Reflections: There are Monsters in my Closet (Part 2/6)

My family has always kept monsters around.

Big, small, flashy, plain. A veritable menagerie of creatures to be used as tools, pets, protectors, hunting companions; usually locked away until they were needed. You didn't need to feed them very often and they were content to slumber in the dark until called upon.

The day I turned thirteen, my dad gave me a monster of my own.

I guess he saw it as part of my coming-of-age, an introduction to the family legacy. It wasn't a big or flashy monster. It was on the smaller side in fact, deemed suitable for an inexperienced young man.

An entry-level monster, if you will.

I guess it was meant to show me that monsters could be fun, but also to teach a healthy respect for them as well.

After all, even the smallest monster could prove deadly if one was careless.