slug novel excerpt (9/23/18)

[the_dragon_writes]

 It was a fact that every slug-person was in want of a good, working skinsuit, yet those were something that no one could find.

 

It was an even bigger problem when said dysfunctional skinsuit started malfunctioning in public, in the middle of a day out with friends.

 

Lina looked down at the crack that had just opened up above her belly that was starting to leak mucus- it oozed, clear-ish and thick, down her “skin” and started wetting her shirt. She prayed to the One Slug God, Slugathor, that no one had noticed yet.

 

Evidently, the One Slug God, Slugathor, hated her, because when she glanced around quickly, she saw all of her friends absorbed in conversation, except for one - David, who was staring down at her with a look of growing concern. “Lina?” he asked. “What is that?” He pointed at the growing wet spot on her belly.

 

Her feelings of despair only grew, and she suddenly wished that she was back on her home planet, where she would not be the only one out of place; where she could be her own sluggy self, without fear of being driven from her town just for being different. It was a wonderful place, full to the brim with slug-folk of all kinds, large and small; but of course, she couldn’t return there. None of them could.

 

She glanced down at herself again as she searched for an answer to give David, knowing that the situation grew more precarious as the seconds ticked by. She looked up, growing paler as the whitish-greenish blood of her original body rushed up to her face underneath her human skin. She began to speak, then felt that her voicebox had shorted out.

 

“Scallywag, ‘tis okay!” she squawked, much like those strange Earth-birds, parrots, without meaning to. She immediately clapped her hands over her mouth, her thoughts racing faster than ever.

 

Oh no. They’re going to find out. I’m going to be driven from Earth, or they’re going to stone me and my siblings. We can’t go home, either… What’s the closest planet that we can flee too?

 

 

She could almost feel the stones striking her body, her arms, face, stomach. They broke her legs, leaving her unable to flee; she oozed out of the cracks in her skinsuit, trying to run, but there was only so fast she could move, even as a toddler-sized slug, when stones were directly hitting her organs.

 

She took a deep breath, trying to calm down. It’ll be okay, she told herself. Lina looked down again, and saw that her whole front was wet now, and her other friends had turned and were asking her if she was okay. She could hear someone in the back say, “Should we call 911?” Closing her eyes and blocking out all the other noise, Lina wished that she was back home, with a plate of the finest Galaxy Ant in front of her. She could almost smell it, the steaming flesh of one of the slug-folk’s greatest enemies.

 

Lina breathed deeply again and opened her eyes, readying herself for the storm about to come. It was then that she realized that the smell of steaming ant wasn’t only in her imagination, but was instead wafting towards her from the sky. When she looked up, still ignoring all of her friends, she could see something rapidly falling from the sky, and as it grew closer, completely still as it hurtled toward the earth, she could make out mandibles, antennae, and six long legs.

 

She felt herself start to salivate, mucus pouring out of her now burst ears, and so, she turned and ran for it.

 

----------------------------

 

Lina made it a good three blocks before her skinsuit burst open and she tumbled out onto the street, leaving a trail of slime behind her.

 

She swiveled her head around, looking to see if anyone had seen her sudden change from human to slug. The street was miraculously empty, everyone inside and having dinner with their families, enjoying life. It would have been an idyllic scene, if not for the thoughts she could hear all around her.

 

She shuddered. Why, oh why did her family have to come to the most xenophobic planet in the galaxy? No, the universe?

 

It was awful. Her friends were wonderful humans, it was true, but even they were wary of the alien “invaders”, as the news called her and her species. And now, all of a sudden, the real invaders were coming to Earth.

 

Hah. Invaders, they said. Hostiles, they said. It was the worst, to hear that every single day after fleeing from her destroyed planet, home gone and half of her family dead.

 

The only good thing that had come out of the attack on Planet Slug was his death. Every time Lina thought of it, it brightened her mood, and even though she could never get back what he had taken, at least she had one good memory of him- his death. His eyeballs in his eyestalks, frantically rolling around, His fat body squishing along as he tried to run. The splat he made as the grenade hit and sank into him and exploded, throwing whitish-greenish blood everywhere.

 

She smiled in pleasure, there in the street, showing off her tiny, sharp, sluggy teeth. Her friends talked about having awful exes, but she was quite sure that none of them hit quite the same level of awful as hers.

 

Finally, she came back to herself, remembering that she was still out in the street, and thanked Slugathor that no one seemed to have looked out the window in the last few minutes. She heaved a sigh as best as she could, then, carefully lifting her skinsuit, she smooshed her way to a bush in someone else’s yard, wincing at the trail of sticky mucus left behind her. What an awful mistake! She needed to let her father know that her skinsuits still weren’t working, that the malfunctions were near constant, and that probably all of her new human friends now knew that she wasn’t one of them.

 

Oh, and that the Galaxy Ants were showing up on Earth now. That might have also been pertinent information.

 

She cringed, hoping that it was all just a nightmare, that they didn’t know and the only ants on Earth were the ones native to the planet. Quickly, she brought herself back to reality again, and sent out a thought to one of her remaining 100 siblings.

 

Can one of you come get me? I’m kind of trapped on Garcia Street, and there’s slime all around me.

 

 

She felt, rather than heard, her little brother’s words back to her. Great Slugathor, Lina. What did you do? asked the one called John.

 

It’s not my fault! she thought to him. My skinsuit malfunctioned, again! Stupid thing.

 

 

Lina, dad made you a new one just this weekend, he thought to her. How did it malfunction already?

 

 

Whatever, John, she thought anxiously. I’ll explain at home, okay? Also I don’t know if this was a fluke or something, but I think the Galaxy Ants might be gearing up to invade Earth. Also, we might have to flee again. Just come get me, okay?

 

 

I… am not sure I want to know, thought John. Just hold tight. I’ll be right there.