Tuesday, May 22, 2012

TEASING YOU

I never thought I'd be so wrapped up in a world where we (the humans) are the aliens.  But, here I am, folks, happily wandering through the world of ZERO, my current WiP. 

And, since I'm a giver--I know, right? you're welcome!--I'll share a little snip with you this fine Tuesday.  Enjoy!

The ship the first settlers arrived on was little more than a flat disc. Dark gray in color, it cut through the night sky with barely a sound, blending in with the heavens so that no one knew it was there until it landed, lights blazing to life as it hovered slowly to the ground.


Talk about making an entrance.

We all gathered around it, still as statues, rooted to the spot by a mixture of fear and excitement until the doors to the ship opened. Out flowed creatures like we’d never seen. They walked upright, had faces, hair and a spoken language. Just like us, but that was where the similarities ended.

These beings—humans, we later learned they liked to call themselves—were strange and captivating creatures. Their skins ran the gamut in coloring, from the pales of white and pink to shades of olive, yellows, beige, and browns so dark they were almost as black as the night sky they came in on. Their shapes, too, were vast and varied. Tall humans, skinny humans, short humans, very round humans, baby humans, and old humans.

The most surprising facet of their kind was not the colors or the shapes or even the way the years carved away at their faces and bodies. For us, it was their volume. These humans were the noisiest things we had ever encountered. Papa once said that they put a herd of wild hendlings to shame. But even with all their flaws, we were still in awe of them.

The novelty of their differences—not just to us but within their own group—appealed to our general sense of curiosity. And they were intrigued by us, too. With the velvety texture of our sand colored skin that holds the faintest tinge of green—a residual effect from the plants and mosses that make up most of our diet—the humans were always finding reasons to touch us, smooth their own papery flesh against ours.

And, they asked questions. Oh, the questions they asked! Because of the language barrier, it was difficult at first. Papa spent many frustrating hours trying to “talk” with the humans by drawing pictures in the sand and waving his arms frantically around his head. But, he always said that it was worth it in the end. That we had made new friends, and we would do well to make an effort to learn their language as he was sure they would do the same.

Of course, they didn’t make that effort. After the initial fifty settled in, sleeping in our beds, eating our food, and not even trying to help us in our chores, Papa and the rest of the Elders began to suspect these humans of bad intentions, but it wasn’t until much later when they started arriving in ships carrying thousands instead of dozens that we realized just how terrible they really were.

By then, it was already too late.

How are your WiPs coming along? Do share ;)

3 comments:

  1. Oh, I love this! Talk about an intriguing premise. Go, Karla!

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  2. i like you + aliens. KEEP IT COMING.

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  3. I am hooked! What an awesome premise, so looking forward to BUYING the book and reviewing :)

    I have to say that my Interred book2 is doing my head in with the timelines, which should totally be a pun since it's about time traveling LOL I need a bit of that Time Bending ability of my MC's to fix it :(

    But!!! Do carrying on with ZERO because I want to read all of it!

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