Taylor Reed Hudson

Pyg walked through the ruins, talons of his long legs turning up loose earth and kicking up ash. Storm clouds shrouded the landscape, though rain stubbornly refused to fall. He came to the remains of a mud and clay wall and hopped over it with a single flap of his wings.

   Everything lay in destruction, but enough remained to distinguish the place as a village of huts and tents. Large, yet primitive–the most advanced thing Pyg spotted was a wheel. Based on the bones and rotting carcasses, it had been a human society. A hoolita’s sense of smell was underdeveloped compared to most species, but even he rubbed at his beak a few times to block out the decaying odor.

   The tower had picked up no traces of magic on this planet, and with such little technology to their name, this wasn’t a place that would draw much attention. Until now, at least. After they were all wiped out.

   Everyone was dead. Men, women, and children. Any wildlife had either fled or also died. Asook had instructed them to look for relics, but shouldn’t they search for survivors first? Well, technically, they had to keep an eye out for anything in need of preservation. That could include life too, couldn’t it?

   Even with hearing abilities superior to most races, the place remained eerily quiet. All he’d picked up so far were the conversing voices of his fellow scouts exploring elsewhere.

   What had happened here? Pyg’s first guess was disease. Many of the bodies lay twisted and malformed. Rotted, discolored, and splotched with growths that resembled infection. But whatever that disease was, it had affected everything. Even the plants had wilted and blackened. He supposed it might’ve been a battle (more like a slaughter). Some injuries definitely looked like bodily wounds made by a weapon of some sort, be it blade or firearm. An infective weapon? Biological warfare? And the damage to the village itself looked like an explosion had gone off. But what civilization this primitive could create a bomb? Perhaps a foreign invader had attacked them. But what gripe would a technologically superior race hold against these people? And what would any possible pirates hope to plunder?

   Eyes up and looking around, Pyg didn’t notice the body at his feet until he stepped on it. His claws pierced what remained of the body’s flesh, but no blood spilled. Come to think of it, he hadn’t seen a drop of blood anywhere near these slashed-up corpses.

   Pyg wandered on, straying perhaps too far from the group, but curiosity dragged him along like a tempting mouse through the fields.

   His talons crunched through the dried leaves and dirt until his next step made a different sound. One that reminded him of a cooing bird. But the sound hadn’t come from beneath. It came from the right. Pyg turned his head and, amid the black and white destruction, thought he saw a splash of pink dart behind a barely standing hut.

   “Hello?” He kept his voice gentle, though no creature here would understand his language. Pyg rounded the corner, and again, the pink shape blurred past over a mound of rubble. Pyg camouflaged his feathers and snuck closer, coming out of the camouflage slowly, so as not to startle whatever hid from him.

   The creature ended up startling him when it leapt out of its hiding place, making Pyg trip back and fall in the ashes and filth. He coughed through the clearing dust and heard that strange sound again. It sounded like laughter but with all the soothing calmness of a whale song.

   What hovered before him made Pyg’s already wide eyes grow even larger. A creature of translucent pink color, made ever brighter by the surrounding gloom. The hoolita scouts explored many worlds, but he’d seen no life form quite like this. Just a gelatinous blob with no distinct figure or features, yet clearly alive. Roughly the size of his own head, it floated in the air, bouncing in giddy play. Its jellylike form moved in oceanic waves, briefly shapeshifting into a ball with angelic wings before resuming its undulating blobby shape.

   Pyg laughed along with the playful thing then rose to his feet, relaxing around the cute creature hovering before him at head’s height. Pyg took the scanner from the bag slung over his shoulder and held it up to analyze the creature, though it pulled up no familiar results. An unknown species. He raised the device to scan the surrounding area to see if anything similar existed within a thousand miles, but he picked up nothing. At least inside that radius, this creature was one of a kind.

   Pyg stowed the scanner away. “Hey there, little one. What are you doing here?”

