Crooked Names

I've been battling witches all night. 

Mostly rap battles; some breakdance fighting. A little Sudoku. 

They could just use their magics, of course, and destroy me in a thousand different ways. 

That doesn't interest them. We're not really even enemies. They're just bored, and awake. And so am I. 

They can fly, but I've never seen it. They're never in a hurry. They're not immortal, I don't think, and they live longer than us, but not that much longer. They move through time differently, it seems. Sometimes, (lots of times,) they'll answer a question before I even ask it. Like, days before. I'll ask them something, and they'll turn to me with their large yellow eyes, (flecked with silver,) and do that unsettling blink they can do (where the lower eyelid moves from the bottom up, like a chicken) and I'll flip though my notepad of all their puzzling sayings, until I find one that fits. 

There's usually one that fits, and I check it off and add a number from 1 to 10, a score of how certain I am. Sometimes more than one fits; those I draw a little star next to. 

They are beautiful, in their way. Their proportions are subtly different, and not fixed. Limbs shorten and lengthen with the breeze. They will stand ramrod-straight when alert, or scoliosis-slither like a sidewinder when annoyed., 

It's unsettling. Still, it's like any other body language. They remind me more of exotic animals that people think they can keep as pets.

They're not tame; they're not afraid of you; and they might not even look you. 

You're safe because you're not their preferred prey. 

And they're ruthless when we play Sudoku. I actually don't even know how to play, but I'm afraid to ask so I just put with random numbers. 

It amuses them to no end; sometimes games end with them convulsing work laughter, like little bells, their arms and legs becoming rubbery and bending until they collapse into tinkling piles. 

Sometimes they are solemn. 

I think I may be some kind of oracle to them, when I attempt to play. 

I'll have to ask. Or maybe they've already told me. I'll have to check my notepad. 

But it's late, and they want to play again.