Still a Sticky Situation

Posted on Wed Feb 10, 2021 @ 10:24am by Lieutenant Alanna Wells

743 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Si vis pacem, para bellum
Location: Up the Beanstalk
Timeline: MD -02 to MD -01

Alanna woke suddenly, the silence pressing down on her. ”Jason.” But she knew he couldn’t hear her, any more than she could hear him, but she kept trying, hoping that she might reach him at some point.

A noise caught her attention. The stick bug came and snuffled her. “Hi,” she said, rubbing it on what had to be its head. It sat to give her better access, making a raspy sound like dry leaves. “You like this, do you?” She chuckled. The sound of her own voice seemed to echo in the profound silence and start the ringing again. She wasn’t sleeping well. She couldn’t slip into REM sleep without the ever-present thoughts of people around her. She’d lost track of time, too.

The stick man, as she referred to him, had carried her to a white building with white blobs for furniture. There was one she’d been given for a bed, one to sit on, and one for the stick creature nearby. Twice she’d been given a flat plate of white leaves and berries to eat. Even the ground was white, which kept her from wandering far, although she’d tried that shortly after she got here. But the stick man quickly found her and carried her back. Each time he held her in front of him, stick arms straight.

She heard the stick man whistling in the odd language he used. She’d picked out the tones for greeting and for food, the names for the stick creature and the stick man. She thought she understood what he called her, but nothing else had a reference she understood.

He came in, holding another plate of white leaves and berries. She stood and took it from him. “Thank you. Do you know where the beanstalk is?” She set the plate on the ground and pantomimed a beanstalk and climbing, the he just looked at her and whistled what she assumed was a no as he got another plate and set it on the ground for the creature.

Alanna picked up her plate and began to eat the flavorless food. She missed color and taste. Most of all, she missed people. She was tired, so very tired.

The stick man watched her and the stick creature eat. When they were done, he took the plates and turned to leave. “Please,” she said. “Can I come with you?”

The stick man whistled. The stick creature followed him. Alanna fell in line behind. Maybe she could learn something useful.

She and the stick creature—which she mentally nicknamed Nudge, followed the stick man around. First, he went to a white and grey forest of odd trees. The veins in the leaves were almost silver and they seemed to quiver like Aspen trees on earth. She watched the stick man work for a bit, then began to carefully pluck the leaves. He stopped her twice to show her what he was doing and indicate which leaves and berries to pick, and little by little she began to see the differences between the ones that were ready to harvest and those that weren’t. She slipped a few leaves and berries into her pouch to take back to Brianthe. She wondered if it would be possible to grow some of these trees. She kept an eye on the ground around the trees and looked for a small shoot she could take. Eventually she found one and put it in her pouch with the leaves and berries.

She put a few berries in her mouth because it was dry. She’d yet to see anything that resembled water or juice except for the tiny berries. The stick man whistled at her when he caught her and she stopped eating them and went back to putting them in the long container he’d brought for the food.

A breeze picked up, which made the leaves rustle. It was a nice change from the silence, but her lack of sleep and the utter telepathic silence soon caused her to sit down by a tree. She must have fallen asleep, because she woke to Nudge poking her. “Sorry,” she said automatically and rose, dusting off white dirt from her jeans to follow the two back to the white room. Her trip had been productive, but it got her no nearer getting home.

____
OFF

Lieutenant Alanna Wells
AKA Jack

Stick Man and Nudge

 

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