From the bottom of his heart, Sam was laughing uncontrollably while ordering the mother Dinobird around quite excitedly, like a baby who had just got a new toy to play with in joy.
"Hahah, yes, fire at them non-stop and make them suffer heavily to realise how stupid they were to dare attacking me, the awsome and powerful boss tamer," Sam mocked and complemented himself.
Well, it was his first time ever feeling greatly excited to such point like this, so no wonder he would be behaving like so with no rest. As a fact, his whole life on Earth had been just filled with bullying and mocking. He didn't have friends to hang out with, travel on trips for days with, or play cards and sleep together, hence the first-time high level of excitement.
At a time, Elina had told Sam that his father had died in an accident. So, the only one remaining in his life had been his joyful and vigorous mother -- Elina. But sadly, she was no longer there anymore, leaving him in life alone, in every respect for sure.
Right now, the adult Dinobird was staring at Sam silently, wondering if it had mistaken him with a sane kindhearted human as he now actually looked like a psycho living his own world with no calm. But actually, it didn't know he was experiencing somethings and feelings totally new for him; that's why he was acting so.
<'...Is he insane?! We're fighting these damn lots of Tigowls by our own to survive this inescapable situation, yet what he's doing is enjoying! I'm starting to doubt his plan. In the end, death would be playing with its finger around with us.'> the adult Dinobird wondered.
Next, it ignored the crazy human and went on spinning its body around to throw out a fireball at the Tigowls even more powerfully.
Every time it threw a fireball, the Tigowls got more and more panicked, and in disorder. Each fireball struck onto a Tigowl or more would instantly set them on fire, starting to spread to the nearby ones with just one single touch. That was because their fur was highly flammable.
*OWOO OWOO!
<"Aaah, I'm burning!! I'm burning!! Please, help me!!"> a Tigowl screamed, stretching its paw out to a nearby Tigowl, pleading for help.
<"D-don't get any closer to me and kill me along with you! I-I can't do anything to you!!"> the latter Tigowl replied, retreating back, refucing to help.
<"Aaah, THIS REALLY HURTS TOO MUCH!!">
The painful and scared loud screams of the panicking Tigowls were resounding throughout the entire area, reaching the ears of the monsters in the forest as for the explosions. In fact, the fire was one of their weak points, they were totally unable to do anything about this just to scream in pain.
On top of all the matter, unlucky for them, their hadn't been any source of water in the nearby area either; no pools, no rivers, no waterfalls, no sea or ocean, nor even a swamp; nothing at all. What they could do was just rolling around in agony.
The duo Tigowls with the afro and spiky hairstyles somehow could escape the situation and set off the fire on them. Their hairstyles, or whatever they were, had been sadly burned. As a result, a fit of profuse crying had immersed them.
<"M-my afro! How did these damn Dinobirds dare to do such thing to the best hairstyle ever!!"> the Tigowl with afro cried sorrowfully.
<"W-was my hair really burned?! How could this happen?! How could they dare to burn my hair?! Don't they know that I will kill anyone touch it?!"> the Tigowl with spiky questioned, also crying sadly. <"And for correction, since when your hairstyle had become the best?"> the afro-haired one heard that but ignored.
These duo Tigowls were in grief, if one was to see their state, they would immediately think they difinitely were in a situation in which somebody quite important to them might had just died.
Then soon, their faces got dark as they frowned deeply and were filled then with anger and fury, flaming their eyes with the will to avenge.
<"...Wait ya fucking Dinobirds. We'll take revenge on ya twice!!"> the afro-haired Tigowl threatened.
<"Y-yes, I'm with you, aren't I?!"> the spiky-haired Tigowl agreed.
*****
The whole force of Tigowls was starting to retreat, and Sam got laughing even louder like crazy, like any victor with a perfect and overwhelming victory would do.
"Hahaha, yes run. Run away as far as you can from the great and dangerous 'Sam'," he shouted in a confident and proud voice. "Know how stupid you were to face me."
The Dinobird was completely stunned with wonder. How could his plan succeed as smoothly as his confidence was?! It was an inescapable situation. And upon seeing the human was behaving insane, it started to doubt the chances for the plan to work as it thought he was not right in the head. However, they unbelievably made it and survived! It thought, still wondering in complete disbelief.
That was why it started to stare at him with a respectful gaze and a smiling face.
