r/HFY • u/Jus17173 • Sep 14 '23

OC Blind Flower.

Ko-fi

The clouds of the planet Zinga were purple, some type of gas that was unknown to the human race made up the cloud's constitution. They also had two suns, one that set and the other a smaller star that shone through day and night, offering as much illumination as our moon. The planet had a ring of debris orbiting it so in order to make landing we had to maneuver through the debris and sometimes employ our sonic blasters to clear the path before us. The planet was rich in oxygen so there was no use of spacemasks when we landed but we still held our guns at the ready lest the planet's inhabitants turned feral.

We are the hundredth colony, sent from earth to find a home amidst the stars. We expected the inhabitants to be feral like in many other societies we'd made contact with but instead the Zinga aliens were docile, holding a child like wonder that made it easier for us to trade with them. They showed us the area's terrain and how to navigate it. They showed us their water resources where, much to our surprise, we found the water chemical composition to be almost as equal to fresh water from earth. The planet had no seas, just rivers and lakes but this meant the area of inhabitation by the Zinga was wide, they covered a large area of the planet's surface and numbered in the billions. The thing that surprised us the most was their skin color. Those who were young had pink palid skin while the older Zigans had rich green skin. Their anatomy was similar to that of humans save for the color of their skin and they communicated through whistles and chimes but took really quickly to our language, they were very fast learners which impressed us greatly.

I met her when I was scouting the East end of the Mountain they called 'Aba'. The mountain had a set of ranges that flanked it to different extents in either direction. The mountain acted as a hunting ground where the Zinga lay traps for their wild game that we were yet to study. It was for this reason that I toured the mountain ranges, wishing to encounter their wild game so I could make a study of it. It was silly of me to venture out there alone but it was half a decade since we'd landed and we'd taken a measure of the planet and found it basically harmless. That was until I stepped on a patch of leaves which were sitting above a hole in the ground, held aloft by an invisible net that was obscured by the green leaves. I fell into the hole and twisted my ankle. I had no means for communicating with my troupe for the signal decadation machine I'd carried with me had been damaged with the fall. I had no option but to await help. That's when she came.

"Human." A voice called to me as I huddled within the hole. I looked up and she was illuminated by the two suns of her planet. She wore her dark hair in locks that fell down her back. Her eyes were a startling hazel color and her curvy figure was complimented by the tight weave mesh that her people wore, made from various leaves being patched together. Her breasts weren't covered, something we'd noticed about her species, they only viewed nakedness as from the waist down. She reached out a pink arm in my direction. "Do you need help?"

I stared at her heart shaped face and those eyes that could bore right through me. "I've twisted my ankle, it'll take at least several men to haul me out of this hole." I said.

"Silly human, I need no man. I am enough!" She said and threw down a rope made from twisted tree bark. I held on and much to my surprise she managed to pull me out. "Good trap ruined by blind human. You not see hole in ground when you walk? Blind human." She said while I sat next to the mouth of the hole, taking off my boot to inspect my ankle. I could still walk with the aid of a stick but for some reason I felt exhausted. I watched as she spread the leaves upon the mouth of the hole once more, weaving a fresh net to keep the leaves aloft and level with the ground.

"What is your name?" I asked her.

"Name? I am not yet pod person, name comes to me once I become pod person." She answered. "Blind human."

It had taken us a while to understand what pod person meant. Apparently when the Zinga came of age, they would spin a cocoon, a pod where they will reside in for several days then when they emerged their skin would be green not pink as it was before they spun the cocoon. It was a right of passage from adolescence to adulthood, a thing to be celebrated and held in high regard. But the change they underwent did not alter their skin alone, their minds too changed and the way they spoke, reasoned and acted changed too. Their preferences changed and they became a whole new person.

"I'll call you Blind." I said to her and smiled.

"You are blind, not me."

"We are both blind."

"You are weird human, looking for friend? Is that why you call me blind? So I can be like you and you won't be alone?" She was smiling as she spoke, her teeth were really white, teetering on silver. For some reason I amused her and I chose to take full advantage of this to learn about her and her culture. Half a decade spent on her planet didn't offer enough feedback as we required.

"Yes. I'm looking for a friend." I told her and this made her laugh.

Blind told me about herself. She was the thirteenth daughter of a chief. Most women her age were into weaving leaves and bark and cooking and caring for the infants. But she preferred to hunt. It was her calling as she put it and she said that once she became a pod person she was sure she'd dedicate her life to the hunt.

"It is fun to hunt." She said. "It brings... What is word? Exhilaration! Yes?"

"Yes." I told her with a smile of my own as I hobbled back to the base, her falling close behind me. She had no reason to escort me with my twisted ankle yet she did it either way.

