Pursuit in the Park (Soot &Guglin)

The wet earth ceded easily when his strong arms pushed at it. Almost without effort he succeeded at opening a jagged hole for his small body to left the cozy den. He stood still on the side of the entrance that was hidden by vegetation, and let out a long yawn that revealed all his teeth. Small but deadly, just like him.
When the green humanoid finally managed to close his mouth after the involuntary process, he introduced one of his arms back underground, where he found a huge colorful umbrella. Once he was protected under the colossal shadow, the green creature began his usual walk.

The trees of that small natural island absorbed most of the punishment from the sun, providing a refreshing shade to the paths beneath them. Still, these giant creatures could not fight the flames all alone, so a few sun rays still extended their little fingers trying to catch him.
With the stolen umbrella the evil sun rays were repelled easily, probably because that strange object was built with some sort of magical cloth that was beyond his comprehension. Whatever it was, it gave him the ability to enjoy the scenery without worries.

Each new road seemed emptier than the previous one. There were no human left for him to scare, or dogs that needed to be released, not even young children to disturb. The forest had become a desert.
Knowing that he would not find anything to do until the sun hid, the little monster began to walk back to his cave.
To his surprise, he discovered a side road that he had not visited before, and in it, he found something even more wonderful. An object. The strange device produced a small compact flash as bright as the sun that mesmerized him. He wanted that thing but unfortunately the object was not alone; there was a human with it.

The little device sang again with its golden voice and produced another flash that asked him to... no, that commanded him to grab it. In reply to that touching request, Guglin nodded heroically. Then prepared all his muscles while waiting for the adrenaline to oxygenate his lithe body. A moment later he began to run.
He ran frantically until he reached his goal, where he stopped for enough time to take the lighter (pushing the bottle in the process). Just a few seconds. No more, no less. Then, cnce the brightness was in his hands, he accelerated to get away quickly from the scene.

Large yellow eyes stared back at the very moment the man started to run behind him, his silhouetted against a sky full of orange and red. The colors of fire. The colors of the sun.
He also managed to see the bottle he barely touched, now it was lying on the floor, partially broken and spilling its contents onto the ground, contaminating the earth with chemical substances.
His long ears caught exactly the same scene but in a much more aural way. Crystal splitting against a solid surface, the sound of approaching footsteps that accelerated with every step, the man´s voice filled with fury. All these curses casted silently or aloud did not matter at all, in fact these words just made him smile once more.

When he entered the forest, the creature still wore the grim smile of satisfaction on his lips like a strange battle banner, or maybe a coat of arms that mocked the human´s bad luck and glorified his piracy. The umbrella danced and jumped in a strange dance while the goblin moving into the bushes, his left shoulder was beginning to ache from the constant blows he was receiving by the handle of the umbrella, and his right hand with the pain of the small metal device nailing with emphasis on his skin, but still, the worst pain was in his chest. The slightly cold air from dusk stabbed his lungs from the inside while the whips of branches on his bare chest hurt him on the outside.

Even with all those little annoyances trying to reduce his speed, the goblin knew the forest well enough. His feet dodged rocks and hidden roots with great skill, while his eyes quickly found the best paths between the trees. He was about to reach another road, when he slowed down to listen. Thousands of sounds came to him from his surroundings. One more time the small animals played their natural music, but among all these sounds he could not hear anything else. Since he was not receiving any sounds from his rival, the creature stopped completely, turning on his heel to face in the opposite direction. There was no man behind him, nothing but a big cloud of smoke. Gray as stone with black veins of pure hatred. His big eyes grew even bigger as his brain came to the same logical conclusion as his instinct. Where there is smoke there is... "Fire?"

His body language said all that his voice did not dare to reveal. His ears fell to the sides of his head as if to hide from a deafening noise, while his lips remained twisted in a grimace of discontent. His whole body feared the great fire that was causing all that smoke, but though his eyes searched, she could not find anything. The only red was in the sunset sky that relentless advanced into the night.
It was at that moment, when the alarm in his head stopped ringing that he was able to reason again. There was no fire. Only smoke. And although it was not possible, he knew he was going to find the source of that ghostly apparition.

