The little girl and the water lizard

“So, what the hell am I looking at?” I asked Rachel, my AI companion taking up residence in my head. I was in the living room section of the cabin. More specifically, I was seated on the chair at the examiner’s table, scrutinizing a strange-looking creature I held up by the lamp.

“Scanning…” Rachel said, gathering data as I held up the creature by the tail. It looked like a lizard. It was gray in color, almost a bluish white. Its skin was extremely smooth, and it had two black beady eyes on either side of its head. It was kind of cute. But it had jumped on my face while I was sleeping and startled me awake, so it needed to go.

A blue screen suddenly appeared in a corner of my vision, carrying the creature’s information.

“It’s called a water lizard,” Rachel said. “They are extremely rare and are only found in forest lakes, trees, and ponds. Like chameleons, they are also famously known for their unique ability to seamlessly blend in with their environment. However, the water lizard’s abilities far surpass those of the chameleon, as they are able to actually cloak themselves to the point of being practically invisible.”

A cute-looking creature with a really cool ability, I thought. But it still needed to go.

I took it outside, then set it down in front of the cabin. That’s when I realized it was morning. I had only slept for a total of forty minutes, and I suddenly remembered how Rachel had said that the healing potion I took was only going to last for about an hour. So I needed to head into town as soon as I could.

After glancing around the environment for a bit, I looked down and found that the water lizard was no longer there. Maybe it had already left. I turned to head into the cabin to grab a few things before leaving for town. But out of the corner of my eye, I suddenly caught sight of the creature. The little critter had crawled up my shoulder.

“Nope. Nope. Nope.” I reached and grabbed the lizard from its spot on my arm, then plopped it back down on the ground. “You, stay.” I gestured for it to remain where it was before turning around to head inside. Then I found it on my shoulder again.

“What the…? How do you keep doing that?”

I took the little white lizard and marched toward the lake. “Rachel,” I called out. “This thing can swim, right?”

“Yes, but…”

I was just about ready to toss the lizard into the water when...

“Hunter, look!” Rachel stopped me in the process.

At first, I wasn’t sure what she wanted me to see. Then I realized. It was what I was unable to see she was talking about. My hand. I couldn’t see it. I couldn’t see my hand. It was transparent. Not only that, but when I looked down, I found that my entire body was see-through as well. It was almost like I was a ghost, some kind of near-invisible phantom. Huh, I thought to myself. Interesting.

***

I was back in the cabin, sitting on the chair. The lizard was sitting on the table in front of me, staring at me.

“Did you know it could do that?” I asked Rachel.

“No, I didn’t,” Rachel replied. “But I don’t see this as a surprise, as information on the species is very lacking. The water lizards are hard to find, so not many people get the opportunity to study them.”

“So, since it looks like you are sticking around for the time being, what should I name you?” I asked the lizard, who continued to study me with a dumbfounded gaze.

Even after it had shown off its impressive ability to turn not only itself invisible, but also any other person who happened to be touching its body in that very moment, I still tried to get rid of it.

I had gently placed it in the water for it to swim off, only for it to reappear on my shoulder the second I turned my back on the lake to leave. It was then I decided to stop trying to force it away and instead waited until it got bored and left on its own.

“How about Lakey?” I asked the lizard. “You know, because you came from the lake.” I waited for the critter to respond, but I only got its dumbfounded stare.

“Okay, what about Slick?” I asked the creature again, offering up another potential choice for a name. “Because your skin is so smooth,” I told it, but it once again gave me that dumb look. But then it blinked twice, and I took that as my confirmation.

“Alright, then I guess we have a winner,” I said. “Welcome to the club, Slick. You are an official monster slayer now.”

“You know it can’t understand what you are saying, right?” Rachel commented.

I looked at the creature. “No, I think it gets the gist.”

Just then, there was a loud splash from outside the cabin. Someone or something had jumped into the lake.

I quickly stood up from the chair and headed for the front door. Slick, who had been sitting on the table a second before I got up, had now vanished.

I stepped outside and turned in the direction of the lake. That’s when I saw her.

A little girl, maybe four to five years old, had jumped into the water and was now swimming to keep herself afloat. She was staring at me.

She had short black hair and wore a simple white gown. She didn’t seem to be having any trouble with the water. She held something in one of her hands. It resembled a fruit.

“Any idea who she might be?” I asked Rachel.

“I’m afraid not,” Rachel replied. “But my guess is she might be from town. Which reminds me, we really need to get going. You have ten minutes before the effects of the healing potion begin to wear off.”

“Let’s kill two birds with one stone then,” I told Rachel. “We'll find out where she lives, and help her get home.”

I tried walking toward the lake in order to speak to the little girl, but almost immediately she began moving away from me. Not talking to strangers, that was a smart move. However, I only wanted to help her.

It took quite a bit of convincing on my part, showing the girl I meant no harm and telling her I only wanted to help her get home, in case she was lost. Eventually, she grew comfortable enough to let me approach the side of the lake, and as it turned out, she, was lost.

“So, you got a name?” I asked the little girl, who was now sitting on the ground beside me. She still had her legs in the lake, playfully kicking the water and happily munching on her fruit.

“Is that safe?” I asked Rachel, my eyes trained on what she was eating.

