They had to tear down the sled for firewood; the area they were passing through didn’t have enough fuel to make do. Adlai unraveled the rope, separating the now slightly torn and browning leaf from the sticks it was lashed to. They had long since passed the area where they had been chased by the predator, and were now in a sort of underground “grassland”. Bioluminescent strands reached up to their legs, gently swaying in a nonexistent breeze. Adlai couldn’t see the end of the cavern they were walking through, the ends of the cavern obscured by true darkness. Light shone through the many holes in the cave ceiling, and there were no more matron trees.
Averi was still on her crutches, and progress towards the research hub had been slow and agonizing. It had been nearly 3 days since they lost Shawna, and Adlai guessed they had just finished making up lost time. Progress was progress. Their pace had definitely been helped with Averi walking a bit of the way, despite the rough terrain. Adlai’s foot had improved as well, he had padded it with the torn sleeve of his shirt, and the pain had declined from a stab from every footstep to a constant dull throb. His shoe was still damaged; the sole had a sizable rip in the middle, with a slight gap between the two sides. He had tried to sew the two sides together, but the needles he fashioned out of bone didn’t penetrate the rubber easily, and the string was too wide. The pain wasn’t bad enough for him to worry about the rip however, and he could fashion some shoes out of cloth if necessary.
Alex was back to flying, his injured wing healing incredibly quickly, leading Adlai to believe it was all a ruse. The little alien was shockingly intelligent, having picked up phrases from Averi in a matter of hours. It seemed to almost understand what they were telling it, but that was impossible. Adlai had heard of something similar in the books his parents read him, some sort of animal called a dog. They were easily trained, and called man’s best friend because of their loyalty. Adlai had wanted to know more when he was younger, so his parents had found a much older book, detailing their training and care. Apparently, they listened to tone rather than words as well as facial reactions and gestures. It wasn’t too much of a stretch to believe that Alex did the same.
They hadn’t seen many aliens when they had entered the plains-like biome, only small skittering “insects” and the occasional herd of hoppers. Adlai had gotten better at hunting them down, realizing that they only reacted to movement, and their vision was relatively limited.
A low grumble rattled the cave, and the plants stopping their swaying. Something rose from the ground on thin, stilt like legs. It was a massive alien, at least twice the height of the boy, with most of the height taken by the legs. The three spindly limbs led up to a round dumpling-like body that a long, thin neck extended from. The neck ended in a frilled head, with large dish shaped frills extending from either side. Adlai couldn’t see any eyes, nor a true mouth, only a needle like proboscis extending from the front. Gills on the spherical body vibrated, and the same grumble rattled Adlai’s body. He slowly crouched, gesturing for Averi to do the same, getting behind a large rock near the camp. Alex hopped over quietly, hair standing straight up. It scrambled into Averi’s shirt, peaking a wary head out. The alien began to stride across the clearing, its frills facing different directions at every subtle sound.
The grass began to ripple rapidly, a low hiss being produced from the sheer movement of thousands of individual blades. A hopper, running in fear from the tripod. The grass it trampled rose up and rattled even louder, and the towering tripod’s frills locking in on the source of the noise. The gills stopped vibrating, and the proboscis began to inflate, tracking the running hopper. It stepped closer, as the hopper was sprinting towards cover.
Thoom
In a matter of seconds the proboscis distended, launching what could be called a harpoon towards the doomed hopper. The harpoon penetrated the hopper’s third leg, the impaled alien screeching now, scrabbling at the ground and the harpoon. The biological spear was connected by thin tissue to the head. The beast began to reel in its quarry, and the grass reached towards the impaled alien. Adlai watched quietly as the alien raised the hopper towards its mouth. The harpoon retracted slightly, no longer penetrating through the other side of the hopper, and a pink tongue reached into the wound. The hopper shuddered once, and went still, its blood dripping onto the frenzied grass. The tripod strode off, gills vibrating, celebrating its victorious hunt.
Adlai had since moved the campsite to somewhere clear of the grass. It seemed limited to growing where lots of light penetrated the hole-ridden ceiling. The patch of darkness they had chosen had the familiar blue-green glowing moss commonly found in the caves.
Adlai leaned over to Averi, whispering barely audibly into her ear. “We’re going to have to be very quiet here.”
“I know, but how are we supposed to get across that grass?”
“I’m gonna look for a way around tonight.”
“I’m gonna come with you, there’s no way you’re gonna go by yourself, I’m not gonna let that happen.”
“I’m going by myself.”
“But-”
“I’ll be fine. Trust me.”
“Ok, but if you get hurt, I swear to god, I will beat you up so hard-”
“Trust me.”
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Averi rolled her eyes, but stayed quiet. Shawna wouldn’t have let him go by himself. He winced, his thoughts of her rolling back into his head, a landslide of images he didn’t want to see, conversations he didn’t want to remember. He shut his eyes, the images burned into his mind. Not now, now wasn’t the time. He concentrated on shoving those thoughts back, he wished he could forget them. He opened his eyes again, to a worried glance from Averi, and Alex’s inquisitive eyes. He shook his head slightly and looked back out to the sea of grass, wondering what would happen to the now silent alien plants at nightfall. Grabbing a rock, he shuffled slightly closer to the edge of the hissing grass, rock at the ready. The rock flew far into the field, causing an eruption of hissing. Adlai hid back behind the campsite ready for the tripod to return, only it never did. Maybe it was still eating? That thought was discounted when another tripod rose, the ear-frills flipping this way and that. It groaned again, activating the grass's low hissing.
