Ballad of the Beast: The Animal

 Sound! Light! Drums! Guitars!

Hold up! This is a story about a guy that makes an unlikely friend. It is unlikely that you will get the voice in your head to sound like my voice. How about you imagine that I have a voice that sounds super deep. Who's a person that everyone knows that has a deep voice?

Hm.... I got it!
Morgan Freeman!
Is this better?
Good let us get back to the story shall we...

Sound! Light! Drums! Guitars!

The drums, the guitars, the vocals, those were all you could hear, all he could think of. He wanted it so badly.

They say if you want something badly enough you get it...

Well, I guess that aged as well as music did.

He got up and went downstairs, his mom had been calling him for a while, but he was ignoring her.

"There you are Frank!" 

"What do you want mom?" 

"Stop talking to me like that, I told you already about that. I want you to go to the store to buy me some eggs, come back quick, I need them for the lemon pie. Go on your bike so you can go faster." 

"Ughhhh, ooooookay!"

He left for the store, but he kept thinking about all the music he wanted to make. He put on his earphones and took about a minute to choose a song.
Seek & Destroy, good one.

He bought the eggs, and held them away from himself the whole way. He hates buying eggs. He always ends up breaking one and his mom gives him crap about it.

"Here they are."
"Thank you."
"I'm gonna go out."
"Oh, are you gonna go visit the neighbor girl?"
"No!"

He slammed the door on his way out. He was not going to see the neighbor girl, he was going to go smoke marijuana. Obviously he wasn't going to tell her if not she would flip out. The people around his  house think he is a problem child. Hey, I just remembered that song, I better remember to play it when I get back home. 

Yeah, the neighbors disliked him. But he didn't mind. It was easier to go for a walk when no one talks to you.

He found a good spot to sit.

He couldn't believe other talent-less a-holes have bands and babes and he can't! He had the sound covered, it's just the voice that's missing. He wanted a person with a deep voice. He wasn't asking for much. Someone that sounds like Billy Gibbons! Someone that sounds like...

"GHHHHHHHHHROOOOOAAAAAAAARRR!"

Yeah, like that!

"What was that?" he asked himself out loud. 

He got up and left his joint, and lighter on the floor. There were some sick footprints near the tree, they looked like they were heading downhill, so he went back up to his spot. That was when he saw him. Some kind of monkey. It wasn't a monkey though, maybe it was the weed, but it looked like a human. It was standing up, looking at him! It had hands with five fingers, it had eyes that were looking directly at him. It had hair all over his body, and it looked like he had no feet. That was until he saw they were behind him. He tried to talk to it.

"I'm not going to hurt you."
"You couldn't if you tried." it answered back!
"Woah! You understood me! YOU CAN TALK!"
"Yes, I can understand you, and I can talk."
"You can talk! That's so cool! And your voice, it's so deep!"
"Yes, thank you. I saw smoke coming from here and thought something was wrong. I came and found you."
"Why would you care if there was smoke?"
"Because I live here."
"Oh yeah." (Awkward silence) "Don't you get bored of just seeing green?"
"Sometimes, at night, when I see the lights from your town."
"Why aren't you sitting? You want to sit down?"

"You are gonna laugh at me."
"No, why would I?"
"Okay."

Plooff

"What was that?"
"I can't sit down like you do. I don't have knees, so I just jump and let myself fall when I want to rest."
"Why don't you have knees?"
"That's just how all of us were born."
"Us!"
"You didn't think I was the only one did you?"

He totally thought he was the only one.

"No."
"You were nice to me, thank you."
"No problem. Hey, you want some?"
"What is that?"
"A joint, here let me light it for you..."
"GHROAAAAAAAAR!"
"What!? What did I do?"
"Get that away from me! Many of us have died because of that light!"
"It won't hurt you...see."
"You don't understand, your body is different than mine. You are not covered with hair."
"Okay, I will put it away."
"Thank you."
"Do you have a name?"
"The only other human I have ever met was an old man that called me sisimito and ran, but my name is Simon."
"Simon. That's a cool name, mine's Frank. Francis, but everyone calls me Frank."
"Frank, thank you for being nice to me."
"You're nice too Simon. You like music?"
"I do, but I could never play an instrument, and I can't sing."
"I bet you can sing! You have such a deep voice it-"
"You don't understand, I can't, because I shouldn't. If I sing, it can be heard from really far away. You heard me groan and went to see what had made the noise, imagine if I sang wholeheartedly!"
"Whoa! Simon, that was a groan! I think we can help each other. I want to form a band, my friends and I can all play instruments, we need a lead singer. I want you to sing with us. What do you think?"
"I think there is a problem, I am a monster! No one would want to come near me, much less listen to my music."
"I know it sounds crazy, but there is a band called Nekrogoblikon and they have this hype man that dresses up as a goblin and is in their music videos and stuff. I think we could pull off that with you!"
"I don't know."
"I can come back tomorrow. My mom will start to worry if I take any longer.
"Okay."
"See ya Simon."

The next day at school he told the guys about what happened. They were skeptical at first, but they had to believe him when they meet Simon.

"Duuuude! You look gnarly! You're exactly what we need for the band!" Said Hudson.
"Thank you," answered Simon.
"You look just like the folk tales said you did! You're huge and hairy! You have big feet, with toes that are spread out, and no knees!" added Brian.
Simon answered shyly, "I do."
"I read a lot about you. People were really afraid of you. They said that you ate humans! You would tear the corpse into small chunks, and eat even the bone. Is that true?" asked Brian.
Simon began opening his mouth, "I-"
"That's enough Brian, that's just stories to scare the kids. Right Simon." Frank strongly stated.
"No."
"What?" Asked Frank shocked.
"They are true, my ancestors hunted yours. I was taught that long ago, before humans had light, my kind was abundant, and hunted humans. After you got light, you began to fear us less, and began hunting us until we faded into legend."
"I had no idea Simon, I am so sorry." replied Frank.

There was a long silence from the group until Simon spoke again.

"Don't worry, I like you, I would never hurt anyone. Eventually we all became vegetarians."
"How did you learn to talk?" asked Saul.
"My parents taught me." answered Simon.
"Huh, I was expecting another cool story." remarked Brian.
"Where would we practice?" asked Brad.
Saul answered, "My parents basement! It's big enough, and I have it layered with thick carpet so that they don't hear me practicing with the guitar."
"Awesome! Let's go!" shouted Brad.
"We can't, how are we gonna get Simon there without being seen?" asked Brian.
"A disguise! We say it he's a sculpture or something for school! Let's come back here tomorrow and bring stuff, I can ask my dad to come pick us up in his pickup." said Saul.