Conversation
“How many other days have you seen one?” the question sparked into Daniel’s mind.
“Never, duh.” Angel replied with a roll of her eyes.
“Well, as interesting a hypothesis as it might be to contemplate I assume if there were a great number of your kind roaming the national park there would have been more sightings before this moment. The likelihood of multiple other Sphinxes living in this general area decreases dramatically when you take into account the difference in climate and local topography.” Keth brings up without glancing away from the phone in his hands, frantically thumbing through some colorful option on the screen.
“Don be rude kids, the lady asked an honest question.”
Daniel huffs, eyes narrowed as she flops her haunches down. Essentially laying onto her belly and facing the three, seated in the classic statuesque pose with her head held high.
“So I guess this isn’t some catwoman meeting ground then.” The Sphinx bemoans.
Angel takes the time to pull out crackers, carefully setting them atop a paper plate. A single marshmallow is speared onto her metal stick, soon to be held over an open flame. It isn’t long before the creamy white sugar browns, then blackens.
“That’s actually my first question miss Daniel.” The woman asks.
“Stop calling me miss!”
“Whatever. How did you end up here to begin with?” Angel carried on with a roll of her eyes. “What’s your story?”
Daniel couldn’t help but blink. “Its honestly not that long but uh, sure. You see it all started with a game of truth or dare, I think.”
“Shouldn’t a Sphinx be asking riddles instead?”
“That’s not … that’s not the point! We were all happy the school year was over and wanted to- …”
“Now what’s som grand mythical monster gal care about the school year?” Charley butted in, taking another long draw of his cigar.
“Well obviously it must be a school for monsters. How else are they going to learn monster things and tell good riddles?” Keth answered smugly.
“Stop calling her a monster, sheesh. She’s right here people.” Angel pulled the marshmallow away from the flames and gently squeezed it onto a sugary graham cracker. Then came a bit of chocolate poked into the top, to be capped off by another cracker like some sandwich made entirely of candy sweets.
“I’m not a woman …” Daniel grumbles, shaking her head at the rapidfire discussion. “Anyway, we all got together and played games, had snacks, talked about the year. Then the party ended and we all went home and I got to sleep in my own bed, then we-“
“What does a sphinx bed even look like?” Keth brought up.
“Wuh, It … my bed was a completely normal bed in a completely normal house.”
“But you mean normal for a sphinx, right? So is it like a bunch of grass folded away, is there some giant bird nest? Do you sleep on worked stone or on huge piles of sand?” Keth again, his curiousity insufferable to Daniel’s trying patience.
“No! No, most certainly not. I don’t know about any other winged bird lions but I went to bed in a normal human house on a normal human neighborhood in a completely human bed, and then woke up exactly like this!”
“So ye crushed yer bed or somwat?” Charley cants his head to one side.
Daniel groans, leaning forward to grind his face into both paws. The palms felt exceptionally soft and smooth against his bareskinned cheeks. But more concerning than the sensation of hands that weren’t his with rounded balls in place of the elongated, dexterous fingers of a human, was just how soft and smooth his face was to touch against his pads. The cheeks supple, the nose pointed and slim, his chin was decidedly rounded and smooth without a trace of hair. The dual reminder that even his most human-like body parts were most assuredly not his own did little to improve his perspective on this.
“That isn’t what I’m saying at all. I’m a human! Like you guys. I went to a party with my friends, played games, then went home. As a human. When I woke up I was exactly like this and somehow in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of trees all over the place.”
“So how did you get here?” Angel asked, and just as Daniel looked up he could see her reaching out with a dainty, bare toed foot to tap against his forearm. Her touch stung into the bruised and scraped portion where he’d the misfortune to smash through several branches, but she backs away as soon as she notices the flinch.
“I don’t know, I don’t know. I’m just trying to get back home in Longport. My street address didn’t change, my mother is probably worried sick by now, and I need to go tell my friends what happened.”
“Riiiiight.” Angel raises an eyebrow. “Lift your paw please?”
Daniel breathes out, and notices that his very breath was enough to ruffle her clothing and send the woman’s hair flying back. Her entire body hardly the length of his face, and the bit of sugary food in her hand hardly a crumb by this point. He does as she asks, shuffling his weight backward and twisting his arms around. It felt awkward and forced, his muscles straining in unusual ways to perform what should have been a simple task. The woman plops the single smore into the center of that palm.
The sphinx closes her fist around it, but finds the fingers are far too short to actually cover the center of the palm. So the treat simply rests there with kitty paws on all sides surrounding it.
“Thank you.” Daniel couldn’t help but sigh out, leaning his face down and, bereft of any other means, extends his tongue to slurp up the first bit of food he’s had all day. The taste exploded onto his tongue, sweet and flavorfull with a bit of crunch. It melts in his mouth and extends across the palate. And then it was gone, the taste vanished as fast as it came. So very slight on such a large creature.
Daniel somehow felt he was hungrier now than he’d been before any food was offered.
“Are you sure you didn’t just live in a museum or something, like maybe the Egyptian exhibit?” Keth brings up.
“I am entirely positive. I am a human, my name was Daniel, I go to school and I have friends and a cell phone number and this is the weirdest moment of my entire life. If this all turns out to be a dream then I’ll need to go hug something.”
“You’ll need more than hugs at this point.” Angel sighs, walking back toward the fire. “It was really stupid of me to offer you smores of all things, I’ll bet you couldn’t even taste that.”
“Actually it tasted wonderful. It’s just not very filling.”
“I’ll betchu could eat halfa car and not fill that gut oh yers.” Charley huffs.
“Even if I am a lion now I’m pretty sure I don’t need that much iron in my diet.” Daniel huffs right back.
Written by Arbon on 05 August 2016