Strange parallels
To Till Unknown Lands pt. 4
Read parts 1-3 here:
The ride out of Victory Steppe was cramped. The five of them, Governor Paddeous, Lucip, Tiqid, Lamb Chop, and Duncan, six if you include the driver who kept taking her eyes off of the road to stare at the shepherd and his sheep with the bad haircut, had departed shortly after the razor incident so Duncan could perform his demonstration to the planet, Vect 7.
The journey was long – twelve hours Paddeous had said before they departed – and so six hours into the trip they pulled off of the main road, which had turned to orange dirt four hours back, and into the parking lot of a shack. It wasn’t much bigger than the shepherd’s back home, but this one had glass over the windows, two stories, and, upon entry, a way to keep the interior a cool temperature. It was a much needed respite from the humid outdoors.
“What is this?” Tiqid asked.
“Our accommodations for the evening,” Paddeous replied.
“Oh… I don’t know.” Lucip said, typing frantically into his tablet. “We’re on a strict schedule. We have to be at our next destination in—”
“Nonsense, nonsense.” Paddeous waved him off. “It’s past dark, and from what I understand about your shepherd is that he performs his skill in the outdoors. Plus we’re still six hours away.”
“We’ll drive through the night,” Tiqid said. Not asking.
Paddeous looked stunned.
Tiqid checked his tablet. “It will be daylight in five.”
The shepherd looked around the small kitchen and into the living room, where Lamb Chop was already making himself at home on the green and yellow plaid couch. It looked comfortable, and Duncan couldn’t remember the last time he slept. Actually slept. Not on some metal bench on a spaceship or dozing off in an interrogation room waiting for Tiqid or Lucip. For the first time he was truly beginning to miss his home, not just the concept of it or Earth as a whole, but the bed he made himself, the mattress he stuffed with sheep’s wool, and the sun that fell unfiltered through the hole in his wall. The house he was in now was nice, but Duncan knew that home-feeling would never return no matter what kinds of accommodations he was offered.
“Duncan,” Tiqid said, motioning him back toward the front door. Tiqid led him outside. Despite it being dark – the stars looked different here than on Earth, the tracings unfamiliar – he could see that it was nothing but fields for as long as the eye could see.
“Will this do?” Tiqid asked once they were ten paces away from the house.
“Do for what?” Duncan asked.
“Your demonstration.”
He considered his surroundings for a moment. There weren’t any animals, at least any he could see, and the chances that he would know what to do with them if they had been were slim to none.
“This should work,” Duncan concluded.
The group set up camp in the quaint living room. If there was anyone upstairs, they were quiet enough to remain undetected. Duncan kicked Lamb Chop off of the couch for Tiqid and Lucip to share, what with both of them being short enough to fit comfortably on each end. The shepherd took a wide recliner for himself, flinching when Paddeous showed him how to kick out his feet before heading to the identical chair just opposite him, turning out the lights on his way.
Plunged into darkness, everyone except the shepherd seemed to fall quickly asleep, evident by the soft snoring that emanated from various spots around the room.
But the shepherd wasn’t tired. No, even after the six-hour trip Duncan was wide awake. Anxiety about the demonstration played a part, sure, but the true culprit hid somewhere deep inside his chest.
Was he anxious? Possibly. Was he homesick? Definitely. But what lingered inside of him was different. It felt like a pull.
Toward what, he wasn’t sure. He wasn’t sure when he started feeling it either, just that it had been building.
“Make them grow!”
“What?”
“Make them grow!” Paddeous repeated, lifting his arms into the air as if the gesture would make his command true and that the crops in front of him would shoot from the ground, their leafy arms outstretched toward the orange sky, and bestow upon him the gift of sustenance.
Tiqid rolled his eyes.
Lucip turned to Duncan, leaning in and whispering, “That’s not how it works, is it?”
Duncan shook his head, sighing.
They were standing in the large field just behind their previous night’s accommodations. In the light of day – the sun beating on our necks – the shepherd could properly see for the first time what he was working with: rows of tall blue and purple stalks, a section of small bushes with multicolored berries. Everything in front of Duncan had already grown. It just needed to be harvested.
The shepherd told Paddeous as such.
“Oh…” The Governor looked dejected. “Oh well, let’s move on to the animals. I’d love to see what you’d make of the Geluggan. Bobbanae!” Paddeous clapped and suddenly a smaller, more slender version of himself – his eye impossibly more bulbous – came sprinting out of our accommodations.
How long had he been in there?
“Ah, Bobbanae! Our esteemed guest has notified me that these crops are ready for plucking.”
“At once, Governor.” Bobbanae did some sort of little curtsey and scampered off, disappearing between the tall plum stalks.
Paddeous led the four of them farther behind the house, behind the fields, where a larger building stood. Square and gray with no windows, it looked incredibly out of place compared to the colorful city and its outskirts.
“Is the Geluggan in there?” Lucip asked, clutching his notepad to his chest.
“They are!” Paddeous replied.
“Are they friendly?” Tiqid added.
“Absolutely.”
Paddeous led the group to the front door, something that looked heavily locked with an iron bar laying across the middle of both doors. Duncan imagined whatever was inside busting it down, charging at them, making a victim of Lucip.
Lamb Chop let out an uneasy bleat.
Duncan stroked his wool. “It’s alright buddy.”
Without further added suspense, Paddeous typed something in a number pad along the right side of the door before physically lifting the iron bar and sliding it out of the way.
Lucip hid behind Tiqid. Duncan prepared himself for the worst.
Uncharacteristically, Lamb Chop said nothing.
The doors opened, revealing the building’s shadowy innards. Paddeous stepped back, adjusting his large bowtie.
“Meet Bido, our wonderful Geluggan.”
And out stepped the Geluggan, Bido, a marvelous site to Duncan’s eyes. Lamb Chop broke his silence, letting out a long bleat.
The Geluggan was purple, large, rotund, a horizontally cylindrical body with six legs and a puffy face. A single eye sat in the middle of her face where her nose would be, her mouth nothing but a gaping hole – no teeth – just below the eye.
“Despite our best researchers’ efforts, we cannot find a way to harvest her resources.”
Duncan looked the creature up and down, perfectly docile despite the imposing enclosure.
“Is there a chance she is an animal without resources to harvest?” Duncan responded, using Paddeous’s awkward language despite how awkward it felt.
“All creatures on Vect 7 are harvestable. I am sure that we have just not unlocked that knowledge yet.”
Bido stomped over to Paddeous, trying to rub her head on him but being far too big to do so.
“Please,” Paddeous continued, “take a look.”
Duncan stepped closer to observe Bido, catching her attention. She stared at him with her big bulbous eye like she was scanning him, committing his face to memory. He stretched out his arm, placing it on the Geluggan’s cheek.
The next thing Duncan saw was the inside of Bido’s esophagus.
Hey everyone!
I hope you enjoyed part four! Originally, I was only planning on having Duncan stay on Vect 7 for two posts, but this storyline seems to be taking longer than that so we will see how far his adventure takes him (or: how far down Bido’s digestive tract he manages to get).
Stay tuned for more!
<3 Brooke
duncan no pls don’t get eaten
Love this series, Brooke!! I can’t wait to see where you take the story from here!