Chitin
A short story by L. Lindsey Flansburg
Copyright 2010 L. Lindsey Flansburg
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Magi
The Mistaken
Parity
We were struggling through the dusty soil of another long cavern. It had been two weeks since we’d seen the sky. No one was paying much attention to the trail ahead except to pick up the occasional bug to eat. My mind was wandering again, as it always had since I was young. I was trying to decide if there were anything I could have done differently that would have led me to some other end than this. All my life I had struggled to find my calling. Everyone has something they are born to do. Something they excel at. Not me. I had been apprenticed to almost every possible occupation in the city, and somehow had found a way to fail at each and every opportunity. It seemed that I had the special talent of quickly learning any skill up to an intermediate level, but never excelled at anything. I would be top of my class in any new endeavor until the other students invariably passed me by.
Before I had come of age I had already tried my hand at a dozen occupations. As a carpenter or potter I could do the work, but hated working in the mud. As a mason or cooper I was too slow with the tools. As a blacksmith or cook I kept burning myself, or others. As a farmer or miner I was too unfocused. I had even given the church a shot, but they didn't like my endless questioning of the faith. I suppose that was how I ended up as a field laborer which left me wandering lost with a group of people I barely knew in this endless maze of tunnels.
We were all tired of this eternal flight. I suppose that is why we were taken by surprise. I stumbled to a weary stop, not really knowing why. Those of my companions who were walking ahead of me had given up their forward progress and were slowly stepping backwards. One of them turned and ran past me. Then another, and then the rest broke into a panicked rush back the way we had come. For a moment I stood there alone staring confused into the dim recesses of the tunnel. My legs took a few terrified steps backwards before my mind could resolve the dim shape filling the tunnel before me. I stumbled past another of my companions frozen in terror and I fell backwards into the thick dust.
The pale round face of the creature hung near the cavern ceiling. Its grotesque features scanning toward us, trying to spot us with its two bulbous eyes, nearly blind in the dim light. I could clearly see its two upper limbs scratching in the cavern floor, pulling it forward. Its claws were split into five blunted tips bending unnaturally as they probed toward our group. The back of its massive body scraped against the ceiling as it struggled to support the bulk of its weight on the upper half of its two powerful lower legs, awkwardly bent in half, the lower half dragging uselessly behind.
The screams of the others became clear words at last in my ears, "Aliens!" and "Run! Run for your lives!"
All my legs and arms swam in the soft dirt, trying vainly to push my prone body away from the monster.
"Roberts!" someone shouted, "look out!"
Roberts couldn’t seem to move his legs as the alien stretched out its long arm and slapped him to the ground. He tried to twist his body free, but the giant monster gripped him firmly from behind and swiftly lifted him for a quick inspection in front of its blunt nose before tucking him securely into a heavy pouch that hung tight against its breast.
A chill ran through me as I realized that the hopeless wails of despair added to the panicked screams filling the cavern were the cries of other people already imprisoned in the alien’s pouch.
At last I managed to regain my feet, but too late. The alien’s claw hung in the air above me. I braced myself in fighting position, slowly, backing toward the now distant cries of my companions. The alien hung its gigantic claw down to block my retreat, and I spun, snapping my primary weapon at the nearest fleshy appendage. My pincer nipped into the soft, unarmored flesh and the alien yanked away nearly tossing me on my head as I lost my feeble grip.
I rolled and pressed myself against the wall, weapons held high, body low, my legs spread wide all around me. The alien was inspecting its wounded appendage, its other claw, now held out between us as it balanced itself on only the two bent lower legs. I took the chance to make my break. Turning as fast as I could, I began to run. My companions had all vanished into the darkness. Before I had taken twenty steps the unnatural softness of the alien's claw slapped down onto my back with a force that took all the strength out of my legs. I tried to spin, but it had an unbreakable grip on my body. I reached with all my strength to find some purchase with my weapons in its grotesquely soft flesh, but my arms would not bend far enough. I struggled helplessly as it drew me up before its horrible flat face.
The eyes both turned to focus on mine. Where its nose and mouth should be was a large flattened circle with two long thick whiskers poking out of either side and wrapping around behind its head. I couldn't see that it had a mouth, but still, I imagined that it intended to eat me on the spot. I drew my arms and legs in tight to my body, prepared to strike out if it allowed me within reach, but it simply shook in apparent amusement and moved me toward the prison on its chest.