Going back recalling how it was surprised when first hearing Sam's plan, it was after the third wave of explosions had stopped, the weird human had begun to explain his idea in a confident voice...
"We're going to use those shattered corpses to fight back against the Tigowls," Sam explained while pointing his hand at the undressed dead bodies, " it's our last resort, if it failed, we are already dead meats. So, please, gather them into a pile again."
Hearing that, at first, the Dinobird tilted its head as being dumbfounded, but soon then, when it realised that he had mentioned 'corpses', it got startled and flinched immediately. What possibly this human was planning to do with the dead bodies? This question stuck in its head while gathering the bodies.
-"...Huh?"
When seeing its reactions, Sam figured out that it was surprised and wondered about what he was planning, so he decided to give it a hint.
"The Tigowls have fur, aren't they?" He asked.
-"Y-yes, they are," the Dinobird answered, confused, unsure of the answer.
"What will happen if you hit them with fire?"
-"Hmmm,"
It had been contemplating for some time, and Sam's eyebrows was starting to twitch in annoyance.
"...If you don't know, just tell me," he told while frowning at it.
-"I-I don't know," the Dinobird replied, embarrassed, scratching its head.
"Fire will be set to them," Sam finally gave it the answer.
-"Oh, now I got it. But how are we going to make a fire?" The Dinobird asked back.
As an answer, Sam then silently picked up two stones from the ground and then walked over to the corpses. Next, he suddenly started to hit and rub the stones against each other. The Dinobird was confused by what he was doing, it didn't get it.
Now the only question in its mind was, what was this weird human doing?
Yet, the answer for its question came as soon as sparks came out from the friction of the two stones, and there was a bit of smoke ascending as well. Upon seeing that, it understood in an instant that the sparks would set the corpses to fire.
<'What a great idea!'> the Dinobird thought, flabbergasted.
Soon then, it took a large stone and began to approach the now pile of corpses.
Sam, hearing its stomps, turned around just to be startled and jerk, he saw the Dinobird holding a heavy-looking large stone, that was why he started to crawl in panic away from it.
"W-w-what are you doing?" Sam asked, panicked. "Want to crush me with this rock!?"
-"Don't worry, I will just try to do what you want to achieve," the Dinobird reassured him.
Soon, it put the stone down on the floor, not near the pile. It tightened its grips on the stone before starting to run while dragging it between its legs, making a pretty strong friction between the large stone against the ground.
Shockingly, rather than producing a spark no matter whether large or small, the result of the Dinobird's doing was, producing a ready-made full flame instead, which set the corpses to fire in an instant. It made an extraordinary success from the first attempt.
Honestly speaking, witnessing all that stunned Sam heavily.
Back on Earth, no one was able to achieve half what one of the weakest monsters on Monestopia had achieved just now, which is the Dinobird in front of him. Nobody, from Earth, could produce a flame instantly from friction only, and to confound the matter even further, even a large spark was an impossible feat.
'Surprisingly, this so-called Dinobird has done something impossible on Earth like a piece of cake,' Sam thought before he wondered, 'if she's really weak, according to the book, then how much stronger are the others with higher ranks? Just thinking of this is giving me the chills.'
Seeing the expression on Sam, the Dinobird proudly thought the human was quite shocked by what he had seen. It was right about that, but only half. It didn't know that he was gauging the other monsters' strengths by putting it as an indicator.
After a while, Sam shook his head and snapped out of his thoughts, and started to make some leaps out of excitation when noticing the flames keeping to spread on the pile and to get bigger and bigger. That meant the first stage of his plan's success started to bloom.
In the other hand, something deep inside him was making him feel regretful for doing such thing to these bodies, including the non-human ones. The reason why was because doing such thing to a corpse was considered a desecration, but what could he do? He had no choice but to do it in order to survive. So for that reason, Sam couldn't help but had to turn a blind eye to this one.
"G-great, that's very great!! This is going to be enough.... I hope?" Sam shouted in a delight voice before turning towards the Dinobird to say: "You shall throw out the burning bodies at the Tigowls as powerfully as your limits allow, can you?"
-"With pleasure," it replied.
Now, after done recalling, the Dinobird admired him even more. The human didn't stop throwing at it huge surprises one after another. Honestly, he was a unique one of his kind.
