CL Round 2: Sport Hunt

Creature League Round 2: Catching a Break

     "…So, once you've rolled your die and found out the creature your catching, please head to your assigned area, let it loose, and, well, get down to it! No too hard, huh?" the man with the long silver hair finished explaining to us. He looked down at all of us from the raised platform in the middle of the village, that boyish I've-got-my-hand-in-the-cookie-jar smile never leaving his young face.
     I just stared back at him half-heartedly, more due to the fact that I was still half-asleep due to the early match then my disinterest. To be honest, I still couldn't believe this guy was the Professor (*) guy who gathered us here. He seemed too childish to have been the man who created real floating islands, marble-bound creatures, and cartoon madness. But, I pondered, maybe a childish imagination was all that any of that really needed to begin with.
    I looked back up and noticed the Professor had handed things over to Ocsid, the man who I was willing to take bets had fashioned himself a Flux Capacitor and arrived here from the 70's….man would the Doc be mad to know he wasn't the first to make a time machine out of a DeLorean.
    "Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey there, ladies, gents and creatures alike!" He yelled into his mic with style, "First contestant to roooooll is…Cathy! How grovin'! (*)" I was about to walk up and roll the die I assumed we had to, but suddenly Ocsid took out a white marble from his pocket and heat it up with a match. I stopped in mid step and stared dumbly as it glowed and grew to the size of a large boulder…when the glowing ceased, a square, grey creature proceeded to open its tired black eyes…one on one side, two on the next…
    "A….dice creature?" I finally spat out, staring at it as its sneezed (from who knew where), and shook a bit. Ocsid smiled.
    "Radical, huh?"
    "…that's one word for it. But how am I supposed to…?"
    "Hey Evoorg, you know what to do!"
    At the command, the huge fan-creature Evoorg moved forward. He grabbed both sides of the creature, and in an instant, threw it up into the air, so hard that it soon became a twinkle in the sky.
    I didn't even have time to protest on treating a creature in such a way, or what the heck was going on before the creature came back, unusually fast it seemed, and stopped a foot from the ground, spinning and rolling at unfathomable speed. "At your word, then," was all Oscid said to me. It took me a moment to get his meaning.
    "Umm…stop?"
    The creature began to slow and lower. When it hit the ground it was completely still, though looking at its eyes, it looked a bit dizzy. Considering what just happened though, that seemed like a pretty good outcome.
    Being so short, Oscid had to go on his tip-toes to see the creature's top. Moments passed…
    "And looks like the groovin' Cathy rolled a one! What a lucky kid! She'll be facing Adabat in the Stomp Forest….be careful of the burnt bit! The Professor man has your marble, so beeest of luck!" Oscid said, just a little too enthusiastically.
   I sighed as the tension let lose. I had actually gotten the simplest creature to catch! So, with envious looks from the others I coaxed Coo to get up and follow me (I had thought to bring a stick with me...) before heading over to the Professor, who was standing beside the stage.
    Handing me a green marble like Coo's, he grinned to both me and her; I thought I heard him say "Good luck" as we headed into the forest.
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     "Wow...just wow…" I uttered fantastically, looking around the forest.
    Everything was so…huge. The trees looked like skyscrapers-their green canvases tickled the edge of the sky, but still allowed a decent amount of light through. As I craned my neck in amazement, Coo made herself at home, jubilantly sniffing, gnawing, and watching squirrels run by. It took me a few moments to remember I had a creature to let loose.
    Grabbing my backpack I got my lighter and did the usual. Moments later a little fluffy white and green cat creature with large eyes looked up and blinked at me.
    I tried to hold it in, sweating with restraint....but clearly, it didn't work.
    "AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW! You're so CUTE!"
    I bent to pick up and pet the cutie, but a second before my hand touched its head, it was five feet away. "Huh?" I muttered, looking at the suddenly empty spot. Looking up, I saw it snicker at me, then dash around, too fast for the eye to follow, only stopping to stick its tongue out.
    "You've gotta be kidding me," I mumbled, watching the tiny thing taunt me again and again. Who knew such a cute cat could have an attitude?
    This would be hard too…with it being so fast and small….Coo's eyesight was comparable to my own (which was no compliment) and she was much larger; it would be harder for her to get the kitten if it were to sneak in a small gap or hiding place. But…well, we had to try, right?
    "Hey, Coo, c'mon, let's get this…thing?" I had turned around and l- lo and behold - Coo had found a tree with sap, and was licking it off, happily and steadily, and to the total oblivion of everything else. "Oh geez…come ON, Coo!" I walked up to her, and after petting her, poking her, pulling on her tail, persuading her with some more branches and yelling that if she didn't listen there'd be no more windowsill gnawing, I had gotten nowhere. Perfect.
    The little Adabat was snickering again, never running too far, taunting me. Well, if Coo wasn't gunna catch it…
    So started the Adabat's joyful game of cat and very-slow-and-annoyed-teenage-girl. Such highlights of the game were the twist and tackle, where Adabat would turn sharply while the girl tackled the dirt face-first. Another favourite was the jump and thromp, where good ol' Aday would jump from branch to branch, and if they were too far apart, jump off the girl's head to get to the next. The newest move was the dizz-fier, where Aday would run around and around, getting the girl dizzy while she hilariously tried to catch him when he was close.
    The girl-Errrr-me on the other hand was already past the breaking point; cussing, kicking and obviously making the game much more rewarding for the creature. It was doing one of it dizzying runs again, and my head had already been pulsing and spinning. Suddenly I heard a "Crroou?" And looked up to see Coo had finished with the tree, and was watching us amusedly.
    "And how long had YOU been watching, huh?!" I screeched as Coo blankly stared. "You're supposed to be HELPING MEEEEE!!! Why don't you just-"
    At that moment, Coo leaned forward, and nudged my head lightly with her muzzle. I tumbled over in surprise. As I landed, my butt was stopped on something soft. There was a crack and the soft thing was no longer that, and I fell the rest of the way to the ground.
    It took me a moment to gather my bearings, but when I did, I saw Adabat's marble to my right, and Coo chewing on the twig she pulled from my hair to my left. I sighed, chuckling as I grabbed the green marble and got back to my feet.
   Just my luck to marblify a creature by sitting on it.