The daily life of monsters

Chapter 1: Exchange

"I... I'm not a baby. I can do this."

About a kilometre deep into the forest and away from the village of ferma, Jur nervously paced through the dense and dark woodland, his eyes close to the ground in front of him and his legs quivering from fear. Compared to the forest around him, he seemed almost alien; his clothes were neat and his haircut was clean enough to gain the approval of any parent. His shoes were close to new before he had come into the forest, although the dirt and the branches made his normally still soles not only uncomfortable, but dirty.

The trees which were once calm were now were wild and massive, growing at odd angles but still able to block the sun with their leaves utilising pure size and numbers alone. The branches and leaves above cast shadows that could even leave an adult second guessing on whether or not they had seen a monster. The environment around him almost seemed like it was created to make him vulnerable; the deep greens, browns and blacks of the surroundings left his presence obvious to anything that could be hiding in the dark.

"I just need to find something... something valuable..."

He mumbled to the forest to keep himself company, his eyes continuously scanning the ground and searching for something he could bring back with him. As he continued deeper into the forest,  the shadows felt like they continued to close until they were pushing close enough to pounce at him, but nevertheless Jur pushed on, the fire lit by his pride barely overcoming his shaky knees. However, even his pride had its limits; he had almost been walking straight for an hour and with no results, his confidence had almost reached an all time low.

That was when he walked into someone.

"Hey. Watch where you're go..."

Jur almost immediately jumped back and failed to keep himself upright, falling down onto the soft dirt and ruining his overalls. Panicked, he began to scamper backwards only coming to a stop after about five metres when he looked up for the first time in fourteen minutes to see a confused young man wearing a dirty toga.

"I didn't realise they let kids into the forest."

The man approached and offered a hand, a creepy smile plastered on his face. Fighting his instincts to run, Jur accepted and the man hoisted him up easily. Before Jur could give his thanks and attempt to talk his way out of leaving, the man wordlessly circled the boy, inspecting him from every angle.

"Ummmm..."

On his third rotation, the man dusted off Jur's behind quickly circled around to the front, poking an accusatory finger at the straps that held up the boy's pants.

"You have weird clothes."

Jur felt strangely insulted by being called by the man who wore a toga in the middle of the forest.

"They're very normal, thank you very much. The only time I've ever seen anyone wear one of those is when my grandma went to a costume party."

He pointed his finger aggressively towards the man's clothes before quickly retracting his hand nervously, quietly hoping that he hadn't insulted the potentially dangerous stranger.

"Are you serious? I swear that I bought this like, a month ago. Fashion moves too fast."

The stranger looked down towards his clothes and scratched his head, looking as if he had stumbled upon an unsolvable equation. Jur was quietly relieved that the stranger didn't seem insulted, but after a quick look at the man's clothes, another strange point began niggling at the back of his mind. With the amount of wear and tear on the toga, it seemed almost impossible for him to be wearing it for only a month.

"So anyway, why are you out here?"

The man smiled, this time warmly and genuinely, finally bringing some relief to the boy. He almost immediately began to speak, but caught himself before he managed to finish a letter, placing his hands around his mouth impulsively. After taking a deep breath, Jur managed to properly calm himself, although it wasn't enough to hide his intentions particularly well.