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Acolyte
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Kong rarely surfaced. Surfacing angered the Leviathan who guarded it, but on this starry night he sat on the beach of his old home. Stars shone overhead, dazzling his eyes like fireflies.
The little Acolyte sat on the tip of his big toe, unafraid. He liked her. She taught him the Hand Talk, a language that used hands and faces instead of voices-noises. Even though he understood some of the voice-noises, he found Hand Talk easier to follow.
She gazed up, her dark eyes twinkling like the stars dusting the sky.
“Can you count?” She signed, eyebrows raised.
“Some,” Kong gestured back. He huffed, flaring his nostrils.
The Acolyte frowned, conveying her question, “Many, how?” And she pointed to the stars. Hand Talk didn’t happen in the same order as voice-noises.
Kong shifted his gaze from her to the sky. He smiled, closed his fists and opened them. “Many!”
Her face lit up in laughter. She waved her hands, signing, “They are huge balls of gas that live past the sky!”
Kong gazed upward, and sobered. The Leviathan once told him the life force of the dead went past the sky. He sent a human there once with his breath to honor a sacrifice.
“Life, sky,” Kong moved slowly through both signs, pointing his thumbs up and passing his palm overhead.
She beamed, eyes shining with so much life, and her hands shaped her innocence. “Will you remember me when I go past the sky?”
Of course he would, like he remembered his parents and the people who worshiped him on this island. Many were bones and dust now, their light long gone. Someday, her spirit was going to be gone. It ached, knowing how short and limited her life was.
Kong bent his enormous head down and exhaled, ruffling the Acolyte’s dark hair. She laughed, a musical sound only he could hear, and lightly patted his nose.
He closed his fist and waved it up and down. “Yes.”
She climbed into the hand he offered, still with that silly, knowing smile. He carried her gently back to the encampment where the Colorful One and the Smart One sat beside a flickering fire. They waved, and she waved back as he set her carefully down.
Kong bid her farewell by touching his fingertip to her tiny palm. Her eyes shone like stars in the firelight. She was bright, young and ephemeral. All the Tiny Ones were, but she would live forever in his memory.