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shadow172writes · 6 years

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Shelter

(Hello! This is a little drabble I tapped out this morning on a whim. I have no immediate continuation planned, but there may be a second chapter :D See ya later!)

Dari glared through the smeared glass wall in front of him, just able make out the vague shape of the human on its other side. The man moved back and forth, doing one of several pointless activities. He always seemed to be busy, hurrying around, yet achieving nothing. Dari sighed, standing up from the fake, hollow rock in the center of his aquarium. The top was flat, and since there was nothing else besides sand and a blue, headache inducing light, he took to sitting on it. He was used to having a height advantage, and it itched at him to be stuck down below. Were it not for small details, one might have thought Dari was human. His skin was a light brown, his hair a deep, earthy violet that could have been achieved with a simply box of dye. He was thinner than would seem healthy, but he still had some lean muscle that hadn’t been stripped from him by captivity. However, he did have more unusual features; for instance, his bright lavender eyes, his remaining wing, and his height of slightly less than four inches. He slid down from the side of the rock, feet hitting the crunching sand that covered the glass bottom of the container. When he’d first been dumped here, he’d tried to dig through it, wailing in despair when all he found was hard glass. He turned, ducking his head to enter the enclosed space of the rock. It was still uncomfortable to be in such a small, dark area, but in some ways, it was preferable to being out there, where he knew he was completely exposed. Dari didn’t remember how long he’d been here. A month, maybe, or three. Long enough that the days were starting to blend together, despite how carefully he’d tried to keep track of them. The only moments of notice were when the human took him out of his container, took photos of him with the black rectangle he always held. Dari vaguely remembered his sister telling him it was a ‘phone’. She loved human things. Watching the human’s outline settle down on the flat surface of his bed, Dari did the same, pressing his cheek against the sand and closing his eyes. Behind him, one iridescent wing twitched uneasily. ** Dari next woke to an earsplitting grating sound, sitting up so abruptly that he knocked his head on the roof of his rock. Before he could process it, the rock was lifted away and set aside, a pale hand wrapping around him tightly enough to knock the air from him. He just had enough time to get one hand free, heaving for breath as he was yanked upwards. Large, blue eyes stared at him, pale and unnerving. The human’s pale face was split into a broad smile. “Well, Dari, guess what?” He said, a bounce in his step as he walked over to the table. His grip tightened briefly in a ‘gentle’ squeeze. Dari could already feel the bruises he’d be nursing later. “Answer me.” “What?” Dari wheezed, steadying himself with one hand pressed to the human’s knuckle. It had been a few days since he’d been taken out of his container, but he was adjusting quickly. The human spoke again, his voice sing-song and delighted. “I’ve finally found someone to buy you.” Dari’s heart dropped into his stomach. No. This was the moment he’d been dreading – at least this one’s intention was only to have him sold – for the most part, he’d left Dari be. Who knew what a buyer would do with him? “Oh, don’t look like that.” The human chided. “I’m sure they’ll take good-“ He broke off at the sound of a knock at the door. “Shit, is that them?” He muttered. Heading over to the tank, he unceremoniously dumped Dari inside, not bothering to seal the lid as he headed to answer the door. Dari fell to his knees, gulping down lungfuls of air he’d been denied in the human’s grasp. His heart was racing, hands trembling, and his whole wing made a faint buzzing sound, dragging him ever so slightly to the right with the force of its agitated flitting. He felt as if he were frozen, hearing the faint, muffled sound of voices. The human was bartering – Dari had heard him do it on the phone, before. Then, suddenly, his legs started moving. The rock was at the side of his container. He worked his fingers under it, heaved upwards. It barely moved, but move it did. He shifted, got himself under the thing, and pushed upwards with all of his might. Arms trembling, he managed to lift it to his height. Ever so carefully – any sound would bring the human’s attention to him – he propped it against the glass side of the aquarium. He slipped out from underneath the rock. Footsteps. Scrambling onto the rock’s top, he tried to find grip on its smooth surface. The voices were louder – “I’m so glad you’ve taken this opportunity.” The human said. Dari reached the top of the rock. The aquarium’s edge was still high above him. He leapt, his wing fluttering uselessly. He missed the edge by a hair, and the rock suddenly slid down an inch. It made a faint squeak on the glass, but judging by the calm, muffled voices of the humans, Dari didn’t think they’d heard. He leapt again, heart pounding like a hummingbird’s as he saw his outstretched hand approach the glass edge. It caught. Muscles quivering with effort, he heaved himself up over the lid. Next to him was the light that the human had clipped onto the side of his container – vitamin D, he’d said, Dari needed vitamin D. A cord trailed from its base to somewhere over the edge of the table where his aquarium was sat. Dari grabbed it, allowing himself to slide down the thick plastic. As he did so, the air erupted with a sudden, terrifying curse. The human had arrived. Dari wasn’t sure how he managed to escape. His head was pounding with the sound of his own heartbeat, his arms and legs screaming. He dropped into a grate full of dust, coughing as he ran down it. Faintly, he heard screaming