Tall Tales & Short Stories

Secretive Story Assignment

A/N;
In class we were asked to write a story with a secret. Thus, I chose one of my characters and used a partial piece of his backstory to use. The character's identity is kept secret, and a new secret is found out and he's exposed for keeping it. The third secret was the species.

Enjoy!

.:-----:.

Dawn breaks the darkened sky as several thin figurines slip into the forest clearing. They surround the large rock jutting out of the ground, whereas the soft grass stops briefly and there is soft dirt over its bottom. One singular creature breaks from the knot of entangled shadows and lunges upwards, planting itself firmly upon the rock. It stares quietly with narrowed eyes at the group of creatures. There are shadows below him, and yet he stands as one shadow looming over its descendants. Whispering begins in the entwined bodies of shadowed figures, but no voice is any more than a hiss of breath in the oncoming light. The creature atop the rock glares a moment longer at the group before allowing a loud bellow to erupt from his throat. Their stares turn to him, all frozen in surprise. Their voices cease, and the brutes enraged roar echoes out until nothing can be heard. He has asked for silence, and silence has been granted. A low growl continues in his throat, carried to the staring creatures below.

    "You have all obeyed me to this point." he lets his cold, narrowed glare drift over the encampment, skimming across every expectant figure. "And as always, my hope has been put to rest."

    Many of the shadows send wide-eyed looks of wonder towards their groupmates. Murmurs break out as every creature places a guess of blame over each other. The brute allows another bellow to emit from his chest- this one more seemingly coming from his toes.

     "Shut it!"

    Their gazes snap back to him, silence falling over the crowd like a wave. His own eyes sweep once more over them. He calls a name, but does not ask for the entitled creature. Instead, he plants the name down as though it were a cuss.

    The creatures try to look at the selected one, but they cannot find him among the tangled knot of shadowed bodies, and so they drift apart. They step away to reveal that he was set in the middle. There he stands, his brow furrowed and shoulders hunched. The luminary narrows his own pair of visionaries until they are cold slits of pure ice.

    "It seems as though you require my aid, Ezekiel?" he purrs. He nearly smirks at the sugary sweet tone that cascades out of his mouth, as though he's proud of his usually snarky attitude.

    The brute on the rock clenches his jaw, returning the glare in pure anger. "You have never failed me, and now I see that you are simply nothing more than a perfect liar."

    Gasping falls over the clearing, all creatures gaping in surprise. The one in question is very clearly basking in the attention.

    "Yeah? Pretty sure you told me that you were contemplating the exact same thing- that is if we're both on the same page?"

    Ezekiel leaps off the rock, landing neatly in front of the opposing brute. His tail lashes in anger, glaring firmly at him. "You're some darned lucky that you have that stupid collar wrapped over your throat, or you wouldn't have so much fricking air in those fat lungs of yours." he snaps.

    The brute does not look offended, instead he bursts into laughter. His ears twitch as he eases back to a smirk, eyeing Ezekiel in satisfaction. He has never allowed an insult to get to him, and neither could a threat, thus, this one merely bounces off of him in an instant, and he is left content yet again.

    Several of the others are observing in shock, but who could blame them? After all, this was their best and most respected group member besides Ezekiel, and he is being singled out for lying... what could have startled them more is unknown, but all have been caught completely off guard.

    His eyes flicker, raising one brow. "So what now? What this group was prior to my joining--"

    "You have never joined us, you merely welcomed your other group in, but held each of the little idiots in your head!"

    Gasps return, and yet he continues speaking as if Ezekiel has never interrupted him.

    " --surely could not have grown stronger without me. Who will be your second in command, huh? I've become fully aware of your groups weaknesses, your worst fears... everything. Of course to stop this information from going places you don't want, the most common thing to do is to kill me. Y'know, starve me, or even beat the living daylights out of me. 'Course, I taught this group all the battle moves you know, therefore I could resist the end of my time and fight back. Or, I cou-"

    Ezekiel spits out his name once again. His eyes are a raging fire as he takes one slow, menacing step towards him, growling. "You had better shut your trap, before my mind changes and I don't let you go. Now, get your tail out of my territory!"

    By now, the sun is just peeking over the grass, sending light upon the dew soaked camp. The two large brutes stare each other down, Ezekiel more hate-filled than the liar.

    "Yeah. Yeah, aight, Ezekiel." he dips his head, but it is not a sign of respect. It is more so a mock gesture of polite attitude. He smirks as he turns, and peers over his shoulder to send his smug face over to Ezekiel. "Until we meet again."