird, that understanding makes me very annoyed and furious, I am still famished, I don´t eat anything there are many hours and I begin to turn my head all around automatically and nervously, but Mako doesn´t realize my beginning of outburst… wait… he.

-there Logo- he said a little heedless, stretching his head higher to a better sight at the darkness and pointing to one place even darker at the heart of the forest- I am feeling that what I am looking it´s there, we must to get there- he finish, but when he turn his head down to look straightforward my eyes… that it´s a dark green right now, he got it quickly, he sees my fury taking hold of myself, my clenched and tight jaws showing my seventy or eighty teeth ready to get a great bite at that skin, being delicious or not… I swear I try to get control but with a considerable lack of creatures close at hand, when you are a feral crocodile having to survive with any meat you can get, it´s hard keep friendships or something like that.

Mako keep motionless as if still deciding what to do at the last moment and even with that terrible and apprehensive scene I have to admire him somehow, the damned man doesn´t fear nothing! He stays motionless as an statue, as frozen but that doesn´t mean that he´s afraid or drawing back; that time moments ago when I first attacked him, I could control myself but not now and he seems to know…

I get some steps back…