and cursing behind him, his ears throbbing with the noise. ** When the sound faded, Dari stopped running. Now, he walked, legs trembling with the effort of staying upright. He’d made so many turns, continued on in this darkness, that he thought he might well die here. Somehow, he didn’t think he’d mind – at least he’d have died on his own terms. He didn’t quite see the faint streaks of light in the floor approaching, not until he found his foot hitting a thin grate instead of solid metal. By then, of course, it was too late, and he was falling through open air. A hoarse scream escaped him, hands stretched out as though he could grab the lip of the vent that was by now so far from him. And then he hit ground, his breath leaving him. Instead of agonizing pain, however, he simply…bounced. The impact still left him dizzy and disoriented, his bruises aching in protest, but he wasn’t injured. He rolled onto his back, trying to understand what had just happened. It wasn’t quite as dark here as it had been in the vent, but he still couldn’t see where he was. And then the light of one of those cursed ‘phones’ glared into his face. Behind it, he saw two wide, dark eyes, staring at him. Up until now, Dari had always been silent in the face of danger. That was simply how he handled fear – his mind went quiet, his body stiff and unmoving. This time, he screamed, scrambling to his feet and praying, begging the gods not to leave him here, not to put him in the hands of another human. The bed – that’s what this was, he realized, a bed – moved, fabric pulling out from under his feet, and he fell again. Before he could reclaim his feet, he felt the warm pressure of a human’s hands, curling around his waist and lifting him up. He sobbed, arms covering his head as he was brought up to the human’s face. He didn’t want to see it – he didn’t want to admit that this was real, that he’d gone straight from one captor to another. A voice, soft and still loud enough to vibrate through him. “Are you okay?” The human whispered. He shifted, and a sudden, bright light made it through Dari’s arms. He just continued to cry, taking shuddering breaths between his ugly sobs. The grip around him changed, until Dari found himself sitting in a pair of cupped hands. He didn’t try to escape – he’d learned from his snapped wing that struggling in a human’s grasp just resulted in injury. He curled into himself, brought his knees to his chest and covered his face, weeping his grief as though the human wasn’t watching him. ** Mat didn’t know what to do about this situation. He’d been asleep – or, trying to sleep, at least – and this…this person, thing, had just up and landed on his bed, out of the ancient air conditioning grate that he’d been meaning to replace for so many years. Looking at him outright, Matt didn’t make the most intimidating figure in the world. He was an author, and as such spent a great deal of time sitting at a keyboard, staring miserably at a bright screen. He had dark skin and eyes, a soft build, a pair of fingerprint-smudged glasses that he’d haphazardly shoved onto his face, and curly hair constantly bound back into a short poof at the back of his head. The only thing mildly impressive about him was his height – at slightly over six feet and five inches, Matt was usually a head or so taller than the people he met. This, however, was a bit extreme. Staring down at the crying figure in his hands, Mat half-wondered if he was dreaming. That would make sense, though this was a veryvivid dream, in that case. “Um…” He began, hesitating when he saw and felt the elf-thing flinch. “Who are you?” He tried, his voice the barest whisper he could manage. He caught a glimpse of two pale, glowing eyes, giving him a glare as though he’d personally killed the elf’s entire family. Then came a soft, muffled voice, so quiet he almost couldn’t hear it. “Dari.” Dari? Was that a name? He assumed it must be, feeling slightly emboldened by his success. “Okay, Dari.” He said slowly. “I’m Mat.” Dari kept his head buried in his arms. Mat could see his back shuddering, his sobs so quiet they were nearly drowned out by the fan against the wall. “Can I ask why you were in my A/C vent?” He ventured. Dari stiffened, and this time, didn’t reply. Mat was beginning to realize that he wasn’t getting any sleep, tonight. First his upstairs neighbors screaming and cursing up a storm, now this? “Okay…let’s just get out of bed, before we do anything else.” He said, mostly to himself. He slipped out of bed, putting on his slippers. Carefully, he eased Dari into one palm, fingers curled up like a guard rail to make sure he didn’t fall. One glimmering wing fluttered against his palm, tickling, and Mat’s fingers twitched. This was so, so bizarre. As he stood, he felt two small hands press into his skin, the fairy now looking up at him with wide, terrified eyes. That was…such a strange way to be looked at. It made Mat feel guilty for something he hadn’t done. “I’m not going to hurt you.” He found himself saying, eyebrows furrowed in a defensive sort of way. Again, Dari didn’t respond, though his fearful gaze turned more to a fearful glare. Matt shuffled into the kitchen, finding the light and turning it on. Dari flinched again when the room brightened, tense and quivering. He’d stopped crying, finally, but his face was tear-streaked, his eyes reddish and half-lidded. In truth, he looked like nothing but terror was keeping him awake. Matt pulled open a drawer, fished out a plush hand towel, and placed it on the kitchen table. Then, gently, he set Dari on top of the towel. “Is that any better?” Naturally, Dari didn’t reply. Two minutes of interaction, and they were starting to set a theme. Dari continued to look at Mat as though he was being tested, suspicion in his tired, lavender eyes. In the light, Mat was starting to see that there were deep bruises along Dari’s arms and legs, creating mottled patterns that were uncomfortably similar to fingerprints. Just what had happened to him?

