Birdie and the Beast Chapter 2

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?"

After making sure that Alfred had everything he needed, Matthew saddled Kuma-whatshisface, before saying goodbye to Alfred.

"Bye Alfred. Good luck!"

"Bye Mattie! Don't get into trouble while I'm gone because I can't be your hero if I'm not here!"

Matthew rolled his eyes and went back inside to continue reading his book.

***
For a few miles, Alfred's trip was relatively uneventful. The scenery was beautiful with its rolling hills and wide stretches of fields and meadows and the proud mountains rising in the far distance.

Checking his map, Alfred noticed a shortcut to his destination through the forest that was only a little out of the way of his intended path. Admittedly few people knew much about the dark forest and more superstitious folk claimed that strange things happened there. Alfred personally didn't believe in such things as fairies and other magical creatures and besides he was a hero. Heroes were supposed to brave and go into these kinds of place.

But after traveling a little while in the woods, Alfred began to get a little nervous and started talking to Kumajiro. (How could Mattie not remember that name?)
"We should be there by now. Maybe I missed a turn or something? This probably wasn't the best idea." He stopped Kumajiro abruptly when he saw a signpost at a fork in the road. His hopes were dashed when he saw the letters on the signs had faded and were no longer legible.

Hang on… Alfred looked at his map more closely. "Oh crap! This is the wrong map. I'm lost," he groaned. "Might as well take one of the roads here."

The road to the right was dark due to the amount of trees growing close together. It was almost eerily quiet and a low mist only enforced the creepy imagery. The road to the left was brighter and birds could be heard chirping. Instinctively, Kumajiro began moving to the left only to be held back by Alfred.

"Stop it, let's go this way." Alfred suggested, steering Kumajiro to the right. "I think that's the way back out of the woods. When Kumajiro tried to resist, Alfred yanked on the reigns more firmly. "Come on, it's a shortcut. With any luck, we'll be at the city in no time."

Kumajiro obeyed, trotting forward with trepidation, whinnying nervously as the day turned into night and a chilly wind rustled the leaves.

After about an hour of wandering aimlessly, Kumajiro heard something move in the distance. Alfred was oblivious to the horse's distress, until he backed up into a tree, disturbing a flock of bats that had been roosting there.

Frightened by the black shapes swooping around him, Kumajiro broke into a gallop, despite Alfred's attempts to calm him. "Whoa, calm down dude!"

This failed to have any effect, and instead, Kumajiro reared up and Alfred fell off his back only to see Kumajiro galloping away into the mist.

"Kumajiro!" Alfred called after the horse in vain, before standing up and dusting himself off. Above his head, thunder rumbled. Just his luck, Alfred thought, to be lost in the forest without his horse during a thunderstorm. Could things get any worse?

Apparently they could. In the distance a wolf howled and Alfred could make out the gleam of yellow eyes watching him. The young man couldn't do anything but run for his life, almost tripping over his own feet as he ran from the pack.

Alfred thanked his lucky stars when he saw a giant iron wrought gate, which he was able to open. He slipped behind the gate and closed it just in time before the wolves had reached it.

He turned around to see what the gate had guarded and his jaw dropped. In front of him was an immense castle. Alfred barely had enough time to take it all in before rain began pouring down, soaking him almost instantly. He ran to the door and began knocking on it relentlessly until it creaked open. And about time too, Alfred thought. He would have broken down the door if he had been forced to wait any longer.

Alfred went inside and found himself in a large entrance hall with a high ceiling and a smooth paved floor.  To his left, a lit candelabra and a clock stood on a table against the wall. Alfred closed the door behind him and called out tentatively. "Hello?"

No answer.

"Hello?" he called out louder, and he thought he heard a voice.

"Poor fellow must 'ave lost 'is way in ze woods."

"Keep quiet." Another voice hissed. "Maybe he'll go away."

"Is someone there?" Alfred asked, hoping the voices weren't a hallucination.

"Not a word, Francis, don't say a single word." The second voice said warningly.

"Look, I just need somewhere to crash tonight. I lost my horse and I think I'm lost too." Alfred said. The first voice seemed to be more welcoming so he hoped he could appeal to that one.

"Oh, Arthur, 'ave a 'eart." Alfred heard a "shush" and what sounded like scuffling before one of the voices yelped in pain and the first voice spoke loudly enough for Alfred to hear clearly.

"Of course Monsieur, you are welcome 'ere." Alfred grabbed the candelabra from the table and held it out, looking for source of the voice.

"Over 'ere." the voice said, now sounding very close. Alfred turned around but there was no one behind him.

