With her human shape, it was strange that she smelled like some other creature. He could not recognise the smell of her illness either. Her smell of gluckast he would expect of anything found lying in the intestines of a gluckast pile, but it began to tug at his mind that some of that foul smell may be originating in herself, which was a more disturbing sensation.

With a mobility unexpected for her state of health, she got onto her hands and climbed up into Gareth’s lap. He did not seem concerned with catching whatever she had. She settled herself, and looked up at him.

“Can I trust you, please?” she asked.

“Not yet,” Gareth said.

“Can I use the machine?”

Gareth allowed her to hold the steering lever, but kept his hand on it as well. It was an odd picture: her hand, pale from weakness, holding it like a candy bar, above Gareth’s gaunt hand, narrow and grey. The lever was in fact a giant insect antenna, and could be guided by simple motions, but if you had experience with it (and it with you) it could be guided by the slightest movement of a finger or two, if not by mere thought.

The moon came out.

“Oha, your animal is… looks good!” the girl said. Gibbsen growled, but quietly so as not to offend her. In moonlight the long hairs of his back had a faint variegated sheen of iridescence, which he disliked. In his youth he had once rolled in cairnbird glue to try and be rid of it.

This human seemed harmless and pleasant, for all she disturbed and puzzled him. He was intensely curious what would happen when they reached the station with her.

To be continued.

#DailyCreatedOOM #WrittenOOM #AdolphusSearchAndRescue 2023/10/13

She was a plain human (particularly in her current situation), which was to Gibbsen’s taste, though he was aware that humans generally preferred less plain girls. Still, she was of ripe age, and healthy, apart from apparently being sick. She hid her face under her arm and coughed into her sleeve.

The chopper was working its way closer to her, without collapsing any of the disastrous walls onto her, which was a tricky business. Gibbsen began to feel, then to hear, an approaching group of gluckasts, probably the return of one of their crude hunting parties.

Along with a whiff of their wicked stench came a shout: the beasts had only then noticed the chopper’s cacophony and the searchlight’s brilliance was in their nesting ground. Gibbsen could immediately sense their rage and a sharp increase in the swiftness of their approach.

The moment it was possible for Gareth to jump without being ensnared forever in the wreckage of their nest, he went like a black squirrel, and scooped the girl like grim death reaping up a young soul.

But the gluckasts had gotten nearer than expected. Gibbsen stood tense. The moment Gareth lifted the young one up, and she had enough grasp of the situation to roll onto the chopper floor, Gibbsen bit onto the control lever, trusting that Gareth would cling to the boarding rungs as the chopper roared upward.

Gareth did cling, but a gluckast came through an unseen hole, and latched its claw into the hem of Gareth’s robe. Gareth savaged the hanging brute with his spurs, but even dead its claw remained snarled in the cloth, and the carcass swung. A spray of fire shot from the mouth atop the rotors protesting the fierce launch. Gibbsen released the lever and scurried over the girl to see if he could help his Gareth.

Gareth had already hooked his stained spurs on the chopper, and was working with a serrated knife to cut the claw from the rest of the gluckast. He let the body drop into the mob below. Gibbsen kept out of the way as Gareth got himself into the chopper, over the girl, and back into the narrow pilot’s seat.

The girl reached out in the dark to pet Gibbsen’s long, stiff hair. He inched away – who knew if he could catch whatever the human was ailing with.

#DailyCreatedOOM #WrittenOOM #AdolphusSearchAndRescue 2023/10/11

A hide pouch under the front of the chopper inflated like the throat of a siamang, and a mouth attached to it bellowed into the night under the hack and whistle of the rotor:

“Adolphus Search and Rescue: if any are in danger, make yourselves known.”

The searchlight scanned and blinked, and saw no one. There were no gluckasts near, though surely they would be soon, as this place was one of their filthy nesting grounds. Why did the human not show himself?

The chopper lowered till it settled in a more solid patch of rubbish. The chopper’s rear legs were akin to those of a rhinoceros, the forelegs like those of a gargantuan scaly waterbird. Plenty of large vermin scattered as they settled, but Gibbsen was wise enough to stay aboard the chopper until sent.

Gareth sent him. Unfortunately he didn’t smell any humans, but pointed to where the largest living creature nearby might be hidden: in a large, black, gluckast nest, constructed of unrecognisable debris fused together with leathery, hardened slime. The chopper crept its great bulk nearer, and with its tail like a saurian armadillo it took off the roof and upper storeys of the repulsive habitat. Then the searchlight illuminated the bared pit of the nest’s bowels.

There lay a human girl, who sneezed in the bright light. Gibbsen was very confused.

To be continued.

#DailyCreatedOOM #WrittenOOM #AdolphusSearchAndRescue 2023/10/09

It would need a helicopter to reach such a place. Gibbsen’s master, Gareth, was a human in a grim black robe which hid all but his greyish mouth and lean hands. He and Gibbsen boarded their chopper.

The leading edges of the blades were lined with teeth that bit the air as they began to spin. When they got up to speed, a thin cry was added above their chopping sound, a cry from the circular mouth (like that of a sea-urchin) which topped the rotor shaft. Gibbsen and Gareth were lifted into the night.

Only briefly could the lights of Griddleton be seen in the distance. Then the only light was from the little glowing bits on the instrument panel – painted with Ban’s blood to make them always red hot; Gibbsen had learned not to get too close. From a tang in the cold air Gibbsen could tell when they flew over patches of window trees.

They arrived and hovered over the place, deep in a gluckast infested area. Gareth opened the cat’s eye searchlight (very bright, though it blinked from time to time). It showed no human being in sight.

It must be a clever human, Gibbsen thought, to get so far without being eaten by the gluckasts. Why did he not show himself?

To be continued.

#DailyCreatedOOM #WrittenOOM #AdolphusSearchAndRescue 2023/10/06

Gibbsen crunched his “Tough Krunchies” thoughtfully. On slow days like this he sometimes began to wonder if the humans’ food had taste sometimes. He had tasted taste once, and it was mildly interesting, though extravagant. If human food had taste all the time, he would probably feel less respect for them.

An especially loud banshee scream from their metal boxes made him jerk and swallow a prickly piece of Krunchie whole. These weren’t real banshees that Adolphus Search and Rescue kept – real banshees were girls, these were fat worm things that looked like tree bark porridge and lived in narrow shoe box-sized lockers mounted in rows on the wall. They were called “banshees” because they screamed when death was near somebody.

A map of the regions monitored by the Adolphus team was portrayed on a sheet of glass: behind this a small red light turned on, crawled to a certain spot, and sat down. Gibbsen scratched between his ears with the tip of his tail (which was covered in rough scales – the rest of him was covered in long, stiff, grey fur). He didn’t remember seeing the red spot settle in that area (far south of Griddleton) any time in recent years.

Who could have gotten out there, and only now be in danger?

To be continued.

#DailyCreatedOOM #WrittenOOM #AdolphusSearchAndRescue 2023/10/04