With it’s free claw, the alien released the latch and lifted the heavy cover, revealing the tangled bodies of what must be at least eight people, dozens of legs kicking as they all struggled in vain toward the opening. Staring down into the monster's people pouch woke the memory of my stint as a weaver. I had learned to work grasses into sturdy pouches such as the backpack I was wearing now, and I believe my work was excellent. Unfortunately, everyone else in my class could build four such bags in the time it took me to build one. Even in such dire circumstances my mind produced the incongruous question of whether the giant alien had produced the bag itself, or had it purchased such at some distant giant marketplace.
I shook off the thought and prepared myself to grab one side of the opening, ready to fight for my freedom with my last breath, but the alien let the flap slap closed. Its body jerked, head crashing against the ceiling and arms flailing to defend itself from an unseen foe. I was shaken back and forth several times, then unceremoniously dropped on the ground. The breath was knocked out of me, so for a moment all I could do was lie there and watch as the alien shook its great head back and forth, slapping with one claw against its shoulders, the other claw supporting it’s weight on the floor, and slowly backing out of the tunnel the way it had come.
Then I saw her. Flying around the alien’s neck, stabbing with her sword, then dashing away with a grace I had never imagined possible. Again and again, she stung its neck then effortlessly dodged around its slapping claw. By the time I had regained my feet they were gone. I found myself totally alone. The silence closed in around me as I looked first one way, then the other along the tunnel. Should I go back that way and try to find my companions? There was nothing for us there. Even they must eventually return this way. We had walked for two weeks to get this far, and did not have supplies enough to go back. Or, should I continue on this way by myself. Was the alien waiting just out of sight in the dark? It occurred to me that the presence of an alien could only mean that we were close to the surface. Not that I was an expert on aliens, but even I knew that aliens rarely ventured far underground.
I can’t say how long I stood there unable to make the decision. It might have been minutes or hours. Then a voice, like music drew me out.
"Are you alive?"
I had no words to respond. First my eyes located her, sitting on a large rock two meters away. Then my head turned to her, followed by my body and finally my feet untwisted placing me almost within reach.
Her sparkling eyes passed over me answering her first question.
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"Are you injured?"
I could only stare in response to her second question. I stood frozen. I had never been this close to a female before. That’s what she was, I was sure. An actual female. I had seen a few in the distance many years ago, back when they were more common. She was barely half my size, but her presence towered over me.
"You can close your mouth now," and I did. My expression changed to a puzzled joy. Not sure if I were happier to have escaped the alien, or just to be in the presence of a genuine female. I took a breath, my first since hearing her voice, and attempted a clumsy bow.
"What’s your name?" she asked and I told her. To my surprise my voice was clear and strong.
She repeated my name, and to hear it roll off of her tongue was like being dipped in butter.
"We should get going," she said with a graceful gesture in the direction of the departed alien. My expression must have shown her my concern because she went on to say, "Don’t worry, it’s gone." I met her eyes and believed her. "You sting them a few times and they usually move on."
Of course she had battled the aliens before. All females were soldiers. That’s why there were so few of them now. The long war with the aliens had taken a devastating toll. Once they were nearly as common as males. We all lived to serve our queen. The males building the cities and gathering food while the females defended our territory from the females of the next city. I suppose the females lived lives of constant warfare, but as far as we males knew, there was peace. Any battles were far away.
Then the aliens came. It was said that they dropped down out of the cloud in unimaginably large ships. I had never found anyone who could give me a good theory of where they came from. Everyone knew that there was only the ground, the air and the endless cloud above. No one could guess how creatures like this could have sprung to life in the infinite cloud.
For a generation they were a distant rumor. Then their hives began to grow. The story came to us in bits and pieces from the few refugees who passed near our city. The males were like the creature I had just escaped. The females were gigantic even in comparison to the males. They were the warriors. The massive armored creatures that lay waste to the land. Entire cities destroyed in seconds. Whole territories stripped of life in hours. It seemed they required flat, bare land to construct their immense hives.
I supposed I could call myself lucky. When the aliens came for my city I happened to be far in the field attempting to harvest swift grass. We didn’t suspect that we were homeless, or worse without a queen, until the end of the workday when we returned home only to find a featureless desert. Since then we had been wandering in numb disbelief. Eventually we traveled too close to one of the alien’s work sites and were driven underground.
"The tunnel opens onto the river just ahead," she said, the honey of her voice dripping over me, "and we’re far from where the aliens are building at the moment."
I babbled something about thanks, and silently followed her to the end of the tunnel. As she had said, the tunnel opened onto a pleasant river. Upon seeing the bright gray light of morning, I forgot completely about my miraculous companion and scuttled across the exposed five meters of rocky sand bar to the water. Once I was safely under the surface of the gently swirling water I backed under a large rock and took my first contented breath in weeks. For a minute I just savored the embrace of the cool water. My armor slowly replenished its moisture with a pleasant ache.
