Fabian's Fables

Chapter 7

“GASP! UH! HUH! *COUGH! COUGH!*” the boys gasped an panted for air. Wherever they are now, they are on solid, dry land and, thankfully, oxygen is present here.

When they have caught their breath, they looked at each other, slowly recalling the events that have just unfolded.

“Wh-what happened just now?” Charlie asked.

“We… we made the king angry,” Fabian explained, “and he thought we were human spies. He wanted to kill us both by drowning us.”

“I don’t get it. One minute the merfolks are kind, loving creatures that let people breathe underwater, and the next they wanna kill innocent humans who they suspect without proof?!”

“That spell was only meant for humans who have passed their tests and proved themselves trustworthy and unharmful towards them.”

“But we haven’t taken any tests, have we? Then how come WE could breathe in their water?”

“I have yet to write the part that specifies WHAT the tests are like. So till I get to it, EVERYONE can breathe underwater.”

“Good grief.” Charlie stood up and squeezed the water from his clothes.

Fabian remained silent and rested to clear his mind. Suddenly, a thought crossed his mind and he turned to Charlie again.

“How come YOU weren’t swimming for your life when the king’s guards had us surrounded just now?”

“I…… I’m sorry. I was just shocked.”

“About what?”

“About how the king didn’t look like me anymore when got angry.”

“Uh-huh?”

“His face just suddenly changed from looking like me to looking more like…… Marcus!”

Charlie and Fabian stared at each other, until Fabian realised it was his turn to explain things again.

“Ugh, alright. The king had a dark side, kay? His good side was inspired by you, while his bad side was inspired by Marcus. When he gets angry he can become a crazy, cruel, heartless creature. The merfolks knew about his different sides and appearances, even his guards. But they never dared question or disobey him. They just do whatever he says. No doubts or objections.”

“A two-faced king. Great. No wonder the humans wanted to eat him.”

“Uh, Charlie? I…… heh-heh. I kinda forgot about that part,” Fabian grimaced.

“What part?”

“The part about humans. I forgot they existed in my second story. And I forgot they are sworn enemies of the merfolks. That’s why mentioning anything even remotely human-related to the king, like the word ‘land’, really ticks him off.”

“YOU FORGOT ABOUT THE EXISTENCE YOUR OWN SPECIES OF BEINGS IN YOUR OWN STORY?!” Charlie screamed in disbelief.

“Hey, I don’t really pay that much attention to the humans in that story. I don’t write in such detail about them. So I just forgot about them for a while, okay? You can’t expect me to remember everything. Besides, it’s still a work in progress. Still gotta iron out a lotta details.”

“Well, if I were you, I would make all the humans turn vegetarian and get along well with the merfolk. So the king doesn’t have to be two-faced anymore.”

“You’re not exactly vegetarian, my friend.”

“And you’re not exactly a good writer either.”

“Hey! Let it go already, will you? We got out of there. We escaped. We’re safe now. That’s all that matters. And we’re not going back there anytime soon, that’s for sure.”

“I will let it go as soon as I can get over the image of me and the class bully in the same character.”

“Hmph.”

“So where are we now?”

They looked around. It was dark, humid, and quiet. A strange musty smell hung over them and filled their nostrils. Then suddenly lights came on from above and nearly blinded the boys. They squinted and shielded their faces with their arms to protect themselves from the glare.

“And theeeeeese are our humans! A very special thank you to planet Earth for having them over tonight. We are absolutely astounded by the primitive nature of these bizarre creatures.”

Applause broke out, and the boys’ eyes and ears slowly adjusted to their surroundings. Once they fully settled, the sight took their breaths away.

“Omigosh. We… Fabian, we’re on some kind of alien talk show! In f-f-front of… lots of aliens!”

“Aliens?” Fabian leaned forward to look at the curious crowd looking back at them. “They’re not aliens. Well, not completely anyway.”

“What?”

“In this third and final story of mine, a monster fused the DNAs of humans and aliens together, creating a hybrid species that are not quite like us but very similar to us at the same time. They can speak human languages, reproduce like humans and live like normal humans. They can also survive on planets in the Solar System other than Earth. Humans still live on Earth here, but they’re often abducted by this species for experimental research or for entertainment purposes.”

“Do these creatures hurt humans?”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“So which planet are we on now?”

“I don’t know. But everything looks so red here. So I’m guessing Mars, the Red Planet.”

“Aaaaaaaand the humans are in conversation again! As you can hear, they can speak the same language as we do. So they are not that different from us, the mixed human-alien race, after all!”

The crowd hooted and cheered, and Fabian then noticed that he and Charlie were in some kind of transparent glass chamber with oxygen in it on stage, barricaded from the rest of the planet.

“Hey, you!” Fabian pointed at the host of the show. Fabian decided to use his power as the writer-s***h-creator of his worlds to get him and Charlie out of this tight spot.

