Bait - Episode 3
A somewhat smaller shidbit for your reading pleasure. ;) Enjoy.
Working Title: Bait
Shidbit Wordcount: 1381
Today's wordcount goal: 1500
Total wordcount: 5254
A crumpled shape lay motionless in the middle of the dirt floor, and for a moment Henry forgot to breathe. It was humanoid in shape- it had two arms, two legs, a torso, and general body structure like a human’s, but other aspects were markedly different. Its head wasn’t shaped quite right, nor were its legs and what he could see of its feet. It must be one of the natives… maybe one of them was deformed, or something. Henry wished its skin weren’t so dark so he could at least make heads or tails of gender or facial features.
Timidly the boy ventured a few words. “Hey… are you okay?” All he heard in response was the shape’s rhythmical breathing. Swallowing his fear, he took a few bold steps forward until he was close enough to crouch by its side. “Are you okay?” He repeated, hating how small and weak his voice sounded. Tentatively he reached out a hand to touch its shoulder and give the surprisingly firm muscle a gentle shove. “Hey, buddy- you alright?”
No response.
Drawing on his expansive knowledge of health-oriented and hospital sit-com television shows he had watched throughout his lifetime, the thought occurred to him to try to find a pulse. He might have to try to do CPR if he couldn’t find one. He shuddered at the thought. Mouth-to-mouth resuscitation wasn’t exactly appealing. He clenched his eyes shut and hoped it wouldn’t come to that. He’d never given CPR in real life, only seen it on TV. He’d be flying by the seat of his pants.
Tentatively he reached out two fingers as he’d seen that one doctor do on that one tv show, and placed them about where he thought the jugular vein should be.
First sensation: a deep, throbbing pulse far stronger than he’d anticipated.
Second sensation: fur. Whatever that thing was he’d just touched was covered in it.
Had he had time, Henry would have drawn back in horror. But as soon as his brain registered the information his fingers were telling him, the dark form moved faster than Henry had ever thought a living being could move. In a mere fraction of a heartbeat it sprung from its sprawled position and had the young man’s wrist in a vice-like grip. In his alarm the boy toppled onto his back, releasing a short yelp of fear. In its hand lay all the power of a trash compactor, and its palm on his bare skin was like sandpaper. If he wasn’t mistaken, he felt what could almost be claws pressing into his skin, as well.
Henry looked up from staring at the thing’s hand to see a sight that froze him to his core. Hovering in the darkness, round pupils caught and refracted what little light came in through the hut’s small windows and created a chilling image of glowing green eyes that sent a shiver down Henry’s spine. He suddenly became aware of how helpless he was. He was a journalism student, not a Man In Black.
The being- whatever it was- glanced about itself hurriedly before turning its attention back to the boy and hissing a string of syllables in a language Henry couldn’t even begin to comprehend. He couldn’t tell where one word ended and the other began- much less figure out what was being said. In all of his language classes at the University, he’d never heard of anything like this one. It was rather like a blend of vowels, breathy exhalations, and harsh clicks at the back of the throat, almost like a purr or a growl. The creature looked expectantly at him for a while with a stern look that said it was not to be trifled with.
“D… do you speak English?” Of course, Henry, a furry beast with cat-eyes that appeared out of the middle of nowhere is going to be fluent in every language on the planet! He felt foolish asking, but he figured it would be worse not to try.
The beast’s eyes narrowed and what could have been its ears flattened to the sides of its head, giving it a streamlined look. It grumbled something under its breath before releasing Henry’s wrist in a rough shoving motion. For a moment it sat still, studying the boy, and then it heaved a sigh and hefted itself to its feet. Henry felt pale as it unfolded its lengthy limbs and stood. He hadn’t imagined it would be so tall. Its head nearly touched the ceiling.
In the deepening darkness Henry couldn’t see the finer details of what that thing was doing, but it sounded like a whole lot of shuffling around and under-the-breath muttering. Finally, he heard an electronic beep and suddenly found himself staring into a device held on the creature’s outstretched palm. He glanced up at the creature to find it staring at him again. With its free hand it motioned at him, and then pointed to its mouth. As if to further prove its intent, it opened its mouth and said… something. Whether it was one word or a hundred, Henry couldn’t tell. It didn’t take much thought to realize that it wanted him to say something.
It was a moment before Henry realized he had a voice, remembered where it was, and figured out how to use it. “What… what do you want me to say?” Oh, that was brilliant. He could see the headlines now: CAT-MAN FROM OTHER DIMENSION MAKES CONTACT BUT THE CAT’S GOT JOURNALIST STUDENT’S TONGUE. Way to go down in the history books, Henry.