<'W-we have survived for real!'> it thought, still unable to believe. <'As I remember, he has told me that he is a tamer. I have never heard about tamers before, not even a bit. But now, I admit it. He does deserve that.'>
While Sam was still laughing insanely, the Dinobird started to walk over to approach him. Sam took a notice that it was coming to him, thus he stopped laughing, waiting curiously for it to reach. He felt it wanted to tell him something, hence the wait. But once it got close enough, it immedately bowed before Sam as a knight bows before his esteemed king.
That actually startled him as he jerked back as a result. It was right he had assumed that it wanted something from him, yet he had absolutely never expected it to do such thing. What possible reason that would make it bow for him as if he was its 'master'?
'W-what's she doing?! Why did she bow in front of me like this?!' Sam wondered, and found himself dumbfounded.
It then started to speak out seriously with its head down and its eyes closed.
*Qua qua
-"I'll tell you how I truly feel about you right now, I recognize you as my master. You difinitely succeeded in taming me."
The moment it finished saying that, Sam's birthmark as well as its symbol started to shine and glow with light, and its symbol also got clearer, with deeper lines, than it was.
Sam and the Dinobird was surprised when they noticed the light as they also figured out what it meant. It seemed like the symbols, Sam's and the Dinobird's, were responding to the Dinobird's words. When compairing this incidence with the first time the symbol appeared on it, Sam figured out one thing, his first taming attempt finally hit a complete success.
'Could it be..... I succeeded!?' Sam wondered, shocked by the thought.
A short while after, a faint light glowed from them both that surrounded the whole body. Strangely, Sam felt like some changes had occurred to his body, was it really this case, or was it something else? And did the Dinobird felt changes too or not? A lot of questions were storming in his head, but the one stood out amongst them was....
'I-I tamed it for real?! I can't believe I did it!!' Sam wondered, still in disbelief.
Sam walked over to the Dinobird and asked it, "the name's Sam, by the way. Don't you have a name?"
-"N-no, we don't use names," it replied, disappointed with the matter, smiling nervously.
"But how do you communicate with each other?!" Sam asked, surprised.
Well, it was something expected. In the end, they were monsters, and most of the monsters were not like humans at all. Each race had its own unique manners and traditions, even amongst the same race, they did differ from groups to anothers, and this was the case with the Dinobird.
-"Every one of us has a unique shout. In case I need to call for any certain one, I shout with its unique shout," the Dinobird explained. "For example, one of my children's shout is 'qaqaa' while another's 'quaquaa', as for the rest, they are rather similar, yet with different emphases."
Sam was utterly speechless by the reply, he didn't know how to react as heard 'quas' only. A fit of hysteric laugh was urging him to let it out, but he forced it inside though as he didn't want to hurt it's feelings by making fun of their habits, nor did he want to keep his silence any longer, to avoid it thinking he didn't care for it. However, the incredible surprise blocked all the words from reaching his tongue.
That was why he just smiled nervously and improvised, "s-shouts?! I think I should have not asked you about this."
-"N-no, it's okay," the Dinobird replied nervously.
"Then, I should give you a name myself," Sam suggested, grinning vigorously. "Sorry, I can't understand shouts."
Shocked by the sudden decision, the Dinobird was unable to utter words to reply, it even had never thought about the matter until now. It hadn't expected another person would give such suggest either. Hence the silent shock.
Still, its silence was like an answer for Sam, he figured out what its reply would have been if it spoke out.
Soon, tears of delight formed on the edges of its blue eyes, and a wide grin overshadowed its blue face; it was pretty glad.
"Although we have been through an inescapable situation just not too long ago, we still didn't lose hope until we survived," Sam spoke in a smooth voice. "So, I will give you the name.... Hoperist, derived from hope." He uttered the odd name while scratching his 'almost all was brushed to the side' and 'intermediate in length' hair, embarrassed from the way he had come up with the name.
-"Hoperist, it's very beautiful. I like it so much," the Dinobird replied delightfully, and tears fell down its cheeks right after. Sam kept patting on its head to calm it down.
"No, don't do this to me. I didn't give you a name to cry," Sam said, feeling awkward about the situation.
