---Search---
---Svulinkt’s perspective---
It’s the middle of the night and I’m walking home beneath a sky set with stars… glittering like a layer of diamonds spread over dark velvet.
The world is peaceful and blanketed in a thick mist.
Despite Prosperity being a relatively densely populated planet, with manufacturing as the backbone of its economy, moments like these where it feels like I’ve got the entire world to myself haven’t been too difficult to come by since I told my boss I wanted to switch to the night shift.
I breathe a sigh of serenity.
Then, I see them…
Coming towards me from the far side of a pedestrian bridge, over the River Promise, several shapes take form in the fog.
More appear and I flinch in alarm as I realise I’ve got a small army riding towards me!
Hang on… riding?!
Yes! Unmistakably, as their shapes resolve, I see that each silhouette is composed of two creatures, a mount and a rider.
The mounts are canine animals, their fur mostly dark green, fairly consistent patches of lightish blue here and there on their bodies and purple on their undersides.
They have long, solid tails with brushes of lightish blue only at the ends.
They stand around [80cm] tall at the shoulder.
Their vivid orange, round pupiled eyes seem friendly… except for the fact that they’re either side of a clearly predatory snout.
A predatorypredatory snout!
Not like mine, meant for eating fist sized insects!
The humanoid riders would be less terrifying except for their grim expressions… and the fact that they’re sitting on the backs of predators larger than themselves that their ancestors presumably saw fit to tame and make mounts of!
They look like they would be around two thirds my height if they were standing on the ground.
Slim and gracile, though their necks are short and thick (at least compared to mine) and the flatness of their torsos makes them look more than twice as wide at the shoulder as they are deep at the chest.
They have mostly green skin with a few who are more on the yellow side.
They have long, wide, fleshy ears that come to a point.
Their hair is wildly variable in style, quality and colour, though mostly centres on green with only a few having colours besides.
In their hands, they each hold weapons that look straight out of the Iron Age! Spears and blades without an iota of tech in sight!
Their primitive choice of armament and transport is in stark contrast to their sleek, modern looking, high quality clothing, every outfit crisp enough to make plain that it’s seen the inside of a nanoforge quite recently.
Each of them has a tail similar to their steeds’, bar the fact that the only parts of them with hair are the brushes at the ends, swinging back and forth behind them as they ride.
Something tells me that, even without the aid of their monstrous mounts or ancient weapons, I would be no match for even a single one of these people in a fight… in spite of how much larger I am than any of them!
But it isn’t just one slowly riding towards me… Twenty pairs of eyes are each flitting to me as we draw closer.
Just as I’m considering making a detour that would take me around the bridge and out of the little warband’s way one of them riding at the front barks, calling out a single incomprehensible word “Ak!”
It was obviously meant for me… and they’ve noticed me noticing.
“Wors an kri!” she shouts, seeming to be beckoning me.
My hearts pound as I weigh up whether to run from them or not.
I eventually calculate that, if anything, running from them is probably not the best course of action.
Their quadrupedal mounts look fast enough that I highly doubt I would be able to outrun them if they chased me.
Right now, they don’t look hostile… that could change if I try to flee.
A party of twenty mounted and armed individuals is too high profile and easily identified to make it likely that they’re about to rob me but, if they are, I just need to sensibly hand over whatever they ask for.
‘No valuables are worth your life!’ as I recently learned from a popular Terran galtuber I like to watch in my spare time.
I’m an upstanding citizen with a clean snout and no outstanding debts or obligations to any unsavoury individuals or organisations… so, I don’t think they’re likely to be specifically targeting me for anything.
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
I step forward onto the bridge, approaching the band, doing my best to keep my bodylanguage looking neither threatened nor threatening and managing my face into an expression of neutral curiosity.
The cavalry detachment come to a stop in the middle of the bridge, eyes all still fixed on me, unnervingly.
I approach the one that called me.
If she’s as mammalian as she and her mount look, she’s probably female… just judging by the slight bulge at the top front of her torso that around half of her party lack.
She reaches her nonspearwielding right hand to a screen hung around her neck and points it up at me, saying “Twila… Lok… Do klar loy mrral.”
I briefly think she’s trying to record me until a Terran looking face appears on the holo, speaking with a feminine voice in perfect Svikkthian.
“Good evening there, Sir… or perhaps good morning(!)… Sorry for the inconvenience but would you mind if I just quickly asked you a few questions?”
Far too baffled by the absurdity of the situation to give any other answer, I say “Erm… sure? What do you want to know?”
She gives a reassuring smile without baring her teeth and says “Have you seen either of these two people within the last few hours?…” bringing up two pictures of (one very, one relatively) pale skinned Terrans with their eyes different shades of green and their hair different shades of red “…Their names are Victor ‘Cuddles’ Taylor and Thran ‘Gimli’ Hunter. Thran recently got her face quite severely injured so she would probably look more like this at the moment.” she adds, exchanging the photo of the unblemished face for one with the entire space beneath her heavy brow a mass of bruises and cuts, her white sclera bloodshot and her large nose cracked.
