PHOTO PROMPT © Dale Rogerson
When we first arrived, we’d learned how to blend. The mobile hairless ones appeared to be the leaders of this carbon-hydrogen-nitrogen-oxygen-sulphur-phosphorus-based planet; and they had little regard for any but their own kind, no tolerance at all for anything different, and outright hostility towards anything or anyone that challenged their leadership.
We slipped into the pile of burlap-sacked saplings during a group-shared locale renovation and mimicked the sycamore. Warm season reminded us of home. When their sun turned away though, we suffered. While the hairless ones slept, we reached out to the sun’s tiny replicas, warmed ourselves – and waited.
[100 words]
Yes, this is probably the longest hyphenated word I’ve ever used.
Rochelle Wisoff-Fields is the lively host of Friday Fictioneers.
Great compound word
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Thank you!
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I love that hyphenated adjective :). And I really, really want to see the hairless ones! You grabbed my imagination with this one, for sure!
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Thanks much, Linda 🙂
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Outsiders always see things better. Unfortunately, being outsiders, they must be destroyed instead of heard.
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You got my meaning and I’m glad.
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In the general scheme of things, let us hope that what they are waiting for isn’t something bad-for-hairless-two-legged-things-who-sleep-while-the-sun-disappers. 😉
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🙂 uh-huh
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🙂
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Remember “The Day of the Triffids”; your setting has that kind of atmosphere; I would love to know more about these aliens!
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They are rather intriguing aren’t they 🙂
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The German language would be proud of that hyphenated adjective!
I really like this fantasy.
Such great use of language to create the idea of a different species.
I’m captivated by these creatures.
Shape-shifters?
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Thank you, Jenne. I’m not sure if they are shapeshifters, but it seems likely. If I was one I would become a warm blanket or something.
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Can you become a towel? That way I could wrap you around my head to avoid the gaze of the ravenous bugblatter beast of Traal.
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lol!
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Your smile warms folk already! 😉
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Thanks!
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I’m not sure I like the idea of the trees waiting for the right moment to turn on us… Surely they would have done it before now!
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Iain, just like my story last week, they are not trees, they are ET life forms in disguise. Poor trees are taking a bad rap. Everyone takes trees for granted so they make a good disguise.
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Racism comes in all shapes and forms…
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Exactly!
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Sadly.
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Great take on the prompt
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Thanks, Sadje!
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You’re welcome Li
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I’m curious as to what they want and what they are planning.
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Me too!
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I’m not sure that lamps will provide the same sustenance as the sun. Maybe by the time the sun comes back they will have wasted away…
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I think they have a means of drawing electricity out of the lights which keeps them warm 🙂
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Dear Lisa,
You most definitely left me wanting to read more of this intriguing-imaginative-thought-provoking-ethereal adventure. 😉
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Rochelle, knowing that you enjoyed the story pleases me 🙂 Thank you.
Shalom,
Lisa
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An intriguing piece. Well done.
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Thank you, Sandra.
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Excellent Lisa. If there are awards for very long hyphenated words, you certainly deserve one!
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haha thanks, Keith.
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For beings so patient to wait a life of trees, they seemed to do little research about the tilt of the planet. Oh well, they can warm themselves in those artificial suns during that tilted away time as they breath that super-long-hyphenated-atmosphere-mix 😉 Good one..
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LOL Indeed!
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Very intriguing story, Lisa. Great atmosphere!
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Thank you very much, Neel, glad you like it.
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Enjoyed that whole last paragraph (well, I enjoyed the whole piece) but having the aliens slip inside the burlap and look at the “false sun”.
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Thanks, Alicia, so glad you liked it.
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Creepy and evocative. I like it. I feel like this may not go well for humans aka “mobile hairless ones”
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Thank you, Anne. They are watching and probably transmitting back to home planet on what they see. You’re right, it may not go well.
BTW, I see you’re in A2Z in April and so am I. I’m doing a Jethro Tull song a day.
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Jethro Tull! That should be interesting. Now I’m wondering how you get A-Z from songs. Hm!
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Titles and with a bit of creativity 😉
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Not a world to integrate easily into. I loved how they found comfort around the lamp.
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Thanks for your thoughtful comments. It would be difficult for them.
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An imaginative take on the prompt. I liked the minimal information about the incomers, that heightened the mystery. I imagined they were hairy and eco-warriors. Nicely done.
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I like how your mind thinks, WWM. Thank you.
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Oooooo very cool. Aliens to winter. A shock to the system! Humans are indeed too tiny and self focused!
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Thank you, Laurie!
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wonderful writing !
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Thank you!
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Great story and I’m all about the super-long hyphenated words. 🙂 It’s funny; before your story I never really noticed the trees there: I just saw the lamp. Loved it.
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haha! Thanks much, David.
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You do know how to tell a tale.
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Thanks much, Jude!
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My pleasure 🌼
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