Character I Met

Kipsa and I had been hiding out in the woods all afternoon, hoping to find Robin Hood or at least a glimpse of one of his many merry men, but to no avail.

"Your da lied." Kipsa said, looking up at me with his yellow green eyes. "There's no Robin Hood."

I looked back at him wondering at his naivety. "He didn'a lie, its just a story."

Kipsa broke a branch in half over his upper thigh. "Na, he lied and so did you."

I looked at him and considered belting him across his somewhat smug face, until I heard a sound. I placed a finger to Kipsa's lips and pointed my finger over his shoulder to where the sound was buzzing.

It was a low sound, like a buzzing bee, as it floated up and crescendoed down, sometimes stopping for breath and then continuing. Kipsa's eyes took on their adventurous glimmer and he slipped to the forest floor and began to slink snake like towards the sound. I was right behind him, sometimes bumping into his dirty feet, sometimes passing him.

We left the forest and came into a small clearing, where the sound became louder and more human sounding. Kipsa saw him first and cringed back slightly into me. I do not know if I would have seen him if it had not been for Kipsa's line of vision. I followed it and stared for a moment before I descrened the shape of a small boy camouflaged by the atmostphere around him.

He was no taller then my sister, who has lived two summers, but where she is chubby and round, he was slender and sleek and where she was so baby like he was so boy like. His skin was a dusty brown, his hair a few shades darker and his eyes green like spring leaves, new and rainy wet looking.

The boy did not see us at first, but continued to hum, for that was the sound that we had followed to him. He gazed up at the sky, his lips in a upward cat grin and his hands twining grass blades together in an intricate braid. He seemed to be in a trance, as if his own humming had put him there, for he didn't move or glance at us, as Kipsa began to whisper questions at me.

"What is he?" Kipsa placed his lips right over my ear, sending shivers up and down my spine.

I glared at him, but he didn't notice. "What should we do?" Shut up, I mouthed at him, but Kipsa's eyes were on the boy.

"Do you think he is one of the Leprechaun's?" Kipsa asked, his whisper raspingly loud.

I was turning to push at Kipsa when the boy stopped humming and threw his head back, laughing. "Leprechaun?" He said through his laughter, and he turned his head towards us, but not his eyes, which didn't seem to focus on either one of us. "Do I look like a leprechaun?"

Kipsa stood and stepped towards the boy, who seemed to shift his colors from brown to dark green. I followed after Kipsa, slowly, wairly.

The boy stepped towards us and this time I watched as the colors of his hair did change, slightly, as if somehow a shadow fell upon and through him. I pulled Kipsa back towards me, but he shrugged me off and stepped towards the boy again. "I don'a know. I never saw one, before." Kipsa said, his voice low.

The boy's smile did not change nor did his eyes flicker from their far off stare. "I am not."

"What are you?" Kipsa reached out a hand to touch the boy, who only came to his hips, but his hand passed right through him. "What are you?" Kipsa asked again, his voice quavering as he crept away from the boy who was laughing, his colors shifting to blues and purples.

"What am I?" The boy's voice threw itself around the clearing as if it were a rock bouncing across the smooth surface of a lake. "What am I?"

Kipsa fell back and into me and we fell in a jumble of arms and legs. "Let's go!" Kipsa said, for the first time that day making sense.

We fled, leaping over fallen trees and curving around bent branches, our bodies pumping with fear for the boy's voice followed us, sometimes right at our heels and sometimes in front of us. "What am I?" It called, no longer laughing and merry, but lonely and confused. "What am I?"

We did not stop until we were in the village, surrounded by throngs of people yelling and singing, the smell of beer, blood and piss filling our nostrils. We slowed our foot steps and wiped the sweat from our faces, not daring to make eye contact with each other.

"What the hell?" Kipsa kept muttering under his breath. "What the hell?" We stopped at the well and pulled up the bucket, tossing the water over our heads, feeling the coolness slick down out backs.

"Thirsty?" Kipsa asked, letting the bucket fall and nodding towards my cup where it hung from my belt. I nodded and unhooked it, as Kipsa pulled the bucket up, brimming with sparkling waves of water. It was then, as Kipsa took it in both hands, to pour it into my cup that we heard it again, a slight waiver like the buzz of a mosquito. "What am I?"

Kipsa started to shake, the water slipping down from the bucket into my out held cup, taking on the contours and lines of a small boy.