Enigmatic Fantasies #29 - In The Deepest Forest [#91]

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            I strolled through the ancient forest, the amber trees stretched out before me endlessly. This was a place supposedly older than time. A forest that has stood since before the first record was written, before the first home was built and before the first human stood upright. The creatures and people who inhabit these woods are an elusive sort. You never see them, but you can always tell they're there, right on the edge of your vision. They playfully dance along the peripheral of your notice. I am not here to see them; however, no I came for a different reason.

            At the end of this path I follow, I hope to find an origin. In this ancient land, there must be a point where it all began. Perhaps it is the first tree, the ancestor to which these woods sprang from. Maybe, it is a water source, a pond or lake which life flourished around. I do not know for sure what I will find, but that is why I'm here.

            The path is long, the forest seems endless, but I must push forward. I seek this place not out of a desire for fame or grandeur, but instead pure curiosity. The fact I do not know eats away at me, I must know because I don't know. It might be near, it could be far. My journey may end today or a month from now, but that is no problem for me. All I care about it is knowing the answer, if I can learn as much, I'll have closure. Is that so much to ask?

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Sometimes all we want is to know the answer.

Until next time, Read, Comment and Enjoy

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Strange Sci-fi Tales #16 - Waking Up To A Fantasy [#90]

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            Captain Adams awoke to the muffled blare of an alarm, it gave him a headache. As his eyes focused, he realized the capsule he slept in had a large crack in the glass in front of him. Concern filled his mind as he forced himself awake and pushed open the chamber. The alarm grew louder as the captain exited the capsule and stumbled onto the floor. Freed from the capsule, he could now smell smoke, which turned his concern into a panic.

            The Captain raced through the room and checked the capsules of his crew, thankfully they were all still alive. He quickly activated each chamber and awoke his crew, he began with the first mate and moved on from there. As his team slowly roused Captain Adams checked the ship's computers, only to be met with garbled data.

            "Captain, what's the situation?" The first mate asked groggily, "Is the ship in danger?"

            "I don't know Charles," the Captain shook his head. "I only just woke up myself, my pod malfunctioned, and I think it was because we crashed."

            "Sir, the passengers!" First Mate Charles panicked.

            "Leave that to one of the other officers, I need you here," the Captain ordered. "The ship's computers are malfunctioning, I want you and one of the technology officers to salvage what you can. Maybe you can figure out where we crashed."

            "Yes sir," Charles saluted, "but what will you do?"

            "I'm going topside with James," Adam explained. "It doesn't look like we've crashed underwater, so hopefully we can get a lay of the land. If we're lucky, the atmosphere will be breathable. Did you hear that James we're heading out!" The second mate saluted at the captain's shout, and the two men ran out of the room. "If anything comes up Charles contact me through the PA system."

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            It didn't take long for the two men to reach the top of the ship. They had planned to run tests to see if the atmosphere was breathable; however, several large holes in the hull rendered that unnecessary. The two men popped out on top of their ship and observed the new world around them. Their massive ship had crashed itself into a forested canyon, and wedged itself between to cliff faces. Grassy plains surrounded the canyon, and the two officers could barely see a settlement in the distance.

            "Captain," Charles's voice echoed through the PA system below. "I got word from down below, the passengers are waking up, and they're scared and confused. We might need more help for crowd control."

            "Just what we needed," the Captain sighed, "James head down there and-" The Captain's order was cut short as the ship shook violently. Adams looked down to see a massive scaly monster climb onto the ship. It had two giant wings, a long tail and razor sharp claws. If the Captain didn't know any better, he'd assume it was a dragon, but that was impossible. "Get back inside the ship!" The two officers dived back inside the ship as the monster charged up after them.

            The monster clawed at the ship's hull, but it was designed to tank stray asteroids so it wouldn't give easily. Adams and James raced down the hallway, without a glance back. Even if the ship was sturdy, they didn't want to wait to see if that creature could puncture the hull.

            "Captain we need to stop that thing before it gets to the passengers!" James shouted.

            "With what? We're no warship, we only have enough weapons for self-defense," the Captain pointed out. "Besides we don't have any weapon nearly strong enough to fight off that beast." As the Captain finished his explanation, the monster finally punctured the ship's hall and stuck its head inside. However, before it could give chase to the two officers something hit the creature outside.

            The beast yanked its head out and turned its attention to this assailant. The sound of a battle consumed the upper deck of the ship. Captain Adams hazarded a peek of the outside to see what happened, and what he saw boggled his mind. A squad of armored knights attacks the monster with swords and arrows, while an old man in a pointy hat threw fireballs at the creature with his bare hands.

            "Begone foul creature," one of the knights let out a battle cry as he stabbed the beast in the chest. The impaled creature tumbled down the ship's exterior and fell into the canyon below. "The beast is vanquished," the knights cheered.

            "What in the name of god," Captain Adams exclaimed. However, his outburst caught the attention of the knights, who looked over at the space captain curiously. "Where the hell did we land?" The Captain exclaimed as the knights moved over to investigate. 

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Sometimes the most impossible fantasies become our new reality, as they say, life imitates art.

Until next time, Read, Comment and Enjoy

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Enigmatic Fantasies #28 - Not Your Usual Exterminator [#89]

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            Joel was often called an exterminator, but not your usual kind. Some might say he deals with "exotic" animals. While the creatures he dealt with were rare and exotic, there was another more popular name for them, cryptids. Joel has seen it all, Jackalopes in the basement and Mothmen in the attic. He's chased Chupacabra off of farms and fished lake monsters out of swimming pools. Honestly, he was more of a freelance animal control officer as he rarely had to actually exterminate. However, today would be a new challenge for him.

