Creatures

Ken was excited since the morning, he went outside with a lot of energy after eating breakfast, his mother even got caught off guard and went outside with him to see what was going on.

Ken rushed the end of their backward holding a giant grin, he jumped and…

Nothing happened, Ken was confused and he started to jump more and more until her mother came next to him.

“Now, now. What’s the deal, honey? You are going to throw up if you continue jumping like that after breakfast”

“But mom, the furball, I need to go to see the furball”

“The furball? Oh, you mean your friend that you draw? Honey, maybe he is busy, besides you are making a mess, you are tearing up the grass, you know how your father gets when the backyard is not in perfect conditions”

“Sorry… But I want to show you my friend, he is really cool! He has a ton of furballs, a ton!”

Ken extended his arm while her mother giggled, putting her fingers next to her mouth.

“I bet they are lovely, your draws are adorable, so they all must be cute too”

“THEY ARE NOT CUTE, THEY ARE COOL!”

“Yeah, yeah. Very cool, just like the son who is here!”

Ken’s mom grabbed him and started to tickle him but only for a few seconds, his mother whipped the sweat out of her forehead and stroked Ken’s hair.

“Let’s go inside, I’m not as young to play outside with this sun”

“Do we have iced tea?”

“I’ll make it for you, actually, I need you to do some errands too”

“Ehhhh?!”

Ken threw himself on the tatami and pouted.

“I’ll give you some extra for an ice cream if you go~”

“Huh, maybe you are just making eat that small one and not the double one”

“Uhm, I don’t know~ I just saw that there was a special price when you buy two”

“Really?! You are not playing with me again, are you, Mom? Last time I did it cost me everything you gave me!”

“Now, now don’t be like that, this time is for sure, this is the list and here is the money”

“Mmmh… okay…”

Ken’s day was like another summer day, a ton of heat, sweat hitting the floor and the cicadas being the background noise as usual. He got his ice-cream and was happy as ever, but the real excitement wouldn’t come until midnight, when everyone was asleep.

Ken took a recorder from his backpack and went outside, he started to whisper “Furball! Furball!” But the furball didn’t come to see him, he spent a few minutes swigging his feet until he heard the grass moving again.

Ken got excited to run towards it. There, the furball was touching the grass and when the giant figure appeared in front of it, freezing and all its body got spiky, Ken covered his mouth trying not to laugh, his face turned red and he started to take deep breaths.

The furball was already to its usual state, but it was looking at Ken with a judgmental look, it knew he was making fun of it.

Ken extended his arm and the furball put itself in the hand and Ken started to pet it.

“Oh, I got this, you are going to love it! But your place is close, right? I try to enter in the morning but I was unable to”

The furball looked Ken directly in the eyes and Ken started thinking, he pointed up and then put his hand against the floor and pressed his hand with his finger many times. Then he did an X with his arms.

The furball jumped and then it ran to the spot, but when it jumped this time it vanished like last night, Ken followed him and he went down too, this time landing on his feet and holding the recorder in one hand.

The rest of the furballs were coming from different directions holding grass in their little hands, Ken couldn’t help but laugh and he approached the furball, pointing at the recorder. He sat down and blew on it, he said his name with the recorder and the furball went crazy.

He went to his town and started to hit everyone in there and when least noticed, Ken had an audience, he was nervous now, but he was happy too, he then said furball with his recorder and everyone went crazy, hitting on his friend a ton of times while making those weird noises.

Ken took a deep breath and started to play a song, the furballs were paying attention to the song, it was like if they were being enchanted, they didn’t move and all of them were expectant of the noises.

When Ken finished, he looked at them and pointed at his recorder.

“Music”

They responded back with a weird song and Ken tried to imitate the sound, they furballs jumped and all of them went back to their houses leaving just Ken and his friend.

“So, you do have a name from what I notice, amazing!”

The furball made that weird song again.

“Ah”

Ken put the recorder down and pointed at the furball.

“Music”

And then he said the name of the furball with his whistle.

The furball got spiky, but looking down at the floor and then to Ken, he started to sing, but the music was different from its usual noises, maybe that was the reason they understood that the music was music.

The sounds the furball was making reminded Ken to the Shakuhachi, it was almost mystical, Ken was flabbergasted, he did not say a word, he just stood as if he was seeing something magical happening in front of him, when the furball ended, Ken smiled and started to clap his hands.

“You are amazing, that was fantastic!”

