Stranded on a Tiny Planet
Chapter 4: First Contact

Merco was growing very frustrated. His ravenous hunger didn’t help matters, nor did his pounding head wound. Every missed thrust of his spear was energy wasted and he was losing it very quickly. He could see the fish-like creatures jumping not far away, taunting him. He realized his speed and aim had to be true to spear one. He took a calming breath and waited.

Just then he could see a sizable, torpedo-shaped form wandering toward him. He held perfectly still, not even letting his eyes blink lest it give away his position. It swam closer, unaware. He thrust hard. Much to his delight and astonishment the spear tip hit home. The spear whipped and thrashed against his hands as the impaled creature fought back. Merco held it down, stabbing hard to the lake bottom. When its thrashing lessened, he hefted the spear upward, lifting his prize out of the water.

It looked like a fish. It had large golden scales like an Earth carp but a wide predatory mouth like a bass. Several long stringy tentacles trailed from its sides, curling and flailing like dozens of worms. It had three black eyes on either side of its head and a broad, paddle shaped tail. He’d speared it just behind its head and dark purple blood spurted from its wound. Merco laughed with triumph and chucked the fish creature ashore. Quickly, he ran out of the water to his catch. It was pretty big; about as long as his forearm. Plenty for a meal. He hoped it wasn’t poisonous or inedible, otherwise it would be his last meal. His hunger shoved aside his paranoia.

The fish flopped a bit more until he pulled out his pocketknife and severed the spot just behind its head; where he assumed the spinal cord would be located. He guessed correctly, and the fish went still.

Merco was shaking he was so excited. He was going to make it! He was going to survive! He set to work immediately. Holding the fish’s jaw firmly with one hand he slit open the belly of the creature. Strange multicolored viscera spilled out onto the ground. He made a grossed-out face but opened up the body to view the meat. It was a light purplish color.

“Strange. Hope it tastes better than it looks.” he thought to himself.

Just as Merco began to cut loose the organs he saw a large bluish-purple sac dominating the other organs. He guessed it to be the creature’s stomach. What caught his attention was the fact that it was moving; as if had eaten something just moments ago and it was fighting to get out. Morbid curiosity prompted the man to see what was inside. With a quick slice of his knife he opened the stomach and what spilled out made his eyes widen.

There, covered in slime, was a tiny, humanoid creature no more than three inches tall. It had two thin arms and two thin legs. Its skin was a lavender purple color. A small, silvery plume of feathery scales adorned the top of its little egg-shaped head rather than hair. The face was alien but petite and pretty, with large eyes and a tiny lipped mouth. There wasn’t much of a nose, only a pair of small nostrils. It...She... had a feminine appearance. The ears were strange inhuman structures; more like arching tentacles or antennae jutting upward from the sides of the head. But what struck Merco was that she was clothed in a tight-fitting, blue jump suit that made her resemble a tiny pilot. Meaning, she wasn’t just some random animal indigenous to the planet but one of sentient intelligence.

“What in the world?” he mused quietly. ”Am I seeing things? Is my head wound making me hallucinate?”

Gingerly, he poked the tiny form. Was she alive? She didn’t move. He rolled her over on her side and gently tapped the tiny back. He jumped visibly when she suddenly coughed, spewing slime out of her lungs. Her little arms flailed a moment and braced against the ground as she coughed. Once the coughing fit subsided the little being slumped, clearly exhausted from the ordeal.

Merco was struck by how tiny she was; so frail, so delicate looking. He was instantly reminded of the stories his grandmother would tell him as a boy about pixies and fairies; tales he’d long since banished from thought. Although she lacked the obvious “fairy wings” of the stories the structure and size of her made an obvious comparison.

Very gently, he plucked her up and put her into his cupped hands so he could wash her off in the lake. He dipped her into the water and very carefully began running his thumb over her form to remove the slime. The cool water and his strokes revived the creature again. Her thin hands lifted up, pushing his thumb away, and then slowly wiped her face. Large, vibrant blue eyes unveiled themselves, focused, and then widened in terror.

For Anu, panic and fear broke down the trauma of being swallowed alive into fragmented sensations. Darkness. Oppressive foul smell. Suffocating slimy wetness. A violent, jarring of her body. No air. She was suffocating. She punched and kicked wildly against the fleshy walls that surrounded her until she passed out.

And then after an eternity fresh air, a bright blinding light, a sense of floating, and cool water washing over her accompanied by a solid form brushing against her body. She wiped her face and slowly opened her eyes.

Was she dead? Was this some sort of after-life?

Her eyes came into focus and there looming over her was the giant creature she’d been following.

She gasped and without really thinking cried out to her mate, “TRAYNAR!”

