Only Human

“Are you lost, lady?” She asked, glancing at the slug on my lap.

I raised an eyebrow. Seeing as I was full on slug, I smiled, and offered her some. “That depends, are you hungry, little girl? Er, little boy?”

She giggled. “I’m a girl.” She crouched down. “I’m a little hungry. I’m looking for water for my baby sister. She’s right there.” She pointed to a little lump of dark cloak with big eyes staring at us from a few yards away under a canopy.

“Ohh, I see.” I nodded.

“She’s hungry, too.” The little girl said.

“Well, I’m done with this.” I fished in my bag, and took out my last bottle of water. “Here, don’t eat too fast, or you’ll get a stomach ache.”

She had a cute little giggle. “Only the yellow ones give me tummy aches.” She accepted the slug and the water. “Thanks, lady.” She trotted off, set the food in front of the little one, and came back. “Hi.”

I looked up from my map. “Hi...again.”

“Are you lost, lady?” she asked again. “You’re looking for the hotel, aren’t you? It’s where all the smelly humans go.”

I gawked. “I do not smell!”

She shook her head. “No, no, you don’t smell bad, lady.” She whispered the last bit, and pointed at the crowds. “It’s the tour people.”

I relaxed, and nodded. “Yeah. Well, I am looking for the hotel. I can see it from everywhere, but can’t seem to get there.”

she giggled again. “It’s not hard. Here, I’ll show you -waah!”

A larger cloaked figure jerked her up, and spoke rapidly to her in a melodic language that had me almost hypnotized. She spoke back in a pleading way. The large figure pointed at the little one then the little girl pointed at me. Slowly the large figure, a parent most likely, looked at me. The face was covered from just under the eyes, down. I watched.

“You don’t want it?” Asked the parent in a deep, male voice.

“No, I ate my fill.” I answered quickly.

He looked at the little girl then at me. “And the water? Did they steal it from you?”

“No, sir. I gave it to them.” I glanced to the crowd, still close enough for comfort. I looked back to the cloaked figures, but they were gone. I stared wide-eyed. Even the tiny little one had vanished, slug, water, and all. “Okay, Kate.” I rubbed my eyes. “Time to get some sleep.” I felt a tap on my arm, and looked to see a heavy piece of paper had fallen past it. I lifted it up, unfolded it, and gasped. Directions to the hotel, scribbled in a child’s hand. I smiled. “Thank you!” I called out, hoping wherever she was, she could hear me.

I arrived at the hotel, checked in, and spent half an hour in my hotel room filling and re-filling one of the coffee mugs with water. I settled, called Shera, told her about the cockroach, the slug, and the little girl.

“Wow, sounds like an adventure already.” Shera laughed. “Having fun, I take it.”

“Yeah, for a while there I thought I regretted it, but I think that little girl made me want to stay.” I smiled, nibbling on a cookie that would later cost me a whole, fat quid. “That slug went right through me, though. I gotta find something else to eat.”

“Yeah - what?” Shera’s voice turned away from the phone. “Oh, okay. Op says slugs are Pompeii fast food. Don’t eat them all week, okay?”

“Yes, mother,” I teased. “I think there’s a restaurant on the top floor. “I’m gonna go check it out.”

“Okie dokie. Tell me how that goes for ya. Oh, gotta go, bed time.”

I nodded. “Sure.” I hung up the phone.

Mid day on Pompeii was the middle of the night on Centuria and Versa. I showered, relieved to see water was used, changed my clothes, and headed to the elevator. As I walked down the hall, key in the pocket of my shorts, I saw a tall, brown insect duck quickly behind a niche in the wall. I stopped walking. It peeked out with familiar eyes. I narrowed mine, and marched over to the niche in the wall.

“Hook!” I exclaimed. “What the-?”

“O-oh. heh. Hey there Versa-girl. F-fancy meetin you here.” He chuckled nervously, and looked around. “Hey, how did I get here, ‘uh?” He shrugged, and sputtered until my shaking my head made him stop, and frown.

“Do you work here?” I folded my arms.

He made a noncommittal noise.

“Then you’re a scam artist. Selling bad slugs to unsuspecting tourists?” I asked with as innocent a face as I could muster.

“Whaaaat? I’m shocked. Scam is such an ugly word. I prefer fast food vigilante.” He leaned against the wall, two arms folded, the other two behind his back.

“Uh huh, so if I call hotel security, they’ll just shrug their shoulders, and let you be.” I took out my cell phone.

“Ahhh, no no no, wait.” He snatched my phone. “Okay, I’m not supposed to be here, but you shoulda seen the guy who dissed my stand.” He handed me back my phone. “Big, fat, smelly tourist people all sayin’,” He continued in a nasal voice. “hey, you can’t eat slugs! ha ha ha!”

I shook my head. “I don’t want to know.” I continued to the elevators.

“So I stalked him here, pretended to be room service, and well...” He chuckled. “He won’t be goin’ anywhere anytime soon.”

