When I get up, They gon' be High with me
Three days.
It had been three days since the attack.
Three days since meeting this new boy.
Three days since they’d abandoned the burrow.
Technically, it was already abandoned-they just made it extra abandoned. Double alone? Whatever.
Kipo sighed, stretching her arms out like a cat, yawning. She could feel his eyes on her.
Every second, since they’d saved him, he watched her.
Listened to her.
Helped her.
He still hadn’t told them his name, where he came from, or anything about him.
However, he seemed intent on doing what Kipo told him to do. Never once had he talked back to something, or hesitated, or anything, he just obeyed.
And that gave her an idea.
Sss
The boy sat silently in the corner of the makeshift camp, blue eyes on the pink girl, when she turned to him randomly, smiled, and signaled with her fingers for him to come to her.
Without a thought, he did.
“So, what’s your name?” She asked, and he soon realized the others were gathered around him.
He didn’t answer. He never did.
“Alright, let me rephrase that; tell me your name, now.” She demanded firmly, and his skin crawled. “A-Atlas,”
He responded quietly, and she glanced at Wolf, then Benson, then Dave, and back to Wolf, before turning to him. “Didn’t expect that to work.” She murmured under her breath.
“Tell me where you came from.” She said hesitantly, pink eyes staring into his blue ones.
“Don’t know.”
“Tell me, where did you grow up?”
“Lab.”
His answers were short and simple but seemed to satisfy his temporary master.
“Where were you before you were captured by the frogs?”
“Escaping.”
She paused, and silence fell.
After a few moments, she asked, “Escaping from..where?”
He froze, shuddering. “Master.”
Sss
“Wh-who-who’s ‘Master’?”
She asked, though she wasn’t sure she wanted the answer.
He visibly shook before responding.
“S-Scarlegmane.”
[Insert creative line break here]
The other three humans stared at him in silence, until Benson shrieked. “SCARLEGMANE?!?”
Atlas nodded his head swiftly, shifting uncomfortably, and pointed to his neck. Kipo peered at his neck and frowned, lifting her hand to where his music note scar was, making him flinch out of instinct.
She paused, glancing up at him, and he swallowed the lump in his throat with a small nod. She returned it, and looked back down at his neck, carefully slicing the leather band off.
He let out a sigh of relief as it slid off his neck and into her hands, cool wind hitting skin that hadn’t been touched in years. The others leaned in to look at it, eyes widening.
“He put a COLLAR on you?!? B-but y-you-you’re a person, not a pet!” Wolf exclaimed, waving her arms wildly. Atlas shrugged, his pale blue skin glittering in the sun.
“Master not care. Humans not intelligent, not independent primates, Master says.” He quoted, causing the others to shiver.
“Wow, you need improved vocabulary, huh?” Kipo joked. “I-Sorry, trying to lighten the mood.” She thought for a moment. “Wait-is that why you do what I say?”
He took a sharp breath, averting his gaze to the ground. “A-Atlas-“
“N-no, fine, r-really. C-ca-can I-I have th-that?” He stuttered, pointing shakily at the leather band in Kipo’s hands.
She glanced down at it, let out a deep breath, and shook her head. “I-I think I’m gonna hold onto this, at least for now.”
She wasn’t sure what she expected, maybe for him to tell her he wanted it back, to stand up for himself, but, of course, he simply nodded, retracting his hand.
She felt bad for it, but she also knew that he’d probably put it right back on his neck the moment he obtained the object.
With a yawn, she stretched her arms out in front of her like a cat, letting out a tired ‘meow’ noise as she did so. She opened her eyes back up, and realized the sun had begun to set, and was half covered by the horizon.
“Ok, guys, let’s get some sleep, it’s getting pretty late.” Wolf nodded, a yawn escaping her throat as she walked over to the nest she and Kipo had made.
They hadn’t been doing what they usually did-having Kipo curled around her younger sister in jaguar form due to their…guests, but instead, the pink girl wrapped her arms around the younger one, sometimes growing fur on the skin touching Wolf, but not so much that the others could see.
The boy simply sat there, staring out into space, back straight, before carefully brushing his fingers over the bandage covering his eye. His neck felt strange without the collar there, it had become his identity over the years.
Would Master even recognize him? What about his brothers?
What about Marshall? Atlas had promised Marshall years ago that if he escaped, they’d find each other in the wild-but that had been years ago-three, maybe even four.
Was he even still alive? Did he still remember the promise?
Would his childhood friend even know it was him without the collar?