            It started off the same as always with a phone call. A suburban woman called frantically saying there was a big hairy creature in her living room. When he asked her to elaborate she affirmed this mysterious beast was larger than her husband, harrier than a gorilla and walked on two big feet. Joel knew right away what he was about to deal with, but it still came as a shock. He'd never actually seen a Sasquatch before, let alone one that had invaded a suburban house.

            He was on the road within the minute and quickly reached the woman's house. She was in a panic in her front yard, but the relief on her face when he pulled up was palpable. Joel got out of his truck fully armed for an encounter, but first, he walked up to her and shook her hand.

            "You must be Mrs. Mulitzer," he greeted her.

            "Oh, thank you," she replied. "I'm so glad you got here as soon as you did, the kids will be back from school in an hour. I don't want them getting anywhere near that thing."

          "Don't worry ma'am, I'll have him out within the hour," he assured, "has the Sasquatch done anything of note? Break a coffee table, attack your cat or anything else?"

            "No nothing like that," Mrs. Multizer shook her head, "he's just been lurking in the living room, giving me dirty looks. Oh, I left in such a hurry I left the TV on, could you turn that off if you get the chance?"

            "Sure thing," Joel agreed and marched inside the house, his catchpole at the ready. He wondered if he'd need to tranquilize the creature, or if he could simply coax it out of the house with some food. Joel also wasn't sure if the Sasquatch was a protected species or not, so he wanted to be very careful with how he handled the situation. All those thoughts got thrown out the window when he finally saw the beast for himself.

            Seated on the couch in the living room was the Sasquatch. It stared blankly at the television which displayed some random reality show. The creature was focused entirely on the screen, as though it was invested in the program.

            "I can't tell if this just got more or less complicated," Joel mumbled.

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 They say music soothes the savage beast, but what about daytime television?

Until next time, Read, Comment and Enjoy

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Strange Sci-fi Tales #15 - The Many Clones of Dr. Clare [#88]

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           Cloning is genuinely a marvelous process, if one were to truly master it, the possibilities would be endless. Dr. Clare was considered the foremost expert on the subject. She always says she's one step away from completing her research, and all her peers watch on with bated breath for the day she makes history. If only they knew the truth.

            It was a typical day, and Dr. Clare had returned home from work. She was excited, not merely because a long workday was over, but because today she would make another step forward in history. The truth was she had lied to all her colleagues for the past few months, she had already made a perfect clone. It was an exact duplicate of herself, named Klare. The clone was her equal in intelligence and ambition, the ideal partner. Today the two of them would create another clone of herself. One with a few tweaks here and there to prove how much control they had over the cloning process.

            So, imagine Dr. Clare's surprise when she opened the door to find not only Klare but three other identical faces. One small and short, another tall and muscled and the last completely spaced out. Klare smiled as the original entered and made a "ta-da" gesture.

            "Hi me, do you like what I've done while you were gone?" Klare beamed with pride, Clare did not share her enthusiasm.

            "What have you done Klare?" She exclaimed, "we were supposed to do this together."

            "I know, but I got bored while you were at work," her clone shrugged, "no hard feelings right?"

            "Yes hard feelings, I've been looking forward to this all week," Dr. Clare fumed, "and you went ahead and made three more without me!"

            "Don't be like that," Klare shrugged her off. "Let's enjoy our new roommates," the clone gestured to the other three. "This is Clara," she pointed to the small self, "Clarissa," she turned to the muscled clone, "and, um, Clarita," she waved at the last one.

           "Hello." "Sup." "I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention what were we talking about?" The three said in sequence.

            "What's with the last one?" Clare pointed out.

            "Oh, she hit her head on the way out of the cloning chamber," Klare admitted. "Nothing major, she's just a little unaware of her surroundings sometimes. Also, she likes to eat a lot, we're out of chips now." Dr. Clare could feel a migraine forming already.

            "So what was your goal with these three clones then?" Clare restrained her frustration.

            "I told you, I was bored," her first clone smiled, "so I just played around with the settings on the cloning machine."

            "Are you serious?" The original shrieked, "are you a literal child? The cloning chamber is not some toy. Are you sure you're my clone? Oh wait you are, I created you, and suddenly I regret that decision."

            "You're overly dramatic," Klare argued.

            "No, no I'm not," Clair countered, "you're an idiot."

            "Yeah, well I'm an identical clone of you, that makes you an idiot too," Klare retorted.

            "We all make mistakes," Clare replied, "I guess my process wasn't perfect after all." The two selves continued to bicker until Clarissa spoke up.

            "Are we done here?" Clarissa interrupted, "cause I still have to go to the gym today."

            "We don't have a gym membership," Clare pointed out.

            "Well I guess we'll have to fix that," the muscled clone marched out the door.

            "Where do you think you're going?" Clare chased after her.

            "I wanna watch some cartoons," Clara exclaimed.

            "Cartoons sound fun," Clarita remarked, "let's get some chips to eat while we watch."

            "Clarita, we just talked about that, remember?" Klare reminded her spaced out duplicate.

            "Oh, right," Clarita remembered, "could you go buy some more?"

            "Sure," Klare nodded. "Besides someone needs to follow those other two before they get into trouble. I guess it falls to me to be the responsible one." 

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Even identical selves can act vastly different when surrounded by different stimuli. Not that this has anything to do with the story, Klare is just kind of a moron.

Until next time, Read, Comment and Enjoy

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