#giant/tiny #g/t #gt #fairy #my writing #Shelter

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shadow172writes · 6 years

Text

Shelter

(Hello! This is a little drabble I tapped out this morning on a whim. I have no immediate continuation planned, but there may be a second chapter :D See ya later!)

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shadow172writes · 6 years

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Delivery Adventures - WIP

(HEY Y’ALL I ACTUALLY EXIST WILD I KNOW)

(Here is a short story that I’ve been working on! This has been sitting in a folder for so long lmao I need to do something with it)

Robert sighed as he strapped into his pod, the familiar hum of the thrusters filling the small space as he rose into the air. When he’d first taken this job, it had felt exciting and new, but now…well, fifteen years could make you a little jaded. This was just another delivery, to a planet he’d traveled to a few hundred times. He wouldn’t change any lives, win any wars, or make any significant impact on the world whatsoever.

He made a somber figure in his pod, salt-and-pepper hair cropped short, dark skin contrasting with his gray delivery uniform, hazel eyes half-closed with boredom and exhaustion. How did someone get exhausted from flying a space pod? Robert didn’t know. Perhaps he wasn’t eating enough. He just didn’t feel like bothering with it, honestly.

It was about three hours into the trip, almost halfway to his destination, V-45, when Robert realized he hadn’t done his courtesy check of the pod’s mechanics. He’d stumbled out of bed to make this emergency delivery, so he supposed he’d make that his excuse. It had happened once or twice that he forgot to complete the full inspection before making a trip, and he doubted anything would come from it.

Robert yawned, eyes closing and rather wanting to stay closed. He finally opened them, in the same moment that an oncoming asteroid slammed into the front of his ship, creating a small splinter in the narrow glass shield that allowed him to see outside of the pod.