“Or he’s so disgusted with your yellow slug, he won’t eat it.” I said, punching the down button.

“or, I chopped it up, and put it in his “fish” tacos.” Hook held up his hands in quotations.

I shook my head. “You’re disgusting.”

“I’ma cockroach, girly girl.” He grinned, winked, and made kissy faces at me.

I rolled my eyes, and stalked away from him, dialing my phone. “I’m calling security, roach!” I turned, but he was gone.

I closed my phone on the tinny voice of the hotel receptionist downstairs.

Hook swung down from the ceiling, startling me as he started in jabbering about nothing. “Y’know you’re even more interestin’ from above. All that curly red hair, and your boobs! Ahhh, you’re so much woman.”

I flattened my back against the wall. “You - you - !” I pointed at him then the ceiling, my mouth opening and closing helplessly like a fish out of water.

Hook looked up. “Oh yeah, perk of bein’ a creepy crawly.” He jumped up to the ceiling, and with nothing to really grab, pulled himself up, and proceeded to crawl along the flat surface above the floor. He even swung his torso down, and walked along the ceiling just as if he were on the floor.

“That’s...kinda cool.” I marveled then remembered this cockroach had just practically poisoned someone with his yellow diarrhea slug, and hurried to my room.

“Pretty girl like you,” Hook said as he followed me upside-down. “You definitely don’t wanna go off with the tourists all yackin’ about their in-laws, and their jobs. You wanna do things the native way.”

I roll my eyes again, and quickly open the door to my room. “Goodbye, Hook.” I close the door behind me, and lean my back against it with a sigh.

A knock.

I look through the little peek hole in the door, and see Hook leaning toward his end of it with a grin.

I fasten the chain, and open the door as much as it will allow.

“So I was thinking,” Hook said just as if the one-sided conversation he was holding in the hall had never stopped. “You look like a reasonable girl. I could take you to all the sites the locals like, instead of those tourist trap worm holes.”

I raise an eyebrow. “Worm holes? You mean the dragoon pits, don’t you.”

“Yeah. They’re entrances to a subterranean network of tunnels dug by giant sandworms. They haven’t been here for about a hundred years, the worms I mean, so the tourist committee started callin’ ‘em the dragon pits, ‘an they charge a ridiculous amount ah money t’ take people out there an’ tell ‘em a story about ancient beings who lived underground. Technically it’s true, but they dress it up waaay too much.”

I nodded slowly. “Okay. So, “ I fold my arms. “what would you suggest?”

“The good ol’ Pompeiian festival of fire and light.” Hook grinned again, something he seemed to do a lot. “I go every year. It’s great!”

I considered it. It sounded better than rooms service and whatever pay-per-view they had in the hotel. I hesitated to go with this roach anywhere though. “Well,” I eyed him. “I’ll have you know I carry mace and a little high-frequency shrieker that’ll make you temporarily deaf.”

Hook laughed. “You’re a feisty one. The Pompeiians are gonna love ya.”

I decided to go. Packing my mace, the shrieker, some clean unmentionables, a clean shirt, and my deoderant, I met Hook in the hall.

Hook raised two of his four hands with a smile. “I come in peace, I swear.”

I know he meant it in a reassuring way, but to me it sounded like famous last words.

Hook drove an old dust-colored jeep out into the desert, me sitting on a bedroll he called the front seat.

“Hook, your car has no seats.” I said as we drove.

“Yeah, makes it easier to sleep,” He turned, and wiggled his hairless brow at me. “Or anything else I might wanna do in here.”

I pulled out my mace. “Hurts when it hits your eyes.” I said.

Hook chuckled. “With the wind whippin’ around us, and the speed we’re drivin’, that stuff’d just hit you in the face, so I’d puttit away.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. There was an awful lot of air hitting me in the face, so I put the spray away. “So, what is this festival of fire and light?”

“It’s kinda like the fourth of july. It used to be a mass tourist attraction, but they lost alotta toursim cause the locals make humans nervous. Now most the tourists go to the beaches to watch industrial-strength fireworks explode overhead, but that’s not what the festival is all about.”

I started. “Locals?” Shera;s warnings all came back to me. “You mean...?”

“The Pandinus. They’re related to ancient emporer scorpions, bitchin’ stinger tail, an’ all!” Hook explained excitedly.

I stared at him wide-eyed as he laughed, and drove on. The sun set long before we got to where we were going, but as we got closer, I could hear music, and singing, and light danced across the large boulders of the desert.

“Welcome to paradise valley, Kate. Home of the Pandinus tribe.” He grinned as he climbed out the car window. I opened the door, and hesitantly stepped out. I closed the door, sighed, and walked around the front of the car.

The music stopped, and I saw two largely terrifying creatures looming over Hook as he spoke rapidly in a melodic language of no audible vowels or consonants, but purrs, hisses, and other gutteral sounds. Sounds I vaguely recognized hearing in town earlier that day from the little girl’s parent. I could see the silhouettes of the two figures, and several behind them, with two large pincers poised above their heads, and long, almost tapered tails pointed at Hook.

