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She waited, watching the city going about its normal life. No-one there knew what was coming. The warnings had gone unheeded, the state-controlled press had been too scared to run the story.
The ground drummed slightly under her feet. Looking down, she saw a tiny funnel form in the sand. It grew until it was the width of her hand, and then an eye stalk poked out. She stood completely still, taking shallow, slow breaths. It watched her carefully.
Another eyestalk joined the first. They scanned around in opposite directions, their cross-shaped pupils narrowed against the stark daylight. One eye fixed on the nearest of her escort, rotating to sample different polarisations of reflected light. Her escort picked up on her stillness and remained rooted to the spot.
The sand flowed down a bit more, and a six-fingered hand, no larger than her fingernail, emerged. The creature placed it carefully down on the surface, and pushed. Slowly, cautiously, and with minimal disturbance to the grains, a foot long animal levered itself out of the ground.
Again it paused, belly close to the sand, eyes checking all around and above. Ripples moved through the short khaki fronds covering its body, dislodging the remaining sand. It turned its back on her and began slowly pacing towards a bit of scrub.
She waited until it wasn’t looking at her before allowing herself to move. With infinite care, she slid her hand under her robe, finding a pouch on her thigh. Her fingers worked the fastener, her eyes fixed on the creature. One of the eyestalks waved her way and she froze. A moment’s examination and the creature turned its gaze back to the plants it was stalking.
She pulled her hand back out and held it out towards the creature. When it looked at her again, it stopped in its tracks. Its fronds rippled from head to tail, both eyestalks locked onto her hand. The creature arched its back and paced sideways towards her, watching her hand intently. As it approached, she carefully dropped to a knee, keeping her hand outstretched.
Come on little one. You know you want it...
The animal stopped just out of her reach. It cocked its head from side to side, eyestalks moving apart but staying focused on her hand. As its body tensed, she closed her hand.
You’re not getting it that easily.
Thwarted, it looked around with one eye. It appeared undecided, but when she opened her hand again she regained its whole attention. Again it tensed, and again she closed her hand at the last moment. Twice more they played that game, until the creature made up its mind to come closer.
There you go. You can do it...
She lowered her fist until the back of her hand rested on the ground. The creature sidled up to her, moving its head and eyes to inspect her hand from different angles. She uncurled her fingers slightly, enough for it to see what was inside, but not enough that it could easily snatch it. The creature crept closer, until it was almost touching her hand. A tongue snaked out of a mouth surrounded by tiny needle teeth, and probed between her fingers. It came back with a crumb of fruit cake and quickly disappeared back into the creature’s open mouth.
The tongue emerged again and headed back for another morsel. With the creature focused on feeding, she snuck her other hand down to its back. Popping her lips gently to copy the sound its mother would have made at feeding time, she lightly stroked its fronds. They responded to her touch, caressing her fingertips and trembling slightly.
One of her escort took a step closer to her. The creature disappeared underground in a flurry of sand.
Goodbye little one. I hope you make it through what is coming.
She stood up, orange sand trickling off her robe. As she looked to her escort, she rubbed the last few crumbs off her hand with her thumb.
“It is coming now,” her escort said.