//------------------------------// // Waiting // Story: Land of Equines // by Daddy Joe //------------------------------// Waiting April 17th, 2013 6:03 PM While I was parked on the side of the path, not far from the field that is riddled with petrified animals, I reached over into the passenger seat and grabbed the sturdy stick that Pinkie bought for me and began to tie the thin rope around the front end of it to create a little makeshift fishing pole. Once the rope was tightly secured of not untieing itself, I tied the other end of the rope around the petrified raccoon and made sure that was tied tight as well. Reaching into the side pocket of my backpack, I pulled out a bunch of green grass clippings that I tore up from the field and began to vertically tape them onto the stick in order to make it blend in with the grass, and for what I have planned for tonight. I would've done the same with my camo outfit and hat, but the patterns are mostly dark green mixed with brown, so I should blend in real well with the tall grass. With my primitive contraption completed, I grabbed the mirror and stored it in my backpack and stepped out of the vehicle with the Igneous in my right hand and the sledgehammer in my left hand. Just like the last time I was out here, the sun was just going down over the horizon while the moon was almost high in the sky. As I directed my attention to the dark forest, I hoped this time that things would go better, in my head. I then approached the edge of the forest and gave a quick sweep with the X-ray Pulse and no orange figures appeared. With the coast clear, I proceeded into the forest once again. I quietly walked through the pre-determined path that I created yesterday to minimize the sound of my footsteps, which was made by removing as many twigs and leaves that I could find on the path I made. "So far, so good." I thought to myself when I was about halfway to the open field. After a few more minutes of walking, I finally reached rim of the open field and pressed the sweep button once more to scan the area for the Cockatrice. The only skeletal figures to apparate were the ones of those who had fallen victim to the Cockatrice's petrifying stare. Even though I did not see the Cockatrice's figure at all, I still felt insecure about safety. And so, I decided go prone and began to army crawl my way over to where I needed to be. Each movement I made was as slow and diligent as I could possibly move, just to minimize the sound of the tall grass rustling. However, out of pure convenience, the wind began to pick up and blew the grass towards my right, causing the grass clippings to rustle in unison. With that, I had less limited movement and proceeded onwards with a faster pace. Along the way, I would run into some of the petrified victims, all crumbled into stone chunks. Even though they were separate pieces, I could still see the expression of terror and fear in their eyes, or pretty much the last expression they would ever make. The thought made me pause for a second and made my mind go blank for a second while I stared at the ground without blinking. I then shook my head to bring myself back to reality and continued to crawl my way over to the circular section of the field that is the most shortest. Once I arrived to the circular patch of short grass, my began to commence plan into action. I then removed my backpack off me and settled it on the ground to my right. I pulled the mirror out and placed that to my left, then the makeshift fishing pole-like contraption with the petrified raccoon hanging like a fishing lure. I then extended my right arm to push the raccoon and about four feet of the stick out into the circular patch and lowered the raccoon onto the ground. With that, I began to slightly move the raccoon to simulate the illusion of walking. As I continued this for a few minutes, I started to doubt myself of this actually fooling the Cockatrice. "This isn't gonna work." I thought to myself, causing me to hesitantly recede the stick back into the tall grass. "No, no, Caleb. You're just overthinking things." I assured myself. Then, I went back to moving the raccoon again. 7:43 PM At the time, the wind began to die down, making it more quiet and easier to detect sounds. There was an owl hooting in the forest, a few birds squawking in the distance and multiple crickets chirping in the field. Aside from those, I also heard the sound of the grass rustling loudly from behind me, and it takes a lot of effort to make fresh and flowy grass to rustle loudly. I used the X-ray Pulse to sweep the area and I could see a faint orange figure in the corner of my right eye approaching, but not directly towards me. I then turned the raccoons back to the figure and moved it into the center of the clearing. When I took a quick look behind me, I realized that the figure was not walking, but it was running. I found this odd at first because I thought 'what would the Cockatrice run from exactly?' But as the figure got closer, it was a lot smaller than the Cockatrice and had long ears. It was a rabbit. "Oh." I whispered under my breath. The rabbit's right ear twitched to the sound of my voice and turned its head towards my direction. "No, no! You have to get out of here!" I exclaimed under my breath as the rabbit approached me. The rabbit began to frantically screech, but was smart enough to keep it on a low tone. Aside from the screeching, I knew something was wrong when I saw the expression of terror on its face. "Quiet down!" I said, covering its mouth with my index finger. Once the rabbit finally calmed down, I asked it what the problem was, supposing it could understand English because of my past encounter with a squirrel. The rabbit responded by pecking its nose at the ground and flapping its forelegs up and down like a bird. The actions instantly clicked with me. "Was it a big lizard-chicken?" I whispered. The rabbit replied by nodding its head quickly. I then decided on what I should do next, and I knew right away that I obviously couldn't leave the little guy out in the open. "Okay. Get in here." I said as I unzipped a pouch in my backpack. The rabbit wasted no time and squeezed itself into the pouch to hide. With the rabbit safely hidden, I sweeped the area again with X-ray Pulse. I tried my best to not move my head so much, but I still needed to check from behind me. When I looked back, a pair of red eyes was no more than twenty or thirty feet behind me. I slowly turned my head back to my original position and froze. I could hear the creature approaching on my right side and it was absolutely nerve-wracking. I saw the rabbit poke its head out of the backpack and I mouthed curse words at the rabbit to get