Innocent Monster

In his journeys across Earth, Kyten had now come onto the desert regions. The giant mushrooms that rose into the sky were an oddity, though there was little practical that they provided Kyten. Still, they were enough to draw his attention, and one acted as an adequate seat at present. He had heard wild giants were here, like in the southern jungles. He had yet to see them personally, but perhaps he hadn't been looking in the right places.

"Hey, you! Whatever you are, you came to the wrong place! This is our turf!" An unseen figure snarled, interrupting Kyten's thoughts. Looking at the yeller, he saw him to be a bipedal wolf, leading some number of fellow anthrophomorphic animals. Kyten knew them to be fellow inhabitants of Earth from the computers, not too functionally different from humans. Zoanthropes, if he recalled their name. They seemed to be those that lived here. Kyten was slightly cautious, though not enough to stop himself from drifting from his perch; they already knew he was there, so revealing himself meant little. He had no intentions of leaving right now, no matter what was said. Perhaps he could talk them down?

Wings carried him into clear view of the others, though he kept some distance between them. The eternal smile remained plastered on his face, beaming despite the aggressive tone the wolf had met him with. "Don't worry, I mean you no harm! I won't hurt you if..."

"Shut up!"

The wolfman had heard enough, leaping at Kyten with claws ready to strike. The buglike boy drifted lazily to avoid the attack, but that still earned him scratches. Immediately, something flipped in Kyten's brain as the attacker scratched at his face. It was not harmful, no, not meaningfully so. Perhaps if he were some random human, it would have been. It could have been dangerous, possibly lethal, as such a strike could have taken the head off of a normal human. Kyten was no human though, normal or otherwise. Even if he were stationary, it wouldn't have caused lasting harm. Already, the light scratch was healing, and there would soon be no trace of injury. There was no chance the wolf could meaningfully harm him, but that wasn't what mattered within Kyten's mind.

"Yeah, you better- grkk!"

All restraint instantly vanished from Kyten as a thin beam of energy punctured the back of the offending Zoanthrope. The injured one fell to the ground, his breathing labored as he clutched his chest. Kyten guessed he had punctured a lung. It took a moment for his compatriots to notice, but their standoffish demeanor immediately gave way to panic as they fled.

With his action, the wolf had chosen to aggress, to attack Kyten. It didn't matter that he had no chance; the intention was enough. After all, he tried to harm him, to kill him despite the peaceful greeting. The others had done nothing, so they remained unharmed. Kyten was not out here to kill, after all. Or at least not to kill people. He would not shy away from doing so, however. There was no guilt, no concern for what he did. He was attacked unprovoked, and he retaliated. There was nothing wrong with that; why would there be?

A single hand reached down to grab the fallen attacker, a dart emerging from the palm. It would be wasteful to let him die from the wound for nothing.