Part 4

After being driven from the town, I gave any human settlements a wide berth. I was skirting around a ranch when I heard angry shouting.

"You worthless monster! How could you be so stupid?! Next time do it right, you useless garbage!"

And with the words came a sound I knew all too well: the unmistakable crack of a whip.

Anger boiled within me. How many times had I heard those same words? How many times had that same whip descended on me. But I wasn't defenseless anymore. It was time for those humans to learn to stop treating us monsters like trash.

I flew out of the woods in a rage. A Big Blue was lying on the ground, having long ago reached the end of his strength. There was a hopeless resigned look in his ice blue eyes that seemed all too familiar. It was the look of a slave who knew there was no chance of escape, no rescue in sight. I had worn that look far too often in the past. I vowed I would never wear it again.

A human stood over him, holding a barbed whip. I landed in front of the Big Blue, facing the human.

"Where did you come from?!" he demanded. "Get out of the way if you know what's good for you!"

Foolish human, threatening me. He might be able to beat up a worn out and defenseless monster, but I was neither of those. I stood my ground.

"Leave him alone, human," I said.

"And who's going to make me? You?" he guffawed. He sneered at me. "I'm so scared, I'm shaking. Oh, someone please save me from the little girl monster."

"I'm warning you…" I growled, but before I could finish, he lashed out with his whip. It caught me around the ankle, the barbs wickedly burrowing into my flesh. Before I knew what was happening he had yanked on his whip, and I found myself flat on my back, staring up at the sky. I heard a sickening snap and felt a sharp pain in my ankle.

My anger grew even greater, and I ignored the pain, leaping up and hovering in mid-air. "LIGHTNING!"

The attack caught him square in the chest, and the human went flying. He hit the ground with a heavy thud. I watched as he pulled himself upright and readied myself for another attack. I needn't have bothered. The cowardly human turned and ran. I let him go. He wasn't worth it.

I landed on my knees next to the Big Blue, careful not to put any pressure on my injured ankle. He was out cold. He must have fainted sometime during the fight.

I couldn't just leave him there, where the human could return and simply pick up where he had left off. And I couldn't exactly carry a Golem around. So the only thing to do was wait here until he woke up. Besides, with the state my ankle was in, it would be best to rest up before moving on.

I twisted around for a better look at it and instantly wished I hadn't. My ankle was covered in blood and twisted at an impossible angle to the rest of my leg. The entire area seemed numb except for a dull, throbbing pain. That was going to take a while to heal.

Hours later, the Big Blue groaned and opened his eyes. The human, thankfully, had not returned.

"Are you alright?" I asked.

He nodded, then slowly got to his feet. "Thank you. I am Big Blue."

"Pixie," I said, also standing up. I suddenly gasped in pain, and would have fallen had not Big Blue put a hand out to steady me. I had forgotten my broken ankle.

"You're hurt!" Big Blue exclaimed. He gently lowered me back to the ground. "Here, wait here." He vanished into the ranch and reemerged moments later with some bandages. He knelt down beside me and set the bone in place, then bandaged it carefully.

"Thanks," I said.

"It's the least I can do," Big Blue said. "Where are you going?"

"I don't know," I said. "Anywhere other than where I've been."

"Here," he said, reaching towards me. He gently picked me up and put me on his shoulder. "You can ride up here. That is…if you don't mind my coming with you."

"I…" He was just like me, I realized. He couldn't stay where he was, but he had nowhere else to go. Well, why shouldn't he go with me? At least…at least I wouldn't be so alone anymore. "I don't mind at all."

Big Blue nodded gratefully. "Which way?" he asked.

I pointed in a random direction. "That way." Big Blue trudged off, carrying me in the direction I had indicated.

He's been with me ever since. I had expected him to leave, or stop being so nice to me, once he found out what I was like. But he didn't. Even after my leg healed, he still let me ride on his shoulder. He accepted me for who I was. No one had ever cared about me that much before.

But even though he was with me, I still felt alone. And I still had no purpose. Big Blue and I simply lived, alone in a world that would never accept us.

All that changed when we found Moo.



Epilogue

I think you know the story from there. Big Blue and I joined Moo, and for the first time, I belonged. I had a reason to get up each morning. I was no longer just some worthless monster. I was one of Moo's top baddies, the Big Bad Four. I ruled over Northtown and finally had my revenge on the humans. I had everything I had ever wanted. Then one little boy came along, a little boy with clear eyes, on a quest to find the Phoenix, and all that came to an end.

Genki was the opposite of everything I had come to expect from humans. He didn't want to fight; he wanted to be friends. What rubbish. Foolish boy, to think I could be friends with a human.

And yet, somehow, that's the way things worked out. After I lost the battle, I tried to bring the ruins down on my head. Moo would never forgive me; there was no point in living anymore. All his friends ran to escape, but Genki wouldn't just leave me to die. He came rushing back in to save me, even after I had tried to destroy him and his friends. In the end, it was Big Blue who saved us both.

I rescued Genki when he went to Moo's floating castle. I had nothing to lose. Moo would never take me back, anyway. I told myself it was just to repay him for risking his life for me.

And then I saved him again, and promised to help him defeat Moo, someday.

I'm still not sure why. Nothing seems to make sense anymore. When Genki came along, he turned my entire world upside down. I was so sure that humans were just a bunch of heartless fiends. Now I see that Moo is the heartless one, and so was I, until Genki tried to save me. And while, from my experience, most humans are cruel and heartless, not all of them are.

I don't even know what I'm doing anymore. Once again, I don't know where I'm going. I only know that I can't go back to where I've been.

Sometimes I awaken in the middle of the night, and I don't know where I am, or what I'm doing there. I feel so lost and confused. Then I see Big Blue beside me, and I don't feel quite so lost anymore.

Through everything, since that first day I met him, he's always been by my side.

I don't how my story ends, or even what happens next. But I know that, no matter what tomorrow holds, he'll always be there for me. And it's with that thought that I go back to sleep, and await tomorrow.