No Pook Bad Pook

Author: Pook
Pook had been in the world of people for what seemed like a long time now. Growing up with only a Nightsaber for company until recently, she was without language, largely without clothes, and most of the time without the basics of bathing and etiquette. But still, she had people she liked to follow. They took her neat places and patted her on the head and gave her fish and usually didn't try to bathe her TOO much. 
But sometimes...sometimes they looked at her with frowny faces and said her name strangely. Often they were holding their faces when they did, or their head, or the little spot on top of their nose and between their eyes. They'd say words like "No Pook! No! Bad! Arrrrgh!" 
One day, Pook followed The Girl in White. She took her to a place where lots of bear-people lived. 
"Okay!" The Girl in White said to Pook carefully. People usually explained things to Pook veeeery carefully and v-e-r-y s-l-o-o-w-l-y, which was good, because most of the time she had no idea what they were saying. "I'm going to run in and blow up these Furlbogs, and I need you to heal me. Do you understand? Heeeeeeaaaalll..." The Girl in White held up her hands and twisted them around like Pook did when she made people's wounds go away like the Elves in the Big Tree had painstakingly shown her several hundred times before she'd caught on. 
"Rrrow!" Pook said after some deep contemplation, holding up her hands and twisting them as well to show that she understood. 
"All right! I'm going now! Are you ready, Pook?" The Girl in White asked her, frowning. 
"Prrow!" Pook said confidently. 
"All right! Here I go..." The Girl in White took a few steps towards the Furlbogs. 
"Rrrow!" Pook said, nodding and holding up her hands. 
Several minutes later the Girl in White, having returned to her motionless body and returned to life, stomped over to where Pook was reaching into a dead log stump trying to extricate a squirrel that had run inside. 
"Prrrow!" Pook said to the Girl in White brightly, holding the squirrel out to her by the tail. 
"Oh Pook!" The Girl in White sighed in exaspiration. "Bad! No!" 
On another day Pook followed JinxJinxJinx into a big mountain. There were a lot of smelly short people there that seemed to need killing, and a lot of bad dogs that she quickly learned could smell her even when she was hiding. 
"Pook! No! Don't go near the dog--" JinxJinx shouted ineffectually. 
A short time later when everyone was alive again, they came to a bridge over a firey span of lava. Pook peered down over the edge of the bridge. There was some kind of person made of fire wandering back and forth. Her eyes followed him from one side to the other...one side to the other...while the others talked on and on in their talky talk saying who only knows what. But then she heard a familiar voice. 
"Pook...POOK! Don't get so close to the edge!" JinxJinx shouted. 
"Rrrrow?" Pook said, startled, and started to turn... 
Her foot slipped off the edge and down she went, directly into the lava. 
"Oh Pook...no! Bad!" Jinx said with a sigh as she pulled the badly charred Pook out by one arm some time later. 
"Rrrrow..." Pook said poutily, chastised. 
Sometimes she would follow The Girl with the Lion. She mostly took her to places where they'd fight other people, the dead people and the green-skinned people and the people with big teeth and the cow people, and run all around and hit each other really hard for a while and then they'd stop. This struck Pook as being a whole lot of fun. 
Pook and the Girl with the Lion charged into the building where the Other People had their things. There were no Other People there. The Girl with the Lion pointed excitedly to a piece of cloth waving in a little stone nook. 
"Pook! Take the flag! Get the flag Pook!" She said. 
"Rrrow?" Pook asked, blinking and pointing to the flag also. 
"Yes! Take it! TAKE IT! HURRY!" The Girl with the Lion shouted, looking out the door towards the sounds of battle that were growing closer. 
Pook tugged on the flag and it came down easily, and the Girl with the Lion showed her how to tuck it into the back of the sparse shirt that she wore. "Now go! RUN!" The Girl with the Lion yelled in encouragement. 
Pook sprinted down a tunnel and soon found herself outside again. She decided to run faster, and her body shaped itself into a better shape for running like it usually did. About halfway across, though, she saw the Man with Green Skin that was the pet of the Girl with the Lion. He had been mean to her before, saying loud harsh words at her and spitting at her, but the Girl with the Lion seemed to have tamed him. 
"Rrrow!" She said to him in friendly greeting, running up to meet him. 
"Pook! NOOO!" She heard the Girl with the Lion shout from some distance behind her. 
Pook's spirit sat next to the Girl with the Lion's spirit in the small graveyard outside their building, waiting for the Spiritey Man to bring them back to life. "Oh Pook..." The Girl with the Lion said, her voice heavy with disappointment as someone shouted about someone winning something or other. Pook hung her head dispiritedly. 
On occasion, Pook would see the Frowney Girl. 
"Oh, would you look at that, it's the Pook-thing," The Frowney Girl would say with an interested glare in Pook's general direction. 
"Pook!" Pook said excitedly, running in circles around the Frowney Girl. 
"And what are you doing today, Pook-thing? You..." The Frowney Girl's frown deepened as she watched Pook run around and around...and around...and around... 
"You're going to make yourself sick. Stop that," she said. 
"Rrrow!" Pook replied, still running. 
But Pook kept going, around and around, until the world spun. She liked the spinny feeling in the bottom of her stomach when she ran around like that. But as was often the case, she fell over in an ungraceful heap, the sensation too much for her. 
"I told you," The Frowney Girl said, prodding her with the toe of her black boot. Most of what the Frowney Girl wore was black. Or red. Not much of any other colors. 
"Rrrrrowwwww..." Pook said woozily, laying her head on the ground. 
"Pook, get up, that ground is filthy," The Frowney Girl snapped. 
"Rrrow." Pook said resolutely. 
"You're FINE. Get UP." 
"Rrrrow!" 
"YOU'RE FINE!" 
"RRROW!" 
After some time, Pook finally sat up and frowned like the Frowney Girl poutily. 
"Oh Pook," The Frowney girl said. "I really don't know what to do about you sometimes." 
"Prrrrow..." Pook sulked, as if to say that sometimes, she really didn't either. 
Category: Stories