The little machine beeped again, causing Henry to flinch which caused the creature holding it to flinch, too. Again it muttered something under its breath as the machine squeaked out some syllables in the creature’s strange language. Henry watched with wide-eyed wonder as the creature sighed, shook its head, and put a small device in its ear. It began to speak a few words- and to the boy’s astonishment, the machine started to translate.
“If the batteries aren’t dead on this thing, you’ll be hearing me in your own language. If you understand me, nod your head.” Henry was so aghast he nearly forgot to shake his head up and down. The creature looked almost… pleased. It relaxed its stance considerably- only after which Henry realized it had been in a tense half-crouch.
“Good. My name is Dart--“ the latter portion of the name was cut off into indecipherable garble. The beast frowned and tried again, with the same result. It sighed and rolled its eyes. “My last name is obviously not pronounceable in your tongue. No matter.” Dart- for that was his name, obviously- looked at Henry with that same piercing, expectant look. It suddenly occurred to the boy that for politeness’ sake, he should offer his name as well.
“Uh… Henry. Wade. Henry Wade.” A moment of silence followed, during which the creature’s eyes narrowed and he heard him grumble under his breath- a sound meant to be kept to himself, but was picked up by the translator anyway.
“That’s his name? Moonshine, I forgot how boring humans are.” As soon as the machine had begun talking, Henry saw Dart’s eyes widen. Looking uncomfortable, the creature coughed, putting one paw over its mouth. “Sorry about that.” Henry wasn’t offended- he was more surprised at how Dart had indicated he had some prior encounter with humans.
“Wait. I feel stupid asking this, but are you an alien?” Sure, Henry, why not? Ask all the stupid questions in the world. You’ve already made a great fool of yourself, why stop now?
“Am I an alien? What kind of a question is that? We’re on Ni’ija, boy! This is one of the larger inter-galacial trading posts in Faij!” A few moments of stunned silence followed on Henry’s behalf, during which Dart suddenly wondered if he was mistaken. “Ah… where did you think we were?”
“Earth,” Henry said simply, his mind swimming. “What’s a Faij?”
The young man watched as those two eyes that still glowed in the moonlight slowly blinked once, twice… and then closed completely. There was a thump-skid-thump as he watched the creature’s tall form fall back against the far wall and sink to the floor.
“Aw, crap.”
And if you haven't seen it already, this is the cutest thing.
Working Title: Bait
Shidbit Wordcount: 1381
Today's wordcount goal: 1500
Total wordcount: 5254
A crumpled shape lay motionless in the middle of the dirt floor, and for a moment Henry forgot to breathe. It was humanoid in shape- it had two arms, two legs, a torso, and general body structure like a human’s, but other aspects were markedly different. Its head wasn’t shaped quite right, nor were its legs and what he could see of its feet. It must be one of the natives… maybe one of them was deformed, or something. Henry wished its skin weren’t so dark so he could at least make heads or tails of gender or facial features.
Timidly the boy ventured a few words. “Hey… are you okay?” All he heard in response was the shape’s rhythmical breathing. Swallowing his fear, he took a few bold steps forward until he was close enough to crouch by its side. “Are you okay?” He repeated, hating how small and weak his voice sounded. Tentatively he reached out a hand to touch its shoulder and give the surprisingly firm muscle a gentle shove. “Hey, buddy- you alright?”
No response.
Drawing on his expansive knowledge of health-oriented and hospital sit-com television shows he had watched throughout his lifetime, the thought occurred to him to try to find a pulse. He might have to try to do CPR if he couldn’t find one. He shuddered at the thought. Mouth-to-mouth resuscitation wasn’t exactly appealing. He clenched his eyes shut and hoped it wouldn’t come to that. He’d never given CPR in real life, only seen it on TV. He’d be flying by the seat of his pants.
Tentatively he reached out two fingers as he’d seen that one doctor do on that one tv show, and placed them about where he thought the jugular vein should be.
First sensation: a deep, throbbing pulse far stronger than he’d anticipated.
Second sensation: fur. Whatever that thing was he’d just touched was covered in it.
Had he had time, Henry would have drawn back in horror. But as soon as his brain registered the information his fingers were telling him, the dark form moved faster than Henry had ever thought a living being could move. In a mere fraction of a heartbeat it sprung from its sprawled position and had the young man’s wrist in a vice-like grip. In his alarm the boy toppled onto his back, releasing a short yelp of fear. In its hand lay all the power of a trash compactor, and its palm on his bare skin was like sandpaper. If he wasn’t mistaken, he felt what could almost be claws pressing into his skin, as well.