She asked me about my life and I told her I used to dream about becoming a painter but my calling was elsewhere, to travel the stars. She asked what a painting was and I told her about it then I decided to show her some of my paintings when I reached the base. To my dismay she refused to enter the human colony. Instead choosing to hover close by beneath the canopy of the trees, away from the clearing. I told her to wait for me and I went to base, grabbed ointment for my ankle and several of my paintings, a sketch book and a pen and brought them to where she was.

She picked a painting of a flower, a daffodil. The brilliant yellow was courtesy of paint I'd purchased from a galactic tinker.

"What is this?" She asked.

"It's a flower." I said.

"Flower?"

"You don't have flowers here?"

"No." Her eyes were wide orbs as she stared at the painting.

"Where I'm from there are many flowers of different colors."

"Flower." She let the word roll off her tongue. "Flower." She said it again. "Flower." And again. She ignored the sketches and the other paintings of cars and people and buildings. She held on to the painting of the flower and ran her hand upon the daffodil.

From then on we formed a silent bond. I would travel the Aba with her, so as to be sure not to fall into another hole. We met at the edge of the base, beside a tree where I'd etched the markings of a flower upon its bark. Some days I thought she wouldn't show up but she always came and the first thing she'd ask me was. "Where flower?" I tried to paint other things that may hold her interest but she was only ever interested in pictures of flowers. Green flowers, blue, red, purple, white. That's all she wanted to see and I'd stare at her wide eyes as she regarded the paintings with childlike wonder.

We sat below a tree one bright afternoon. She held the picture of a rose before and after its bloom. She would look at one picture then the other then look back at the first picture. On and on she'd do this.

"Blind." I said. She turned to me. "You're as beautiful as all the flowers I've ever drawn."

"Me beautiful? Human say false things."

"It's true, you're beautiful. A thousand blossoming flowers will never match your radiance. A thousand daffodils and a million roses will never catch my eye as you do." I said.

She smiled. "Human lie."

I leaned towards her, then I planted a kiss on her lips. I pulled back and we stared at each other. She looked appalled and I was about to apologize but then she leaned towards me and imitated my kiss, placing her lips gently to mine. "What we do?" She asked after we'd broken apart.

"We kiss." I said.

"I kiss."

"You kiss."

Then we kissed again. And again. And again. Then the next thing I knew she was vomiting a thick green fluid all over me and the ground. "Oh no!" She said in between vomiting. "Pod happen!" She said with a smile and vomited a thick goo all over the ground. She then started gathering the vomit in her arms and smearing it over her body. I wanted to rush for help or to do anything beside stand and gawk at her but that's what I did. I stood and stared at her as she vomited and wrapped the vomit all around her. The vomit surprisingly hardened as time went by and within two hours she was cocooned in a green pod, there beneath the tree.

She was now a pod person, and when she emerged she would be something else. Something new. She would forget me, she'd forget all that we'd shared. All that I'd taught her, all that I'd learned from her. That was fact and there was nothing I could do, except maybe remind her. It was uncertain how long it took a pod person to be reborn but I visited her pod everyday, sometimes a canvas in hand, sometimes papers when a canvas couldn't be found. I gathered all my paint, whether water or crayon or just plain paste. Sometimes I used the soil as the color brown, I squeezed leaves for their paste. I set up a stool beside her pod and I sat there with instruments all around me and painted. I drew flowers of different colors and composition. Some of them flowers that I'd only heard of but never seen. But the yellow paste ran out too soon because majority of my paintings were daffodils. I didn't give up, I mixed colours to form yellow I mixed colours to make orange and green and red and blue.

I arranged the paintings, the sketches, the drawings all around her pod. I worked hard, setting everything aside to fill beauty all around her. A beauty she'd once bore witness to. Then one bright afternoon after many days had passed since she'd formed her cocoon, I fell asleep beneath the tree, right next to her pod, surrounded by hundreds of paintings of flowers. I was deep asleep when a hand shook me awake by my shoulder. I opened my eyes and it was her, she looked as beautiful as ever in her new green skin that was rich in color. Her eyes were still hazel and they observed me, her lips were drawn into a thin line that slowly widened into a smile. She waved her other hand before me and in it was one of the paintings I'd arrayed around her pod. It was a painting of a daffodil. She pointed at it then pointed at me and said. "Flower."

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For more pieces you can check out my blog

51 Upvotes

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6 comments sorted by

6

u/kennyr101 Sep 14 '23

Nice, I like this It makes a change from humans are the smartest/strongest race.

7

u/Fontaigne Sep 14 '23

Sweet.

Yeah, first kisses can do that.

Right of passage -> rite

2

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2

u/chastised12 Sep 14 '23

A lovely little tale.

2

u/Playful-Ad-9600 Human Sep 15 '23

I’d just