-"I..I still cannot gauge how much kind you are," Hoperist replied. "After all what we have been through till now, I still cannot believe we have found a person as kind and helpful to us as you are. The kids, as well as me, were a hair's width distant from death countless times as everyone is for some reason after us, also, we could not overcome my partner's death still. He was our only protector, but encountering you made me regain my hope." It explained while clenching its fist, and Sam sympathized with it but didn't know what to say.
Yet, soon then, hearing the matter reminded Sam of something he wanted to ask it about for a while, yet the non-ending events had prevented him. But now was his chance.
"By the way, what about the corpses and the wound on your back?" Sam asked. "In addition to your partner's death, are all of them linked to what you've just told me? If my guess is right, then the corpses' owners are the ones who are... sorry, I mean, WERE after you, right? And about the wound, they were also the ones who caused it, I guess."
Hoperist was speechless, it nodded in agreement while its mouth was wide open.
<'First, asked me, but then, gave the answers himself. What is wrong with him?'> It wondered, stunned. <'But honestly, to figure out all of this just by listening to what I said, he is quite smart and impressive.'>
"I knew it," Sam flicked his fingers, proud of himself, and then continued on, "but about your partner, what happened exactly?"
Recalling the incidence in detail made its face sunk, yet it explained in a shaking voice...
-"On a day not so long ago, a group of ten Tigowls or so found our hideout while me and my partner were out looking for food. When we arrived, they were still attempting to capture them, no one knows what they were planning to do with them. But once we spotted each other, rage immersed my partner, and they got greatly terrified. So, to ensure their escape, they took the kids as hostages, that's why me and my partner surendered, but once an opening was offered to us, he immediately pounced on them and managed to kill them all, still, he did not come out of it unharmed, they inflicted... mortal wounds on...on him...." it couldn't continue anymore as lots of cascades of saddened tears began to profusely fall down its blue cheeks.
Hearing and watching all of this, Sam hold on his chest. He felt it hurt him. The pain of losing one's beloved one, he had already experienced, and it was not a pleasent experience either. Sam thought he would never be able to over come such grief, and this was the case with Hoperist also.
"....I'm sorry, Hoperist," Sam apologized with his head down. "I didn't mean to make you cry. I just...I just-"
-"Do not blame yourself," Hoperist interrupted. "It is not your fault at all. Earlier or later, I was going to tell you like you told me yours anyway,"
With this, silence followed, they laid on the cavern floor, and they calmed down soon.
Not too long after, Sam's path of thoughts was deviated, and some nagging questions replaced it.
'By the way, how has the taming attempt succeeded?' Sam wondered.
The moment he thought about that, Sam suddenly recalled what his mom said in the dream which he had seen before finding himself in the holes-filled cavern.
Certain words had taken his attention, and they were...
'Don't worry, son. When you get older, you're going to be able to make them love you... because you're somehow talented in this.'
When looking into these words, something shined in his mind, finally, he perhaps found out how he was able to tame the Dinobird (Hoperist now), and why his symbol appeared on its chest.
'Make them love you', behind this sentence was the secret of taming, apparently.
'So, when the symbol appeared for the first time on its chest, it meant Hoperist was starting to love me?!' Sam wondered, quite surprised. 'The symbol wasn't as clear as now though. Was it because the explosions had interrupted the progress of the taming? Nothing can confirm this.'
By 'love me', that didn't mean like love between a male and a female, but what that meant was like the love between a pet and its owner, or something like that? Sam thought.
Sam gazed at Hoperist with a wondered expression before going back to contemplating.
'And when it recognized me as its master, its symbol has got clearer. Doesn't that mean there are complete taming and partial taming? Unfortunately, nothing can be confirmed yet,' Sam wondered, and got interrupted soon after.
*Qua
-"Now, we need to fly out of the nest before the Tigowls come back again," Hoperist suggested. "We were lucky, surviving the attack was beyond belief. Still, I cannot guarantee that good luck will stick on us once more."
'She is right,' Sam thought, nodding in agreement. 'We have more important priorities also.'
Right then they went to the chamber where its partner's body was lying. Sam tried to suck it into his black hole like rift several times but all to no avail. Then, he got an idea so he made Hoperist hold the body in its arms and tried to suck them both. As he thought, that actually worked. He was excited by the success, but he couldn't play around as they were urgent to leave. Therefore, he called Hoperist back to move as quickly as possible.
Next, Hoperist picked Sam up, and finally, they flew out of the nest cavern, getting themselves rid of it, and Sam kept promising himself to never come back again no matter what.
