Creature Worlds: Solar Slick Read Online Free PDF Page A

universe, so everyone could understand one another. Except for sneaking into civilization for the baby’s shots, we’d make our home hiding out deep in the jungle like fugitives. We’d have to live in a cave or in a hut or something, eating god-knows-what. Tigg had said that Lizord young ate bugs.
    Great.
    I guess I didn’t have to worry whether I was going to breast or bottle-feed.
    An alarm suddenly sounded and Tigg and I both scurried off the bunk and put on our clothes. Earth was nearing. Had we spent two hours fucking? How time flies.
    Tigg switched off autopilot and assumed control of the vessel. Both of us fastened our seat belts while we entered into Earth’s atmosphere.
    “Where’s our destination?” I queried.
    “I think perhaps we should start at your home. Where is it located?”
    It seemed as good a place as any. There was an area to land the craft undetected and it was isolated enough to suit our purpose. I gave Tigg the co-ordinates and several minutes later we were sailing in for a soft landing. We exited the craft and I helped him cover it over with branches to shield it from prying eyes. Tigg brushed his hands off on his pants and looked around the area. There was a time difference between Earth and Treox. Here it was nearly dusk, and the tall trees dotting the clearing cast sinister shadows that swayed eerily in the warm breeze.
    “Is that your home?” Tigg pointed to the small, dilapidated cabin nestled on the edge of the forest.
    “Yeah.” I had to admit it was a sight for sore eyes. Shortly after my parents’ deaths I’d abandoned this place and all its memories and moved into the big city. Since I could control my shifting, I’d had no problem fitting in with the rest of the population. I’d worked odd jobs and scraped by, even had a tiny apartment on the eighth floor in the slum end of town. When Clay and I hooked up and I entered the high life of crime I left my little place and moved into his high-rise apartment with him.
    Tigg and I strolled over to the cabin. The expression on his face was thoughtful. “Haven’t been here in a while, have you?”
    “What gave it away?”
    He shrugged, being too polite to say anything.
    When I tried the front door it was locked. I reached up over the frame and felt around for the key I’d left hidden. It was still there.
    Once I’d unlocked the door and pushed it open, I stood upon the threshold suddenly wary to enter. What ghosts were waiting to ransack my heart? Would it be the echo of my mother’s laughter? Or perhaps the sight of my father’s slippers still tucked beneath his favorite chair?
    “You okay?” Tigg’s heavy hand came to rest on my shoulder. I shook off my hesitation and stepped forward.
    “Sure, fine,” I said, swallowing down the lump forming in my throat.
    In the off chance I may one day return home again, I’d continued to pay the utility bills out of my ill-gotten gains, so when I switched on the light it worked. I gazed around and saw that nothing had changed. My eyes darted around the large central room toward the kitchen half expecting to see Mom cooking up a storm. A counter divided the kitchen from the rest of the room. Two small bedrooms and a bathroom door could be entered from off the main room as well.
    “Cozy,” Tigg said.
    “It’s home.”
    He walked over to the heavy wooden table near the kitchen, which served as our dining area. All meals had been eaten together at this table as a family. I could almost picture us all sitting there, laughing and talking about our adventures down at the wide stream that ran through our property. It’d been our favorite place to hike together.
    “What’s this?” Tigg asked picking up a folder filled with stacks of papers my father had endlessly studied.
    “I dunno,” I said, coming closer and taking it from Tigg’s hands. I put it down on the table and opened it up. “Looks like a bunch of scientific notes.” My parents had been scientists.
    “What were they