   The creature didn’t speak but emitted echoing cries that resembled whale songs, except at a much faster, laughing-like pace.

   Pyg stretched out a cautious wing for it, and the creature zoomed right past his reach to nuzzle up into his face, and Pyg laughed with it. Had Pyg found it? Or had it found Pyg? Its bright pink color made it stand out, but from the creature’s perspective, Pyg must’ve stood out as well with his orange feathers that easily identified him among his peers. Pyg’s three fingers had barely touched the creature to pet it when a voice called from behind.

   “Pygmill!”

   Startled by the new voice, the creature darted away to hide behind a piece of rubble. “Wait!”

   “Pygmill!”

   Hearing his name again, Pyg swiveled his head 180 degrees to see who it was, though he’d recognize that chastising anywhere. He turned the rest of his body to face Asook, who glared down at him with those thick, narrowed brows over his yellow eyes that made it look like he was always in a scolding mood. With the messy spikiness of his dark brown plumage–especially on his head–one could’ve believed he possessed quills instead of feathers. Such traits were undeniably beneficial for commanding respect as captain of the scouts.

   “What are you doing out here alone?”

   “You told us to spread out.”

   “Spread out, not wander off by yourself. Where’s your partner?”

   “Uh…”

   Asook sighed. “I can’t leave you for two sec–” Something behind Pyg distracted him. Pyg turned and found the gelatinous alien poking its head out from the rubble. “What is…” Asook went around Pyg, and the shy creature ducked back behind the ruins. Asook knelt to a more vulnerable position with his wings out, angled down to show he meant it no harm. After a few seconds, the creature showed its face again, then pulled the rest of its spherical body out. But when it came forward, it darted straight past Asook and into Pyg’s winged arms, taking him by surprise. It nestled in Pyg’s hold like a loving house pet, making those cheery singsong sounds from earlier.

   “It seems to like you,” Asook said, puzzled.

   “What do you think it is?”

   “I’m… not sure. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

   Pyg eyed the strange critter, warm in his arms. Its body felt like a thick liquid, though his feathers stayed dry. Its pink color glowed like the bubbles of a lava lamp, filled with life and expression despite having no facial or physical features. A mystical power seemed to radiate from the creature, giving Pyg the sensation of an entire world wrapped in his arms, entrusting his embrace with every soul on it. It seemed so innocent, so fragile, but never had Pyg felt like he held something so important.

   Pyg swiveled his head to take in the surrounding destruction. “This thing seems to be the only survivor for miles. Do you think it could shed some light on what happened here?”

   “Hmmm. Perhaps. I suppose you’ve done well to stumble upon this creature. If only you could find something intentionally while focusing on your responsibilities. We’re here on a mission to search for relics; not to have an adventure.”

   “Is it so wrong that we should try to find enjoyment in our work?”

   “Fun and hobbies are fine.” The purple glimmer of a particular rock on the ground caught Asook’s eye, and he picked it up, turning it in his fingers to inspect it. “So long as it does not interfere with your work.” He took a few more seconds to admire the curious gem, then stowed it in his satchel. “It’s time we head back.”

   “Shouldn’t we try to figure out what happened here?”

   “You know how tight of a schedule the tower runs on. Once it leaves, we can’t come back for those who get lost.”

   “So… are we keeping this thing, then?”

   “Did you scan for similar life forms?”

   “There were none.”

   “Then we take it back. You found the creature, so you can carry it.” He eyed the blob, snuggled up in Pyg’s wings. “Shouldn’t be too difficult. But it’s not a pet. If it comes up as nothing endangered in the initial analyzation, we’re returning it. Now then, we’re burning time.” Asook stretched his massive wingspan and took off in a blast of wind.

   Pyg couldn’t fly with one wing. Fortunately, his satchel was still empty and just big enough for the creature to fit in. It gave a cheerful cry as he tucked it into the pouch, seeming to like it. With the creature safe in the bag’s hold, Pyg flew off after Asook, returning home to Hoolita Tower EA3083.