He was still trying to find a "logical" explanation for that situation when he noticed that the cloud was still advancing towards him, it was moving as if it knew what to do, as if it has a conscious of its own. It was impossible. His face was now dominated by a perpetual expression of bewilderment. What was that? What wanted that thing? Then, as if the smoke cloud heard his silent questions, it began to take shape and solidify to form a man. The same man from before.

The man's voice brought him an order that his body refused to obey, even when he repeated the request through his own electrical impulses, his muscles refused to move. His very body was condemning him. Guglin could only observe. The man was very close to him, but limited himself to produce two strange objects from their deep pockets.

The objects that appeared to be extremely harmless were combined in a smooth motion that was almost magical to form a long snake of fire that propelled toward him with his big mouth open while hissing with fury. Without time to react, the little green creature instinctively lifted the umbrella, trying to protect his body from the fierce animal of multiple colors.

The fire tore his shield of plastic with strong jaws, opening holes to skillfully introduce his warm tongue to transforms the colored cloth into ashes. The fire walked like an animal through the thin filaments that had once contained the fabric, devouring everything in its path with a voracious hunger. The flames spread to the handle of the object, and before Guglin could get rid of that dangerous element, his hand was licked by a tongue of fire.

The heat absorbed by that small piece of skin burned quickly spreading the heat to every cell of his body, activating an accelerated carbonization process that transformed her small body into a statue. Every tissue in his body, from skin to bones lost their initial molecular structure to reform skillfully as carbon fiber. Even the electrical impulses traveling at his neurons and nerves were frozen, like the blood in his veins.

From what before had been a living creature, nothing remained aside from its shape, the rest had been replaced by an artificial material that was completely dead. His right hand still clutching tightly the little device he had stolen, while his left hand held the skeleton of an umbrella as a shield. The features of his face were frozen in a mixture of surprise and fear that represented the last moment of awareness.

When the temperature of his artificial skin reached an optimal level, the defense system disabled itself to start the complicated process again. This time in reverse. The thousands molecular reactions were carried out in different parts of his body simultaneously and soon transformed what once had been a synthetic alloy into skin, bones and organs.
That pulse of life expanded from the darkest corners of his body into his most external organ. The last part to become organic was his skin, and in that moment, his mind came back again.

While in the real world his body had been an object for about half an hour, in his mind he had not spent a single second in that form. Alarmed by the scorching heat over his hand, Guglin quickly attracted his extremity toward his body in a protective gesture. He still held the remains of his shield, a strange set of thin tubes that formed an aberrant spider. The fabric that protected him from the sun and that united those thin legs, were absolutely gone.

The actual sensation of his hand soon won over the memory, so the false sense of pain soon disappeared. One by one his senses began to wake up, and soon he found the memories that claimed he was fighting a man able to manipulate fire. But the serpent of fire was not there.

The only clue that the time had not remained static while he had not paid attention to it, was in the darkness. Everything was covered by a thin layer of obscurity that was only opposed by the distant lights of the buildings surrounding the park. Still, with his eyes, each object looked clearer than under daylight.

Then he saw his enemy, and bared his teeth in a dangerous smile to show his discomfort. His body prepared itself to jump over his enemy before he could produce more fire. But the man's attitude was so calm that it even achieved to tame the little monster. So he closed his mouth and stared with full yellow eyes.

The spears of fire the magician used to start the battle disappeared without a trace. Even his skin that should be burned showed no signs of attack. But even so, his recent memories insisted that there had been a battle with fire. So the mental conflict persisted. The only evidence that showed the skills of the fire tamer was in his left hand, where his shattered shield rested unable to help him anymore.
Without even giving a second chance to the useless object, he dropped it producing a small cloud of ash that soon mingled with the shadows.

The unique composition of his eyes helped his gaze to penetrate easily into the darkness that bathed everything. Each very small details meet his large yellow eyes that glowed like lanterns so he was able to see as a little cricket escaped from the place, ready to survive one more night, while a small bluish bird landed on more distant tree, his eyes even caught a small rodent that woke to find food. Still, his skillful eyes could not find the owl that hooted in the distance, or the barking dog.

The wizard broke his concentration easily, taking his mind away from the wonders of nature and drawing his attention to him. His yellow eyes jumped from the plants and trees to the human that even sitting was taller than him. From the same place, Guglin carefully observed the strange creature and all his details. His skin tone was full of light, while his odd hands had five fingers. As if that were not enough, his eyes were also very strange with three different colors.
Although he had seen many of them, they always managed to fascinate the little green man.

