for a combined hour or two, D_Light was exhausted. Peering into the private nooks and crannies of the garden, he longed to lie down in one of those dark shadows and let the soft, spongy grass cradle him and the gurgling waterfalls lull him to sleep.
D_Light left the path and inspected a long-stemmed blue-petaled flower that glowed. Looking into the bulb, he could not see any obvious light source. It appeared that the light was emitted from the tissue of the plant itself. Remarkable, he thought as he ripped one of the succulent petals. It tore easily enough and excreted a thick, glowing liquid that ran down between his fingers. It was viscous and sticky.
“D_Light!” Lyra whispered from the path. “Don’t mess around with these things. You don’t know what they are.”
Lily was at his shoulder peering down intently at the torn flower. She dabbed a finger into the palm of his hand where a few drops of softly glowing juice had run down and collected. She then brought her finger under her nose and inhaled deeply. Just as D_Light was about to bring his sap-soaked hand up to his own nose, Djoser opened a blink to the team. There is someone behind us.
Instantly, D_Light was given a visual. It was a large humanoid shape that moved quickly, visible only for an instant before disappearing behind a tall flowerbed. It’s gone. What is it? Djoser asked. Without waiting for an answer, he played the visual clip back slowly. D_Light could not make the figure out clearly, as it had been largely concealed behind beds of flowers and the trunk of a tree before disappearing behind thicker cover. Even so, D_Light thought he could make out a large humanoid head like that of a large man.
Djoser immediately sent over a version of the video feed that had just been enhanced by his familiar. The creature was shaped like human, a man, more or less. It was naked and had no hair, save at its groin, which had only a tuft of hair and no visible testes. His skin was striated with what D_Light supposed were bulging veins over well-defined muscles. The eyes were oversized and showed up well in the image. They were pink as though thoroughly bloodshot. The nose was enormous, and it glistened as though wet. The mouth was shut, but it also looked several times too big. A large flap of skin hung underneath the jaw, such that no neck was visible from that angle.
Master, no organism in the public taxonomy fits the characteristics of that image. Smorgeous’s calm voice in D_Light’s head contrasted with the feelings of panic beginning to wash over the robot’s master.
The others shared D_Light’s feelings of anxiety as the blink went rapid-fire. It was standard for members of House Tesla to be trained in psychological strategies for times that required quick action. Extraneous thought patterns were shut down to focus on the problem at hand while still keeping the senses keen.
Options? Djoser pinged.
Hide, Lyra responded.
Hiding good, D_Light sent as though he had a vote.
Stay together, Lyra commanded.
Because Lily had no familiar, she could not handle the security processing required by an unfiltered blink without a long delay and was therefore completely unaware of the discovery and discussion that had occurred over the last few seconds. Without even realizing it, D_Light grabbed Lily’s hand to guide her. She did not resist. He then had Smorgeous create a summary of the situation and send it to her as a standard, low-security message.
The team’s familiars watched their backs for any pursuer. Through the blink the team discussed other tactics. It was decided that if evasion failed, the party was certainly capable of defending itself. All of them carried weapons, and based on the image, the creature did not appear to be armed. They decided on a “bear trap” configuration if the enemy attacked alone. This consisted of a simple line with Amanda, the strongest, out a meter in front of the others. This would ensure that Amanda would meet the attacker first and that the others could then surround and snap shut around the attacker. If, however, there were multiple enemies, they would instead use a “flesh fortress” configuration, which simply meant they would all stand back to back, Amanda facing the most likely direction of attack.
But fighting was plan B. Plan A was still to hide, and to do this they sprinted with the intention of getting some distance from the thing and then hiding once out of sight. The plan seemed reasonable to D_Light, but he was also afraid of dashing headlong into another one of these things. Or something worse.
My familiar is scouting ahead, D_Light informed the others. The familiar’s quadruped robotic legs afforded it much greater speed than its master or any of the other bipeds in the party.
Lyra’s thoughts came fast. Good, Djoser, Moocher watches our back. Princess watches our flanks.
Djoser was beginning to breathe hard from the run, but unlike audible speech, this had no effect on his blink communication. Moocher can’t see it back there anymore. That thing probably knows the garden though. Knows where we’re heading.
Fine, see that large stone ahead? To the left is cover. At the hedge, we’ll leave the path and hide. Lyra pinged the location in the team’s minds. Princess will maintain along the path. She can mimic my voice. She can mimic us all! With any luck, the thing will follow her.
Momentarily, the four arrived at the stone, at which point they moved quietly off the path while Lyra’s familiar continued on. They crawled and slithered in among the thick stalks of a patch of large, broad-leafed plants.
D_Light tried to suppress his panting from the run, but it was a few long seconds before he had quieted himself enough to faintly hear Djoser’s voice off in the distance saying, “Run! Don’t stop!” to which his own voice answered, “But I’m tired…and scared.” D_Light could see Lyra smirking at him. When he cracked a smile back, she winked.
I want to get a look around, Djoser sent telepathically.
Stay hidden! Lyra seized Djoser’s wrist. If you can see it, then it can see you.
That freak show might be creeping up on us right now. Djoser splayed his free hand out in frustration. We don’t know its capabilities.
Exactly, Lyra sent back. We don’t know anything about it. In fact, we don’t know anything about this place at all, so I say better to play it cool.
Djoser’s eyebrows shot up. I’m not suggesting I peek out myself. I’ll send out Moocher. He’s small, so he’ll be hard to spot. And he can see better than any of us anyway.
Lyra nodded. Moocher, with his tube-shaped body, then began a low, slinking crawl around the plant stalks out toward the dim light just outside the thicket.
Pipe Moocher’s visual and audio to all of us, Lyra commanded.
Djoser, Lyra, and D_Light were now looking through Moocher’s eyes. Since the shadows were no problem for the familiar, they could all see pretty well. Unfortunately, the garden was full of obstacles and plants that blocked much of the familiar’s view, but nothing seemed to be moving in the immediate vicinity.
“Oh Soul, I think I soiled my pants!” D_Light could faintly hear his own voice yelling from off in the distance. Princess’s imitation of D_Light’s voice was unnervingly accurate.
Great, I get all the good lines, he thought.
Djoser, have Moocher pan over to his left a bit, Lyra ordered. Their collective vision swung to the left. There, see that tree? Lyra placed a highlight over the tree to which she was referring. Have Moocher climb one of those to get a better look around.
The tree had a thick base from which sprung two thinner trunks that wound around one another like a DNA molecule. Numerous branches extended out from both trunks, and the leaves on the branches glowed dimly, not enough to cast significant light on anything else, but enough to glow clearly in the dark with a deep violet hue.
As D_Light re-immersed himself in Moocher’s deft ascent up between the branches of the tree trunk, he was startled by Lyra, who suddenly spoke out loud in a shallow whisper. “I lost PeePee! I don’t know how. Destroyed I think!”
She then let out a loud gasp and said in a rapid whisper, “I don’t have time to reconfigure my blink settings. Without a familiar, I’m going to have to fall back to speech.”
How? D_Light sent the thought, and then he realized that Lyra had dropped from that form of communication.
“How?” D_Light repeated in a whisper.
“I said I don’t know how! I wasn’t watching her. I can’t play back her archive because she’s completely gone.”
