username: ThePaintedPitBull
name: Caligo
gender: Male
why can't this longneck sleep at night?:
Caligo had always been an anxious boy. Severe anxiety was his Achilles Heel. It always had been since he was abandoned at a young age. He remembered the night clearly.
Hard, cold, rain pellets crashed down on the ground around him. In every direction he looked a thick sheet of mist covered his vision and as the night grew darker he became even more unsure of his surroundings. Where was he? He had been sleeping beside his mother just hours ago, and now, here he was. Her warm pelt was no longer there to bring him comfort. The sweet sound of her meeps was no longer there to lull him to sleep. Cali didn’t know what to do with himself. He was lost. He was alone. Most importantly, he was scared.
Shaken to the core, he curled up in a ball and began to shake. Tears ran down his little face, and slowly he let the darkness consume him entirely, not looking up until the sun began to shine into his eyes signaling morning. He rubbed his nose from under his skull, hoping it was all just a dream. Caligo sat up and looked around. Not one Longneck from their herd remained in the area, and the intense showers of last night’s storm had wiped away most of the scent as well. He stood up and waddled around in hopes of finding some paw prints to point him in the right direction, but if he couldn’t smell them there was no way paw prints would have been left behind.
Caligo did however find something else. It was now covered in mud, and was quite damp, but it was something. He picked it up with his mouth. It was his sock monkey! He hugged the little stuffed animal and almost began to smile. He had lost everything, except for Mr. Beans.
His mother had found Mr. Beans for him. She fought tooth and nail for that little stuffed animals. She found him in a parking lot. Oh how Caligo hated parking lots. The hot cement would burn the paws of his little feet, and many large vehicles would awake from their rest without warning. However, his mother had insisted that they may find something there, and they did.
After his mother had picked up the little monkey, a young human ran up to them. Pointing and screaming something along the lines of “Momma! That things got my monkey!” She then grabbed the leg of Mr. Beans and began to tug.
Never in his life had he heard his mother growl like she did in that moment. Never would he ever hear her growl again..
Figuring he had found everything that he possibly could on the plot of land, he began to explore, holding Mr. Beans very close the whole time. He needed shelter. Some rocks would be ideal, but even a nice tree would do.
After hours of searching, he settled for digging a hole. No rocks were in sight, and even if they were he was not strong enough to move one. He had noticed that the ground was very soft though. Digging a hole was rough for Caligo. His soft little paws didn’t possess claws like that of a badger. But, eventually, he had dug his den and was ready to curl up with Mr. Bean for the night.To this day he still sat in that hole. He almost never left except for at night. He was still terrified of trying to sleep at night. Everytime he closed his eyes he saw the rain surrounding him and the image of his mother now lost. Instead, during the night, him and Mr. Bean would go sit out in an open field at the base of a hill and watch the stars. It brought him comfort to know that his mother was seeing the same stars as him. If he could, he would probably do it with the sun too but Caligo wasn’t looking to go blind.
One night, when he was stargazing, he realized something atop the hill. It appeared to be a human, a man to be precise. Following not far behind him were two young girls. They all stood around a tall device. The device had been there for the past few nights, but the people, now the people were new.
Caligo cocked his head ever so slightly in confusion. What were these people doing? Why were they on his hill? He had never been on the hill before, but he still liked the idea of it being his. He didn’t like them being up on his hill.
He had to put a stop to this.
Caligo hastily picked Mr. Beans up off the ground where he had placed him earlier in the night. Waddling as quickly as possible, he made his way up the hill only to find that the people were gone! How? How had they escaped so quickly? Caligo was sure he had got up their fast. With a little huff of disappointment he curled up at the top of the hill. He would just have to wait for them.
The next night, Caligo was still sitting atop the hill when the family made their way up the hill. One of the young girls with curly red pigtails bounced up ahead of all of them and stopped when she saw Caligo standing there with his sock monkey. He couldn’t tell if she was scared or confused.
“Daddy! Daddy! Look at the little creature!” She pointed at Caligo as he sat up. Weren’t they going to get mad? He was sitting on what they considered their land. Weren’t they going to try and take Mr. Beans? The last girl had tried to steal him.
“What is it dear?” The man came up the hill and his eyes sort of widened as he saw Caligo.
“Is that some sort of dog..? It’s so dirty.” The other girl cringed at the sight of him.
“All he needs is a little cleaning up. And look!” The red haired one pointed at his side, “It looks like he has moons printed on him.”
Caligo looked down to the ground. All of the attention on him was suddenly making him quite uneasy.
“Can we take him home Dad?” She continued, pleading in an annoyingly high pitched voice.
After much deliberation, and another woman (the red-headed child’s mother) coming to examine him, they must have decided that they needed to take Caligo off of their land as the man picked up him right up off the ground.
Petrified, Caligo looked around. He was still clutching Mr. Beans in his mouth. If he lost Mr. Beans he would be terribly mad at himself.
After a long trek, they took him to some sort of hut. The hut and nice soft floors, and a large screen that was producing light. The children found it quite amusing, so once Caligo had gathered the courage to look up, he looked at the screen. It didn’t make sense to him, but he watched anyways.
What felt like about an hour later, the mother came and made Caligo stand up. She began to guide him to another room where an artificial pond of sorts was waiting for him to hop on in. She rubbed a bubbly substance all over him. It would have been quite relaxing if he wasn’t worried about Mr. Beans. She had taken Mr. Beans from him and gave him to the man of the house. Surely they wouldn’t take away his one companion!
The woman smiled down at him and gently pushed the light blonde hair out of her face. “You’re quite the cute little fellow, you know that?” She grabbed a piece of metal which sprayed water down on his pelt. It reminded him of rain. It reminded him of the worst night of his life. And yet… he didn’t feel so scared.. how could that be? Caligo looked up at the lady in confusion.
She proceeded to rinse off her hands with the device and the stroked the end of his skull. “You’re all done pretty boy.” She smiled and called for her husband. “Honey, you’re gonna have to take him out of the tub for me!”
“Coming!” The man responded. He looked in to the room, the red headed child standing behind him. The man had black glasses and brownish red hair, and the whole family possessed striking light blue eyes.
“Momma,” the child began, “Can we keep him..?” As she approached her mother, Caligo saw it in her arms. Mr. Beans! The child seemed to love both Mr. Beans and Caligo. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that. Sharing Mr. Beans? That didn’t seem very fair. The little girl had a family to love her. Caligo only had Mr. Beans… or..
The woman looked at her husband, but didn’t say a word. Maybe they were mind readers? He was sure, but they seemed to be communicating through facial expressions. “Why not?” She responded, a gleam in her eye as she looked from the young girl, back to Caligo.
Caligo didn’t exactly understand what had transpired in that bathroom. But they kept him prisoner for days afterwards. At night, he still couldn’t sleep. Now he missed his family and his den. One night though, as he was pacing by the door, Mr. Beans in his mouth, he realized something. These people were his family now. He looked around the red headed girl’s room. This was his den now. This was his home now. And then, something amazing happened. He felt.. safe. He felt relaxed. He felt at ease.
Caligo waddled over to the side of the young girl’s bed and hopped up on to a mountain of blankets. He curled up with Mr. Beans and gave a little sigh of relief. Then, for the first time in years, he actually fell asleep.
At night.
extra: WIP
Sorry that story was so Longneck XD I wanted it to have a happy ending, and got really excited about the idea I had and just sort of went wild.. hope you like it though!
