Mirror Space - Marianne de Pierres [22]
Instinctively she avoided stepping near them, and something deep-seated urged her to move on quickly, away from them. But Wanton-poda seemed distracted by the sight of them. It fluttered down from time to time for closer observation.
As they crossed the island and passed down towards the sea again, it floated lower to observe the last line of depressions. The sand in one of the indentations began to shift and the Extro wafted back out of the way. A pearly-coloured orb the size of a humanesque’s head erupted from the shallow hole. The skin of the orb bubbled and contorted for a few moments until it tore open. Thin feelers poked through, followed by larger, thicker ones with bulbous ends.
Mira’s heart gave a terrified leap as one of the bulbs peeled back to reveal a moist maw.
Saqr. Smaller than the ones on Araldis but unmistakable.
She trapped the scream in her throat and ran out onto the water. Wanton-poda accelerated to put itself in front of her and they travelled for a while at a higher speed as if it comprehended her need to get away.
After they’d passed several more islands that showed no sign of the Saqr, her fear began to subside and was replaced by aching in her feet and knees. Her dry mouth told her she needed fluids.
She coughed to attract Wanton-poda’s attention.
It swirled and spun a full circle around her, coming to hover in front of her face.
She swallowed and licked her lips, signalling her thirst.
Its ear flaps shot up in a way that she was coming to recognise as alertness. Though they stood on the water between islands, it changed direction heading for the closest one. When they reached it, Wanton-poda floated straight up the beach and disappeared into a thick grove of palm trees.
Mira baulked before the trees, sending a cluster of small red crabs scuttling away from her around her shuffling feet. Spines, almost as long as Mira herself, protruded from the palms’ stems.
She could not see a way past them.
Wanton-poda reappeared after a time. ‘We will return to functional space for refreshments,’ it said in a neutral tone.
It re-entered the tree line, passing straight through the criss-cross of spines.
Mira took a deep, shaky breath. Despite the fact that she had just walked across water, her mind would not be convinced that the spines in front of her were anything other than totally real. Even in her interface with Insignia, she had never felt so at odds with her perception.
She took a step closer, positioning herself in the exact spot that Wanton-poda had entered. The red crabs reassembled and began crawling over her feet to enter the same space at sand level. One by one they disappeared from her view like ants vanishing inside their nest. Tentatively she reached out her hand and encountered the sharp prick of the spine.
She recoiled and sucked her finger. Perhaps the exit to the functional space that Wanton-poda referred to was narrow or oddly shaped. She knelt down and then lay on her belly. With small, careful movements she began to crawl in under the line of the bottom spine.
‘How rude!’ protested a voice near her ear.
She turned her head sideways to locate it and a crab claw slapped her across the bridge of her nose.
‘Wait your turn,’ said the crab.
It climbed over her head, and by the time she dared to look up it had gone.
Avoiding contact with the small creatures congregating around and behind her, she crawled slowly after the crab and found herself suddenly in a tissue-walled room similar to her confinement cell, only this one appeared open-ended, leading into further cells.
Not really cells, she thought, as she dusted sand from her clothes and stood up. More like fleshy caves. An endless, almost featureless cave system.
She looked down expecting to see the sand she had brushed off, fallen to the floor. But it simply no longer existed.
‘Mira-fedor will take refreshments now.’ Wanton-poda hovered off to her right