After hugging both his sisters tightly and successfully holding back his tears, Elliot finally let go.

“What’s wrong bro?” Jessica asked in great alarm.

She was the most perceptive of the three siblings and could instantly tell that her brother was acting very differently than usual. And the fact that he wasn’t working in the middle of the day simply meant that something was wrong. “Did you get fired?”

“Yeah bro, what’s wrong?” Jennifer asked with a frown.

The twins were twelve years old, and were quite tall for their age despite the fact that they barely met the minimum dietary requirement for girls their age. (They had long learnt to modify their bowls to make them shallower in order to give the impression that they had full bowls so they could pack more food into their big brother’s bowl without him noticing.)

Tall and slender with clear blue eyes and dark brown hair tied neatly into buns, both of them looked refreshingly pretty. They were the most popular cashiers in the little supermarket where they worked.

Whenever it was their turn to man the cashiers, the supermarket was always packed with young men suddenly finding a great need to shop for daily necessities which they or their family members didn’t really need.

They were using their yearly off day that particular day so that they could scour the town for a suitable Christmas gift for their beloved brother who was, like every single day of the year, working his bones off.

Therefore Elliot’s sudden appearance brought the two girls great alarm.

“Nothing is wrong! Nothing! In fact everything is great! I missed you two so much!!” Elliot cried out as he pulled the two girls into a group hug.

Jessica glanced at Jennifer with a raised eyebrow and slightly wide eyes. “What’s going on? This seems bad.” Her look seemed to say.

Jennifer raised her eyebrow in a slightly different way and rolled her eyes slightly. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s his irritating boss?” Her look seemed to reply.

Jessica frowned slightly, flared her nostril and twitched her upper lip a little. It probably meant “If it’s true, I’m going to teach that old man a lesson he’ll never forget!”

Jennifer glowered and scrunched up her face solemnly. It probably meant “I’ll bring a bat.”

“Girls. I am going to tell you something very important. So I want you to pay attention and trust me, can you do that?” Elliot said after he released his sisters from the group hug.

Jessica glanced at Jennifer with wide open eyes. “This seems reeeeally bad!” Her eyes said silently to Jennifer.

Jennifer gave Jessica a look that simply said. “Make that TWO bats. And a metal pipe.”

Jessica nodded very slightly and breathed out deeply. “I’ll bring a gallon of cooking oil and some matches.” Her silent twin-speak communicated to Jennifer.

Elliot was totally oblivious to his sisters’ plan to torture his boss and continued his warnings to his sisters. “It may seem like a scary thing, but it’s actually not. You can cry if you want to, it’s okay. I just need you both to believe in me, and know that I have a plan, and I will do everything I can to make sure that you two are safe.”

Jennifer nodded grimly at his words, already thinking where she could find a couple of sharp, pointed weapons to replace her bats.

Jessica nodded grimly as well, immediately marking out the places in her mind where she could steal highly flammable oil and maybe a little bit of gunpowder. Nothing fancy, maybe just ten kilograms or so.

Elliot took a deep breath and slowly released it.

“Well. I think it’s better if I show it to you both first before I tell you. Ellie, Rex come out.”

Immediately, a cute little black bear and a cute little red lynx appeared on Elliot’s right and left shoulders respectively.

Expecting bad news about their brother being fired or worse, being bullied at work, the two girls were caught totally off guard when the two little beasts appeared.

Their jaws dropped to the ground in shock!

“Whaa-” Jessica pointed at Ellie.

“Is-is that a-” Jennifer pointed at Rex.

“They are my tamed beasts.” Elliot said slowly, allowing the two girls to process the information first.

“Tamed beasts.” Jessica repeated softly as her large eyes stared at Ellie, completely mesmerized.

“The black bear cub is called Ellie. The red lynx kitten is called Rex. Ellie, Rex, these two are Jessica and Jennifer, my sisters. Be nice to them. You two girls want to hold them?”

“Go, Rex.” Elliot commanded.

CONFUSION!

BITE?

“NO! No bite. Hug. Sleep. There.” Elliot pointed at Jennifer’s hands.

HUG? SLEEP?

OK!

Rex leapt with great agility and landed on Jennifer’s hands.

“Awwwwwwww.” Jennifer hugged Rex and sighed with great satisfaction, all thoughts of violence and sharp pointed objects gone from her mind.

“Jessica, want the bear?” Elliot asked with a smile.

Jessica merely nodded her head vigorously and stretched out her hands as well.

Without having to be told, Ellie leapt from Elliot’s shoulders, landed heavily on Jessica’s hands, and was promptly hugged by her. As with Jennifer, all thoughts of flames and explosions disappeared from her mind.

“Now that you two girls are acquainted with my tamed beasts, let me continue in my explanation. I now have the ability to tame many, many beasts.” Elliot said.

Jessica and Jennifer merely nodded and continued to play with their respective cute little beasts.

Elliot nodded with satisfaction, and judged the moment ripe to drop the bombshell.

“I got this power from aliens in the future. I’ve somehow travelled back in time and these aliens will come tomorrow afternoon to destroy most of the world and turn the whole planet into a survival racing game. But don’t worry though, because I come from the future, I know exactly what will happen, and I have a plan that will help us survive.” Elliot said casually.

Jessica blinked.

Jennifer blinked.

“Don’t worry, take your time to process my words. We still have almost an entire day. Oh look, aren’t Ellie and Rex cute?”

Author’s Note

Hi guys! Thank you for reading. If you enjoyed it, please consider supporting me with a powerstone or two! Thank you very much 🙂

Check out also my other novel: I Devour Mechas. It’s epic!