Penumbra

A series of intensifying tremors shook the foundation of the farmstead, sending workers fleeing in all directions. An eclipse darkened the sky, and long shadows drifted across the windmill, trees, and barns. Moments later, when the tremors subsided, a thin body fell from the sky and landed behind a grain silo.

A young slave, having seen the body fall, sensed something familiar in its aspect and ran toward it. She wasn’t the only witness. Three guards had also observed the falling figure, had even seen it hit the ground before instantly springing to its feet. The figure then disappeared through the entrance of an underground storage chamber. What concerned the guards most, however, was not that the body had survived the long fall, but that it was significantly larger than them, was the color of a slave, and, most troublesome of all, bore a large pair of wings. As it was their duty to protect the settlement, the three guards quickly moved to track down and eliminate the possible threat.

Meanwhile the eclipse persisted, and the farmhands, by nature skittish, chose to remain in hiding until signaled back to work. The guards, on the other hand, continued their pursuit of the winged creature down a subterranean tunnel, unaware that the curious slave was following them.

The guards soon reached the storage chamber and peered inside: the creature was at the far end, clawing frantically at the dirt wall. They entered discreetly, but the thing sensed them and turned around, popping open its wings and enlarging itself. Just then, a stream of chaotic vibrations burst through the sky, and the guards, in a quick, coordinated move, closed in on their target like a pack of wolves.

Several minutes later a guard stumbled out of the chamber and collapsed in front of the slave. The slave stepped around the body and entered the room. There she witnessed a figure pressed firmly against the far wall, its wings contorted and severely damaged, its limbs twitching silently, mouth agape and oozing fluid. The thing had defended itself vigorously—two of the guards having succumbed to bodily gashes in the chamber while the third had died in the tunnel. The slave cautiously approached the winged creature and looked it over. It appeared to be dead, and it was female.

The slave remained by the corpse for a long time. Though different from her, she couldn’t help but register a kinship with it. For one, the color of its skin was the same as hers. There were other similarities as well, and this affected the young slave greatly; so much so, in fact, that she sensed an influx of strange knowledge that shifted her instincts. Soon it became obvious that she did not come from, or belong in, the settlement.

The slave eventually left the chamber and returned to the surface. By now the eclipse had passed, and most of the farmhands had returned to their assigned labors.

A second eclipse occurred a short time later, again preceded by a series of intensifying tremors. By now the slave had revolted against her captors and was hiding atop a barn, a dying guard in her murderous grasp. She was gazing intently at the sky, trying to make sense of what she saw there: a giant, gruesome head topped with a thick mass of limp antennae; three dark openings beneath a set of what she believed to be eyes; and a wide, rounded body from which dangled two long limbs that sank beneath the horizon. The whole thing swayed back and forth ever so slightly, allowing random beams of sunlight to shoot out from behind its immense form. This, she now realized, was the thing that had dropped her within the tall, transparent walls of the farmstead, the being that had taken her from her home, from her own kind.

And now, the lower opening on the creature’s face began to expand and contort, releasing a bizarre stream of vibrations that the slave could not decipher. It raised one of its massive limbs, which held a rounded container, and dropped dozens of familiar bodies into the narrow landscape of the farmstead.

The slave, watching this, tossed aside the dead guard and ran down the side of the barn as quickly as she could. The time had come to unite.

(From the book The Hunchback's Captive and Others)