This one might end up being a bit longer. I'm still writing the outline of the story and I have a few passages blocked out at different points, but this is the opening couple of paragraphs. I had a lot of ideas that didn't get used in the last story with these characters, and I figured those deserved exploring. This story will likely be many pages long, maybe even chapters long, so I might not post it all here, all of the time.
Under the shady side of her favorite rock, a plump brown rabbit in a half doze twitched slightly. Her eyes snapped fully open and her ears perked. A coyote? No. A faint buzz, coming closer. A sound as benign as it was alien.
Eyes now hyper alert watched a vast deep shadow flow over the arid soil. She backed more tightly into the protective arch of rock and sat impossibly still. The shadow continued forward until it washed up and over her, without incident. Trailing tightly behind the shadow, just out of the rabbits view was a massive block of metal and glass and plastic. The great bulk drifted gently by on the other side of the rabbits favorite shady rock, faint electric hum barely audible below a light summer breeze. And then it was gone. The mammoth object floated over a small hill down toward a river valley leaving no trace of its passing. The rabbit relaxed and her eyelids sagged a few times before closing in an afternoon snooze.
Inside the huge object, bundles of braided cord swung with the changing angle of the hillside. They slid off one another emitting all the cacophony of flowing beach sand. The electric hum of float plates permeated every bit of the structure, but still, those tones were almost imperceptible. A deep, grating, arrhythmic growl rose above it all. Kee lay awake staring at the ceiling. His eyes drifted over to the gently swaying blackout curtains covering the single window in his quarters. Nope. Not getting back to sleep. At least not with Eliza’s snoring echoing around in this tin can.
Kee swung his legs over the edge of his bunk and quickly retracted his bare feet from the liquid cooled floor. Maybe he could pick up a rug in the next town. Nothing fancy, just a simple mat to make getting out of bed easier. He tossed on a loose shirt before gingerly placing his feet back down.
It had been 3:30am when they had finally closed up the large workshop door and allowed the cart to drift off to its next location. What was it now? 1:13pm. Late, but this was a travel day. It wasn’t like they had any work to do.
Under the shady side of her favorite rock, a plump brown rabbit in a half doze twitched slightly. Her eyes snapped fully open and her ears perked. A coyote? No. A faint buzz, coming closer. A sound as benign as it was alien.
Eyes now hyper alert watched a vast deep shadow flow over the arid soil. She backed more tightly into the protective arch of rock and sat impossibly still. The shadow continued forward until it washed up and over her, without incident. Trailing tightly behind the shadow, just out of the rabbits view was a massive block of metal and glass and plastic. The great bulk drifted gently by on the other side of the rabbits favorite shady rock, faint electric hum barely audible below a light summer breeze. And then it was gone. The mammoth object floated over a small hill down toward a river valley leaving no trace of its passing. The rabbit relaxed and her eyelids sagged a few times before closing in an afternoon snooze.
Inside the huge object, bundles of braided cord swung with the changing angle of the hillside. They slid off one another emitting all the cacophony of flowing beach sand. The electric hum of float plates permeated every bit of the structure, but still, those tones were almost imperceptible. A deep, grating, arrhythmic growl rose above it all. Kee lay awake staring at the ceiling. His eyes drifted over to the gently swaying blackout curtains covering the single window in his quarters. Nope. Not getting back to sleep. At least not with Eliza’s snoring echoing around in this tin can.
Kee swung his legs over the edge of his bunk and quickly retracted his bare feet from the liquid cooled floor. Maybe he could pick up a rug in the next town. Nothing fancy, just a simple mat to make getting out of bed easier. He tossed on a loose shirt before gingerly placing his feet back down.
It had been 3:30am when they had finally closed up the large workshop door and allowed the cart to drift off to its next location. What was it now? 1:13pm. Late, but this was a travel day. It wasn’t like they had any work to do.