Shurara Corps Zero Chapter 4

       Mekeke was giving up. His legs were giving out from exhaustion. His stomach was clenching. Hunger wouldn't stop giving him pains. He stumbled forward and landed in a puddle.
I'm going to die in this puddle, he thought. There are people walking straight past me and they aren't stopping. I'm going to die.
He was too young to die. He still had his tail. He was too young to be alone in the world, but ever since he lost his parents and had been abandoned by whatever family he had left, he'd been on his own.
His eyes were starting to shut. He was scared. He was so scared to die. He didn't want to. He reached out, his hand shaking. Help. Help me. No one heard him. His voice was too weak and he wasn't even sure he was making noise.
That was when a shadow passed over him and stayed there. Mekeke looked up. He didn't know what kind of alien this man was, but he wasn't Keronian. He was very tall and looked like a bird. A bird that ate frogs.
Mekeke used his little energy to try and scramble away from this strange man, but he couldn't get very far.
"Boy," he said. "Are you good with your hands?"
Mekeke wondered why the man would ask him something like that. Then he wondered if he was good with his hands.
While he was trying to figure this out, the bird man snapped, "Are you deaf, boy? I asked you a question."
Mekeke nodded. "I'm…good with my hands," he rasped, remembering fiddling with wires and bits of wood.
"Then follow me." The man began striding off, not even waiting for Mekeke to get up. Mekeke scrambled to his feet and stumbled after the bird man. He was only able to keep up due to sheer willpower.
When they finally reached where they were going, Mekeke realized that they were going to the puppet shop. Being a puppeteer was still a respectable profession, but everyone involved in the business was considered a little strange.
Inside were hundreds of puppets, some so old that they were no longer used and some so new that they were lying half-finished on the counter. Mekeke stared at all of them, enchanted.
"Don't just stand there with your mouth open," the bird man said. "Through here."
Mekeke tore his gaze away from the puppets and followed the bird man. He reached a small room with a crowded table. A small corner had been cleared so that the bird man could place a bowl on it. He gestured at the bench by the table. Mekeke sat down in front of the bowl and watched as the bird man poured soup into the bowl.
Mekeke picked it up and drank it down. Even though it was only lukewarm, it tasted like heaven. He was so hungry that mud would be delicious to him. When the bowl was drained, the bird man took the bowl away and replaced it with a glass of water. It was emptied quickly.
"What is your name?" the bird man asked.
"Mekeke. Who are you?"
"You will call me 'Master' from now on," the bird man said. "I'm taking you on as my apprentice."
Mekeke was confused. "Why?"
"Because I need someone to carry on the tradition and you need food and shelter. It sounds like a good bargain to me."
It did sound like a good bargain. Mekeke thought about all those puppets. He'd liked them, just by looking at them. "Then I'll be your apprentice."
"Good. To start, you are going to sleep. I don't want to force you to work and have you make stupid mistakes."
Mekeke nodded. He was pushed in the direction of what looked like a closet. It was really the smallest room that Mekeke had ever been in. There was only a cot in there. He fell down onto it and promptly fell asleep.