Team Scaled Monster Club Gathers (Poko Side)

I had been having the same dream for the last few nights. An animal that looked like a small lagombi drinking from a lake in a forest's glade. It did not see the large bird looming above it. Red eyes glowed from the darkness of the trees. They were not natural. The eyes glowws more intensely by the moment. They were unbearably bright. The bird swooped down and grabbed the small animal. Its talons pierced its neck. Everything went black. That is when I always wake up. It was scary, but I did not know why. I had seen the hunters kill animals a lot, yet I still felt my hair stand on end when I thought of my dream.

After slipping away from home again and going to the village, I was stopped by the girl who looks like a dragon. I could feel her excitement radiate from her and she was happily telling me something I couldn't understand.

"---- ----- ------ Poko! --- ----- Enma ---- ------- you ---- --- -- --- monsters! ---- -- ---- -- meet ---- --- ------! ---- -- ----- -- --- ----- ---- -- --- village! ---- --!"

She then took off, leaving me behind. Normally, I would connect my mind to another's when someone wants to speak to me, but she had left too quickly. I was pretty sure she wanted me to go with her, but she moved much too fast. She did not notice that I could not keep up. She was very excited. I don't know why she was, but it was making me excited too. Her enthusiasm was infectious. I followed her, most keenly left behind by the trail of negative emotions wafting off of the villagers. They do not like her. Perhaps it is because she looks like a monster? The penpens like her, though, so she couldn't be that bad.

When I had found her again, the dragon girl was standing together with several others near the north entrance of the village. First, the weirdo who likes monsters a lot. She and the dragon girl were speaking excitedly together about something. Their emotions were at extreme highs, each raising the others every time they spoke. Next was the quiet, scary man. He was standing close enough to the group that it was obvious that he was supposed to be here, which was awful. He was not as bad as the very scary metal man, but he was close. Whenever I saw him, I was reminded of some of the bad men from my village. Unapproachable. Doesn't talk to anyone. Every move was methodical in a way. I felt like he would hurt me if I said the wrong thing, like they would. The energy around him and the makeup of his being was strange.

Finally, there was the man I immediately approached. The plant man! I took my place next to him and before I knew it, I was smiling again. He said something to me and I nodded without understanding. I could tell he was a strange being too, but he was different. Very different from quiet scary man. He motioned over to the two women still speaking to each other and said something again. I channeled the power in my body and connected my mind to theirs one after the other.

[Volcano! Dragon! Amazing!]
[Agree! Learn! Dragon! Love!]

Their thoughts continued like this back and forth as they kept talking each other up. The plant man's emotions and body language showed he was amused by it. Going by the bits of conversation I could understand through their minds, it seemed we were going to all be hunting together far from the village. The elders had decided on our group composition and now it was up to us to decide where to hunt.

This was... awesome! Amazing! I was allowed to hunt with a big group like this? I could fight side by side with the plant man!? I was going to be able to learn from them all up close!? This was like the best thing ever! I don't know when I had started to hop in place, but I was holding plant man's hand now too. He does not have a face, but I can feel him smiling from his emotions. He turned towards the excited duo and spoke up, breaking up their speedy conversation.

[Sorry. Not volcano. Danger. Grass. Fire. Child?]

Now that he mentions it, going to the volcano to hunt would be... really dangerous, huh? It seemed that however he worded it had managed to calm the storm of excitement coming from the monster lover and the dragon girl. They looked at him and then at me. They realized their mistakes and agreed with plant man. Of course they did. Plant man knew best, after all. After some more talking between them, everyone seemed to agree on going to the desert instead. Well, quiet scary man just agreed without much else when monster lover asked him. This was odd to see for me. She wasn't afraid of him? She seemed to enjoy his presence. Why?

I could feel my curiosity burning within me. When I was sure he wasn't looking at me, I connected my mind to his to see what his thoughts were like. He was looking off outside the village with a contemplative expression on his face. If monster lover likes him... maybe he wasn't so bad? I wondered how the penpens felt about him.

[Kill? Fun? Fun kill? Kill monster fun? Kill fun?]

Nope. Nope. Nope. I immediately cut off the connection. My hand squeezed plant man's tighter. Why did he have to come with us!?