Little Friend 1 (Patreon)

I'm still in "a mood" after finding out I'll need to rewrite the murder mystery. So, he's something stupid that I slapped together like the hack I am...

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Ateri crossed his arms, his ears lowered in a scowl. “Why?”

“I don’t know why,” snapped Commissioner Sarsuk, raising his head slightly so he could see over his table-sized strand. “The company … likes keeping records of stuff. Perhaps, it’s so no one can pretend to be captain.”

Ateri scowled even harder. “You know what I look like.”

“Well, of course, I do,” groaned the krakun. “But I mean, if I got sick and someone had to fill in for me. They’d want to make sure that the actual Captain was greeting them, not just some black geroo wearing an eyepatch.”

The captain stood in silence for a long moment. “Okay, fine. Whatever. Just take the photo.”

Sarsuk hesitated.

“Did you take it?” asked the black geroo.

“Could you … smile?”

Ateri’s tone turned as icy as a comet. “Why?”

“Because…” Sarsuk growled to himself. “Because you look dominant like that. This is for … the company, damn it. Could you just … pretend you didn’t hate my guts for a moment?”

Ateri couldn’t manage that, but his hostility waned for a moment, and as soon as his ears lifted the tiniest bit, Sarsuk snapped the photo.

“Okay. Now, turn around.”

Ateri glared. “Why?”

“Because I can only see half of you from the front, obviously!” growled the gigantic lizard.

“So?”

“So, I am not failing to accomplish a task just because you’re stubborn!” shouted Sarsuk. “Now … turn … around!”

Ateri stomped in a circle, stopping with his back to his boss. “Okay?”

Another pause. “Could you … lift your tail a little?”

“I am not bending over for a photo!” shouted the little geroo over his shoulder.

“Ew, gross, no!” said Sarsuk, backpedaling quickly. “I just meant the end of your tail.”

“Why?”

“Just lift your tail!”

# # #

Ateri stalked down the corridor, talking quietly into his strand. “It was just weird, okay?”

“Weird, like what?” Jakari asked him.

“I don’t know. Just weird.” The captain turned all the way around as he walked, making sure no one was listening in on his conversation. He lowered his voice even further. “You don’t suppose he’s up to something?”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know!” the captain hissed. “That’s precisely why I was so unnerved.”

“I’m sure it’s nothing,” said his mate. “You said, all the commissioners had to take photos of all the captains, right?”

“That’s what he said. I’m just not sure I believe him.”

“No?”

“He wanted…” Ateri chewed his lower lip.

“Wanted what?” her voice tinged with more than a touch of curiosity.

“In the photo,” he explained. “He wanted the photo to include a bit of … my tail … the underside of my tail.”

“He wanted you to lift your tail for him?” she nearly shouted.

“No! No! No!” he urgently hushed her. “Just the end of it. Just a little of it.”

“Oh, hon, he’s got a crush on you!”

Ateri scowled hard. “Don’t be gross.”

“No, I’m serious,” she said. “He was totally coming onto you.”

“Oh, stop.”

# # #

Kanti huddled close with Tish and Suni, speaking in quiet tones. “Perhaps, he’s gone senile?” Suni asked. “He is very old.”

“Not old for a krakun,” said Tish.

“Well, some people go senile young.” Suni shrugged. “I’ve read up on geroo dementia, but never krakun. It might be worth some reading…”

“I don’t really care if he’s crazy,” offered Kanti, “until it impacts the crew.”

“You don’t think … he’d try to hurt us?” asked Suni.

“Maybe? But that’s not the only risk,” he replied.

“If he’s getting soft in the head, he could lose his job,” said Tish.

“That could definitely affect us,” said her mate.

“How do you know he’s going crazy?” asked Suni. “What symptoms have you observed?”

“I heard him talking to himself,” said Kanti.

Tish rolled her eyes. “Lots of people talk to themselves. My dad did all the time, and he was perfectly sane.”

Kanti squeezed her paw. He knew how she missed her family. “Yeah, but he was doing two voices. That’s not normal … is it?”

“Two … voices?” asked Suni.

Tish asked, “What did he say?”

“Well,” Kanti said, “he was using his voice and then a little squeaky voice—as squeaky as he could manage, at least—like he was talking to a geroo.”

“A geroo?” gasped Tish.

“Yeah… He was talking in the Geroo language.”

“He … did?” Tish’s eyes went wide. “What did the squeaky voice say?”

Kanti gnawed at his lip. “Well, the squeaky voice was being all contrary, telling him no for anything he suggested, like he was roleplaying his job, like when he’d go talk to the captains and they’d resist whatever he wants them to do.”

“That definitely doesn’t sound normal,” said Suni with a scowl.

“No, but it gets weirder! Instead of getting angry at the squeaky voice,” said Kanti, “his usual voice was talking to it like it was a cub being difficult. Y’know? Trying to talk it into things?”

“Talk it into what?” asked Tish.

Kanti sat back on palms and shrugged. “I don’t know. I didn’t hear that part.”

“I bet it’s because of what’s in his closet,” suggested Duesh as he peeked into the conversation.

Kanti frowned. “Hey! We’re trying to have a private conversation here.”

Duesh was only seventeen and has spent much of his life on the cleaning crew. Like many of the teens, he’d forgotten what privacy was like.

“Wait, what?” asked Suni. “His closet? Which closet?”

“The one in the hallway,” said Duesh, showing zero remorse for listening in.

Tish put a paw on the teen’s hip. “We’re not allowed to go in the closet. It’s locked.”

“Well, it’s just a latch,” said Duesh. “Not much of a lock.”

“No, but there’s no access ladder to it,” said Kanti. “You can’t even get above it and lower down on a rope. Climbing the door would be risky. If you fell, you’d die for sure.”

Duesh grinned. “Yeah, but you don’t have to. The door is mounted kinda high. If you just shove the carpet fibers aside, you can squirm underneath it.”

Kanti’s eyes opened wide. “Wait. You’ve been inside the hall closet?”

The teen smiled and shrugged. “I … mighta.”

Tish’s eyes opened wider. “So, what’s in the closet?”

“Nothing exciting,” said Duesh. “A lotta dust, some broken stuff, … oh, and a geroo pillow?” His ears grinned so wide.

“Wait,” said Tish. “A pillow … in the shape of a geroo?”

“Nah,” said the teen. “It’s just regular-shaped but real long, like one pillow for both sides of the bed.”

“But it’s … geroo-sized?” asked Suni.

“No, it’s got a geroo on it,” Duesh explained. “A gigantic geroo so big that he’s the length of the pillow almost.”

Suni was puzzled. “A gigantic geroo … is in the closet?”

“No,” the teen groaned, “a photo of a geroo but blown up real big and printed on the pillow.”

The three adults shared a look for a long moment before returning their attention to Duesh. At long last, Suni asked, “Who?”

“Beats me,” said Duesh as he turned to walk away. “Some black geroo with one eye.”

———

Reviewer's link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WGD9VXmi0XJWWAMA0HzNLERtooddtfyuW8V3SoPO-pc/edit?usp=sharing

Thoughts?