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by K.C. Shaw
Science Fiction, 8 pages.
Originally Published in Desolate Places anthology, 2008
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It was Pali’s first mating time, and his first time away from the herd. But the same was true for Sella so they enjoyed the novelty together.
The mating grounds lay in a protected hollow between the mountains, which rose jagged and black into the clouds, and the plains, where sand covered and uncovered the herd’s grazing. There were many different mating grounds along the herd’s migration route; Pali was glad he and Sella had this one to themselves.
Sella was beautiful. Pali had thought he admired her before, but now, alone among the rolling hills, where the wind sighed and blew the grazing sideways, she was the most beautiful female Pali could imagine. It humbled him to think she had chosen him as her mate. He liked to watch her climb the hillsides — the way she placed her sturdy legs precisely, muscles rolling under her tawny hide; he liked the flip of her tail she always gave before she put her head down to graze. And being near her made him feel strong and protective, so that he occasionally caught himself wishing for a predator to approach — just a small one, a tunnelsnake, perhaps — so he could drive it off or stamp it into the dust.
They had been on the mating grounds for eight days when they discovered a cave on the wrong side of a hill, where the ground should have been sheltered from the wind-driven sand. Sella called attention to it first. “What caused it?” she said.
Pali peered at the cave entrance and puzzled for a few minutes. “I don’t know,” he said finally. He felt no wind here, and for that matter the cave looked different from the usual wind-carved caves. It almost appeared as though something had dug a massive hole into the hillside. Grazing hung down from the top of the cave as though trying to hide it.
“I’ll look closer. You’d better stay here,” he added, and Sella’s willingness to let him be the brave one made him brave. He walked up the hill slowly until he was nearly in the mouth of the cave, and then he saw that he was right, that the cave was not really a cave but a hole that had been recently dug. Not only that, but something was living in it.
He froze. There were three animals in the hole, small and strange-looking with impossibly long limbs. Their heads were knobs. Their appearance so shocked Pali that he realized he had his tail cocked in warning position to signal to Sella.
But these creatures didn’t seem dangerous, after Pali’s first shock. In fact, there was something oddly helpless and frail about them, as though he’d uncovered a nest of newly born seedeaters. One of the creatures kept opening and closing a hole in the front of its head, like a baby seedeater hoping to be fed.
Cautiously Pali stepped forward again, and the three animals cringed back. He reached forward with his nose probe, but it met resistance before it came close to the nearest animal. He tapped the surface he could feel but not see, but it seemed to cover the entire front of the cave.
He felt his tail relax, and a moment later Sella joined him, brushing his side with hers. “What are they?” she asked, sounding nervous and a little disgusted.
“I think they’re baby creatures and this is their nest. It has some sort of transparent cover so they can see out but can’t leave the nest.”
Sella tapped the surface too, and one of the babies clutched another and hid its eyes. “I think it might be a kind of egg,” she said. “We should leave before the parents return.”
Pali led the way around the hill, into the wind, intending to take them further into the mating grounds. But he was distracted by the sight of something bright lying nearby.
“Look, it’s another of the babies,” Sella said as they approached. “It crawled out to explore and died. How sad.”
The creature had a silvery hide that showed up brightly against the sand and stone of the ground. But the wind-driven sand had shredded its hide and the pale layers of blistering flesh beneath, in places exposing reddish bones that were themselves beginning to wear down in the relentless wind. Pali was struck again by how frail the creature was; no wonder it had to stay in its nest until it was older.
Only a few strides away from the body was a long rod lying on the ground with its base partly buried in a dimple of sand. It had a crack along most of its length, as though it had been flung down so hard it had broken. It was larger than the body lying nearby; perhaps this was what the creature had wanted to examine, a deadly curiosity that its parents should have been nearby to curtail.
Sella was looking at the rod too. “What do you suppose it is?”
They examined it cautiously. It was hot to the touch of their nose probes, the wind side slightly pitted, but although it was hard it wasn’t stone. Pali had never seen anything like it, but at the same time it was not very interesting — not worth dy -- [End of Preview.]