…a shape moved. It only moved because the rising sun sent light into the grotto, creating reflections of light over the wavelets of slightly green, clear water. Light danced about in ever-shifting lines about the grotto, hitting rocks walls and the shape itself. The shape didn’t understand what was happening, and looked about it with something that could be called eyes but didn’t look like eyes at all. It watched the dance of light bouncing off of everything, tried to understand why that rock shone green while the other one shone blueish. It look at the water, clear down to the bottom, and tried to understand why that was possible. That it should see the rocks under the water sway back and forth, while the rocks around him stayed perfectly still.
It glooped over the rocky alcove it chose to be in, then glopped over the stones that made a sloped return to the water. It was curious about where it was, and why it was where it was. It also wondered if the green slime coating the rocks closer to the water was a part of it. Further investigation told it that it wasn’t.
It looked up and out, across the roof of the alcove, and then to the opening. It saw slightly bigger waves lapping there, making a sound like spilling milk. It saw more water beyond the opening, and a small piece of a gradually brightening sky. It couldn’t believe there was so much water beyond the opening, so much more. And it was all moving, rippling up and down, at first clear as the water in the grotto, then gaining a head of fuzzy whiteness as it rose. It seemed to want to lick at the rocks at the opening, maybe they had an interesting flavor the shape couldn’t perceive. The rocks in the grotto had no flavor at all, and the slime wasn’t any better.
Somewhere deep inside the shape it knew not to go to the opening. Some instinct told him that beyond the opening was something bad. It didn’t have the memory to know what bad was, or why it was bad out there, but it knew it didn’t want to be there. And the grotto was cool and moist, and didn’t care if it was there. It liked being there. That being said, it glooped it’s way across the rock floor, wondering what it would find next.
Then it noticed a sound, a deep rumbling, almost unnoticeable. It peered back to the opening and saw a slight shadow across the opening. Then an angular shape emerged from the right. It turned and became the thing that created the darkening, and entered the grotto. Bright lights emerged from it, shining on the walls and the water until it discovered it.
It was then that the shaped remembered fear. It was fear that loosed it from where it was. Fear had helped it find a way outside, into the water, and into the grotto. And now it was back, and it took the form of a strange object floating on the water with a single figure standing on it.
The shape rolled away from both, but discovered there was nowhere to go. The grotto had one opening, and the floating thing was in front of it. All it could do was gloop and glop against the far wall as a sinuous tube was extended toward it. If it could tremble it would have. The tube reached the shape, and suddenly it was pulled into it. The shape tried to resist but it’s effort was useless against the pull. Deep, deep into the tube, until the shape was dropped inside of a vat. That was when the shape remembered something else. Futility.
The figure on the small boat picked up his radio and began speaking into it. “Control, this is search vessel three. I found it…..Yes, I have it on board right now….Yes, I got it all….Yes, I’m sure….Well I don’t see anything more of it, it didn’t leave a trail or nothing….No, there’s nothing in the water….It’s not like you’d miss seeing it…Yeah, sure, I’ll do a pass on the area and then head in….copy, out.” The man took another look around, then turned his boat and headed out.
There was something he missed. A small, insignificant drop was left behind. And even as small and insignificant as it was, it began to wonder.
Arid Testimony 