Skylar ran a finger over John’s DVD collection. There were plenty of choices, but Skylar was having trouble deciding what to watch. Lethargically mumbling the titles, occassionally pulling cases off the shelf to read the descriptions.
Eyes flying wide open they jumped up and ran across the room to where John was flipping through a cookbook.
“This is an Earth ogre?” Skylar pointed to the cover of the movie Shrek.
“Er,” John pushed the movie case a few inches away from his face to get a real look. “That’s one interpretation of a creature in a lot of myths.”
“We have ogres.” Skylar flopped down on the couch next to John, kicking their legs. “And our ogres would never be able to fall in love with a Qwortarian.”
“It is a kids movie.” John flicked the case. “So you know, happily ever after and all that.” He chuckled. “That’s the title of one of the sequels actually.”
“It has sequels!” Skylar’s leg kicking got more frantic.
“Yeah-”
“Can we watch them all!”
“I guess,” Skylar threw their arms in the air, nearly sending the DVD case through the air. “But, wait, what are your ogres like?”
“Oh, they are huge, easily fifteen feet tall. They rip of trees, smash buildings, and wrestle with Stampfers before eating their hearts.” Skylar looked at the case, pursing their lips for a moment. “Ours are real, and according to the one scientist who dared to get close enough to study them, they found they don’t have hearts, or areas of the brain which process emotions.”
“Oh,” John snapped the cookbook shut. “That’s… kind of sad.”
“Yeah, soo…” Skylar cracked open the case, “let’s watch something happy.”
“Okay, but, how, do you deal with a creature that-”
“They’re gone.” Skylar sighed. “Either killed or shipped off to exotic zoos. That’s another reason they aren’t able to fall in love when there is only a handful or so left.”
“Oh.” John plucked the CD out of the case. “That’s really sad.”
“It’s a bad spot in our history.” Skylar set the case aside, following John to watch him set up the TV. “Without ogre’s our civilization to spread out without fear of getting destroyed. The money from zoos fueled advances in technology. But it is a possibility we could have found another way if we really tried.”
“We can’t change history.” John picked up the remote. “The best we can do is remember, so we can learn from it, and never repeat it.”
“Yeah.” Skylar jumped back on the couch.
“Now, I’m not saying the Shrek movies learned from their mistakes, but, I think they are still mostly enjoyable.”
John hit play, so the teens could put some distance between the heavy talks wrongs perpetrated by ancestors whose names had been mixed up or completely forgotten by history.
Word count: 472
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