The White Stone Smile

The White Stone Smile

I’ve been told it was during my infancy that I was abducted. Although I have no real way to confirm this, I always received the information in passing when the overlords took me on daily exercise regimens. Certainly my life hasn’t been one of hardship or cruelty at the hands of the overlords. However, the news of my potential enslavement disturbed me none-the-less.

I was first given this insight by a wise one named Jake, well beyond my years. Through the tufts of his facial hair, he barked a series of warnings to me, stating that I was being played for a fool, and that I was just a source of amusement to the giants that kept me. Although I met other travelers that shared my same fate during the exercises, none were as foreboding as Jake. He was always going on and on about how it was so strange that the giants never aged, and they never changed. I found it hard to believe, but still took his words into consideration. I would like to think of myself as open minded.

After the daily orbit around the giants’ abode had concluded, they unlatched the pulley that attached to my constriction necklace. I had had it ever since I would care to remember, and the malefic side effects of wearing it seemed to support Jake’s warnings. Tooth and nail seemed unable to lift its grip, no matter how much I tried.

Then, the giant with the long strands of fur on her elongated skull approached me. Her alien voice was high in pitch, but unrecognizable in content. She reached beneath me and lifted me into the air. I squirmed helplessly. Two rows of white stones emerged from beneath the surface of what I could only call a face. They glimmered and spread upwards in a curvy manner. She set me down on a cold floor, and then began to crumple something on a pedestal surface well above my gaze.

There were two items, one in each of her spindly appendages. A green and white capsule in one hand, and a moldable sponge in the other. Pressing the two extremities of her limbs together, she produced one concentrated ball, which was promptly fed down my throat.

I swallowed harshly, and immediately needed a drink. Unfortunately, the only thing that was ever offered to me in liquid form was a clear substance, always at a moderately warm temperature, and seldom refreshing unless I was faced with no other alternative.

Aside from the occasional sponge and food capsule, the usual meals prepared by the overlords are dehydrated meat spheres. The taste isn’t as awful as one might first think, but the crunch of them rather sets my teeth on edge. Two meals like this per sleeping cycle, for who knows how long. As of right now, I have only two indicators of time flow. The first being the great heat orb which appears and disappears far above my head. The second is a circular contraption on the far side of the giants’ home, propped against a wall. Exposed gears and lines click and churn in place endlessly. The positions of the gears and lines move in a circular pattern, allowing for a moderate indicator of how long I’ve been incarcerated.

The giants leave for an extreme period of time while the heat orb is out. I’m stuffed inside of a crate, to await their return. At the very least, I’ve been given several soft tapestries to lay on, instead of a hard floor. For that, I silently thanked them. Sleeping in the crate, however, is another matter entirely. I didn’t cry out like I did the first few nights I stayed here, but I was still troubled. Troubled by the sounds of this giant house, of the ticking circle, and the roars from the world beyond these walls. I heard the bellows of other comrades, but they were muffled and distant from where I lay. I knew it was futile to muster any kind of response.

My brain eventually grew tired, despite the audial overload. By the time I had awakened, the giant with the high pitched voice and the longer fur had returned, carrying the smaller giant of the family. It was about my size, and crawled on all fours. It seemed to speak a language different from the two larger giants. I don’t think even they could decipher the little ones’ gurgling. As if it possessed a language all its’ own.

Still, I associated most with the smaller of the overlords. Like me, it was trapped in a barred cage for a great period of time, although the cell it was imprisoned in was a heightened one, much like the platform where the long-furred giant would acquire food capsules for me, should I attempt to remove the constriction necklace. The smaller behemoth was closer to my size as well, and would often pat me on the head in a gesture of affection.

While the little one scuttled about on the floors of the overlords’ home, the long-fur giant would pick me up and place me on a different cushion, softer than the one in my cage. This cushion, however, faced a crystal portal that looked upon the world beyond these walls. In the high pitched voice, she told me something in a language I did not understand, extending a bony finger in order to point out something in the outside world.

I saw one of my own, and felt inclined to shout as loud as I could at them. When they didn’t turn around, I tried to rush the crystal portal, to no avail. Rolling backward onto the cushion, the long-furred giant seemed to demonstrate some sense of sympathy, brushing her spider fingers across my wounded face. Those white stones which I had just seen smiling at me now retreated back behind her face. A downward curve took their place on her padded facial tissue. The soft touch of her flesh against my sore face made me drowsy. By some sort of magic, she was lulling me back into sleep. Keeping prisoners quelled seems to be their policy…

- - - - -

I jolted awake inside of my old cage at the sound of the high pitch shriek. The gate to my prison was locked by a mechanism I still did not fully understand. Looking through the bars, I could tell that the heat orb had descended for the time being. The scream came from above me, along with heavy footsteps. The smaller giant was wailing as well. Cries of distress.

The crying stopped abruptly, but was followed with a dull thud. I sat in my cage, silent. I dare not cry out for the overlords to answer me. I heard the long-furred one, along with the giant around my size, but I did not hear a sound from the one I truly feared. The short furred giant. From the earliest days of staying here, I recalled him always being a little off, like he always—

The tedious thuds of footsteps came down the stairs, interrupting my thoughts. I held my head low, just barely keeping visibility of the staircase across from my cage. While the bars partially obstructed my vision, I was able to catch sight of a figure descending from the floor above. It was the short-furred overlord. His elongated skull was shrouded in darkness, with the exception of the lower half. Those two rows of white stones split his flesh. Their upward curvature was unlike anything I had ever seen before. His sanity seemed to ebb from him with each step he took towards my cage.

His two upper limbs each held one object in their callous, ragged digits. In one, a slender piece of wood with a great, gleaming blade attached to the end. In the other, the face of the small giant, held by the thin tufts of fur.

The overlord gently lowered the suspended skull into the bowl which had been assigned to me for feeding. His thick footwear stomped over to the door to my cage, and he crouched in front of it. His voice was low and gravelly as he addressed me. His twisted, vermillion-soaked fingers latched on to the door lock, and the metal screeched open.

Grabbing me by the constriction necklace, he led me over to the bowl. I wanted to snap at the fatty flesh of his hand, but was fearful that the blade he held may be turned on me. My gaze went back and forth between the bowl and his white stone smile. The two ivory rows separated and connected back together in quick succession. A simulation of eating, perhaps? The rocks buried in the flesh of his skull were slowly being died a putrid color, the same as his dripping, crimson-speckled face.

I braced myself for what was to come, and licked the little giant’s skin as it sat in my bowl. It held a crude, metallic taste. Upon licking once, I discovered the flap that concealed the stones inside the overlords’ faces. The little one didn’t have as many as the taller ones, but the texture of them were still slimy. There were two other flaps higher up in the face, but they remained closed, no matter how hard I tried to open them.

A sickening snicker erupted from my side. I looked back up at the short-haired giant. His white stone smile glinted madly in the cool orb’s light, as he raised his blood caked blade into the air. Upon delivering his final downward thrust, I realized Jake was right. I knew this one was off… and he hadn’t changed a bit.