Nimóne

Chapter 11: The Real Story

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Nimóne had ran out the back of the tower and was racing through the woods. He shifted into a wolf, panting as he tried to get as far away as possible from the person he once called his friend.

He crashed through several branches and came out in a small clearing on a hill where a small run down well sat.

Nimóne stared at the well with wide eyes. "No..." he whispered, transforming back into a little boy as he was overcome by previous memories.

...

Nimóne had shifted into a little bird and landed on a branch beside another bird. He chirped, trying to start a conversation, but the other bird flew away.

...

He tried to make a friend again, this time as a fish. He swam through a small pond and excitedly swam over to some other fish, but they quickly swam away when he arrived.

...

Nimóne pranced along the ground as a deer, catching up with other deer who bounded away as soon as he joined them.

He stopped in his tracks and looked down in sadness. Suddenly, he heard a faint laugh in the distance. His ears perked up and he followed the sound, arriving at the well.

He stayed hidden in the bushes as he watched a young girl of about his age coming up the hill with a bucket.

The girl removed a cloth from her head, allowing her wavy blonde hair to hang loose. He shifted into a little boy and watched as the girl picked up some rocks and threw one inside a tree stump a few feet away.

She threw another one, but missed and it flew over the stump, landing by Nimóne's feet. When she went to pick it up, she noticed him hiding in the shadows of the bushes.

The girl smiled and placed the rock in his hand, and pulled him out of the shadows, gesturing that he try and throw it in. Nimóne threw the rock, but it only landed a few inches in front of him.

...

Nimóne and his new friend did everything together. From running through fields, hopping across rocks over streams, to play fighting with wooden swords, and falling asleep next to each other underneath a tree.

...

One day, the little girl was trying to pick an apple out of a tree, but couldn't quite reach. Nimóne saw her struggling and transformed into a bird to fly up and grab the apple.

He changed back into himself and held out the apple to his friend, only to see her looking at him apprehensively. Nimóne frowned, and started to back away, when she placed her hands on the apple and smiled at him.

Happy that his new friend wasn't scared of him, Nimóne changed back into a bird, and flew all around the girl's head.

...

Nimóne was running through the fields as a horse, with his friend on his back, laughing and cheering at how much fun she was having.

Now there was no limit to the fun Nimóne could have with his friend. From talking to her as a little otter, or swinging through the trees as a gorilla, rolling down a hill as an armadillo or howling at the moon as a wolf.

...

Nimóne and the girl were playfully fighting each other one day, with Nimóne shifted into a bear. The girl hit him on the head with her sword and Nimóne pretended to die and rolled down a grassy hill with her.

They landed in the ground just outside the village, when the girl was suddenly pulled away from Nimóne by her parents. They stood protectively in front of her while the other villagers approached with torches and pitchforks.

Nimóne looked down and noticed why they were so afraid, and shifted back into himself to show that there was nothing to be scared of. But that just made it worse.

The villagers looked even more afraid and surrounded him.

"No, stop! Stop! He's my friend!" The girl yelled.

"He's a monster." Her mother told her.

The villagers surrounded Nimóne and poked and jabbed him with their tools and waved torches in his face.

Becoming very scared, Nimóne shifted into different animals to try and get away, or to make the villagers back off, but they kept attacking him.

He shifted into a bear to try and swat them away, one villager threw their torch against his back, which bounced off and landed in a pile of hay and caught fire, quickly spreading to other areas of the village.

Nimóne angrily changed from a bear to a gorilla, then a wolf and finally back into himself when he realized the villagers had left him to go put out the fire.

He noticed his friend standing a few feet in front of him, just staring at him.

"...Gloreth." Nimóne started. "Gloreth, it's..."

Gloreth picked up her wooden sword and pointed it at him. "Go back to the shadows from whence you came."

...

Nimóne looked up at the huge stone statue of Gloreth in the middle of the kingdom, and fell to his knees, sobbing.

"What are you?"

"A monster."

"Are you even human?"

"Just be a boy."

"There is no place for you!"

"Don't lie to me!"

"He's a monster."

Nimóne panted and clutched his chest, all the hurtful words that people said to him flooding through his mind.

"Don't you wish you were normal?"

"Go back to the shadows from whence you came."

"There's something really wrong with you."

"What are you?"

"Monster!"

"You know what you are!"

Black magic surrounded him. His eyes glowed blue, and the magic swirled all around him, expanding and growing.

Nimóne let out a loud, angry scream, and he transformed into the very thing everyone thought he was.

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