Despite his movements were slow and soothing, the tension soon grew inside his green body to face the possible threat. The last time the magician had introduced his hands in his pockets, he had produced a huge animal of fire, and so this time every muscle of his body was prepared for the worst. Fortunately the new object was not fire but radiated an elegant aroma that cleared all his doubts.

The small humanoid was so determined to taste that new human food that he immediately forgot all his doubts and fears, to advance with confidence to sit in the place of honor next to his host. Once there, he pronounced his name in a distinctive sharp voice. "Guglin." Then, he gave the pyromancer a beautiful smile that showed all his dangerous teeth.

Since his arriving to the big city, Guglin had seen many humans roam the park so he knew very well that the human sitting next to him was not one of the tallest or the biggest, but he was still quite a wonder for Gug, a marvel he could not miss. Although he had to tilt his head in a very uncomfortable position, the little monster stared back, fascinated by the strange details in his face and eyes that possessed strange colors and shapes.
Nor could he help but notice the fact that the man, still sitting, was twice his height and could observe him from the heights with ease.

The creature quickly accepted the meat, leaving aside any thought that were not into the lines of devouring. The lighter was left on the floor, while his companion's face lost all magic.
His four fingers took the meat up to his small nose without wasting time, where his weak sense of smell confirmed that that food was the source of that delicious aroma. Then he carelessly threw the meat into his mouth, sharp teeth attacked it to change its shape into small irregular pieces. "Tasty." Confirmed the green humanoid as his tongue ran over his teeth to catch any particles of flesh that might remain there.

The man finally presented himself as Sylus, a very strange name that the goblin had never heard in the park. Still, that peculiar word could not catch his attention as much as the plastic package did. So he stared and waited until the man pushed the bag closer to him.
While his eight fingers deftly opened the package to take another piece, the man continued talking.
The situation reminded him a lot of his human father, who always made him repeat a phrase or word before feeding him... maybe it was the same with all humans.

Once he had his prize, the humanoid replied with a curious tone. "I do." Then he smiled, clearly amused by the strange comparison. "Flesh, not brick." Assured the goblin with his hand extended for the man to watch his green skin.

From the battle that occurred one hour ago nothing else was left, not even the memories of those intense moments could enrage the two figures that now were eating together, exchanging words as if they were friends. The hostility that both had felt completely disappeared to be replaced by an unearthly quietness that reminded him too much of his imprisonment in his fake father´s. Aside that perturbing memory, the moment was pleasant enough for him to forget everything but the company.

His silent observation soon drew his attention to the eyes of the human. A strange trait that all the specie shared.
Compared with his large amber eyes, the eyes of the man were too small and probably not suited to the dark, so Guglin could not help but wonder about how much of the nocturnal world he could see.
With his eyes the wonders of the night were easy to spot, and as long as he had the distant light of a star or a faint touch of moonlight, the little monster knew that he could observe with an enviable quality, as it had extensively tested back in the mountains. Hunting was easier at night, as well as stealing so his pack had always preferred to move under the cover of the night. But... How much was able to see that man?

His concerns, suspicions and questions were soon buried under a wave of flavor that penetrated his brain through his tongue. The meat easily ceded to the strength of his sharp teeth, but to his delight, the particular flavor lasted a little more. When the flavor finally disappeared, the green humanoid replied. "I do." Pause. "Near big lake"Yellow pupils stare at the human with curiously as his thin lips helped his throat to produce new words. "You know my mountain?" Although he did not know exactly where he was or where his pack and mountain could be, Gug felt hopeful. Maybe he knew his parents and could carry him there. The city was too big, and all his attempts to find mountains had ended in failure.

Almost forgetting the question posed to the human, the green goblin let the natural and artificial sounds of the night to entertain them with their discordant melodies. As he listened intently for an answer and the sounds strange and familiar, his four fingers took another piece of meat. This time his jaws stopped before closing around his prey as if he had seen something completely mesmerizing. "You are like I." He said at last, pushing the silence with each word as if it were too solid to breathe. The man that was eating with him was not human. He turned into smoke. The surprise was soon replaced by a new kind of fascination that was expressed in a smile.