With flailing movement, she tried to backpedal away from the giant with her feet. Very quickly she realized she was laying in its humongous hands and she barely spanned the width of one of its palms. With determination she tried to fly up, but she only managed to raise up a few feet before falling back down. She was too stressed to focus and on top of that she was soaked which also made flying an impossibility. To make matters worse, her attempted escape made the giant close its hand reflexively. She cried out in terror, waiting for the crush. But it never came. The fingers just surrounded her in a fleshy cage. She was trapped.

Traynar hadn’t wasted any time flying to the lake. He hoped his mate was safe and that the paranoid musings of her fate were not true. When he approached the lake, he immediately spotted the towering outline of the giant alien, kneeling on the shore. With stealth, he swooped lower to the treetops, hoping to duck out of sight of the creature.

Then, out of the blue, he heard Anu’s voice cry out his name. He looked around; plumage lifted alertly. He was about to shout back when he noticed the giant a distance away from him, still kneeling at the lake’s edge. The giant’s hands were cupped in the water and nestled inside was...Anu!

Traynar saw his mate try to fly out of the titan’s hands, but the huge alien immediately closed its hands around her. Forgetting his earlier fear and not thinking about his next actions, Traynar withdrew his energy staff and activated it with a crackling buzz.

“NO! Let her GO!” he shouted, flying like a bullet to rescue her.

Merco felt sorry for the little alien he held. She looked so frightened. When she unexpectedly flew up off his hands only to fall back down like a broken kite, he reacted instinctually and quickly cupped his hands around her to prevent her escape.

“Whoa. Easy. Easy little pixie.” he said quietly. “I’m not going to hurt you. Just trying to get you washed off is all.”

Carefully, like a boy who’d caught an exotic bug, he opened his hands again. She was curled up, covering her tiny head. He could feel the quivering of her terrified frame.

“Aw. Poor little pixie. It’s ok. It’s ok. I’m not going to...”

Suddenly, there was a blur of greenish light on his left side and something struck his left thumb. He jumped, more out of shock than anything since his prosthetic left hand didn’t register pain. Merco blinked in astonishment as a second tiny being appeared before his face, brandishing a crackling green staff. This one was built similarly to the female, but had light green skin and a shock of darker iridescent scaly plumage on its head that flowed down to its back. It wore a burgundy jump suit. And what was even more amazing, the tiny alien was flying! No wings, no jet pack, just floating as if by some unseen magic.

It pointed the staff at his face with a threatening mid-air stance and flared plumage. Then the little being shouted something aggressively in his alien language. Merco blinked in shock and then smirked with mild amusement. He didn’t know what he’d said but the little alien was clearly defending the female in his hands from...him.

Merco eyed the tiny crackling staff, wondering if it could actually do anything to him.

Well...a shot to the eye would be more than a tickle.

Still, from his perspective, it looked amusing; like watching a tiny kitten puff up and flash its claws as aggressively as it could.

“Easy...easy buddy.” He assured in an even sounding voice, “Don’t do anything hasty now.”

Traynar had dove in and struck the giant’s thumb as hard as he could with his energy staff. Much to his stunned horror, the blow didn’t faze the giant alien other than making him jerk slightly. And...it sounded weird when the staff struck. As if he’d hit a metal pipe instead of flesh. His arms hurt now, but he wasn’t going to show fear or pain. He had to save Anu. Aggressively, he flared his plumage and pointed the staff at the giant’s eye.

“Let her GO you monster!” he barked in his most threatening tone.

Floating before the giant’s face gave him an even more terrifying scale. It was like standing before a towering building, but this building was breathing and moving. This closer proximity gave light to more fine details. His eyes were a dull grayish green color in the middle, but red and purple contusions marred the flesh around it. The crevices of his face, especially around the eyes, gave him an older appearance. A gaping wound screamed red and loud on the left side of his head.

Traynar cringed when the giant spoke, his mighty voice vibrating his insides. He didn’t understand him, but the tone sounded placating...and amused. A sinking feeling squirmed in Traynar’s guts. The giant alien wasn’t the least bit intimidated by his show of force. Why should he be? One swing of his huge hand and that would be the end of him. No effort...just swatting an annoying bug out of his vision. Or worse, snagging a tasty snack dangling before his face. He fought the more sensible voice in his head screaming at him to fly away before something like that happened.

Traynar briefly stared down at the huge arms beneath him to ensure the giant wasn’t going to reach up and grab him. He noticed the giant’s left forearm was covered by a long black glove that went all the way past his elbow. What it was for he couldn’t say. His eyes finally found Anu who was laying inside the giant’s cupped hands. She looked so incredibly small and surprisingly unharmed.