 

***

 

The tower stretched a hundred and fifty stories high, a metal cylinder of onyx black. Its distinct shape stood proud against the sky, visible for miles–there had been no populated civilizations nearby when they arrived, so they hadn’t bothered to cloak it. The tower’s bottom floor hovered fifty feet off the ground, held up by the structure’s powerful levitation technology. The tower transported daily; they didn’t need it causing a disturbance, crushing the terrain of every place they traveled to.

   The other scouts soared in alongside Pyg and Asook, coming in from the same direction. Normally, the groups spread out to cover more ground, but the tower had arrived right outside a catastrophe, so they’d all wanted to focus their attention.

   Pyg and Asook flew in through a large entry gate on one of the mid floors, and Pyg went to one of the computers lining the wall to record his findings, listing the description of what he found, how, when, and where. After waiting to see if the computer would turn up anything similar living on the planet or in the tower, it looked like this creature was one of a kind (at least on this world). Guess that meant they were keeping it.

   A light spring in his step, Pyg stepped away from the monitor and browsed over what the others had brought in. Of the hundreds of scouts, he saw seven record findings. With himself, that made eight. A good haul. They’d stumbled upon an annihilated village–an ideal place to find many things in need of preservation.

   Across the room, Pyg met back up with Asook. “If there were any more on this planet, this creature is the last of its kind. What’ll we do with it? We rarely recover live specimens.”

   “I’ll schedule a proper scanning, though I suspect we’ll end up contacting Tower U6411. They specialize in endangered species.”

   “Well… for now… would it be all right if I looked after it?”

   “If you insist, I’ll leave it in your care. It does seem comfortable around you. Be wary though. It appears harmless, but we still know nothing about it.”

   Containing his excitement at being trusted with the task, Pyg nodded. “You can count on me. I’ll take care of it. And try to find out what I can.”

   Asook gave him a dubious look, but Pyg ignored it. He hopped off across the room, giving the creature in his bag a pat on the head before diving off the edge and down the tower shaft, heading for the library to show Sno what he’d found. A specialist in studying life forms, she’d love something like this.

 

***

 

Sno would be in the library’s biology sector. Pyg made his way through the shelves and aisles containing a mixture of books, scrolls, and digital files. In this section, many glass cylinders contained various specimens of plants or bacteria, as well as windows looking in on rooms housing endangered species from around the multiverse. Part library, part menagerie, it exuded a mixed scent or parchment and fauna. The women scholars wandered about, studious minds focused on examining everything the scouts had gathered. Save for the occasional animal chirps, purrs, and croaks (which soothed the ears more than distracted) the place was as quiet as any other library.

   In that tranquility, Pyg had no trouble finding Sno. He recognized the sweet trilling of her musical voice as she sang to herself, going about her studies, organizing books on shelves. She often whistled while she worked; he liked that about her. The sound was like a goddess in his ears. Rarely had he seen anyone so at home in their work. Her singing voice was outclassed only by Sno herself. Pyg’s orange feathers were uncommon, but rarer still, Sno’s cloud white plumage practically glowed among the tower’s metallic grays and factory-like environment. And even amid the greener areas of the library, the sparkle of her rare blue eyes shone above everything, like sapphires in a pile of coal.

   Pyg could’ve listened to her sing all day, but supposed he wanted to say hi. He stood tall, preening himself in spots and hoping he wasn’t too dirty. Then, with a spring in his step, he hurried over to greet her, receiving a friendly greeting in return.

   Sno glanced over her shoulder at the infirmary at the library’s far end. “You weren’t going to the medic, were you? I heard that village was the victim of some sort of catastrophe.”

   “No, no, I’m fine.”

   Sno’s tense shoulders relaxed. “Well… did you find out what happened?”