“Sun fruit,” Rachel replied in my head. “Extremely healthy and nutritious. Not to mention quite tasty.”

I also noticed the small scars on her arms, and the sky-blue bands on her neck and ankles. I didn’t know what the latter were for, fashion choice maybe. But the former suspiciously resembled pressure marks, the kind you’d get when something tight was wrapped around your hands, like the rubber bands she was wearing, or...

I shook my head at the thought. I refused to imagine an innocent child like this being tied up like an animal. Who would even do such a thing? Why would they do that?

Catching me stealing a glance at her breakfast, the little girl suddenly stopped eating and plunged the remainder of her fruit in my face, urging me to take a bite. “E,” she said, gesturing for me to go ahead.

“Umm, thank you. I’m quite full,” I lied, smiling. “I had a lot to eat this morning, so you should go ahead and finish that.” She studied me with inquisitive eyes for a moment, almost as if she knew I was lying. But then she continued eating, and as soon as she was done with the fruit, she got out of the water to get another.

Come to think of it, how did she get hold of the one she had been eating? The sun fruit tree standing by the lake was quite big and tall. Most of the fruits were at the very top of the tree, several feet high. Even if I jumped off the roof of the cabin, I still wouldn’t be able to reach them.

Just as I was starting to convince myself that she had probably gotten the one she had been eating from among the fresh ones that had fallen on the ground, she then did something that left me dumbfounded.

She walked over to the side of the tree, then positioned herself so she was now facing the lake. She took a couple of steps back and looked up. Her targets were a few very juicy-looking sun fruits that were located at the topmost part of the tree. She licked her lips in anticipation, then performed a little crouch. After centering herself, she broke into a short sprint and leaped into the air.

I immediately pulled my legs out of the water and got to my feet. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The little girl continued to gracefully soar toward the top of the tree, not a look of fear or worry plastered on her face. Instead, she was laser-focused on her targets, and the moment she reached her goal she quickly plucked two of the fruits off their branches before clutching them closely to her chest and letting her momentum and gravity take over.

She began falling toward the lake, but just before she fell in, she somehow slowed her descent and landed with a soft splash. She emerged out of the water a second later, smiling and holding up two very ripe sun fruits.

I was speechless.

When she swam out, she came to meet me and held up one of the fruits for me to take.

“Thank you,” I said, still a bit shell-shocked at what she had just done. She motioned for me to resume our initial sitting arrangement by the lake, and I obliged. As soon as she took her first bite of the sun fruit she was holding, she gave a little gasp, then pointed to my left shoulder.

I didn’t even need to see the thing she was pointing at to know what it was. Slick, the water lizard from earlier, was now perched on my left shoulder.

“Oh, ahh, he’s a friend,” I said to the little girl as I picked him up from my shoulder and placed him on the ground between us. Cautiously, she watched him for a little while before eventually deciding to pull a little bit of her sun fruit apart and offer it to him.

Slick happily accepted the treat and nibbled on the piece of fruit until he finished it. Then he rushed up her arm and came to rest on top of her head.

The little girl began laughing.

“Wait, he’s not poisonous, right?” I asked Rachel.

“He is,” she replied.

“What?”

“Relax, I’m kidding,” Rachel said. “Water lizards are extremely docile creatures and pack no venom. So Slick is completely safe to be around.”

The little girl had resumed eating her sun fruit while also feeding the little critter. I, in turn, took a bite of mine, the first thing I had tasted since I woke up in this world. It was delicious, an explosion of flavor I had never tasted before. However, before I could take my second bite, something happened.

“Warning! Hostile creature approaching! Fast!” Rachel’s voice boomed inside my head, and before I could ask for any more details, something large and heavy suddenly crashed into the sun fruit tree in front of us. So many of the fruits came splashing into the lake as a result.

I quickly turned my attention over to the little girl, and the last thing I saw was her gazing in the direction of the noise with a terrified expression on her face. I was just about to tell her to run and hide in the cabin when I realized she was slowly turning invisible. The noise from the crash must have terrified Slick, and he was now trying to blend into the environment while still sitting on the little girl’s head. At least whatever monster had arrived wouldn’t be able to see her anymore.

I couldn’t say the same for myself, though.

“Go. Hide,” I said to the empty space beside me, where the little girl once sat. And the sudden thump, thump, thump of receding footsteps told me she had gotten my message and was now running to hide in the cabin.

I got to my feet and took a bite of my sun fruit before tossing it aside. Then I looked up in the direction of the tree and found the thing that had crashed our early morning breakfast party.

A massive, gray-colored creature with six black eyes and six long legs was staring down at me. It had giant shark teeth and possessed what looked like the tail of a scorpion, with a massive stinger at the end. The monster looked considerably large and powerful, and with my overall health only at 57%, I really couldn’t tell if I had a chance against this creature.

But I needed to try. After all, I didn’t have just myself to worry about in that very moment. I also had the safety of the little girl to think about. So the thing needed to die.

“Alright ugly,” I said, summoning my newly acquired gloves with a whisper. “Let’s... Whoa!”

I was about to throw a really cool one-liner when the massive creature lunged in my direction, cutting me off as it rushed toward me for the kill.