Decline his request
“I don’t even know what a hippogriff is, if you’re going to make silly bets then isn’t it cheating to arrange the outcome yourself?” Daniel huffs, and despite the man’s standing several yards away his hair is still blown back by the marshmallow scented breath.
“Don’t think of it as cheating, call it more of a, uh. Prank. Yeah that’s it.” The boy offered hopefully.
“So then.” Daniel lifts up her right paw and places it just atop the left one, a facsimile of folded arms while casting a judgmental eye the proposed offer. “You see a flying, house sized mythological creature who could probably go head to head against an armed tank and walk away from it. And your first thought is how you can prank your friends with her?”
“Well uh, not my first thought. I was curious to tell where you came from and if there are more of you, but I guess if your just gonna say Longport again there’s no hope for an honest answer.”
Daniel rolls her eyes. One foot tapping into the grass while her tail reflexively swishes from left to right like an annoyed cat.
“It’s not lying, why on earth people keep assuming …” an exhausted groan that devolves into a weak sigh. “If you were silly enough to make a bet with someone then you should be honest enough to follow through with it. I’m not going to help you lie just to get out of some minor embarrassment.”
“N-nono! It isn’t minor I swear.” The man steps forward, now looking a bit more nervous. “My girlfriend is here, and if she actually hears me sing then that’s it, we’re over. I am actually just that bad at it. And then uh … and then all the windows are going to break and uh, I’ll have to pay for damages or something. It’s just awful man, come play along alright? It won’t take a minute.”
“Are these friends of yours even willing to step that close to me?” Daniel asks with a resigned tone.
“Nah, not really man. Everyone’s really freakin out, you’re like some pop celebrity with claws. Everyone’s talking about you.”
“So then these friends who are too frightened to be within shouting distance of the big scary lion monster would be perfectly fine with me chasing them down?” She lowers her chin to the ground, resting her head on her rounded fingertips and looking this teenager in the eye for the first time. At least closer to his eyes, it was hard to be direct when her pupils were as large as his face. “This almost sounds like you are trying to get me to try another prank, see if I can scare everyone else and make you look like the super amazing brave guy.”
The teenager seems to flush red in the cheeks. “I d-don’t know what you’re talking about, good day ma’am. I can uh, see that you’re not going to budge on this.”
The sphinx’s eyes seemed to sparkle. “Perhaps I might. Budge that is. Where did you say your friends were?” Her face lifts up and scans about, in particular looking for people that had tucked themselves safely into some hiding spot or another but felt the need to peer out and watch this conversation from afar.
“That day girl, see the big rock over there? No not that one, with the moss on it. By the two trees? Yeah right there, my girl, Wess, and Toa figured you wouldn’t bother them there. Nice line to the building too, pretty cool place to set out a blanket and sit.”
Daniel grins. “I’ll bet it is. But if it’s a prank you’re looking for then I know exactly what I’m doing.” And then with a fluid motion that seemed utterly impossible for a creature that size the winged lioness was already on her feet. Standing tall and towering head and shoulders above the thin pink monkey at her feet. Small enough to step on, small enough to carry, he looked like a life-sized child’s toy more than an actual human.
And despite his incoherent protests at the fact Daniel had no actual thumbs nor the manual dexterity to carry him, the lioness still managed to snatch him up in the most embarrassing way. The face lowers down, her lips swerve around to plant themselves against the nape of his shirt. Her teeth poke out and grip the fabric, then her head pulls back up and drags the man with it.
Dangling the teenager from her mouth like a cat trying to discipline a wayward kitten, she saunters over to the tree and rocks as indicated while the mildly frightened man kicked underneath her chin. Flailing legs and grasping arms that remain flat and level, there was no bounce in the feline’s step, and utterly incapable of reaching anything to kick against. Watching the three friends in hiding it’s only moments before she’s outright upon them, teeth gritted to hold onto her catch, and looking down to their outright terrified faces.
Making this as fast and painless as possible Daniel lowers her neck, setting the teenager’s feet on the ground, and releases him with a spluttering noise.
Her left paw lifts up, and with all the focus and effort in the world dead set on this un-natural feeling guesture she folds in all but one paw-finger to point at the top of this man’s head.
“As far as I can tell my species is called a Sphinx. I believe this man owes you a song and dance routine now.”
Without another word to the three stunned onlookers, she carefully twisted back around and struts down the path back to her original resting place. Always making sure no one was underfoot and that she had plenty of room to move, sitting back down under her tree. From just behind her ears she could make out a flustered shout as the man she’d just played with voiced his evident disapproval.
“Traitor!”
Only to be drowned out by the laughter of his peers.
Written by Arbon on 20 November 2016