Monster/Nonhuman short fiction

[RiversD]

Decided I should separate original drabbles featuring monsters or other fantasy/sci-fi beings (all of which will pass the Harkness Test, fear not) from my regular human OC thread. I guess we'll deal with where elves etc belong if and when it comes to that.

Anyway, here's a gargoyle. I used the same gargoyle from this story because I'm too lazy to invent a second gargoyle OC. Night watch in the rain...

 

Drips

Gargoyling wasn't an easy job. Especially when your lookout point was above the gutters, where the spring rains made your wings slick with water and formed whirlpools around your feet. It wasn't doing Pit harm, he knew, not like it would a fleshy, but it made the long hours of sitting on watch harder to bear.

Raindrops on his nose were the worst. Quite apart from the direct hits, tingling little darts that struck and dissipated to nothing, drops tended to gather beneath his eyes and trickle slowly down his nose until they had enough weight to pull themselves free. They tickled. Every time they did that it tickled. But not enough to make him sneeze directly, or to justify the constant scratching it would require to respond to every drip. But the irritation build up slowly, drip by drip, sometimes teasing his nose into believing it was going to sneeze too early, so that he-

"hh! hhuh... guano."

So that his breath went all to water and he braced himself ready for nothing. Over time, he had got better at telling when a tickle wasn't going to come to anything, but the knowledge didn't stop those reflexive little gasps that pulled the itch on his nose to the forefront of his attention and kept it there. Worse, he was sure these false starts were delaying the arrival of anything more satisfying, because the way his nose wrinkled and (sometimes, when he didn't get a grip on himself in time) his head tipped, some of the drips would be shaken free.

"huh-uh! Ugh."

They'd have to start again at the top, which wasn't half so sensitive as his wide, pointed nostrils. He could feel one trying it now, just overflowing the top of his cheek and finding that natural channel- not that a construct like Pit could really lay claim to the word "natural" for any of his parts- that would lead it down his nose to the tip.

A second drop started down on the other side. Pit missed its very beginning because a sharp gust of wind sent a short barrage of little rain-needles into his face, making his whole nose prickle with it for a time. The drip was persistent though, flowing quickly to the very back edge of one nostril and lingering there as a slowly deepening itch while its pair inched gradually along the bridge of Pit's nose. It reached the tip and stayed there, having lost too much of itself in the journey to fall. He could feel it as a small, round, cold point that somehow made the whole rest of his nose tingle in sympathy.

Pit felt the tension in his chest, his breath trying to go rogue again. He clenched his jaw and resisted it. No more teasing.  This drop would fall soon; in fact, he would help it along. He shook his head just a little. The drip shivered but didn't fall. Pit felt that well of wetness behind his left nostril shift and flow. It trickled along the underside of that nostril, quick and chilly and ticklish in the extreme. Pit felt the gasp rising in him, tried to suppress it and failed, his nose suddenly overwhelmed from all sides by the patient irritation of the rain.

"hhuHH! HUH'TSCHUUHhh!"

When it actually came, the sneeze filled every sense that he had and left behind a palpable relief, even though Pit's nose wasn't done, too much momentum agonisingly built up to waste on a single sneeze, even one that had him clutching frantically at the gutter for support.

"hhuhHTSCHHHAH! hh... huhhh... HAH'TSCHHUUHH!"

Pit wobbled and wavered on his ledge then slowly, distrustfully, settled back into his sentry position. His nose felt warm and contented, though he knew that situation wouldn't last another minute. He tried to appreciate it while he could.

If there were any vagabonds on college property tonight, they now knew that at least one of the rooftop watchers was less inanimate than he looked. But what did it matter? Any ne'er do well out on a night like this was a fool to begin with.

Edited May 10, 2022 by RiversD

[starpollen]

This is very imaginative!  I’m looking forward to more like this ☺️

[prismaticpollen]

Interesting idea!

[Snez gud]

I absolutely loved “Misfire!” It’s great to see this character again. I can’t wait to see what else you have in store.