STORY: The Barbarian of Planet Blaaarghllbbleeegh

[Nomad Of Norad]

...dropped defensively to the ground, lying flat and face-down. And then he cautiously turned over to face up, and saw that the metal-winged thing had just kept on going on into the distance. It hadn't really been flying AT him as overflying him, and he'd just happened to be looking into the hole in the ground the moment it flew out of it... seemingly right at him.

And a moment later, another one of the winged things flew out of the hole and headed off in the direction the other one had gone. This time he watched it with more detachment instead of startlement. It was a humanoid-looking thing, all shiny and metal, with something like condor's wings spread out from the back.

After a bit, he carefully went around to the side of the hole, looking for a way down that didn't involve sprouting wings of his own, and soon found what looked like a switchback trail going down the side of the opening. Pretty soon he lead the pack lizard along to that part of the hole, and started down it, where he saw...

[jseamus]

... a strange creature standing in his path. It was somewhat humanoid, except for its long head and back-turned knees. It had small extra arms at each side of its waist. Even though he had never seen one before, Kemm recognized it as one of the Mathrikans, or hy Emmitarmosoi as they called themselves.



The Mathrikan stood still, as though in a trance. It rested one shoulder on the wall of the chasm, its body slack but upright. As Kemm approached , the Mathrikan seemed to come slowly to life like a marionette pulled up by an unsteady hand. Its mouth openned and shut several times before a sound finally came out. It was speaking in a language which Kemm could not even begin to understand. Even with his preternatural sense he had no way of understanding the content of this creatures speech.

The creature seemed to realize this, and began to switch from language to language, looking for one that would convey its intents to this human. The Mathrikans have a strange ability to speak almost any language, provided they can find out which one they are trying to speak. As the creature tested each speech, Kemm began to understand more and more of what it was saying. It was moving toward something he was familiar with.

"Drjigrit handrjigoyij you oryogrijatyatgaiharndarg what ..."

"Wait! I understand that language. Go back."

"What are you gratyagi ang here?"

Kemm answered...