“Oh, one of the humans is calling me. Heheheh. What do you want, little human?” The host pointed his microphone at the boys.

“Listen. My name is Fabian. I am the creator of the human, alien, as well as the hybrid species in this story. Without me, all of you wouldn’t exist! My friend Charlie and I would like to go back to Earth. We cannot survive in this atmosphere, and we rather not stay cooped up in a glass chamber on a foreign planet all day.”

“Ah…… it seems our humans want to go home. And this one,” the host pointed at Fabian, “is telling me he is some kind of creator of the whole universe and its beings — of US, too, he says! Oh, the human species can be so amusing!”

The crowd laughed. Fabian’s heart sank.

“How come the merfolks acknowledged you as their creator but not this hybrid species?” Charlie asked.

“I don’t know. We humans here trapped in a glass chamber like experimental subjects and are being pointed and laughed at. I guess these guys have gotten to the point where they treat pure humans like jokes now. Don’t know how they got there.”

“How do we get out of here now?” Charlie cried and banged on the glass.

“I have an idea. But we have to wait until the show is over.”

When the curtains went down and the audience began to leave, the boys were wheeled backstage and left inside the glass chamber. A large, muscular-looking hybrid walked up to them. Judging by its uniform and the badges on it, Fabian guessed that he was the commander of the hybrid race. He knocked on the glass.

“So, humans. The host of the show just told me you’d like to be sent back to Earth.”

“YES!” Charlie and Fabian answered in unison.

The commander sighed. “As much as we, the half-human, half-alien race, acknowledge and credit the humans for forming part of our DNA, I’m afraid we’ll have to keep the two of you as subjects for experimental research purposes.”

“WHAT?!” Fabian exclaimed.

“As respectable subjects. Not to worry, Earthlings. We shall take every precaution to ensure that no harm will fall upon you. Our experiments are highly ethical, safe, and won’t harm a hair on your head. We the hybrid race respect humans on Mars. Because if it weren’t for humans, we wouldn’t exist.”

“That’s nice of y’all,” muttered Charlie.

“However, that means the two of you have to be kept locked up so that you can be studied here. We will be picking out strands of your DNA to study more on the human half of our species. I’m regretfully sorry, but you may not go back to Earth.”

When the commander finished speaking, steam began oozing out of Fabian’s ears. “This is ridiculous!” he stormed from behind the glass. “First, you creatures treat us like jokes to be put on show. Then you lock us up in a chamber and won’t let us go home to keep us as subjects for experiments against our will, picking us apart strand by strand of DNA! You claim that your species respect humans, but I don’t really consider this ‘respecting the human race’ if you ask me!”

The commander exhaled. “Phew. They did warn me back in training that humans can be rather uncooperative and stubborn. They’re not much different from us, really!” The commander faced the boys. “Let me put it this way. If you refuse to help contribute to us in the field of science, I shall put an official order to release the both of you from this chamber here, and let you suffocate in our human-unfriendly atmosphere.”

That shut them up fast. But Fabian was still seething. The commander turned on his heels and left backstage.

“F-F-F-Fabian? Can we just grab your notebook and get the heck outta here? I wanna go home!”

“Wait. Just a moment, Charles. Calm down. I do remember writing about the part where the hybrid species can ride a rocket ship back to Earth to collect more human subjects. I’m sure of it! I wanna ride that rocket. Can we stay a little longer? Please? I’ll keep my notebook close to me and only use it when we REALLY have to.”

“Like now, please?”

“No, not yet,” Fabian insisted.

Charlie trembled. “You know, Fabian, your stories are really cool. I was wrong about you being a bad writer. Sorry for that. But I just wanna go home right now. I’m scared of what these guys will do to us.”

Fabian put an arm around Charlie. “If our plan to get to the rocket ship — and our journey home — fails in any way, THEN we’ll use my notebook, okay? As long as we still have it, we can go home any time, any place.”

“You better not lose it then.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll never let it get separated from me.”

“So where’s the rocket ship? And how do we get out of here without suffocating?”

“I’m just about to get to it.”

Fabian pulled out his notebook and pen from his backpack. Strangely, they were the only two items not wet from their previous underwater merfolk adventure. He began scribbling some notes inside. Suddenly, the gas chamber opened by itself. Charlie held his breath, but Fabian told him to let go. He did, and began breathing normally.

“I just included oxygen into the mixture of air around here,” Fabian said. “Oxygen doesn’t affect the hybrids one bit, so they won’t notice anything. But we gotta hurry. Once they come here and notice the open gas chamber, they’ll know.”

Charlie relaxed stopped trembling. “I keep forgetting you can make ANYTHING come true by writing in your notebook, O Great Creator.”

Fabian laughed. “That’s what I do, alright. Let’s go!”