back inside right away, which it did. After a short moment, the Cockatrice was right next to me, unaware of me because of my camouflage outfit. I could hear my heart beating rapidly in my head, and I'm surprised the Cockatrice couldn't hear that, too. The Cockatrice stopped right in its tracks and stared right at the raccoon in the center. It started to growl, which sounded like a mix between between the cluck of a chicken and the growl of a vicious predator. Since the pole was still in the grasp of my right hand, I began to move the pole ever so slowly to mimic the raccoons movement. The Cockatrice then bolted to the right and began to move to other side of the clearing. As I continued to move the petrified raccoon for a while, I soon realized that the Cockatrice wanted to stalk its supposed prey from behind. I used this as an opportunity to begin my surprise attack. Reaching out a little bit more, I moved the raccoon into the center of the clearing and turned its back to me, then adjusted it by turning the raccoon clockwise a little bit. And just as planned, the Cockatrice was almost next to me once again and stalked the raccoon in the tall grass. After a few seconds, the Cockatrice began to sneak out of the grass and towards the raccoon, almost looking like as if the Cockatrice was walking in slow motion. "This is it." I mentally told myself, dropping the pole and grabbing the mirror. When I looked back, the Cockatrice was now right behind the petrified raccoon and slid its sharp talons across the rock-hard surface in a devious manner. The Cockatrice immediately took notice to the surface of the raccoon and paused for a second as it tried to figure out what was going on, but it was too late. With no warning, I stood upwards and charged right at the creature. Before it could look at me in the eyes, I landed right on top of the Cockatrice and trapped it right in between my inner thighs. The Cockatrice squirmed and shook vigorously to free itself from my clamping thighs, but it was no use. It was trapped. The Cockatrice let out a threatening caw and turned its head at me, but I turned it right back by grabbing it by the neck with my right hand and turned its head back forward. I used my left hand to move raccoon out of the way and replaced it with the mirror. The Cockatrice stared for a millisecond before it let out a loud and screechy caw to the sight out of its own petrifying stare and closed it eyes tightly while shaking its head in distress. "Oh, no you don't!" I grunted. Using the index and middle finger on my left hand, I placed them on both of the Cockatrice's eyelids and began to forcefully pry them open. I furrowed my eyebrows and bit my lips hard as the eyes began open slowly, only making the Cockatrice screech and cluck in terror even more; the terror that was similar to the Cockatrice's victims. Once the process had begun, I could feel the Cockatrice's body petrifying below me, and so could the Cockatrice. However, the Cockatrice was still trying to fight it, but it just couldn't get free. The amount of clucking went silent as its neck turned to stone, but its beak was still opening, so it literally couldn't make a sound. After a few more seconds, it was over for the Cockatrice and it stopped moving. I then leaped off the Cockatrice, and with one swift move, I brought the sledgehammer down onto the Cockatrice and shattered it into chunks. I repeated the blows three more times and the Cockatrice was now nothing but pieces, nearly smashed to dust. I panted quietly and dropped the sledgehammer onto the ground with a thud. With the fight won, I sat on the grass and straightened out my brown hair. While I did this, the rabbit from earlier must've squeezed itself out of my backpack because it was sitting right next to me. Not only that, but the raccoon unpetrified and ran off into the forest, so there's another saved animal. "You're welcome." I called out to the raccoon. I then picked up the rabbit, placed it on my lap and gently petted its soft fur for a little bit. While I was petting the cute little critter, a strong odor of metal or iron began to fill the air and knew what it was right away because it wasn't here before. "Here, I'll take you back to the forest." I said to the rabbit. I left my equipment back at the site, but used the Igneous for defense and the X-ray Pulse to navigate through the tall grass 'till I got back to the other side of the forest. "There you go. Be safe, little guy." I said as I placed rabbit near the side of the path. With that, the rabbit hopped away into the forest without any care. I then let out a faint chuckle and climbed into the Defender, driving off to Fluttershy's. 8:16 PM As I arrived to Fluttershy's cottage, all the lights were off, but I could see one room lit through the window. I then hurried to the door and knocked three times. A minute later, Fluttershy came to the door to greet me. "Come in." Fluttershy said. I did as told and walked into her cottage. "How are the petrified animals doing?" I asked. "You'll never believe it, but it's safe to say that they are all back to normal!" Fluttershy said with glee. "Awesome! What are they doing right now?" I asked. "Getting in a nice helping of food," Fluttershy replied. "Would you like to see?" "Sure." I said. Fluttershy then led me into the lit up room and sure enough, the animals had unpetrified and were chowing down on some well-deserved food. "Wow. It looks like they're doing pretty well for themselves. But really, thanks for taking them in, Fluttershy." I said. "You're welcome, Caleb," Fluttershy replied. "So, um. Did you get the Cockatrice?" Fluttershy said. I replied by nodding. "Well, I guess that's good, I guess." Fluttershy said, skeptically. "I know it sounds cold. But I did what I had to do in order to free the animals." I said. "It's okay. If you think about it, you could consider yourself a hero." Fluttershy supported. "I suppose," I said with a shrug and a nod. "When did you realize that the animals unpetrified?" "Oh, funny thing, actually. I was just about to go to bed and all the animals were settled in for the night at the time. But when I got into my bedroom, there they all were, adorably looking at me in the doorway." Fluttershy said. "Aww, that had to be cute." I said. "It sure was." Fluttershy said. "Well, I should get going since you and the animals need some sleep. Plus, I have to get some too." I said. "Okay. Thanks for stopping by and checking up on the animals." Fluttershy said. "No problem. See you around." I said as I opened the front door. "Bye, Caleb." Fluttershy said before heading back into the room. With that, I got back into the Defender and drove back to the field to clean up the mess.