A Strange Visitor
Collection of prompts from Halloween event October 2020.
Chapter 9
With the vines taken care of, disconnected or destroyed, it's time for Uuk'oks to be dealt with for it's crimes. The alien visitor assisting your lions seems riled up, unhappily pacing "Want hurt Uuk'oks! Make go away! Send far!" it cried out, "End! End!" it seems distressed by the presence of this enemy that it seemed to have been chasing. Even if its version of 'distressed' looks more like smiling and its noises of 'anger' sounds more like a squeaky toy.
Your lions deliberate the fate of this alien creature, it just grins in some unreadable alien emotion. Eventually...they make their way outside the cave. The earth feels safe again under their paws....but theres a quake as the creature they're holding captive goes berserk, biting at your lion's paws and scrambling to free itself from its confinement. They let it slip through their paws and Uuk'oks is gone. Launching into the sky the little unimposing ball of fur turns into a meteor- flying off into nonexistence beyond your lion's reach. Seemingly, this was a common way of travel for these creatures, and the shell that their own alien had come to them in was the result of such a landing. "No!" the alien cries alongside the lions, scrambling over to try and catch the flying rock, but it is far too late to make a difference. It stands, staring at the sky. "Get! Uuk'oks!" it protested weakly. But it seemed keenly aware of its loss in its fight, sitting on the ground it stares at the dirt. "Gone." it decided, defeated. It was so close! so close to destroying this terrible creature, and yet it was gone. It took its home from it, and nearly took your pride's home too. But at least it has done something- it's saved someone. It looks to the sky with a new determination "Uuk'oks come back. Hold grudge. Bad." it decided firmly. And it would stay to put up a fight when it did.
Perhaps one day it will return......
..In the meantime, it seems your lions have a new determined little alien guest to figure out what to do with. Oh, and the weird mutated plants and animals about. At the very least with each new end-of-the-world threat their home gets a little more interesting.
How do your lions set about cleaning up the aftermath of their strange visitors? Where do they send the alien who is still among them? Do they capture or interrogate them? offer them a place to stay? or tell them to leave?
How do they feel about the threat of Uuk'oks still out there somewhere? about the implications of creatures from the sky who can take their forms and live among them?
"You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you. It is easy to say you believe a rope to be strong and sound as long as you are merely using it to cord a box. But suppose you had to hang by that rope over a precipice. Wouldn't you then first discover how much you really trusted it?” - CS Lewis
The enemy had escaped. This day could not be counted as a victory and yet, they were happy. They got to live another day. They were hurt, tired and bruised, but they would recover. They made a new ally from outer space. What the outcome of this unusual friendship would be was yet to be determined, but it has definitely gained their trust. Warning them of danger and helping save their planet from destruction was definitely reason enough.
They didn’t go back to their secret base that night. They decided to camp out in the woods instead and recover. Ejszaka cuddled up beside the alion and they both quickly fell asleep. Shadow and Auris watched from te side, as glimmer of the moonlight brushed their manes. They alien told them it wanted to stay for the enemy would return one day and try again to the over their world. It would be there to stop it and protect it. They have learnt that it alone wasn’t powerful enough so they would need to lend a helping paw again. Now that they knew the danger they would be ready for it. They would be able to prepare, train and strategize. But what until then? Though their eyes felt heavy and yawns escaped their mouths, they tried to form a plan. There was a lot to discuss. Who should they tell about the alien and how much should they reveal? Everything? Hide the information about it’s incredible powers of transformation? Or maybe they should keep everything to themselves?
- One thing we know for sure. We cannot tell the captain. He’d capture the thing and experiment on it until it could take over it’s powers. What is it? - Shadow asked, as he saw Auris grimace.
The blue lion took a deep sigh before answering.
- What if the captain already knows? The enemy we fought, the Hider, it had his looks. It must have met the captain. Is it possible this could be a coincidence?
For their alien enemy to take the form of their number one enemy on earth was in fact very unlikely to be a coincidence.
- What if they were already in cahoots? The captain may even know about this guy - he pointed with his nose to the sleeping four-eyed feline.
They thought in silence for another few minutes, then Shadow stifled a yawn and asked.
- Alright, so we know what we’re not going to do. But, do we tell anyone?
Auris understood that by “anyone” he meant specifically the commander. If they weren’t going to tell their captain then making the information public was also out of the question, otherwise he’d find out. The commander was someone that Auris respected and trusted above anyone else in the guard. If they were going to tell anyone it would be him.
- Hmm… If he’s going to stay on our planet, we’ll have to find a place for him to live. Somewhere he can be safe and where he can hide. If we’re not going to spread the word of his powers then we can’t just leave him on his own. He won’t even know how to survive.
- Are you saying he should be adopted by the guard?
Auris shrugged, looking from the two sleeping bodies into the cloudless sky and the brightly shining full moon. It was a beautiful night. The nature did not care for the event of it’s dwellers. Everything was quiet, with only soft wind brushing through the trees and a calm stream shimmering somewhere in the distance, sounding more like a melody than a noise.
- I guess so. But he won’t be safe in Kingscardine.
They exchanged looks. That settled it then. If it needed to be under the protection of the watch, but couldn’t stay with them then there was only once place it could go. They would have to put their trust in the commander and tell him everything they knew about the imposter.
With th\at decided they finally fell asleep. Adrenaline was still coursing through Shadow’s veins making it hard to get some shuteye, but the closeness of his friend calmed him down. They woke up with the first rays of the sun. The alion was the first one on it’s paws. Apparently it didn’t need as much sleep as they did. Ejszaka opened her eyes to see it’s glowing red eyes and creepy smile staring at her. Luckily, as someone raised with Akumu she wasn’t easy to scare, otherwise she would have screamed. They decided that the alion would keep pretending to be perfectly lion, at least while they were at the city. Transferring it to the main quarters of the Night Watch wouldn’t be easy. They were going to have to be sneaky about it if they didn’t want to raise any suspicion in their captain. Shadow offered to take it there by himself, meaning Auris could stay behind and keep watch of the commander, but he didn’t want to let it happen. Ejszaka offered to tag along as well for the sole purpose that she was getting attached to the alion and started treating it like a cub and teaching it various things it would need to survive. They finally decided that for the time being the creature would stay with Shadow. Auris would send a letter to the commander briefly explaining the situation and only leave the city upon his formal request. That way they could keep the captain in the dark and be able to travel together. They washed in the nearby stream and hid all evidence of the events of the previous night. If anyone was lured to this place, they shouldn’t be able to find the cave and they were bound to come soon, as vegetation started acting weird after the enemy affected it with it’s strange powers. It was almost like being in the world of the Trinity Tree again. They would have to investigate and find out what exactly happened, but for now securing their new friend took priority.