Far and beyond

A night worth forgetting

As Steph went home he was still bothered by the feeling that had him on the edge during the day. He was still fearing for Monsa. Eventually, a warm greeting by Margarita made him feel much better.

- Hey there girl. Do you miss your mommy? Yes you do, yes you do. I miss her too love. But don't worry. She will be back soon. How was your day? Did you have fun? Did you catch something? Or did you get scared of those weird glowing butterflies again? - Steph needed someone to talk to and Margarita was the only one nearby. She would have to do. He was never into expressing emotions to non human life forms. He wasn't expressing too much emotions to human life forms either. But this day had him on the edge. He was feeling scared and confused. He needed someone to talk to. He really did.

After showing love to Margarita, he made sure she is well fed. He reached out to the cabinets above the sink and grabbed a can of dog food. He wanted to open it and put the contents in the bowl, but something changed his mind. He read the ingredients first. He did not like what he saw. He looked at Margarita as she was sitting patiently. She had her ears perked up and her eyes wide open. 

- Nah, this isn't good enough for you. You're eating stake tonight. Real stake! - Steph said with excitement.

He placed the dog food back in the cabinet and opened the freezer. He pulled out two slices of meat. They have been saved for a special occasion but he had a couple of beers and Monsa didn't really like steak anyways. He figured that since she always found an excuse for not eating steak, it might as well go to Margarita. At least she would appreciate it. He placed in a plastic box similar to a microwave and clicked defrost. Within a minute the meat was defrosted. He then placed it in a pan. He selected "stake" and then he selected "medium" and clicked start. He knew that it would be better if he did it manually but he didn't really feel like it. After the stake was done the whole house was filled with a pleasant smell. In the meanwhile Steph also made some potatoes. He and Monsa had planted them last season and they have been freshly picked from their garden. It was quite the dinner. He made sure to cut the stake into pieces before giving it to Margarita. She was too young to chew a whole stake at one go. He watched her with a gentle smile as she ate away happily. He didn't remember if she was fed in the morning, but then again, Monsa never forgets those things. Margarita was chewing away like there was no tomorrow. Steph wasn't sure if she was eating so fast because she really enjoyed the meal or because she was really hungry. 

After the meal that they both enjoyed, Steph and Margarita were on the couch, lazily. Even though it was still light outside their bodies were telling them it was time to sleep. There was a show on the tv about wildlife. It was saying something about all the species that humans have encountered. It mostly sounded educational. It seemed to be made for teenagers. It had a sort of an optimistic view on the world. It was explaining how humans visited planets that were nothing like we could have ever imagined and found a way to make them inhabitable. It spoke about all the different shapes and sizes that extraterrestrial life could take. From the smallest bacteria to the biggest, dinosaur like reptilians. It spoke about everything but never mentioned anything about intelligent life. It was always something bright and colorful and friendly as well. It made no effort to portray any of them as any kind of danger. It was almost like it knew what was bothering him and tried to calm him down. One of the animals in particular had his attention. It showed a cat like species. It was nothing like earth cats, but it was the closest thing you could compare it to. Steph had seen one of them live. It was from their planet. He came across it while he was in the uninhabitable zone, on the hot side. It had skin that was thick and acted as a heat insulator. It was also cold blooded. It used spikes on it's tail to serve as heat collector to warm it's blood. It had it's heart-like organ near it's hind legs. It pumped the warm blood, which was translucent by the way, from it's tail to the rest of it's body. This meant that it was most commonly seen with it's tail up in the air, high above it's body, so that the warmed blood can more easily flow to it's organs. In the program they portrayed it like an animal with a scary appearance, but other than that, completely harmless. It said that it was scared of humans and that it avoided contact.