I should simply answer ‘I haven’t seen them’ (which is the truth) but, instead, I frown “What do you… want them for?”
“Oh!… We really aren’t searching for them because we want to hurt them if that’s what you’re thinking, Sir!… We don’t really have time for me to tell you everything (and you probably wouldn’t believe me if I did) but suffice it to say, they’re our friends and they’re in trouble right now… If you could point us in their direction you would be helping us and them!” she answers, seeming sincere… then again, Terrans are relatively famous for the ease with which they can utter falsehoods…
“And… is there a reason all of these people are speaking through you rather than wearing translators?… Or is that something else you don’t have time to explain?” I ask, cautiously.
“There is a reason, yes. I don’t have time to explain it, no.” she smiles back, doing a fantastic job of masking her impatience if she’s feeling any.
“Alright… I’m sorry, Miss, but I’ve not seen the ones you’re looking for. I only got off of work [10 minutes] ago…” I say, pointing in the direction I came from “…and I’ve only passed one or two people between there and here… I definitely would have noticed if I had passed any Terrans!”
Disappointedly, she answers “Alright, Sir. If you do see them, could you call the authorities immediately and tell them where they are, please? If you can’t remember their names, just say ‘the two missing Terrans’. They will know who you’re talking about.”
“The authorities? You don’t want me to call you?” I ask, surprised.
“No. Please call the authorities.” she answers, smiling.
“Alright… I will…” I answer, reassured.
This group probably aren’t gangsters if they’re asking me to call law enforcement about this.
“Tner krag, Viig.” says the Terran on the holo, seamlessly switching into the language of the green ones.
“*sigh*…Wors an!” shouts the little woman, her head a good [30cm] below mine, even mounted.
The group resume their forward ride across the bridge as I carefully skirt my way around and between them.
My heartsrate decreases as I continue my walk home, safely out of the situation I misjudged as being dangerous.
Wending my way through the narrow alleys of my neighbourhood, I’m almost home when, mere paces from me, a patch of shadows suddenly takes solid form and lunges towards me, completely silently until it orders “Алатми…” in a forceful but otherwise dead voice, scaring the life out of me!
I look up into the humourless, scarred, pale face of a frightening Terran!
I briefly think it might be one of the missing Terrans until I remember their eyes were green.
His are the same orange as those canines', though with white sclera visible.
The lone man is slim and about as much taller than me as I was compared to that mounted girl earlier.
His entire body is clad in brown leather, including his gloved hands and head, sporting a metal helmet covered in a layer of the stuff.
On his back is a large cylinder with feathered pieces of wood protruding from its open top.
In his left hand he holds a piece of bent wood with a length of string tied taut between its ends.
His right moves from where he stuck it into my path to his neck where… he has a holo tied.
“Си нуӈан тэли ханӈуктами, Твайла?” he speaks into it.
The same woman as spoke for that medieval cavalry detachment appears on his device.
“Oh…” she says, surprised “…hello again. Sorry to keep bothering you. I don’t suppose you’ve seen them in the last 7 minutes, have you?”
“N-no…” I tremble.
“I knew it was a longshot… Thanks anyway.” she sighs before seamlessly switching into the Terran language (which I know isn’t their lingua franca) to say “Би нуӈан ханӈуктами час Виигнун, Тыманча.”
“Амтачй…” grunts the man before walking past me without another word.
My (supposed to be) relaxing walk home thoroughly ruined by the stress hormones my blood is marinating my muscles and brain in right now, I hurry on, wanting nothing more than to collapse on my [couch] and throw some peaceful galtube videos on the wall!
I’m just coming up to my building’s front door when movement catches my eye from the end of my street.
I twist my long, willowy neck to turn my head in that direction.
I catch a brief glimpse of three Terrans crossing the path… the one leading dressed in dark clothing with accents of bright purple… the other two, following behind, both have red hair!
I freeze in place but they’re already gone…
I didn’t see either the copper headed one or the orange headed one’s face, just their hair… is that enough to call the authorities about?
True, Terrans aren’t at all common on this planet but… I’ve already run into two others tonight!
I kind of wish the one on the holo had pinged me her comm just so I could tell her about it and not risk wasting the emergency services’ time.
Should I follow them to see whether it actually was the missing pair?
No! That’s stupid, Svulinkt!
You have no idea what’s going on but, if it’s trouble for Terrans, you know it’s too much for you!
I step through my building’s front door and hurry along the ground floor corridor to my apartment.
My hearts are pounding in my chest for the third time in the last [10 minutes] as I take out my holo, the fingers of my right pawhand hovering over the keypad, my mind warring with itself!
I give a deep, calming exhale… step to my kitchen counter… and put my holo down… decision made.
Then, completely by impulse, my mouth utters the words “Holo; call emergency services.” and my guts swoop like I’ve just been dropped off the top of a building!
The call rings for [1.5 seconds] before a woman’s calm, translated voice speaks from the other end of the line “Hello. Prosperity emergency hotline; please state your name, species and the nature of the emergency.”