Averi looked at him like he was crazy, and she whispered aggressively into his ear. “Why did you do that! Are you trying to kill us?”
“Just testing something.”
“How about you test it in a way that doesn’t involve bringing that closer!”
Adlai stayed silent, staring at the tripod striding regally over to where the rock had
landed, marked by disturbed hissing grass. The towering alien lowered its head to the rock, seemingly checking for any noise to be heard. It poked at it a few times with a needle-like foot and then stepped away, folding its legs and resting in the tall grass. Adlai craned his neck to see the strider at rest, frills folded up and head down. He grabbed another rock, and felt a tug at his sleeve. Averi stared at him with wide eyes, pointing at the rock and making a questioning gesture with her hand. He mimed throwing it and she slapped her hand to her face still taking care not to make any noise. Are you an idiot? Her face read. He set the rock down quietly and waited.
Alex peered out from under her shirt, eyes locked on where the strider had sat down. He stayed miraculously silent, seemingly understanding the threat of the massive alien. Eventually the grasses stopped their hissing and stood still, absorbing the meager rays of light filtering through the ceiling. Adlai took the moment to look through the still strands, seeing bones and half rotted carcasses strewn about. If they were anything like the plants he knew about, they used dead things as a source of essential nutrients, a sort of supplement to their diet of light. It made sense for them to work with a predator like this, acting as a sort of sonar for it. He wondered if the professor even knew about the existence of something like this, or if this was something he had been told to hide from them. The bald man always seemed so passionate when teaching them about the ecology of the planet, and had held several out-of-class conversations with Adlai.
The day grew dimmer, and more and more of the strands of alien grass retracted, until finally only the bright blue tips peaked out from the soft soil. The striders were clearly visible now, bright stripes running down their flanks. Time for test number two. He grabbed the rock he had set down earlier and chucked it across the field of dormant grasses, waiting for a reaction. Nothing. Grabbing a larger rock, he threw it across. This time, the grasses in that area rose, hissing rapidly. Like a ripple, more and more grasses emerged hissing from the ground, until the entire prairie was awake. The striders raised their heads, frills extended. One rose, gills vibrating, walking over to the larger rock. Strangely, the grass began to retract again, the hissing gradually stopping. The strider searched for the rock, but couldn’t seem to pinpoint the location without the hissing. It sat back down again, spindly legs folded underneath it. So at night, the grass had a time limit.
He looked over to the campsite, ready to look for the edges of this prairie. Averi was asleep by now, Alex folded on top of her rising and falling chest. Lantern in hand, hatchet in the other, he walked over to the edge of the grass hoping for an end to the strange trap. As he walked, more and more hissing grass appeared, until after what felt like walking for a mile, he finally hit a wall of rock. Looking to the right, he saw nothing but the dangerous grass. Swinging the hatchet, he walked back, wondering how he was going to cross this sea of noise. He could feel some puzzle pieces coming together in his head, some sort of solution, but he couldn’t quite wrap his hands around it yet. At the very least, they were safe outside the reach of the grass.
In any case, their next priority was food. Adlai had grown more confident in his ability to hunt the abundant hoppers, and was eager to test out a new method of catching the food. It was completely dark now, the only light in the caves being the dim blue-green glow of the moss-like growths, and the tips of the hissing grass. It was a good time to set a trap. A few days of observation had led Adlai to learn that the hoppers were after the same berries that Alex seemed to enjoy. Adlai had experimented with this, leaving a few berries out for the hoppers, and finding them gone the next day. Alex had tampered with his tests, stealing a few of the berries to his annoyance. Fingertips burning, he tried to pull a large flat rock out of the loose soil. After a few unsuccessful attempts, he returned with a stick. The concept of the lever was familiar to Adlai, and he yanked the stone free. Now to set the trap. A small stick, propping up the large rock, and right next to that dangerously unsteady stick, the berries so treasured by the hoppers.
Confident in his trap’s ability, Adlai walked back to the camp. He mulled over the problem of the grass when he saw that Averi was up and about, limping frantically around the campsite.
She called out to him. “Have you seen Alex?”
“No, why?”
“He’s not here!”
Adlai felt the color drain from his face. The trap. Alex loved those berries. He ran back, dropping the hatchet onto the gravelly floor. He whispered pleas under his breath, hoping fate would spare him just this once. He could see it in his head, a wing outstretched underneath the flat rock. The trap had been triggered. Breathing heavily, he walked closer. He couldn’t see if anything was under it, but purple-blue blood trickled down from the rock. A glimpse of a fuzzy body. No. It wasn’t moving. He took another step, dreading what would be on the other side of the rock. Another step. More of Alex’s body was revealed, laying flat against the ground. Adlai crouched down, and began to laugh.