   “Probably just a plague, or abnormally savage bandits. I did, however, find something a little more lively I thought you’d like to see.”

   Always when he thought her eyes couldn’t shine any brighter, they dazzled him with their beauty. “Do tell.”

   Pyg slowly opened his bag, allowing the creature to show its head. It must’ve wanted to show more than that, because it popped out into the air like a ball shooting out of the water after being held down and released.

   Sno gave an endearing jump back, but her surprise vaporized as she beheld the gelatinous pink blob bouncing about between them, eying it like a child seeing the world for the first time. The creature nuzzled up to her almost immediately, nudging a giggle from her.

   “What is it?”

   Pyg shrugged. “Figured your guess would be better than mine.”

   Sno walked a circle around the creature, looking it up and down with her intrigued scientist gaze and giving its squishy body a curious poke. It had a sort of translucence to it, and she leaned in to inspect what might be inside. “Clearly alive, yet no obvious organs or anatomical features of any kind. Did you find any other survivors amid the ruins?”

   “Just this.”

   “Scanners didn’t pick up any other life forms in the vicinity?”

   “Not for a good ten miles.”

   Sno’s fascination melted to a look of unease. “You don’t think this creature caused that destruction, do you?”

   “This cute little guy? All on his own?”

   “It’s a wide multiverse, filled with strange things. Have the scouts analyzed it yet?”

   “Just the brief mandatory scanning when I brought it in. No danger apparent. Asook said he’ll schedule a full analyzation sometime soon, but allowed me to watch over it for now.”

   “If all goes well and it turns out to be harmless, I’d love to spend some time studying it myself.”

   “Maybe… I could help you with that?”

   The creature zoomed back to Pyg’s side to rub up against his cheek, and he laughed at its playfulness.

   Sno laughed with him. “You’re sure in a good mood for having just gone on a scouting mission.”

   “What do you mean?”

   Sno shrugged. “You seem so down about them all the time.”

   Pyg lowered his head. “It’s not that I dislike it. I don’t know, it just… it all feels so pointless.”

   “Whatever could you mean?”

   “We go from dimension to dimension, day after day, collecting these incredible, rare artifacts and creatures… and then lock them up.”

   “Even in the infinite multiverse, certain things are one of a kind. Such precious items should be kept safe.”

   “If they’re so precious, we should figure out how to utilize them. Take this creature for example. It seems so friendly and… I don’t know, but… I can tell there’s something special about it. Like it has some mysterious power. Something we’ve never seen before. But of course, we’ll just analyze it, then send it off somewhere to be studied and protected and nothing more. Study is great, but what about practical uses? This creature could prove a useful friend and ally.”

   “I understand. You’re not the first to think this. But Parliament has rules. These items are too precious to risk. It may be our sworn duty to protect them, but they don’t belong to us. Maybe we own the ones we find by chance, but many of the relics of this tower were entrusted to the hoolita by the rightful owners of that dimension. And it’s not like we ignore everything we have here. We use some of them in rare emergencies, but we have to keep them safe first and foremost.”

   “What’s the point of keeping all these artifacts if they’ll never be used?”

   “Isn’t history worth preserving? So much in this tower is one of a kind. Relics of bygone eras or long dead cultures. If we don’t preserve it, these societies could experience the same tragedy as the hoolita. I mean… we lost everything.”

   “If all we do is preserve with no intention of using them again, they may as well be extinct. What’s the difference?” A gloomy hush doused the atmosphere–quiet even by library standards. “Sorry, I don’t mean to be so down. I guess I just feel like a robot carrying out a task with no deeper passion. Every day a new world to visit, never hanging around longer than twenty hours. Every day the same thing. Maybe I’m just worried my life has no focus. No specific cause to dedicate myself to. Look at this place.” He gestured to the room, densely packed with busy, hardworking hoolita. “We’re hardly in short supply of scouts or scholars. I want to do something more meaningful.”

