Questions
The hunting party surrounds Marcella as she lies unconscious on the ground. They speak to each other:
(*What in the unmentionable name of the deity is this thing?*)
(*You get me by the slonguth, Qeefe. It's very strange--and ugly!*)
(*Stinks too! Wow! Pretty ripe smell!*)
(*Who brought it down?*)
(*Vulwa did. She was trying to communicate with it before it disgustingly shed its skin!*)
(*Why didn't you just kill it, Vulwa?*)
(*It didn't seem dangerous at the time. It just stood there in front of me. So I approached to learn what it was.*)
(*Where did it come from? We've never seen anything like this thing before.*)
(*Bivass said she saw it come from the sky, in some sort of flying carriage.*)
(*Flying carriage? Why, that's impossible! Bivass, have you been smoking gurkeeral weeds again?*)
(*Hey, you can suck my slonguth, Gleeu. I saw what I saw. It dropped out of the sky like a rock, then stopped and flew in circles until it landed by the rocks on the other side of the sacred field.*)
((They all laugh at Bivass's description of the thing's flying carriage.))
(Biser asks, *So, Vulwa, you say it shed its skin when you approached it?*)
(Well, not at first! Like I said, it didn't seem dangerous so I tried communicating with it. But suddenly things went fucking crazy! I was touching its skin and suddenly lights came out of it that danced in the air, and I heard a strange guttural sound that was different from how the creature sounded.*)
(Bivass snorts as the others seem to give Vulwa's description of events credence. *Oh sure, lights and voices. You all laughed when I said it dropped out of the sky, but when Vulwa says she saw lights and voices it all makes sense. Fuck all of you!*)
(Qeefe pokes the creature between its spread legs with the end of her spear. *It seems to have a slonguth receptacle. Do you think it's a brooder?*)
(Bivass laughs. *Why Qeefe? You want to give it your egg? Are you attracted to it? Perhaps if you wake it up it'll agree to have union with you.*)
(They all join in, laughing at the idea that Qeefe would have union with this creature.)
(*It would be an abomination, to have union with an animal like this,* sneers Biser.)
(*What if it fertilized your egg, Qeefe?* Said Fumnb, chuckling. *What sort of monstrous offspring would that be!*)
(*I don't know--it looks better than Qeefe's last brooder,* jokes Legass. *The kid might not look so bad after all!*)
(*Very funny, very fucking funny you bitches,* retorts Qeefe good-naturedly. "You know I was duty-bound to fuck the Queen's son. He may not look like much but he brooded very well!*)
(*It's possible that this is not an animal,* observes Sojan, who is standing back a bit from the creature on the ground. >>Sojan is the deep thinker for this little group.<< *If we are to believe Bivass--and we really have no reason not to considering the strangeness of all of this--and Vulwa's description of her encounter with the creature, I, for one, think it is intelligent, in a strange alien sort of way. It does resemble us somewhat--two arms, two legs, and so forth. And the skin that it shed, for example, could be a body covering. We only think it's skin because it fits the creature's body so tightly. Although, why it shed it's 'skin' off makes no sense to me.*)
(*Fuck!* Shouts Fumnb. *It looks nothing like us!*)
(*It certainly looked a lot better wearing it's 'skin' than now,* observes Vulwa, poking between the creature's legs again at its soft receptacle tissues. *Fucking disgusting body parts! And I have no idea what that stringy stuff on its head is, or the shorter strings covering its receptacle bits! Kind of revolting to look at--and to feel!*)
(Sojan raises her spear and speaks with authority for the group. *I say we bring the creature back to the village and let the shaman decide what should be done with it.*)
(They all nod in agreement. *But who is going to pick up this revolting thing?* asks Biser with a look of utter disgust on her face.*)
Thanks Ted.
