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The Ajolote sees a group of small humans nearing his lake (his mama’s, really) and just like his tías taught him, he paddles quietly towards them, hiding himself just under the surface of the water.
Before the humans move away, he jumps out and yells, “Boop!” just like his tíos do when they play with the humans.
He dives back into the water and spins. He doesn’t hear the muffled stomping or the human screams and for a moment he thinks it’s because of the water but when he peaks his head out of the surface, the tiny humans squeal and start using their annoying white lights. The Ajolote dives deep into the water because the lights are not nice. They make him feel...unsettled.
The humans reaction is...unexpected to say the least. When his relatives do the scare technique, the humans scream and jump away and it makes everyone laugh because it’s funny! The family makes a big deal out scaring the humans; it’s a hobby, it’s tradition, it keeps them united in spirit. The Ajolote wants to take part in that too!
Maybe his regular noises aren't scary. Maybe the humans got confused because it is kind of dark and he is kind of small. Yeah that’s probably it. Or maybe these humans are just weird and aren’t scared by random creatures popping out of nowhere. These small humans look different than what he normally sees in the daytime. Usually, the small human groups have the same colored scales that look practically identical to one another. These, however, are different with weird black and white markings on their faces and outer scales that make them lose their regular humanoid shapes. Everyone's wearing different colors and the scales are all mismatched. A few of them even gills made out of orange and purple flowers. A school of fish they are not. It's silly.
The Ajolote swims slowly to the other side, careful to remain hidden in the darks of the water and careful to avoid making ripples. He pokes his head out of the water, just barely, and hisses.
"Hiss, hisssss."
He knows how to hiss, he's heard the snakes do it all the time. The humans don’t hear him with all the ruckus they are making so he hisses again. Still nothing. Well, if hissing like a snake doesn’t work, he’ll growl like the beasts that roam just outside the water. He’s heard them plenty of times too, it’ll be easy to copy them. The Ajolote gets closer to the humans and he growls!
“Growl! Growl!”
The humans turn their white lights and make louder noises so the Ajolote dives deep in to the water. He swims away again to look for a better spot to pop out of but mama swims in front of him to stop him.
“Enough, little one," Mama says.
“But mama!”
"Ah, ah, ah, no complaining. The humans aren't in a playing mood right."
The Ajolote pouts because it's no fair! He never gets to do anything fun!