Henry looked up from staring at the thing’s hand to see a sight that froze him to his core. Hovering in the darkness, round pupils caught and refracted what little light came in through the hut’s small windows and created a chilling image of glowing green eyes that sent a shiver down Henry’s spine. He suddenly became aware of how helpless he was. He was a journalism student, not a Man In Black.
The being- whatever it was- glanced about itself hurriedly before turning its attention back to the boy and hissing a string of syllables in a language Henry couldn’t even begin to comprehend. He couldn’t tell where one word ended and the other began- much less figure out what was being said. In all of his language classes at the University, he’d never heard of anything like this one. It was rather like a blend of vowels, breathy exhalations, and harsh clicks at the back of the throat, almost like a purr or a growl. The creature looked expectantly at him for a while with a stern look that said it was not to be trifled with.
“D… do you speak English?” Of course, Henry, a furry beast with cat-eyes that appeared out of the middle of nowhere is going to be fluent in every language on the planet! He felt foolish asking, but he figured it would be worse not to try.
The beast’s eyes narrowed and what could have been its ears flattened to the sides of its head, giving it a streamlined look. It grumbled something under its breath before releasing Henry’s wrist in a rough shoving motion. For a moment it sat still, studying the boy, and then it heaved a sigh and hefted itself to its feet. Henry felt pale as it unfolded its lengthy limbs and stood. He hadn’t imagined it would be so tall. Its head nearly touched the ceiling.
In the deepening darkness Henry couldn’t see the finer details of what that thing was doing, but it sounded like a whole lot of shuffling around and under-the-breath muttering. Finally, he heard an electronic beep and suddenly found himself staring into a device held on the creature’s outstretched palm. He glanced up at the creature to find it staring at him again. With its free hand it motioned at him, and then pointed to its mouth. As if to further prove its intent, it opened its mouth and said… something. Whether it was one word or a hundred, Henry couldn’t tell. It didn’t take much thought to realize that it wanted him to say something.
It was a moment before Henry realized he had a voice, remembered where it was, and figured out how to use it. “What… what do you want me to say?” Oh, that was brilliant. He could see the headlines now: CAT-MAN FROM OTHER DIMENSION MAKES CONTACT BUT THE CAT’S GOT JOURNALIST STUDENT’S TONGUE. Way to go down in the history books, Henry.
The little machine beeped again, causing Henry to flinch which caused the creature holding it to flinch, too. Again it muttered something under its breath as the machine squeaked out some syllables in the creature’s strange language. Henry watched with wide-eyed wonder as the creature sighed, shook its head, and put a small device in its ear. It began to speak a few words- and to the boy’s astonishment, the machine started to translate.
“If the batteries aren’t dead on this thing, you’ll be hearing me in your own language. If you understand me, nod your head.” Henry was so aghast he nearly forgot to shake his head up and down. The creature looked almost… pleased. It relaxed its stance considerably- only after which Henry realized it had been in a tense half-crouch.
“Good. My name is Dart--“ the latter portion of the name was cut off into indecipherable garble. The beast frowned and tried again, with the same result. It sighed and rolled its eyes. “My last name is obviously not pronounceable in your tongue. No matter.” Dart- for that was his name, obviously- looked at Henry with that same piercing, expectant look. It suddenly occurred to the boy that for politeness’ sake, he should offer his name as well.
“Uh… Henry. Wade. Henry Wade.” A moment of silence followed, during which the creature’s eyes narrowed and he heard him grumble under his breath- a sound meant to be kept to himself, but was picked up by the translator anyway.
“That’s his name? Moonshine, I forgot how boring humans are.” As soon as the machine had begun talking, Henry saw Dart’s eyes widen. Looking uncomfortable, the creature coughed, putting one paw over its mouth. “Sorry about that.” Henry wasn’t offended- he was more surprised at how Dart had indicated he had some prior encounter with humans.
“Wait. I feel stupid asking this, but are you an alien?” Sure, Henry, why not? Ask all the stupid questions in the world. You’ve already made a great fool of yourself, why stop now?
“Am I an alien? What kind of a question is that? We’re on Ni’ija, boy! This is one of the larger inter-galacial trading posts in Faij!” A few moments of stunned silence followed on Henry’s behalf, during which Dart suddenly wondered if he was mistaken. “Ah… where did you think we were?”
“Earth,” Henry said simply, his mind swimming. “What’s a Faij?”
The young man watched as those two eyes that still glowed in the moonlight slowly blinked once, twice… and then closed completely. There was a thump-skid-thump as he watched the creature’s tall form fall back against the far wall and sink to the floor.
“Aw, crap.”
And if you haven't seen it already, this is the cutest thing.