   “Have you given any thought to switching over and becoming a scholar? You could study the things we bring back instead of gathering them. I know it’s not typical for a man, but nothing strictly forbids it. My father is a scholar, after all. And wasn’t your mother a scout?”

   “Yeah, well, our parents were kind of weird, weren’t they? Er, I mean, mine ‘were’. Yours are… or… I mean…”

   “Pyg?”

   “Huh?”

   “Are you okay?”

   “Yeah, yeah. Fine.”

   “Asook’s… caring for you well?”

   “Yes, of course! Asook is incredible. I couldn’t ask for a better captain, mentor, and guardian. But he is a bit hard on me at times. I’ll admit: I’m not too great at being a scout. Maybe Asook’s right; guess my mind tends to wander off.”

   “That’s because you have a curious mind. Really, Pyg, you’re quite the intellect. So… if you wanted to become a scholar, I’m sure you’d qualify. I’d… I’d recommend you, of course.” A hint of pink brightened her white feathered face. “Though perhaps you wouldn’t like being surrounded by a bunch of women all day.” She giggled, but Pyg remained serious.

   “I’d get to be with you.”

   Sno blushed deeper.

   “Well. For the time being at least,” Pyg said. “Pretty soon, you’ll be off to join Parliament.”

   Sno waved a frantic hand for him to shush. “Hush up about that,” she whispered. “I don’t want to cause a stir.”

   “Why not? It’s great you should aim so high. You’re the best and smartest apprentice scholar in this tower and everyone knows it. Everyone sees a bright future for you, most of all me.” Having let his words run away from him, Pyg snapped his beak shut, almost blushing himself. He tried to change the subject back to what they’d been discussing before. What had they been talking about? “Anyway, uh… even if I became a scholar, they don’t do much beyond study. And I don’t want to give up being a scout. Even if I could do both, I want to do more. I’d like to see how we can use what we find. There are so many fascinating things here. Imagine what we could do with them.”

   “I’m sure you’d do something wonderful. You have a heart pierced by Erozia’s arrow.”

   Pyg gave a light trill. Sno liked using that phrase with him. Erozia had been a deity of the long dead motueman people. A deity able to swap between sexes at will and wielded arrows that deprived a person of corruption and darkness, filling the heart with love and compassion instead. The motuemans and their gods had all gone extinct ages ago, but rumor had it two of Erozia’s arrows survived. A fellow hoolita tower held one, but the second had been lost to the multiverse. Few remembered the motuemans, but Sno had come across them in her studies once and grown to like the specific saying, commonly employing it as her fancy way of telling Pyg he had a big heart.

   Sno’s commlink beeped. “Excuse me,” she said, then answered it. “Yes?”

   “Snolliwa, did you finish organizing those diaemor files Tower U6411 sent us?”

   “Yes, Ma’am. I’ll be right there.” She hung up. “I should get back to work. It was nice talking. I always love seeing you. I mean… I like seeing you, er… y-you know what I mean.” She tucked her embarrassed face and flew off in the other direction. Pyg’s eyes lingered on her until she disappeared to the upper level.

   “Yeah. You too,” he whispered. More to himself, now that she was out of earshot. He daydreamed on the spot she’d vanished from view, then snapped out of it, walking away with his head down and hoping nobody saw him gawking like an idiot.

   Pyg ascended through the exit hole in the ceiling, coming out atop the library roof. Only the library–and several tiers of artifact vaults below it–took up the entire floor. The rest of the tower was mostly empty fly space, with rooms for the occupants built up around the sides of the inner walls. Wing flaps echoed as hoolita zoomed left, right, up, down, and diagonally about the hollow shaft leading to the top floor, where Parliament resided. Pyg flew off to his own room, about a quarter way up the tower, landing on the grated platform outside.

   Pressing a button on the wall, the doors slid open. Once they were closed and Pyg was inside, he opened his bag. The creature emerged with a giddy cry, happy to be out and bouncing around like a beach ball, inspecting its new surroundings with childlike wonder.

