H.O.M.E. 5
by
Fin
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Qzrxl was nervous. Their small caravan had set out far too late from The Bores, and now the darkness of Ethernight was on them.
If they were not careful, all five of their party may fall prey to the dangers that lurked out here on the surface of The Core.
Scanning the horizon with each one of his independently moving eyemounds, the hairy single horned alien called out to his clan.
"This was a bad idea, Linomi," he spoke to the diminuitive pale tentacle creature riding before him. "If wrathwolves don't get us, raiders surely will."
The bizarrely undulating Linomi, turned one of its eyestalks toward Qzxrl, then rolled it to the back of its tentacle limb.
"You worry too much, friend," the headless creature emanated. "We'll reach Ring City before you know it."
Linomi may have just winked at him, but Qzrxl could not easily tell. Reading the body language of a Tentacloid was an acquired skill to be sure.
"Does everyone in Ring City really have a Umon of their own?" questioned Zxor, the smaller furry creature riding aloft Qzrxl.
Zxor, was Qzrxl's sireling, and at the well past adult age of 150 Core Rotations, it was far beyond time for him to cease using the middle aged Halnon as his mule. But habits do indeed die hard, and Qzrxl had enough on his mind this evening than to worry about the younger Zxor's usual perch.
"They create more and more of them everyday," answered Linomi, flailing it's limbs upward in a wild gesticulation. No one quite knew what that one meant yet.
"The first thing I'm going to do when we get there is huff one until I turn blue."
Tentacloids were notorious for their color changing chromatic abilities when excited.
"I doubt we can afford that, Lin," sighed Qzrxl. It was going to require all they had just to attain lodging in Ring City.
Their visit would have to be brief indeed. Just long enough to sell the wares they had acquired from The Bores, then return to the hovel all 5 of them shared on the outer edge of The Southern Overhang.
"Strangers on the horizon, Qzxrl!" called out Zxor from where he sat. His sire immediately searched the distance as well, finding the two beings still some ways yet away, standing still beside the road up ahead.
"Nice eyeing, Zxor," said Qzxrl. They did not want to have any surprises out here on the surface.
"Told you, I still have use up here," replied the younger Halnon. "What would you do without me?"
"Everyone stay close," continued Qzxrl, ignoring his sireling. "They most likely won't mean us any harm, but it's best to be safe."
As the tiny caravan passed the two strangers, Qzxrl studied them with two of his eyemounds, keeping the third trained on the road ahead.
But in the growing dark of Ethernight, the Halnon could not tell much about the pair. Whatever the tall, thin aliens looked like under their garments, their bodies and faces (if they had any) were completely obscured by the layers and layers of rags that adorned them.
Raising his thick hairy arm in a gesture of friendship, Qzxrl greeted the two travelers.
After a moment's hesitation, one of the aliens responded in kind.
"Lovely Ethernight to be standing out all alone in the middle of The Wastes..." emanated Linomi, while turning one of his eyestalks toward the Halnons behind him, bloating the end of the limb. The tentacloid was suspicious.
The strangers did not respond.
"Having difficulty with your translators?" questioned Qzxrl politely.
Still no answer from the pair, who continued to just stand there, staring straight ahead from within their darkened helmets.
"Kind of rude, these ones," said Zxor to his clan, eyeing the unusually garbed aliens himself from on high.
"Hush, boy," chided Qzxrl as the hairy middle aged Halnon reached into his sack, quickly producing two small translators in his palm.
Holding them out to the strangers did not go as he planned however, as one of the pair jumped back in fright, brandishing an odd metal like contraption that Qzrxl could not identify.
No one moved.
Not that the members of the caravan could understand what the other alien was doing.
The second tall stranger however slowly approached Qzxrl, and took the tiny electronic devices into the limb extension of his own.
When next the being just stood there however, Qzxrl had to gesture to his own earhole, revealing it from underneath his mats of hair.
The alien understood, and repeated the same with his own.
"Translators can be so finnicky," said the bestial Halnon, baring his huge black teeth in a smile. "I always bring a spare or two myself. Just in case."
Silence.
Then the tall, thin alien finally spoke.
"I must have left mine at home."
Qxzrl's monsterish grin continued.
These two were nothing to be worried about, and kindness can go a long way when traveling out in The Wastes.
"To where are you two headed?" asked Linomi, shivering as the small tentacloid created audible noise.
The alien once again went quiet as it stared at the bizarre thing that had just quivered sound from somewhere inside itself.
"We are on the way to Ring City, ourselves," chimed in Zxor from above them all. "Would you like to join us?
The slender beragged alien continued to not reply, instead handing his twin a translator earpiece of his own.
Turning back to toward the caravan, the stranger then craned his head upward to view the small boar like creature whom had last spoken, riding aloft the hairy larger one whom had given him the translator.
Once again the alien did not move for some time.
"Can we trust you?"
Both horrifically ugly hairy monsters just grinned.
"Of course you can trust a Halnon. We are the most honest traders in The Core!"
Sometime later, all now seven members of the caravan were slowly closing the distance to Ring City, across the vast volcanic desert on the surface of The Core, the two new members each having taken a seat on one of the beasts of burden carrying the rest.
"You know, I still can't quite believe you've never met a Halnon before," said Qxzrl, his huge hairy arms wrapped around the slightly shorter of the two strange aliens, as he held the reins. "We are one of the most common species in The Core!"
"Must just not have gotten around to it," the being answered uncomfortably, with a voice that may have sounded younger than that of his twin. Qzxrl couldn't quite tell much with foriegners though.
"They take some getting use to," continued the even odder tentacloid as it continued to use many of its eyestalks to examine the slightly larger alien riding alongside it. "But I have come to the conclusion that they have their use."
Linomi then slapped the hairy beast it was riding with one of its undulating limbs.
"Is this... also a Halnon?" questioned the foriegn alien beside it, peering down at the animal he was riding, trying to understand what the living wormbeast had meant.
Qzxrl just nodded. "That is my Sire."
"These are your parents!?" exclaimed the thin alien in Qzxrl's arms, staring down at their mule in shock.
"No. This one is my Uncle," continued Qzxrl blankly. "When Halnon's reach a certain age, their brains become a bit... slow. They become useful to the clan in different ways."
"I can't wait until Qzxrl is my personal ride," laughed Linomi, not that any of the caravan could tell the tentacloid was laughing.
"Jealous?" said Zxor from his seat on his sire's shoulders.
It was just the Halnon way.
The two foreign aliens could not wait for the ride to end, themselves.
Luckily for the pair, the outer edge of Ring City was just coming into view.
"Idiot's take me," said Linomi. "There it is!"
The glowing skyscrapers of the vast subterranean metropolis could be seen shining in the distance. The modernity of the inhabitation stood in stark contrast to the endless stretches of volcanic desert they had just traveled. But in the end, far more alien, as there had never been another city quite like it.
Built into the outer edges of an angled burrow, Ring City was a gravity defying miracle.
Once the caravan had parted ways with its guests, the two strangers just stood there in the middle of a street that nearly could have been a double from the world of their own.
The two were in shock.
But it wasn't from the throngs of unusual aliens bustling through the crowded avenues, each one more strange than the last, which had left them totally slack jawed.
It was from whom was chained to them.
Or dancing in their windows.
Or...doing...elsewise...
...none of them at all wearing any clothes...
Franklin was the first to speak.
"How are there other humans here?"
"Dad, those aren't just other humans..."
His son was correct.
Every last one of them... was Sam.