Robert was awake after that, but it was too late for any amount of alertness to help him. His head slammed back against his chair as another asteroid hit the front of the pod, though mercifully the crack didn’t widen. His mind was a panicked blank, as he yanked on the controls to try and get his pod out of the field, and when a huge impact dented the right side of the pod, his vision went black for a moment, at the same time that his world began spinning uncontrollably.

Robert went in and out of consciousness, vaguely registering the sight of a planet relatively near him. He saw his own hand slamming frantically on the controls, trying to get to the planet before his ship broke open and he froze to death. Then, he was suddenly watching flames lick across the glass screen in front of him, alarms blaring as the temperature inside the pod rose to an almost unbearable degree. Then everything ended with a sudden, strong impact, that Robert felt the bare beginning of before his vision went black and stayed that way.

Quen-la perhaps shouldn’t have been so near the borders of his territory, especially during the day. But how was he supposed to watch some smoldering thing rocket down to the dirt, and not investigate even a little? No, he’d left his den as soon as he saw that, antennae raised with intrigue and a small, healthy amount of fear. He’d heard stories as a hatchling of stones that could float in the air and shoot flame, but he hadn’t been a hatchling for many years, and he tried to put them out of his mind.

He was clearly a toughened creature, scarred and strong with age, covered in a coat of leathery gray scales. His torso was thin, but lined with lean muscle, his trunk dissolving not into legs, but into a thick, muscular tail, plated on the back with armor-like scales. His chest and belly were a lighter gray than the dark scales of his back, which blended in with the dark earth of his home. He had four sets of strong arms, four-fingered hands tipped with black claws and surprisingly nimble. A row of short spines lay along his back, down to nearly halfway down his long tail, that clattered and shifted with his mood. Two similar spines, more flexible, rested near the top of his head, where ears might have been in a mammal. His head was a thick wedge, crocodilian muzzle slightly open to reveal a black tongue, forked in three, that periodically flickered out and tasted the air. His six eyes were large and completely black, unblinking and ever-curious. He lowered himself farther as he grew close to the mysterious object, resting the majority of his weight on his arms and scenting the air nearly every second, now, to avoid being surprised.

The acrid scent of burning...something, met him, and he nearly recoiled with disgust. However, he forced himself to continue, soon seeing a tiny crater, no bigger than his hand if he splayed it out. The childhood legends forced themselves into his head, unbidden, as he came closer to see a smooth, oval rock, pure white, aside from a small strip of black at its front. Were it not for his cautious nature, Quen might have made some exclamation of shock when the rock suddenly came to life with a loud whirring sound, dirt flying up around it…and fell silent again.

When Robert regained consciousness, his entire body was aching, and a warmth on his face suggested that he was bleeding. At least he was upright – small blessings. He blinked, trying to orient himself, and realized that the ship was vibrating beneath him…oh, no. With a sinking feeling in his gut, he read the display, which stated that one of his thrusters was inoperable, and the other was at “low capacity”, meaning that it was basically worthless. With a low, pained groan, he reached out and pressed the deactivation button. No sense straining his one remaining thruster for no good reason.

However, just as the thruster died out, a sudden, much stronger vibration ran through the ship. Seconds later, words popped up on the display, accompanied by a robotic voice. “Foreign language detected – Andralian. ‘What is this?’ For other translations, look here.” A list of other languages appeared alongside the Common translation.

Robert felt his blood run cold. Andralian? He’d never heard of Andralian, nor did he see or hear anyone speaking outside of the pod. For a moment, he hoped that the computer was just malfunctioning – that would still be terrible, but it would be much better than possibly being stranded with an aggressive alien species. Slowly, he pressed the speaker that would allow his voice to sound outside of the pod, saying, “I’m-“ Robert’s voice cut off with a sudden shout as something hit the side of his pod, rolling it back until he was facing the sky. And then, faced with a muzzle bigger than his ship and teeth the size of himself, the poor delivery man screamed, scrambling for some kind of emergency weapons. Before he got a chance, the pod suddenly rolled again, and the inside went dark, the glass pane pressed into black earth.

