Birdie and the Beast

Chapter 2: The Castle

Pushing his way through the crowded street, Matthew made his way back home with more that a few whispers of "Who is that?" and "Isn't that Alfred Jones?" following him.

By the time he finally reached home, the dust cloud had settled and Matthew could immediately see what had caused it. A large oak lay on its side next to the side of the house, which had suffered a lot of damage from the tree. Alfred kicked the tree and swore at the top of his lungs.

"DAMMIT! I'm never going to prove that aliens exist!" Alfred's kick was so powerful that the oak rolled into another tree and almost toppled that one too. For reasons unbeknownst to Matthew, both he and Alfred were gifted (or bothered depending upon how you looked at it) with immense strength. As a child, Alfred had once even wrestled with a fully-grown buffalo…and won. Judging from what he saw, Matthew inferred that Alfred had become frustrated and ripped out the oak by the roots, accidentally throwing it into the side of the house.

"What happened, Alfred?" Matthew asked, trying to calm him down enough to stop him from uprooting any more trees. The villagers already thought Alfred was crazy for believing that aliens existed. If they knew about his strength too, who knew what they would do?

"I'm sorry bro, but I was getting really pissed off from reading fake reports about people who claim they've seen little green aliens when EVERYONE knows that they're actually gray! That, and I'm hungry. By the way did you get something to eat?" It was amazing how easily the subject of food could distract Alfred.

"Huh? Oh yeah, here you go." Matthew handed Alfred a loaf of bread and took one for himself. Within seconds Alfred had finished and was begging for more. Sometimes Matthew wondered if Alfred had a bottomless pit instead of a stomach.

Personally, Matthew would have preferred to have pancakes for breakfast (especially with maple syrup…mmm), but he finished his bread anyway. When both of them had finished eating, Matthew tried to comfort his brother.

"Hey, it's okay. You'll prove that aliens exist one day. Who knows? Maybe the evidence is right under our noses." Alfred looked down as if taking Matthew's words literally and then leapt up in surprise.

"Hey Mattie! There's something buried in the ground! I think it's metal." Alfred exclaimed and began digging. Matthew joined him and with the combined efforts of the two extremely strong boys, they soon unearthed what appeared to be a huge hunk of metal.

"Wow. That is so cool." Alfred said in an awed voice. He began walking around it and examining it. He tapped the side and his eyes widened when he heard an echo.

"No way! It's hollow!" he then furrowed his brow. "I don't think I've seen a metal like this before." He picked up a piece of the metal…thing that had fallen off and took a close look at it. It was paper-thin but he couldn't tear it, even with all of his great strength. Taking a knife out of his pocket, he was able to cut into the metal, but to his surprise the rip closed up in front of his very eyes!

Needing more proof, Matthew took the sheet of metal from Alfred and crumpled it up, only to have it spring back into its original form. Alfred was practically bursting with excitement.

"Do you realize what this means Mattie? This is one the greatest scientific discoveries of all time! This'll show those idiots who doubted me that I'm the Hero! I found a spaceship, definite proof of life in space! That settles it. I'm going to the Science Convention in the big city. You want to come with me?"

As exciting as Alfred's discovery was, Matthew didn't like big cities. It meant an even bigger chance of him being forgotten.

"No thanks, Alfred. I'll stay here and take care of things. Come on, I'll move this onto a wagon and hitch it up to Kumajika…Kumakichi…Whatever that horse's name is." Matthew could never remember what he had originally named the shaggy white horse he had gotten as a child. Sometimes Matthew could swear that the horse would look at him as if he couldn't remember Matthew's name either, and would cock its head as if to say, "Who are you, again?"