What Makes An Alien Alien? Another excerpt from THE WEBS OF VAROK, launching Dec. 4.
To prepare for a reconnoitering hike across L'orkah, Conn found a tough moss in the shallows on the northern edge of the lake. There he fashioned a crude wet-sweater by lacing four-foot lengths of the moss together with tough weed stalks. Then he went hunting.
He dove to the bottom of the lake and swam in wide circles until his tiles picked up the pressure pattern of large, barbed petals scanning the water for passing fish. Slowly, he zeroed in on the voracious plant. It looked like a giant rose in full bloom, but its outer petals beckoned dangerously, ready to snap closed sensitive edges and hold fast anything that ventured too near.
For bait, Conn caught a fish hiding in the mud. He dispatched it with a bite, then, holding it by the tail, swam just out of reach of the carnivore, brushing the fish over its petals. When the petals snapped closed on the fish, Conn threw himself under the great rose and uprooted it. Too late its petals felt their new danger and reached backward to entrap the elll. A few barbs struck at the back of his arms, but he quickly found the stem of its food bladder and pulled the organ from the dying plant intact.
He cleaned the tough sack with the shell of a sand slug and fashioned its stem into a shoulder strap. Then he filled it with fresh lake water, and laced it shut with reeds. One of the largest petals of the plant made a workable pack, which he filled with edible weeds and fish.
Ready at last, he rose to the surface of the lake wearing his newly woven wet-sweater. The burden of food and water he slung over his shoulders. Nothing stirred on the western edge of the lake. He let himself drift slowly along the bottom until he reached the shore. Then he stood quickly and ran for the nearest clump of nitro-bush.
"Ae-yulll." He stifled a cry of pain as his third toe-web came down on a small rock. "How could I be so stupid?"
He walked back to the lake, much more carefully this time, and scrambled along the shore weeds. Within minutes he resurfaced, shod with tough moss sandals.The Webs of Varok
He dove to the bottom of the lake and swam in wide circles until his tiles picked up the pressure pattern of large, barbed petals scanning the water for passing fish. Slowly, he zeroed in on the voracious plant. It looked like a giant rose in full bloom, but its outer petals beckoned dangerously, ready to snap closed sensitive edges and hold fast anything that ventured too near.
For bait, Conn caught a fish hiding in the mud. He dispatched it with a bite, then, holding it by the tail, swam just out of reach of the carnivore, brushing the fish over its petals. When the petals snapped closed on the fish, Conn threw himself under the great rose and uprooted it. Too late its petals felt their new danger and reached backward to entrap the elll. A few barbs struck at the back of his arms, but he quickly found the stem of its food bladder and pulled the organ from the dying plant intact.
He cleaned the tough sack with the shell of a sand slug and fashioned its stem into a shoulder strap. Then he filled it with fresh lake water, and laced it shut with reeds. One of the largest petals of the plant made a workable pack, which he filled with edible weeds and fish.
Ready at last, he rose to the surface of the lake wearing his newly woven wet-sweater. The burden of food and water he slung over his shoulders. Nothing stirred on the western edge of the lake. He let himself drift slowly along the bottom until he reached the shore. Then he stood quickly and ran for the nearest clump of nitro-bush.
"Ae-yulll." He stifled a cry of pain as his third toe-web came down on a small rock. "How could I be so stupid?"
He walked back to the lake, much more carefully this time, and scrambled along the shore weeds. Within minutes he resurfaced, shod with tough moss sandals.The Webs of Varok
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Expanding on the ideas portrayed in The Archives of Varok books for securing the future.
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