Alright, that was just eerie. Quen could have sworn, for just a moment, that he heard a voice coming from the white stone. A yell, high and faint, just as he reached out and turned the stone over. It was enough to send him leaping back from the stone, watching it roll back again and settle in a more balanced position. He waited there, for a moment, crouched and pressed into the earth as he waited for the stone to speak again.

But it did nothing. It had even ceased its odd trembling and growling, as though his touch had killed it. Slowly, he came forward again, gathering the bravery to touch it. If it was dangerous, surely it would have shown it by now, he reasoned to himself. Carefully, he used one hand to turn it back so that the black stripe was facing upward once more. There was no scream, this time, and as he bent closer to inspect the thing, he noticed that there was the smallest crack in the black stripe, barely noticeable. Similarly, there were a few dents on the white sides of the rock, despite the rest of its surface being perfectly smooth.

He had half started to lift it again, when suddenly, that high and wavering voice spoke again. He didn’t understand the words, but it was enough to startle him into a wary hiss, at which point the voice stopped speaking in favor of a sound almost like a whine, before falling silent for a few seconds. Now Quen held the orb in two hands, resting his weight on his other two arms as he stared at the orb in utter bewilderment. What was this thing?

The voice now started up again, even more unsteady than it had been before. Quen’s hearts skipped two beats when, midsentence, the words suddenly changed to be spoken in his own language. “-translator works on your- on your language, too, or it says it does, so-so please, tell me if you understand-“

“I understand.” Quen said, in awe of what he was witnessing.

Wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. The massive beast that had trapped Robert’s ship – and Robert, since he could hardly get out to try and repair the thrusters while suspended thirty feet in the air by a creature that looked like it could eat approximately two-thousand Roberts – understood what he was saying. It was bizarre to hear his voice used to translate, the translator able to reproduce his words since he’d been using it for so many years. However, there was still the problem of convincing the monster to let him go. He at least wasn’t upside down anymore, but facing directly upwards in a seated position wasn’t much more comfortable. Particularly when he was facing three beady black eyes on one side of the beast’s face, as it clearly tried to work out just what his pod was. “C-Could you put me…down, please?” He asked, hardly able to force words out of his throat. All he wanted to do was scream.

Shockingly enough, the creature obliged, though he was still facing upwards. Robert thought that being put down was a stretch enough, so he didn’t ask to have his position corrected. Not to mention, he was one more move of the pod away from vomiting in a small, enclosed space. There was another rumble, and this time Robert recognized it as the monster speaking. “Can’t you move?” The display’s translation read.

Oh. The creature thought that Robert was the pod. How was he supposed to explain that? “I, uh, I can, but I can’t move my…capsule.” He wondered what the translator would do with that, but it seemed to manage well enough.

The next rumble was no different in tone to the last, but something told Robert the creature was figuring him out. “Capsule?” The display translated. “Do you mean this white stone?”

“Yes.” Robert answered, relieved that it seemed to understand him. “I’m inside it. I-“ He broke off with a terrified shriek when, suddenly, the creature pressed a claw the length of his own body to the crack in his glass window, pressing hard enough to make the thin white lines spread farther and farther. “STOP!” Robert screamed, heart hammering with utter panic in his chest. Not only would he be exposed to this planet’s elements and predators, but that claw would go right through his head if the glass broke.

Bizarrely enough, the creature…obeyed. The claw left, replaced again with the close inspection of those black eyes. There was another strong vibration through the ship, followed by that computerized voice. “What is wrong? I was going to get you out.”

Robert couldn’t answer at first, clutching his chest and trying to calm his breathing down from the panicked wheeze he was at. That was at least the third or fourth time in the past hour he’d expected to die. “Y-You can’t…I’d die.” He said lamely, not willing to explain it further.

#My writing #G/T #WIP #Alien #If I categorize then someday when this is full of junk I'll be able to locate things #Delivery Adventures

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