"And how can you be sure? You don't even speak more than a word at the time."
He heard a low growl followed by a series of irritated gibberish enunciations.
"Don't you know how to speak? Man! What are you? Three?"
The rain suddenly stopped, yet the noise was still all around him, muffled. Mister Show towered over his head, the red light coming out of his eyeball made Keith look up. A mouth appeared near his hear, just to whisper.
"Keith... you fucking brat."
The kid's face stopped in time for a whole minute. The his eyebrows lifted, only the rain could humidify his eyes. The water merged with invisible tears in a weighing silence.
'That was... mother's voice. I thought his appearance was the only thing he had scary. So, he's smart. And now he's upset. Well done.'
He gritted his teeth and said.
"I'll begin the tests with the partridges."
And the shadow answered, with a second voice.
"Experiment on them."
'That's my voice.... I'm pretty sure I said that! And... mother too. So he is learning from us? If we can have full conversation later, I must talk to him more.'
"Yes! We'll begin with the chicks first, else they could die without their parents. Do you remember how much were left? Two, three?"
"Three."
Keith nodded, thunder thundered above them and he felt good. No one around because of the weather, he doubted the the patrol would be around on the same zone soon. He climbed the three and saw inside the nest two lively birds and a dead chick. His stomach growled.
"This one first. Then this one."
Perched on the top of the tree, he felt stable. He observed the dead one. Its flesh was stiff and it was very cold. He couldn't smell anything coming out of it, though it was a bit rotten, and fleas had a good time on it. Very small maggots crept all over it.
He did not care much and bit the head off. When he chewed, he could feel the larvae exploding one after one, their organs were tiny and too easily torn apart. But The chick's skull was faintly sturdier than last time. The eyes burst out and fell in his stomach.
Then he ate its body, all of its inside were filled with the worm's digested meal. This felt delicious. It had a semblance of salty and sourness came.
'Finally, some good food. Still that's far from the cat's level. But I could feel it, taste! Taste is still here.'
He gave the bird to Mister Show and entered his house after wringing out his shirt. His mother was still slumbering. In the kitchen, he tried to cook it by himself. But he wasn't a top chef.
He peeled the bird and ate its young feathers. It tickled his soft palate, nothing more.
The softest feathers burnt above the tiny flames he lit. He noticed a black smoke around the skin cooking. He pondered on useless things time to time.
'It is too young to have fat, maybe it'll be drier.'
Bubbles of blood popped on the surface on the skin, Keith didn't let it cool and bit it straight away. Its high temperature didn't chock his mouth nor his tongue, which he could not have predicted. He did not feel any taste from this chick.
He heard his stomach growling one more time. Mister Show appeared.
"No, we must leave some for the next days. I don't want to come back on the lizard diet this soon."
The instant he blinked, the shadow had vanished.
That didn't destabilize him for a long time, he noticed he was finally tired, after a day and a half not sleeping.
A reflex came back to him, one he wished he it forgot for good. He licked his finger after his meal and he passed out on his chair, his thumb in his mouth. He woke up to a light touch on his shoulder.
"Hey, you shouldn't sleep so early, or your night will be shorter. We are both very tired, aren't we?"
With a smile on her face, her mother woke him up gently. His clothes were already dry.
"Sun is already going down, if we eat now we won't after sunset. You hungry?"
Keith was half awake, there was something off inside his tummy. But it felt empty. He couldn't feel any bloat. There was a hole in his stomach. He was constantly hungry, he had urges to eat again and again. But he was tired of wondering on everything.
'Alright. Just Alright. Let's wait for tonight. I don't want to go outside this night anyway, if a guard shows up I'll have problems.'
"No mother, let's wait for tonight."
Keith wanted some time to talk with Mister Show, but he couldn't ask his mother to see Domi next door as a pretext, she wouldn't accept him risking to get sick with the crop to maintain. So he went in their room while his mother was busy sorting out food for the next days.
He sat on the bed and lift his shirt to the top of his head, as if he stopped taking off his shirt mid way. Afterwards he whispered in his private space.
"You know birds? I want the colourful, adult one. That should be the father, he does not feed the chicks much. Can you see colours?"
The shadow did not answer but the shirt's temperature rose back. He took this as a positive answer.
'Of course he can see colours, why could he not.'
He did not wait for a long time before the shadow passed though the window. With a living bird that jumped all around the place. The kid had an idea, he pulled the mattress against the window to block the exit and called out his mother. Gesturing Mister show to go away.
"Mother! I think dinner just came in by the window!"
She brutally entered the room, slamming the door on her way and jumped off straight on the bird. She caught it mid air and broke its neck with more than half a head turn. She clicked her tongue and said.
"There. I'll prepare it, how lucky we are today! Who could have imagined that!"
There was a disastrous smile hanging on her face, it was all a blatant lie and it was as evident as saying 'there's only one sun', the lack of light on her face made her seem lifeless for an instant. She was stuck in a weird position, holding the bird's head with two hands. She bothered closing its eyes before going to the kitchen.
Keith swallowed his saliva. He had never seen this face, but he was scared of it. Deep in his guts, there were claws, gripped onto his insides telling him to not approach his own mother. He did not dare to doubt and stayed on the bed, frightened. He asked lowly.
"You'll protect me right? If something happens?"
"Yes."
That was the only thing he needed. He starred at his scars. Then turned toward the shadow, looking at him, grabbed the monster's face and while remembering where its eyes usually appeared, he said.
"I don't want this any more, ever. Enough of pain. Enough scars over my body, enough desperate situations. Whatever you want from me, we'll go for it if you protect me."
Its face was still, with the two bulb slightly shining crossing its head, he nodded.
'Sigh, nothing holds in place here either.'
He spent time looking at the decaying wood on the floor, just under his bed, he'll need to go through a lot of work to have it repaired. For the time being, the rotten floor was just a way to increase the softness of his mattress. The smell wasn't uncomfortable any more anyway.
Raima entered the room and threw a small bag next to him. She told her son.
"That's for the next pillow we'll make. Dinner will be ready soon. What are you doing in the dark? I told you to not sleep at daytime."
'Don't worry, a mother takes care of its chick. Don't worry.'
He entered the kitchen to see their biggest plate on the middle of the table with a brown stew inside and thyme floating next to meat chunks, two cups and a jar of water were added thanks to the rain.
"Thankfully you left the bucket out today, you are a good boy."