But because Hoperist was injured, it couldn't hold Sam for a long time. So, it put him down once they set their feet on the floor of the huge forest. Its trees were super tall, and the voice of the chirping birds singing their melody was pretty beautiful, sending a relaxing feeling into Sam.
But Hoperist state was pretty bad, its eyes were fluttering and closing partially, and it was grinding its teeth. Hoperist had been greatly suffering the pain for quite a long time.
Seeing its state, Sam was pained. He couldn't bear watching it suffer like this, but what could he do? He was completely helpless.
"...Let's rest until you feel better," Sam suggested.
-"S-sorry, master. I'm just a burden," Hoperist replied.
"You are not a burden at all!" Sam snapped back, pouting at it, annoyed of what it had said. "And please, call me Sam, not master!"
-"Sorry, master."
Silently, Sam glared down his nose at Hoperist with quite annoyed eyes, and rasped soon after, "Hoperist~, what...have...I...just said?!"
Feeling his violent aura, Hoperist panicked and flinched when it saw Sam angry. He was emitting pretty scary feeling. Was this owing to it becoming tamed by him? Hoperist couldn't help but feel rather fear. Still, Sam was Sam, it couldn't help but feel pretty safe around him though.
-"I-I mean.... S-Sam," Hoperist stuttered and smiled nervously due to the shyness to call its tamer and master by his very name.
In an instant, in 180 degree, Sam changed his expression from frowning to a smiling one, yet the sudden change just made Hoperist feel even more nervous, but hearing his next words made it feel better.
"Now that's good. I like it better this way. Keep on with this," Sam said.
Then, silence filled the air, and no one had anything to share until Hoperist sound became able to be heard, in Sam's mind, only there.
-"Now, I feel better," Hoperist said. "So, do not worry anymore. Right now, I can normally walk on my own."
"Are you sure? If you are lying, make sure that I will get angry for real next time," Sam replied with a concerned look.
-"I am greatly thankful for your kindness, but I am not lying," Hoperist confirmed, looking at Sam with a glad grin.
Sam seeing its wide smile, he decided to not push it anymore and let it do whatever it wanted to, yet still, Sam was quite a bit worried for Hoperist, but he kept it inside.
They then carried on walking for some meters inside the vast forest, but out of the blue, they started to hear sudden noises coming from some bushes around them, yet they couldn't spot what excatly was causing them.
"Huh?"
Sam and Hoperist tensed their bodies up, preparing themselves to react as quickly as possible in case they got attacked.
"If something happened, just take care of yourself and don't worry about me," Sam instructed. "I can take care of myself. Besides, nothing can harm me."
-"...Okay~?" Hoperist replied, unconvinced.
While waiting carefully, two Tigowls with weird and partially burned hairstyles jumped out of the bushes at them and attacked in a blink of an eye.
*Owoo OWOO!
*Owoo?!
'Dammit, what are they saying?!! I can't understand them,' Sam complained inwardly.
Fortunately, Sam panicked and reacted involuntarily. In a way or another, Sam was able to evade it with a hair's width distant from its claws, he could barely see the attack though, or that was what he thought.
*QUAA~!
But soon, Sam froze in his place when he heard that moaning voice and turned around slowly, fearing what he was thinking appear to be true.
The moment his sight spotted the source of the scream, he became stunned and speechless, and his volcanic rage was starting to boil gradually.
"H-hey, H-Hoperist?"
It didn't answer.
"H-h-hey, why didn't you answer me?!"
It kept in silence.
'N-no, not her too.'
With gradually increasing speed, Sam rushed to Hoperist and grabbed its body off the ground as tears made their way out of his eyes, falling involuntarily down his face. Lots and lots amount of blood was flowing out of its body like a river of blood. Sam wetnessing this reminded him of Elina, he couldn't bear to lose anybody else.
"No, no, no, NOT AGAIN!" Sam screamed on the top of his lungs.
There was still no response.
"Aaah~...."
Sadness and fear of losing anyone else filled his head with pure rage. Sam was incredibly weak to such kinds of grief.
Sam then shifted his blazing eyes towards the two Tigowls and felt his volcanic anger was going to burst out of its crater. Sam then shouted on the top of his lungs...
"YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS YOU DOOMED TIGOWLS!"
*****