   Again, Pyg found himself unable to keep back a cheerful warble. “No need to get too excited. Not much of interest here.” Indeed, a low-end motel room held more interest than his. Just a bed, bathroom, cupboards and other essentials. In the same way the tower was a warehouse for items of priceless value, so too did his room feel like nothing but a storage place for him. Seemed they’d lost more than their planet in the Omnibeing War. Their culture and personhood had diluted to little more than tools used by other worlds for safeguarding their valuables. A noble career, for sure, but without it… who were they? In preserving other cultures, had they forgotten to preserve their own?

   Well, until they analyzed this creature and figured out what to do with it, Pyg supposed he had some time with it. He sat on his squeaky bed to watch it fly about the room. When it appeared pleased with its new surroundings, the creature returned to hover up and down before Pyg.

   “Where did you come from? Was that village your home? What happened to it?”

   No response. At least, nothing beyond those chipper tunes comparable to sped up whale songs. It didn’t sound like any kind of structured language, so his translator would serve little use in understanding the creature’s thoughts.

   Pyg checked the clock above his door; half past the twelfth hour. He should get some rest. The tower would transport at the strike of the twentieth hour. Another dimension, another day of scouting.

   Wash, rinse, repeat.

   By now, most of the tower was already asleep. The creature had gone back to exploring Pyg’s room and appeared content, so Pyg lied down on his stomach to call it a day.

   He’d barely closed his eyes for half a second, when the creature cried out, though not in the cheerful tones of earlier. The blob ricocheted off the walls in unhinged panic, making an uproar of hysterical noises.

   “What’s wrong?”

   The creature hovered over to Pyg’s window, then retreated away from it, back into the dark corner of Pyg’s room, where it huddled in terror like a terrified dog hiding from lightning.

   Pyg moved to the window to see what had spooked it so bad. Nothing at first, then he saw it. In the distance, beyond the ruins of the blackened plains, a creature above the horizon, fast approaching the tower like an arrow shot from a bow.

   An arrow that slithered.

   With Pyg’s superb hoolita vision, he made out what appeared to be a snake flying through the air, bearing scales of blood red and eyes black as death–big as a bug’s but narrowed as if to show hostility. Four jointed tentacles–like spider legs–emerged from the serpent’s back. The closer it got to the tower, the further Pyg backed away from the window.

   Another of the strange horned serpents appeared over the horizon. Then several more. All of them darting for the tower like an oncoming missile barrage. The nearer they drew, the clearer that look in their eyes said they weren’t here to make friends.

   More came in by the dozens, headed straight at them. An attack? Those were rare. Hoolita towers used to get hit by multiverse pirates all the time who wanted to plunder the treasures they gathered. But those had died down once it became common knowledge how strong their tower defenses were. The only real pirates they had to worry about were the pyratians, but all hoolita women had been specifically trained should those scoundrels ever come knocking. The flying serpents outside looked neither like pyratians nor pirates of any kind.

   Pyg backed away until he hit the wall. Without taking his eyes off the window, he felt around for the commlink switch on his wall.

   “Pygmill?” came Asook’s tired voice from the speaker next to the door. “What is it? It’s late.”

   “Um, Asook? Are you seeing this outside?”

   On the other side of the line, Pyg heard what sounded like Asook getting out of bed and crossing the floor to check. “What in the…”

   The commlink clicked and went quiet. “Asook? You still there?”

   Pyg’s eyes returned to the window, and he had less than a second to see how close the creatures had gotten before...

   WHAM!

   One of them slammed into Pyg’s window. It left the reinforced glass unscratched, but the aggressive action startled Pyg, and he fell to the floor. Several more bashed into the tower, creating a sound like machine guns in a war zone. Red lights flashed in Pyg’s room and an alarm blared through the tower.

   They were under attack.