A thud on the car roof made me jump back. I looked up to see a creature, a scorpion, crouched on the roof, its flat face staring at me, pincers clicking, tail swishing back and forth. Then its head turned back to reveal a child’s face grinning.

“Hi lady!” She sat up on her haunches. Most of her form was bipedal, and dark in color save for her bright magenta eyes. She had a protective shell wrapped around most of her body, and the scorpion face I’d seen was a round piece on top of her head. The shell connected to her head and neck with a thin layer of skin. Built-in helmet. “You came to our night of fire and light!”

One of the two figures blocking Hook’s way called out to the child.

The girl stood up, and waved her arms about as she shouted excitedly, and hopped up and down on the roof of the car. A round of cheers, whistles, and native cries made me jump.

“Come, lady, everyone wants to meet you!” she slid down the windshield. She leaned over the side of the hood to grab my hand, her pincers getting uncomfortably close to my face. I jumped back instinctively with a gasp. After my heart calmed, I focused on the girl, and felt my heart plummet.

Her lower lip trembled with a kicked puppy look on her face. A tear slipped down her cheek, and I felt my heart sink.

“Oh, I’m sorry.” I approached her, suddenly unafraid at this crying child. “Are you hurt?”

“You’re afraid of me.” She mewled. “They’re all afraid of me. That’s why we can’t have our celebration in town any more.”

I almost started crying as a few tears slipped from my eyes. “I am afraid.” I said pitifully. “I’m a big scared baby because my friend told me all these horrible things about scorpions, and like an idiot I believed her when I know she’s a fraidy cat, and paranoid about everything for god knows what reason.” I sniffed. “And now I’m gonna get a headache because of all the crying.” I suddenly realized I had a lot more to be stressed out about, and decided now wasn’t the time, or the place, to dump it all out – especially to this child.

A small hand reached out, and wiped my tears away with a thumb. I looked up to see the little scorpion girl smiling though her big magenta eyes were still runny.

A large figure moved close to the car, and I looked up to see Hook and one of the larger scorpions standing on the other side of the hood.

“You okay? The party’s starting ‘thout us. C’mon.” Hook waved at me.

I looked at the girl on the hood. “What’s your name?”

She grinned. “I’m Daisy. What’s yours?”

“Kate.” I said.

“I promise we won’t hurt you, Kate. All those stories are just ‘cause we look scary. Cross my heart.” She made an “X” over her right hip then turned and spoke to the adult standing opposite us. He nodded, eyes not leaving her.

“That’s papa.” Daisy pointed to the big one standing with Hook. “He’s Samael. C’mon, I want you to meet my baby sisters!” She reached out for my hand again, and again the pincer arms on her back got close to my face. I held my breath, she took my hand, and then we were walking. I had to remember to breath as she pulled me along the outside of the party, and into a hut built into the clifface. “Azalea, Pansy, Buttercup!” She exclaimed.

I heard meek little squeaks coming from under what looked like a large cot draped in an animal skin. I crouched down, and saw three figures huddled under there.

“It’s okay.” Daisy got down on her hands and knees, and lifted the hide. “This is my friend. She came to play with us.”

The more I watched Daisy coerce the little ones under the bed, the more the tension eased. I let my purse to the ground, and the can of pepper spray rolled out.

Daisy turned, and picked it up. “What’s this?”

“It’s dangerous.” I said cautiously.

Daisy gave me a frown, and kept looking at it, her hands making me uncomfortable as they fingered the trigger button on top of the can.

“No, Daisy, don’t!” I reached out, but she accidentally pushed the small button on top.

She screamed, and clutched her eyes.

A strong force grabbed me, pulled me back, and threw me out of the tent. A pincer shoved in my face, and a demand was made of me in their native language.

“Woah, woah, woah!” Hook ran to help me, but was held back. “Kate, hey! Kate!”

I could hear Daisy wailing inside the rock cabin, and suddenly wished I hadn’t come. Samael stormed out of the tent, the can of pepper spray clutched in one hand. He held it out, and roared. “WHAT IS THIS?”

“It’s pepper spray!” I exclaimed. “Is Daisy all-?’

Samael gave me a calculating look, either thinking it over, or he didn’t understand. I noticed his eyes are a darker shade of magenta, sort of similar in color to the cherrywood cabinets in my dad’s house.

“I…” He frowned. “I do not understand your meaning.” His voice rumbled.

“Pepper spray,” I tried to stay calm, but felt my brain wanting to shut down and process all of this. “It’s for self-defense I didn’t want to get raped by the cockroach.” I pointed in Hook’s direction, an aghast expression of disbelief already on his brown face.

Samael clutched the can of pepper spray, giving me a dark look. “This object is too dangerous for children.”

“I didn’t give it to her!” I shouted.

“We shall see.” Samael grabbed my arm, and almost dragged me to a tent across the way.