The Hidden

Chapter 26

I watched anxiously as the human clambered up to his feet and went over to his backpack. He reached into the side pocket opposite the one I had been in and pulled something out of it. He then sat back down in front of me, holding a strange black rectangular object in his hands.

"I just realized that since you live out in woods, you've probably never had a phone before." Connor said as he pushed some sort of button on the side of the object, incredibly causing one side of it to illuminate with light and color. I gasped softly. I had never seen something like it before.

"I know that you use phones to contact people." I told him, not wanting to come off as ignorant.

Connor chuckled. "It does a lot more than that." He said and then suddenly there was a burst of sound. Though it wasn't that loud, it was surprising enough to cause me to stagger backwards a few steps.

My eyes widened and as I listened to the sound pouring out of the 'phone', as Connor had described it. This was music! I had heard singing in the past of course, but nothing ever like this, nothing so absolutely full of sound.

Return of the Mack, get up! What it is, what it does, what it is, what it isn't.

Looking for a better way to get up out of bed

Instead of getting on the internet and checking a new hit me, get up!

A voice began in a mix between singing and speaking at high speed. All I could do was gape, I had never in my life heard anything so unusual.

Connor's face broke into an amused grin as he watched my reaction, clearly he was enjoying it.

"Not the best song in the world," Connor admitted, speaking up over the music, "but I figured it'd be something new for you." He said with a laugh.

Here we go back, this is the moment

Tonight is the night, we'll fight till it's over

So we put our hands up, like the ceiling can't hold us

Like the ceiling can't hold us

The male singer continued into what if I had to guess was the chorus of the song.

This music was so completely unlike any other music I had heard in the past. Not only did it have instrumentals to back it up, but it was so incredibly lively and exciting and left me with a very strange urge to dance. And what was more incredible was the fact that this music was coming out of that small (well small for humans) rectangular device. I had been aware of the existence of telephones in the human world, but everything I had been told about them had only concerned the communication between humans, not playing music.

Connor let the whole song play through before once again speaking up. "So, what did you think?" He asked eagerly.

"It's--I've never heard anything like it before." I told him. "And, I had no idea music could come from phones." I admitted.

Connor smirked. "It can if it's a smart phone. I'd show you a video or something on it, but there's no wifi out here." He said with disappointment.

Several of the words in his last sentence had been foreign to me, like 'video' and 'wifi', but I decided it was probably best not to ask, my mind was still in the process of being blown by the music that had come from the phone.

"You wanna hear another?" Connor asked. "I've got a pretty extensive playlist. Maybe something a little more classic this time." He suggested.

Just sitting and listening to music seemed harmless enough, this way I was keeping the human distracted from trying to ask any more personal questions at least. And I did have to admit that I was intrigued by this human music, I was curious to hear more. 

"Sure." I told him in a 'why-not' sort of way.

For the next hour we just sat listening to the music off of Connor's phone. We listened to more upbeat and exciting songs, but we also listened to some slow and emotional ones. Connor had asked me to choose a favorite, but I hadn't been able to, they all had their own individual qualities that made them good. 

"I guess you're kind of like me then," Connor said, "I usually have like five favorite songs at once. I can never pick just one to be my absolute favorite." He told me with a smirk.

I opened my mouth, about to respond when I looked past Connor a noticed a shadow just on the other side of the canvas wall of the tent. The zipping sound began, meaning the entrance to the tent was being opened, and someone was coming in.

Connor's head whipped around at the sound of the zipper. There was an alarmed intake of breath from him and then he turned back towards me. All of my muscled tensed as one of his massive hands began to shoot out towards me. I moved backwards, though I knew it wouldn't do much to prevent the hand from eventually catching me. Then suddenly, the oncoming hand hesitated. I looked past it up to Connor's face which wore a conflicted expression. He let out a frustrated sigh before violently hissing "Hide!". 

I didn't need to be told twice, I quickly turned around and sprinted towards the nearest hiding place: Connor's sleeping bag. I was near the bottom of it, so I wouldn't be able to get inside. Instead I lifted the bottom of it up and hurriedly slid underneath, letting the slippery fabric fall down over me, leaving me in near total darkness.

Giant footsteps quaked the ground, signalling Connor's dad's entrance into the tent.

"Can you not just barge into my tent?" I heard Connor snap angrily at his father.

"I didn't know you needed so much privacy." His dad answered back, sounding unhappy with his son's attitude, though apparently he decided not to press it because he continued on. "I need you to set up the fire while I finish cleaning the fish."

Connor began to let out an annoyed sigh of complaint, but was cut off.

"Connor, I've had enough of your attitude. Now come start the fire." Connor's dad demanded.

Apparently Connor had hesitated too long because there came a strict, "right now", from his dad. 

I heard the loud shuffling sounds of moving giants and some grumbled complaints from Connor, too quiet for his father to hear, then the sound of the tent's entrance closing. 

For a moment I waited, to make sure the humans were good and gone before I crawled out from beneath the sleeping bag. 

Finally, with some long awaited privacy, I tugged a berry out of my bag and began to eat, feeling the most content I had since meeting the human.