Before I could dig a hole in the sand large enough to hide and drift into a blissful half sleep, it suddenly occurred to me that there was a female sitting on the beach above. I had been incredibly rude. What was I thinking? Without a thought for other dangers, I scampered as quickly as I could out of my hiding place to the water's edge. I did not leave the water entirely, not sure if I could bring myself to expose myself to the dry air again just yet.
She was still there, sitting on a rock with an amused look on her face. Her expression mocked me with a pout and her astonishingly musical voice caressed my ears again, "I thought you'd left me." and when I made no reply, "Most males I meet follow me around like a mudpuppy. Terribly annoying. What's wrong with you? Don't you like girls?"
"I don't know," I heard myself saying, "I've never met one before."
That evoked the most amazing giggle.
"I suppose that's true," she agreed. "I've met very few males myself. Come up here and let me have a look at you."
I was still crouched under the water with only enough of my head exposed to join in the conversation. Slowly I crept forward until I was nearly close enough to touch her. Her eyes caressed my entire body. I took the opportunity to look closely at her as well. She had the same basic body features as any male, just smaller and somehow more graceful. Her armor was unscratched, probably only a few days old. I felt a nearly irresistible urge to touch her, but more so felt the need not to lose an arm to the fine sword that was sheathed at her side. She made a sudden graceful leap to one side. I nearly dove back into the water at her abrupt move, but realized before making a complete fool of myself, that she was simply circling me, inspecting me like a fish looking for its next meal. Suddenly I felt naked, as if my battered, cracked, partly sloughing armor was completely transparent to her, exposing my innermost secrets.
"You look like you've been through Hell." She remarked.
I suppose the maze of tunnels we had been traveling through all these days could be called that. And I suppose we all looked like death itself since we hadn't been under water for two weeks. We? In a moment my thoughts returned to the plight of my companions.
"My friends," I spat, pointing back toward the dark opening in the bank.
She smiled. "They'll be alright. They have no other choice but to follow us out here. They'll be along any time now."
For a moment I was confused, then it struck me, "You really never have been around males before have you?"
She didn't answer, but her expression told me I was right.
"They'll hide in the dark until someone tells them what to do," I corrected her. "They'll be afraid to come this way for fear of the alien they saw here, and afraid to go back for fear of getting lost in the tunnels. They won't dare move until they realize they are dying from starvation. It could be days. Roberts was the only one of us who might..." again I was struck by the realization that I had forgotten something important. "Roberts! We have to save him!" I blurted out, looking around the horizon for the first time to see if I could still see the alien walking away. Of course it was long gone.
"You're a flighty one," she laughed at me again.
"We have to find him." I repeated.
"We?" She seemed amused.
"Well, you," I stammered, embarrassed to admit that I had no useful skill.
"And you'll go back for the others," she stated.
I looked back at the dark mouth of the tunnel that I had so recently escaped, and thought that I had really meant for her to do that too. My eyes darted back and forth from the terror of the dark tunnel to the angel beside me and only when I realized that I had already taken three steps back toward the water, did I determine that if I was sending her to battle with the alien, I could not let her see me shrink from a task that held no real danger.
Somehow I managed to take the first few steps back toward the tunnel. I stopped at the dim shadow line that marked the opening and turned back for one last look at the sky. The comforting gray blanket of the ever constant cloud beckoned me to remain outside, but the presence of the female made that impossible. She was sitting on her rock again watching me with an amused expression. I could see that she really did not believe I could take the next step. So I did. I think it was the hardest thing I ever did. My terror was soon forgotten in the quest to retrieve my companions.
I returned with almost the entire group of refugees in less than an hour. Turner and Collins had run further down into the maze of tunnels than I was willing to search, and Johnson had agreed to go look for them. It shouldn't have taken
nearly as long as it did, but most of the group was unwilling to believe that the alien was gone. None of them believed my tall tale about meeting a female. Only when I let them touch my armor to see that I had been refreshed did they decide I might be telling the truth about the lovely river. Then I was hardly able to keep up with the group in their wild rush to escape the underworld.
She was gone. I searched the horizon for several minutes before giving into the call of the water. Parker was nestled under my rock. I braced myself to challenge him, but he was so committed to his bliss that he took no notice of my posturing. After a moment it occurred to me that there must be far better shelters than this first small stone I had stumbled upon and I allowed the caress of the current to drift me along the shore until I saw a much grander rock to call my own.