"Where-?" Alfred felt something tap his head and he looked to see that the candelabra had a face. " 'allo" it said.

"AHHHH" screamed Alfred as he dropped the candelabra. "OHMYGODITSPOSSESEDLIKEINTHOSEGHOSTSTORIESTHATMATTIETELLSME." Alfred continued babbling in fear and curled up into a ball rocking back and forth. He was absolutely TERRIFIED of ghosts.

The clock that had stood next to the candelabra leapt off the table and ran over to the candelabra and began scolding him. Like the candelabra, it had a face and talked.
"Now you've done it, Francis. You've scared him out wits. Splendid, just peachy-AHHHH." Alfred picked him up off of the floor, his curiosity overcoming his fear.

"What are you? You're not a ghost are you? Are you aliens?" he asked excitedly. The clock was to busy struggling to answer his questions.

"Put me down, put me down I say." Alfred ignored it and examined it, only stopping when the clock began loudly protesting as Alfred poked at the pendulum in the glass case.

"SIR. I beg you pardon," the clock huffed before Alfred finally put him down. The candelabra, Francis, was snickering at the clock's plight, using his two branches like arms to quiet his laughter.

"Sorry dude, but the look on you face was a-aah-ACHOO!" Alfred sneezed before he could finish his sentence.

"Oh, you are soaked to ze bone, Monsieur. Come and sit down by ze fire," invited Francis, leading the way to a cozy room with a large stuffed armchair and a fire blazing in the fireplace, while the clock named Arthur protested every step of the way. None of them noticed the figure that watched them from the top of the stairs.

"You know what the Master will do if he catches this boy here. I demand that you stop. Right. There." None of the Arthur's warnings had any effect on Alfred who would have done anything to get warm again quickly. It was also very hard to take a talking clock seriously. Arthur continued to wring his hands (or things that look kind of like hands) as Alfred sat down in the armchair and began to get comfortable.

A footstool came up to Alfred, barking like a dog and the tassels on one side were wagging like a dog's tail. It propped itself up under Alfred's feet.

Arthur was about to start another wave of protests when he was run over by a tray carrying a smiling coffeepot and a mug. Both were decorated with paintings of tomato plants

"Hola señor! Would you like some coffee? It's hot, and will warm you right up." As he spoke, the coffeepot poured some coffee into the mug

"Sure!" Picking up the mug, Alfred was about to take a sip when the mug began yelling at him in an Italian accent. "Hey watch where you put your mouth bastardo!"

Alfred stopped when he noticed the mug had what would have been an odd curl of hair if it was a person. "Sorry about that," he told it.

"Whatever." The mug grumbled. Alfred cautiously took a sip of the coffee and found it to be delicious.

"Lovino!" the coffeepot scolded gently, still smiling. "Treat our guest nicely."

"I don't have to listen to you tomato bastardo." The mug huffed.

Suddenly the doors flung open creating a gust that almost put out the fire, darkening the room. All of the talking furniture appeared to be very afraid. Lovino jumped behind the coffeepot with a high-pitched scream.

"Zhere's a stranger here," a rough voice growled, a heavy German accent saturating his voice. Francis tried to speak but was silenced by a roar.

Arthur spoke up "Master, I just want you to know that I had nothing to do with this and that I was against it from the start-" another roar scaring into hiding under the rug.

Alfred wasn't scared, at least, that's what he kept telling himself. He was the hero after all, and heroes don't get scared easily. He looked around and found himself face to face with a terrifying monster.

It was mostly human in shape and size but covered in white fur, with a mane like a lion. A pair of horns grew on its head, above its ears. From the waist down, it had a wolf's tail and legs. Its hands had fingers like a human but were tipped with long claws instead of fingernails. Fierce crimson eyes glared at him and sharp fangs gleamed when it talked.

"Who are you? Vhy are you trespassing in my awesome castle?"

Summoning all of his courage, Alfred replied bravely, "I was lost in the woods and I had no place to stay." He couldn't keep his eyes off of the Beast. Never in a million years would he have imagined such a thing to be possible. The Beast noticed Alfred's staring.

"Vhat? Can't keep your eyes off of my awesomeness?

"No, I wasn't staring at you." lied Alfred.

"Liar, I can fix zhat." Alfred knew better than to talk back so he only kept quiet as the Beast dragged him away, watching the shocked looks of the servants as he was taken away and locked up in the dungeon.

"How am I supposed to be Mattie's hero now?" he wondered. "I hope I'll be able to see you again Matthew."