SomberBard
Really Experienced
- Joined
- Sep 15, 2015
- Posts
- 150
To Ornedan, it was the most perfect place on the planet.
Ornedan was by no means a diminutive being, standing twenty-eight and a half feet tall, but in the forests around him, with trees stretching as high as four hundred feet, he felt properly awed every time he looked up. The damp air coming from the nearby sea and the seemingly perpetual fog made Ornedan feel invigorated each time he stepped out of his habitat.
Occasionally, the perfection was only marred by his isolation, but it was only occasionally. The planet that Ornedan was stationed on, for the scientific study of its biosphere, was on the periphery of his people's sphere of influence. Since the planet lacked strategic resources but possessed interesting flora, a small scientific outpost was authorized. If Ornedan found anything interesting, the outpost would be expanded to include more individuals. If not, the research would be automated and remotely controlled.
As Ornedan shambled between the giant trees he was studying, a human might find him a particularly odd sight, especially if that human had never seen someone like Ornedan before. (Of course, humans had encountered Ornedan's race and had nicknamed them "ents," after another sentient plant species in ancient human literature). Ornedan, however, was a very typical member of his species. At first glance, he looked to be a light grey "tree trunk" covered with writhing vines and topped with a ring of compound eyes. That first impression would be wrong. For one thing, the vines weren't exactly writhing, no more than a man walking with his arms swinging could be described as having writhing appendages. And the "vines" weren't just used as equivalent of hands. Ornedan could pick up an interesting stick with one vine, feeling its roughness and weight, while the end of another vine would "split", sometimes into four sections, with a tiny pink 'tongue' emerging to taste the air.
Besides being slightly taller than most of his fellows, Ornedan had become more unkempt. This wasn't his normal practice, but after a month of living on his own, he was perhaps not as diligent about his hygiene. For example, Ornedan's body was sporadically covered by small globules of hardened sap, which would come to the surface of his body after a strenuous day, or if he was especially nervous. If he was back in civilization, those hardened globules would have been cleaned off as soon as he got home. But as he was the sole sentient being on the planet, he might let a day or two go by between a good cleansing.
Ornedan, however, was about to have company.
Ornedan was by no means a diminutive being, standing twenty-eight and a half feet tall, but in the forests around him, with trees stretching as high as four hundred feet, he felt properly awed every time he looked up. The damp air coming from the nearby sea and the seemingly perpetual fog made Ornedan feel invigorated each time he stepped out of his habitat.
Occasionally, the perfection was only marred by his isolation, but it was only occasionally. The planet that Ornedan was stationed on, for the scientific study of its biosphere, was on the periphery of his people's sphere of influence. Since the planet lacked strategic resources but possessed interesting flora, a small scientific outpost was authorized. If Ornedan found anything interesting, the outpost would be expanded to include more individuals. If not, the research would be automated and remotely controlled.
As Ornedan shambled between the giant trees he was studying, a human might find him a particularly odd sight, especially if that human had never seen someone like Ornedan before. (Of course, humans had encountered Ornedan's race and had nicknamed them "ents," after another sentient plant species in ancient human literature). Ornedan, however, was a very typical member of his species. At first glance, he looked to be a light grey "tree trunk" covered with writhing vines and topped with a ring of compound eyes. That first impression would be wrong. For one thing, the vines weren't exactly writhing, no more than a man walking with his arms swinging could be described as having writhing appendages. And the "vines" weren't just used as equivalent of hands. Ornedan could pick up an interesting stick with one vine, feeling its roughness and weight, while the end of another vine would "split", sometimes into four sections, with a tiny pink 'tongue' emerging to taste the air.
Besides being slightly taller than most of his fellows, Ornedan had become more unkempt. This wasn't his normal practice, but after a month of living on his own, he was perhaps not as diligent about his hygiene. For example, Ornedan's body was sporadically covered by small globules of hardened sap, which would come to the surface of his body after a strenuous day, or if he was especially nervous. If he was back in civilization, those hardened globules would have been cleaned off as soon as he got home. But as he was the sole sentient being on the planet, he might let a day or two go by between a good cleansing.
Ornedan, however, was about to have company.
