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Raindrops blur your vision and break the clear, glasslike surface of the lake. Underneath the ripples, a long shape swims. You try to get a better look, but are unable to see through the curtains of water falling past your eyes. Then a small green head with long ears breaks the surface before you, and a green eye glistens in the rain, watching you. You step back, startled and uncertain, but the shape is gone a moment later. Was it really there at all? You shiver--and not from the cold.  The next time the head breaches the surface of the water, you had already forgotten about it and were more than half of the way home. When you see it gliding along in the water, still watching you, you trip with a gasp--and lie sprawled in the wet mud, too disgusted by your filthy state to move. What sounds suspiciously like laughter reaches your ears, along with some small splashing. When you work up the will-power to turn your head from the gooey ground, the creature is turning about and twisting the water into turmoil in the equivalent of a human rolling on the floor from laughter. You groan and slowly push yourself up from the mud. You stand there, cold, wet, and filthy as the creature slowly gets itself under control. He's still taking erratic breaths between spurts of laughter when another head pops out of the lake.  "Apali," the brown head murmurs reproachfully. "That wasn't funny. You know full well that that creature would not have fallen if you hadn't startled it." Your jaw drops open and you stare, astounded. They referred to you in exactly the same way you thought of them! Using "creature," and "it." Apali smirks. "Not necessarily. Besides, it should've been more careful. It's on a foreign world, after all. It should've been expecting me--but no, instead it falls flat on his face." He laughs again, picturing the image. "Just apologize, please." "But what if it doesn't speak our language?" She glares. "All right, Chie. Fine." He rolls his eyes and mutters something inaudible under his breath--at which point Chie grabs his fin and pulls him irritatedly under the water. Now, none of this amusing exchange had helped you at all. So you're still standing there, sopping with mud, wondering how you could ever be comfortable again. Dejectedly, you turn to continue the long walk home.
The Mardesos Cove |
