Amalgam Universe

Well, at least the human was excited about the holiday, however ill-advised taking the trip to Earth with them was going to be…

“Thereitis, thereitis! Earth. Aw… it mostly looks the same…”

“I did tell you that it’s been five hundred years since your departure. Geographically, little has changed.”

“I’m goin’ tae stop in at Wales. Go see what’s happened tae home.”

Rael, a little more prepared, had tried to find Shayde’s ‘home’ on a map. There was no such place as Daffad Gweddyl ar Afon. And no hint that it had ever been. “I haven’t been able to find it on any map,” he warned.

“Aye, nowt’s changed there,” she giggled. “NO! They built a fookain space elevator. Ye wee ripper!”

“It’s for the tourists. COL-lander shuttles are much faster and more convenient…”

His warning went unheeded. “Aw, I gotta have a go on tha’!”

Rael sighed. At least the food was good. Putting up with Shayde in full tourist mode was going to be an absolute trial.

*

It had been a long hike, over hill and dale and one ford. When Shayde reached the top of the hill, her legs went out from under her. Rael caught up and tried to fathom why water was leaking from her eyes.

It was just an oak grove. And some ancient stone buildings well on their way to complete collapse.

Not knowing what else to do, he sat beside her. “Daffad Gweddyl?”

A faint croak of a voice. “…aye…”

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I have no frame of reference. No way to understand…”

Shayde got to her feet and strode towards the grove. Rael hurried to follow her, since it was his job to make sure she didn’t happen to anyone or anything.

“You’re not about to do anything… rash… are you?”

“Jus’ lookain fer a tree,” she choked out.

They all seemed alike, in this part of the grove, where the older trees grew in regimented lines. She was counting to herself and pointing at vegetation as she went. Finally, she stopped at one that seemed to be just like all the others, and threw her arms around it and sobbed like a child.

“Shayde?”

“M’ babbie brother planted this one. I saw ‘im. Tole ‘im we’d be old together ere it were grown…”

Oh. It had hit her. The sheer gap of time that she’d lost. Rael let her mourn, loaning her his closeness as the tears and the sobs crumpled her up. And then coaxing stories out of her about her adventures in this place. Which included a tour of the ruins. And a lecture to the local archaeologists about where they might find interesting things.

She was right. Almost to the millimetre. Which loaned further credence to her story.

She did come from here. And she could never go back.

[Muse food remaining: 14. Submit a prompt! Ask a question! Buy my stories! Vote for my stuff!]

There were a line of little heads on the mat near the bed, just the heads. The damn cat had been at it again!

Sandra drew her toes up again and hid them under her comforter. It wasn’t a straight line. More of a curve. All those dead, bloodied little heads. Arranged in something of a semicircle in a kind of post-mortem worship of her bed.

And in came the cat. Black, sleek and proud. Smirking at his fine achievement. Tail

After the omlette incident, realising exactly how much human food, like cake or pies or snacks, involve eggs.

Day 3.

Hen eggs declared non-cogniscent food. Also declared sterile. Also declared offensive. Further adjudication necessary.

Day 5.

Adjudication finished. Human can consume extant eggs, but only in utter privacy and behind offensensitivity shielding. The human must not consume any more eggs or egg-based products while aboard Science Vessel Sigma-Four.

“WHAT?” Sta-see yawped. Humans could get loud. At least she had been trained to

The unthinking introduction of an omlette to a birdlike alien species.

“What are orbs?” said the assigned Human Watcher. So far, it hadn’t been as dangerous or nasty as she’d been lead to believe. Ri’ki’ki was starting to believe that all the stories were just… stories.

“Eggs,” said the human. Her name was Sta-see. Or something close enough. She was organising her little kitchen according to her own rules.

“You having egg in stasis? They is never hatch.

Prompt: A Lilo and Stitch-esque scene with numidid and surfing humans.

T’yoree was frequently trotted out as an example as to why scientists should not be allowed to breed. She had, even to the humans, the self-preservation instincts of a concussed whelk.

As a keet, she would ride the larger dogs and invented the concept of Frisbee Dodge-em.

Some said that the natural Deathworlder attitude towards risk had rubbed off on her.

And she was the first Numidid to surf. Of

“You do That! for fun?”

“What the heck is that?”

Charlie peered past Kress’ shoulder. “Oh. That’s my wingsuit. I use it for base jumping.”

Kress screwed up her saurian features. “Base… Jumping.”

“Yeah,” Charlie grinned. She started to bounce in her enthusiasm. “It’s like skydiving, only instead of jumping out of a plane, you jump off of something really tall, build up speed with the suit, and then rip silk.” She hastily amended, “Uh. That means

Human sweat is so acidic, it can corrode metals. By micrometers and over years, but still

Something there is, an ancient poet wrote, that does not like a wall. The poem was about the forces of entropy versus cogniscent-made structures, but Rael knew for a fact that that ‘something’ also pertained to humans.

They were practically a force of entropy on their own.

Case in point: Shayde.

Not only was she obviously isolated from current societal norms, but she had a large

“Didn’t anybody tell you that when you are in a hole of your own making, Don’t keep digging.”

Hwell called it a ‘fox hole’, but its dimensions were closer to that of an elephant. And it was now very deep, because the native pests had a long reach that went along with their fear of falling.

It was past dawn. They were gone, now.

“We’re in a hole,” said Hwell. “Um. Too wide to climb out. Loose soil,