Phoslyte Facts

It was a day like any other day on Phobos; everybody were doing their work, going about their day and exchanging good words with each other every now and then. It was how it always is on the colony, unlike humans Phoslyte never were really prone to violence, especially not toward their kin. They didn’t bother any other species around them either and preferred staying safe and hidden on Mars’s moon as they observed human exploring the cosmos while the grey Zettans and Nordics of Epsilon toy with ground-bound earthlings. Most Phoslytes don’t visit Earth because of those two other species, not only do they fear becoming their toys but they also feel like they make Earth too crowded if it wasn’t the case yet with the 5 billion tons of biomass already on that planet. Lemres was one of the few Phobos inhabitant interested in exploring the blue planet, but it wasn’t to abduct or test on an human like Zettans love to do so much. All Lemres was captivated by was fairies, wizards and other creatures from fantasy books. Many though he was silly for believing in such things, but it wasn’t everybody’s opinion. Those who believe always revert to the same argument; lots of humans make fun of the minority of their kind who hold belief in aliens. They think that maybe the situation here’s is the same, that fairy tale creatures are real but mostly stay in hiding like Phoslytes does, or erase people’s memory of them like then Zettan does, or maybe even they live among human unnoticed like Epilites.

Lemres was determined to go on Earth and find at least one folklore cryptid, study it and learn more about these “supernatural” earthly beings. He had saved up for years to finally buy an explorapod and leave the barren moon he call home. Fairies and wizards weren’t the only reason he wanted to leave. Living in a bubble empty of everything was boring, the only bit of nature Phobos had was one or two domes terraformed with artificial and/or heavily genetically engineered flora while Earth was there, so close, and so full of life. Maybe it was a bit “too full” in comparison but alluring nonetheless. It wasn’t too much of a problems for our protagonist as the place he planned to go to was not crowded with humans; his desired destination was a quiet European forest home of countless tales of magic and wonders.

Today was the day. There, in front of the pod shop, stood Lemres. He was a rather average Phoslyte; 6”8 adult with long blue hair, a pair of amber glasses perched on his flat nose and wearing the standard issued suit. He entered the store eager to get his hand on a vehicle he spent a year getting his license for. He’d also need an helmet for safety in the pod in case of a crash but also in case of the air on Earth potentially not being suitable for his kind. The latter being quite unlikely but it’s always better to be safe than sorry, beside, even if Earth atmosphere is know to be breathable by Phoslytes there are still various earth landmark where even theirs native inhabitant cannot breath. 

Lemres hurried the transaction as much as he could, he’d already traded all of his small change for bigger bills the day before to make the counting for today much easier. When asked by the clerc where he planned on going Lemi just blurted out a “just to explore” as he didn’t wanted to talk about his fairy and folktales research, he knew that he’d waste time either talking about it all or being made fun of. He’d usually love to share his knowledge on the subject to at this very moment all he wanted was to hop in his ship and finally fly to earth, he had been waiting for too long already. With the pod paid, checked, insured and filled up with fuel, Lemres hopped in and took off. He didn’t even think, he just up and left. The excitement took over his basic brain function and guided him toward Earth. He was so eager in fact that he didn’t even see time fly, the few days of flight left like mere minutes to him, he had barely eaten even. As a matter of fact, in his haste he hadn’t even brought food to begin with and had no choice but eat the little there was provided in the pod. But the flight was almost over, soon he’d be on Earth, the planet full of life, food and water everywhere, surely it would all be okay once he set food on there.

And land he did. He was finally there, on the land of his dreams. As he exited his ship all the rush and excitement settle down. He was still happy and eager to be there, but he was no longer feeling the need to run and hurry. He stood there, taking it all in, the beauty of the woods he had carefully picked as his landing site. There was greens as far as the eye could see but each green different, different sheds, different shapes, different textures. Here and there, there would be splashes of reds and blues where flowers and mushrooms sprouted; a couple of daisies here, petunias there. He stop and contemplate each and every flowers, counting their petals, taking in their smells, picking a couple to make a bouquet while listening to the orchestra of sounds surrounded him. Those chants and cries were so foreign to him, for any other Phoslyte they would probably feel overwhelmed by all those sounds, thinking each cries belonged to some dangerous beast pacing the woods ready to pounce on them. Lemres however imagined those sounds to be the ones of the creatures from him books, werewolves, elves, trolls… He knew he was most likely wrong, but it made him feel like there were more real, more than he’d ever felt before. He felt so close to them already, all he wanted now as to finally meet them, at least just once, just one of them. Prove everybody wrong.

He roamed the woods for quite a while, but never getting to far from his pod as to not get lost. He went north, followed a small stream that lead him to a fox den. After spending a moment observing them going about their life he then wandered east where he came face to face with a deer, it stood there a few second before realizing was was in front of itself and fleeing. Lemres was mostly scouting the area at the moment, but he was enjoying it regardless. He knew that if he wanted to find any mythical creature he’d have to find the perfect place where they’d usually live first. So far during his exploration he had already found two interesting spot : a mushroom circle and a peculiar-looking dead tree in the middle of a small clearing itself in the middle of a denser part of the forest. The first could be a sign of fairies being nearby while the latter could be anything from a cursed tree to a slumbering troll, or maybe it was a troll cursed by a witch turned into a tree. Either way he took note to inspect it further later.

Lemi’s exploration got cut short by his stomach, he realized that he still hadn’t ate anything despite having landed a few hours ago already. He had told himself when he was still flying in the pod that he’d eat once he set foot on ground as he’d barely ate anything during the trip but once again his excitement had taken over and distracted him from his hunger until now. He looked around him. His species’s diet was mostly if not only plant based so it shouldn’t be too hard to find food in sure a dense and bountiful… Problem was, he had close to no knowledge of what was and wasn’t edible. He’d spend to much time in and after school learning about these mythical and legendary creatures that he’d forgot the little he learned in school about Earth fauna and flora. Back then, if it was proven to exist it didn't interested him, now his inattention for the real had its consequences.

The sun had set, panic was settling in and the hunger was growing every second. The blue-haired Phoslyte inspected his pod over and over in hope of finding anything of help; a cereal bar he hadn’t eaten yet, a survival guide anything, but nothing was found beside a small pot that isn’t of much use without food to put in it and a basic medpack. Lemres sat there for a moment, thinking about every step of the trip he did wrong: not studying earth’s plants, not bringing provisions, not getting a survival guide… and it was just the food-related mistakes, he knew he probably forgot much more important things, did he have enough fuel to get back home? Should he have brought an extra jug of it? Can he find or make some on earth if needed? Did he have a way to contact home in case of emergency? What should he do if he’s spotted by humans? So many question he thought about too late. He let his childish dreams guide him without hesitations… without a proper plan…

He stood up. He couldn’t let himself die of starvation now could he? He gathered plants and berries that looked familiar to him, threw them in his the small pot he found earlier, added a bit of water and boiled the mix. He ended up with a sort of not terrible-looking jam. It smelled sweet and rather appetizing, it seemed good enough for him so he gobbled it all up in one sitting. His hunger had no time for taste test or savoring, but he knew to be at least a bit careful; he waited a couple hours after eating with his medpack on hand in case what he had eaten was bad before going to rest. Since he left quite fine he slipped back into his pod for some well earned rest.

He woke up the next day feeling just as fine, so he took note of what he ate and classified them as safe. For now he had at least something to safely rely on for food, but he knew it wouldn’t be enough. His plan for today was to set up a proper connection in his pod so he could access the virtual library and get his hand on proper information regarding earth, what was safe for him to eat and how to prepare it.