Time was, this was a pretty quiet cave. The shelter of a few tons of metallic ice are appreciated when every bit of the surface is hard vacuum. Pribits are fortunate to live in caves.

I wouldn't want to live anywhere else, being a rather well-adjusted pribit. It doesn't take much to make me happy. A little methane to breathe, plus enough silica worms to eat, equals paradise. All the life in my cave is silica-based; if you don't eat silica, you'd probably be better off somewhere else.

That's what puzzles me about the alien beasts who recently set up house-keeping in a corner of my cave. I don't mind. Silica worms are plentiful, and these carbon beasts don't seem very interested in them anyway.

They did bring quite a lot of excitement, though. When they killed off all the gravel-gerties, we pribits rejoiced. It was a slaughter. I still can't figure out why they did it. Of course to a pribit, a ravenous gravel-gerty is sudden death.

Recently, I've noticed the definite scent of silica coming from parts of the hard shell these beasts wear. With no gravel-gerties around, I'm feeling encouraged to journey over to one for a sample. That is, providing one would hold still long enough.

The way these carbon beasts whirl around is enough to make one dizzy. Not to mention the heat they give off. That's what killed the gerties. They couldn't take the heat. Our domestic life is pretty sedate. We pribits don't move around much.

What could be the reason for these strange creatures to come to our cave? Do you suppose they taste like silica worms?

Author Bio

Robert Marcom: Writer - Researcher - Photographer - Illustrator

Author of "A Voyage Through The Cosmos" (ISBN 1-930430-03-5)
"Earth Rocks!" (ISBN 1-930430-04-3)
Moderator: Net Author Writers' Community
Vice Chairperson: Eguild

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