- That's not how I remember it. When I first saw it, that thing, it scared the life out of me. It's much more scary in person. In the show they are cherry picking. - Steph looked at Margarita. Her eyes were halfway closed and she didn't seem to be paying him any attention. She was just cuddled up next to him with her head on his legs. - You wouldn't understand anyways. You've never been away further than half a days walk from this house. That thing, that "harmless" cat like, thing, it lives so far away from here that you will never be able to see it. And you're lucky. That s**t is scary.

After Steph let out a deep sigh because Margarita could not understand anything he was saying and he really wanted her to, he continued reimagining the beast in his head. First thing that he would change in the show is to show it in it's true habitat. It was shown in some desert like place. With big rocks and yellow sands. It looked like somewhere that lions used to live on Earth. But it didn't live in anything like that. It lived in an uber bright setting. Always day, always so bright. He wasn't sure how the thing used it's eyes in such a bright place. They had to dim their deflectors to the max, and even then it was unpleasant to look up. Also, the rocks, they were much more dark. Almost burnt. And there was no sand. It was only dark, dried rocks. Some yellowish plants here and there in the cracks of the earth lingered, but not much life at all. They used the naturally formed deep gullies to move in relative shade. Heading to an underground mine that they needed to visit to fix some defect they had to ditch the vehicle about a kilometer before their end goal and walk because the gulley narrowed too much and they were afraid of getting stuck. Then, as the team of three was walking, one of them noticed a strange silhouette above them. They looked up but couldn't see what it was. It was only when it jumped down on one of the men that Steph could really see what it was. He tried to stun it but his taser didn't do any good. It tried to bite through the clothes of the man on the ground but it's teeth were seemingly not sharp enough to pierce his clothes. They tried to stab it but it's blubber prevented them from doing any serious damage. Steph remembered how bad it hurt when it swung it's tail and hit him on the arm. One of the boney spikes left a mark on his skin that he had to get stiches for. They were finally able to get rid of it after blasting it with an audial deterrent. It was a fancy way of saying they played really loud sounds. At the end no one was seriously hurt but calling this thing harmless and even afraid of humans was a falsity. If it was saying that this thing was harmless then he imagined that some of the others might be a bit untrue as well. 

After the show finished, Steph lifted Margarita into his arms and placed her in her small round bed next to his. He felt like he needed a shower, but he was too tired to bother. Monsa won't be sleeping next to him tonight so he had no one to bother if he spent the night in bed smelly. As soon as he went to bed and made himself comfortable, Margarita, who was deep asleep just a moment ago, had crawled up next to him. Usually there was no room for her in the bed, but since there was no one sleeping next to him, Steph allowed her presence. It comforted him. 

That night he was haunted by strange dreams. It was not uncommon for him to have dreams that would scare the average person, but they were usually about him and his experience. This time, he had a dream about Monsa. He woke up covered in sweat, Margarita standing over him with her eyes wide open and her ears perked up. He checked the time, he was sleeping for almost five hours. He needed to be at work in two hours. He could sleep some more, but he would have to change the sheets first and he was not in the mood. Besides, he wanted to drive to work and he could be late if he doesn't leave soon and if there's traffic. He also had to finish the report he promised. He might as well just toss the sheets in the wash and head out now. He showered quickly, put on basic clothes. He took some coffee in his thermos and went for the car. He made sure to feed Margarita pet her a bit. She looked so happy in that moment. He really felt the urge to take her with him but he knew an act like that would not be applauded by Viktoria. After the morning proceedings were done, he headed for the garage. He loved his car. It was a hybrid fuel vehicle based on the design of a Lotus Evora. It was small, only for two people. It also had five engines and almost no storage. Four of the engines were electric and powered each wheel independently while the fifth was a high octane petrol engine. He preferred driving it on petrol because of the sound and the feel, however, the electric engines provided far better performance. Not to mention the price of the petrol it used, compared to the price of electricity made it borderline insane to not use electricity on long drives. He powered up his vehicle and headed to the capital. The dream he had was still bothering him. He couldn't remember the details of it, but the feeling it caused still lingered. He had not time for it though, he needed to focus on the report he was going to write.