“Anu, are you all right? Can you fly?” he called down to her, trying not to break his stare with the giant.

“I...I think I’m ok...I...I’m wet. I can’t fly.” She too watched the giant, shook her head and pleaded to her mate in an intense, lowered voice, “Traynar...don’t do it! You’ll only make him mad.”

“Don’t you think I know that?” he answered through clenched dental ridges. Forcefully, he pointed the staff at the giant’s eye, then back at Anu, and then at the shore of the lake, “YOU! Put her down! NOW!”

Merco could see by his gesturing that the little green male was wanting him to release the female. He had no intention of hurting either of them, but this little guy didn’t seem to trust that intention.

Finally, Merco said, “Ok. Ok. I’ll let her go. Just take it easy.”

With slow, careful movements Merco pulled his hands out of the water, turned them toward the bank, and then tipped them up to allow the little female alien to slide out. She quickly hopped out of his hands and stood wobbly. When she gained balance, she turned back to the male who had slowly started to float down toward her. The crackling green staff pointed at him menacingly. Merco had to chuckle at his intensity. For him it was silly to be commanded by such a tiny being.

He then decided to try and introduce himself to defuse the situation. Deliberately he pointed to his chest and said slowly, “Mer-co.”

Their little eyes blinked up at him as they backed away.

He repeated the gesture, “Mer-co.”

They suddenly bolted, running instead of flying, back into the cover of the trees.

Merco sighed, dropping his hand, “Nice meeting you.”

Since Anu couldn’t fly, Traynar took her hand and they both ran into the trees. He kept stealing darting glances over his shoulder, expecting the titanic alien to come crashing through the trees behind them in pursuit. But nothing happened. They ran full speed for several minutes until Anu finally stopped, leaning into a tree trunk and gasping for breath. Traynar stopped as well and pulled her to his chest with relief. But he pulled away confused when he felt a slippery slimy coating all over her jumpsuit and skin.

“Anu. Are you all right? What’s all over you?” he asked, flicking some slime from his hand.

Anu suddenly became aware of the grotesque state of her body. She cringed with revulsion, suddenly feeling the stomach juices and other bodily fluids of the fish sticking to her skin and squishing in her suit. She shivered and rushed to a small inlet of water created by the lake nearby and began feverishly cleaning her head and hands. Without really considering it she unzipped her uniform, peeled it off of her body, and began washing herself and the uniform with repulsed urgency.

Traynar stood next to her, concerned, “What happened?”

Anu exhaled deeply, shivered again and told her mate the whole horrific story. Traynar listened until she finished, mouth agape in dismay at her ordeal. He wrapped his arms around her and put his forehead to hers.

“You’re alive. Thank the Maker you’re alive.”

“If it hadn’t been for...him...I would be dead,” she admitted, gesturing in the direction of the giant. Traynar looked at her incredulously but she said, “He killed that Gold-Scaled Leviathan.”

Traynar sighed heavily, “That probably was coincidental. And if he could kill one of those, just imagine what he could do to us...to Anashee.”

Anu looked back from where they’d run, “I think...I think his name is Merco.”

Her mate waved his hands dismissively, “I don’t care what he calls himself. We need to make sure we don’t lead him back to Anashee under any circumstances.” He huffed with frustration, “Ugh. But now he knows of us! We weren’t supposed to reveal ourselves.”

Anu lifted her silvery plumage, “Traynar...I don’t...I don’t think he’s malevolent.”

“How can you be so sure? He only let you go when I threatened him.”

“No. He made a choice. He had the power to kill us both; do whatever he pleased with us. Yet...he chose to let me go.” Anu asserted firmly. “If he were malevolent, we’d both be dead.”

“Or maybe he’s just biding his time...waiting for us to lead him back to Anashee.” Traynar still wouldn’t renounce his suspicions.

Anu gave him a chiding look but sighed. She always tried to see the best in others while Traynar remained classically pessimistic.

“Did you locate the chrysalis? Does he have it?” Traynar remembered.

Anu’s eyes widened with sudden remembrance, “Yes! It’s in his shirt pocket.”

Traynar fluffed his plumage sharply with frustration, “We have to get that chrysalis back. That could’ve been our chance!” He glanced around them, carefully listening, “I don’t think he’s following us. We need to get you back home and report this. Are you dry yet? Can you fly?”

Anu tried to focus but she was still shaking and weak from the ordeal. Not to mention she was wet and water hampered any sort of flight.

She shook her head, “I...I’m sorry.”

Traynar took her hands and then lifted her up in a carry, “Don’t be. I’ve got you.”

With that he took her in his arms and flew below the treetops to avoid detection.