The furball was jumping and Ken looked up. He whistled that he had to go and the furball jumped to him, punching his chest and Ken smiled, he took his recorder and left the place.

The next morning Ken was drawing objects in his notebook, his mom approached him and bent her knees to see her son’s drawings.

“Why are you drawing fruits?”

“Is for my friend, I don’t understand what he is saying, they communicate through whistles like this one”

Ken whistled her friend’s name and her mom was weirded out but at the same time impressed.

“That’s amazing, honey. And how do they say your name”

Ken whistled his name and then he thought of something while doing it, someone called the door and Ken’s mom left the room while Ken was looking through his backpack until he found out the alphabet.

He put stuff inside his backpack and kept drawing more objects, he even slept on the floor and drooled over some of the paper until his mother checked on him and put him in the bed.

The day continued as usual until the time day really mattered for Ken, the night. He took his backpack with care and went outside, this time whistling Furball, he did it a few times until the Furball came and jumped with joy at the hands of Ken. The two rushed to the end of the backyard and jumped to the furballs’ home.

When they landed, Ken started to take out a ton of things: drawings, letters, pen and the recorder.

Ken started to show things to his friend and he repeated it with the recorder as best he could, he then wrote down what seemed to be music notes but it was just a way to remember how to play or how that noise sounded.

Ken was having a ton of fun, laughing and decrypting what the words of his friend were, he did a ton of them and he went back to his house. In the morning, he started to sort words and sounds.

And on another piece of paper, he was writing what he thought were the sounds of his friend, it was a busy day until midnight again, Ken was waiting with just a sheet and his recorder moving his feet while waiting for his friend.

Then he showed up, they went to the portal together and when they got there, Ken stopped the furball and put the recorder in his mouth.

Hello. I hope you are ok.

The furball had that funny spiky reaction and he started jumping, Ken laughed and the furball started to walk in circles until he stopped and made a slow noise.

I am ok

Ken understood and he started to laugh and hold the furball with his hand, throwing it in the air and catching him.

Ken then put the paper on the ground and showed it to the furball, it didn’t understand it at a hundred percent, but even with that it was impressive.

Ken. Me. You?

I am Korkoku.

“So it’s Korkoku, that’s a funny name”

Nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you.

“This is wonderful, we created our own alphabet, ah, this one”

I have a ton of fun with you, Korkoku.

Me too. Ken.

Korkoku started to make noises but Ken couldn’t comprehend, he smiled and Korkoku noticed, their speech wasn’t the greatest but it was good to communicate a few things. If anything, they became closer now that they could say a few things.

See you tomorrow, Korkoku

See you tomorrow, Ken.

Ken left Korkoku’s home and returned to his house, the summer for him was just getting more and more exciting. The next morning, he was trying to make some noises and writing down more notes.

His school notebook was not filled with tons and tons of symbols and images that only he and the rest of Korkoku’s kind could understand, the ink from his pen was also getting emptier.

But when Ken was doing this, he was having a big bright smile, his mother didn’t notice what was going on nor did his father who worked all day and came home until very late. Who would have thought that homework was a chore but translation was the most exhilarating thing for this child at this moment.

When the night came, Korkoku came to the backyard and Ken was waiting for him, they whistled to each other.

Hello. Ken. Ready?

Hello. Korkoku. I am.

They both went to the portal and jumped at the same time. When they landed, Ken pointed at himself and then to the inside of the town, Korkoku guided and Ken put himself in the middle of.

Hello. My name is Ken. I am a friend of Korkoku. Nice to meet you, all of you. Please take care of me.

A silence was made and then the furballs went crazy, they all started to jump against Ken and they made him trip while all of them were on top of him, Ken was laughing and smiling, the furballs were saying things like.

COOL. AMAZING. KEN, KEN, KEN.

Ken was happy, he wanted to ask things, he wanted to say more, he wanted to do more, but this is more than enough for now. All of them scattered when Korkoku made a noise and Ken sat down.

Do not worry.

Korkoku moved himself from left to right holding his position, it jumped to Ken’s shoulder and started to sing in that wonderful tone similar to the Shinobue, they started to dance around Ken while was doing little jumps across the room, he was a bit big for the place but he managed to dance with the furballs while Korkokus was singing.

It was a great dance, and when all was over, Ken said goodbye to the furballs, he returned to his backyard and entered the house as quiet as possible, jumping to his bed smiling expectant to tomorrow of this magical summer he was living, and in just a few seconds, he fell asleep, having another fantastic night with Korkoku