Teaser #2

I hid behind a nearby narrow arch, a more fluid part of the framework of the bridge. I knew if Mother realized I was still here I’d be sent away in a heartbeat. Pulsing blue and yellow lights danced beneath my fingertips. I could feel the energy trickle into my fingertips and rush down my arms.

“What business have you here?” my father’s younger brother and father of the twins called out. His naturally ruddy skin turned violently red and only my father’s stronger arm could hold him back.

Like our relationships, there were some prejudices that had not evolved out of our system. But I was young, and the miners held a degree of fascination with me because they were different. History claimed they were a lesser species we had conquered long ago. But who knows? The winning side always gets to tell the final tell.

Wryly, I admitted Mother may be right on one point. Their clothes did resemble my skintight jumpsuit, except there was much more breathing space to their grease and plasma-stained clothes. It was rumored they spent so much time around the essence of other worlds it stained their skin a permanent murky indistinct color. Having only spent time at a distance from them, it wasn’t until now that I learned the truth.

Their skin was much darker than ours, so dark that the whites of their eyes and teeth stood out on their faces, as did the tattoos spiraling over their necks, skulls and arms. Otherwise they stood only barely shorter than our tallest. Besides their hairless heads I discerned little other difference. The older of the two lifted his strong chin. His features were smaller and widely spaced but more focused than ours. The younger had a face like cut stone, all edges and scars and tensely coiled control.

In a sudden flicker of movement, the younger miner’s green orbsshifted focus, flashed across the room and instantly fastened onto my hiding place. I froze, heart pounding in my chest, gills on the sides of my neck stretching in effort to gulp down more synthetic air. I heard the argument distantly. Sound rushed to catch up to me the moment the miner held back his elder. But his eyes darted to me one last daring moment and his lips twitched into a knowing smirk.

Voices rushed and piled on top of each other. Bits of their argument fell over my conscience.

Stay tuned for more over the next couple of days,

Jenn 🙂