I was out playing on the plain with my six brothers, five sisters, and some friends when we heard a loud noise. It was like an elephant stampede without such forceful vibrations. My oldest brother, Ga’Duckuk, told us all to head back home before whatever it was came by. I, being the youngest and most curious member of the pack, wanted to stick around to see what was making this weird noise.

“B’dat, are you coming?”

I turned to see my sister Ooot glaring back at me. She was much darker than I was and thus she blended in with the desert sand better.

“I just want to see what is making that noise. I really want to know what it is. I just really like exploring and I promise I won’t get into any trouble, so please can I wait and see what it is.”

“Ga’Duckuk said to go back, and he’s our most knowledgeable brother. If you ask him what the noise is he will probably be able to tell you.”

Ooot always tried to talk me out of doing things I wanted to do. Like the time I wanted to race Essess. I knew that I could win. Essess has no legs and has to crawl on his stomach, so it would be easy to beat him. Ooot convinced me that Essess just wanted to lure me away from the family so that he could attack me.

“Ooot,” I whined, “I want to see what it looks like.”

Suddenly I realized that the noise was too loud for me to hear Ooot’s reply. Her lips moved but I couldn’t hear her. She pointed just behind me. When I turned I could see this large object moving towards us. It moved faster than an gazelle and looked more powerful than an elephant. It had a large silver square cavity that sat atop six black circles which seemed to be propelling this thing. The noon sun shined into my eyes from the silver thing. It came straight toward us. Ooot pulled at my back trying to get me to run. I didn’t. I couldn’t. The shiny square thing just flew along the plain; it was unlike anything I’d ever seen before. Then it stopped moving. I had never seen anything stop so instantly.

“B’dat, if you don’t come with me this instant I’m going to leave you here.”

I could hear Ooot screaming in my ear, but I couldn’t listen to her. I was mesmerized.

I assume that Ooot left after that. I’m not sure exactly when she scurried back home, because I couldn’t keep my eyes off of the shiny-thing. A side of the shiny thing opened up wide and a bunch of giant creatures jumped down from the square and landed on the ground below them. I could feel the vibrations of their feet on the ground beneath me. I slowly crept forward to get a better look at these giant creatures. Each one was at least ten times my size and had four legs, two of which didn’t look anything like flesh that I had ever seen. It was like just a thick multicolored hoof. Each being had different color hooves. I could see that their hooves had a grooved bottom, probably for tractions. An odd rope like material was laced onto each hoof as well. The other two legs were higher up on the being and never made contact with the floor. Considering that I spent most of my time sitting or standing on my hind legs, this was not an odd thing. The odd thing was that each of these upper arms had long fingers but no fur or claws to help them grip things better.

As I inched forward I could hear them communicating in a strange language. One, probably the leader, had far longer hair than the others. This long haired creature pointed at me. I was almost as scared as I was curious. The creatures started to move towards me. I moved backwards, and nearly tripped over my tale. But their legs were too long and I could not get away from them. They formed a circle around me and I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t get away.

“Leave me alone. I just want to go home.” I whined and whined, but they didn’t care about what I was saying. Then one of the creatures took out this long narrow tube. Somehow I knew it wasn’t a good thing. The last thing I remember was a loud noise.

When I awoke I was in a small three walled room, the other side of the room had hard shiny bars trapping me inside. I looked around the dark room and saw tons of other little rooms. Each room held some poor creature. Some of the creatures I recognized, they had captured a rabbit and a couple of birds that looked like the ones that my mom likes to serve for dinner. Other creatures looked like they were from another world. One in particular caught my eye because it was stood on four legs each equipped with hooves, just a bit smaller and harder looking than those of my captures, and on this creature’s head, were these two spear-like objects. Above this creature’s room was a series of cryptic letters. I was so scared I started to cry for my mommy and yell for help. All of the creatures started to stare at me; a few of them spoke, but all spoke different languages and I couldn’t understand any of them.

“I want to go home. I need to go home. Does anyone understand me?”

I called out. The sudden eruption of a roar silenced the room. Then all of the creatures turned their heads towards one corner of the room. I had to push my whisker covered snout out through the bars in order to see what they were all staring at. In the corner of this prison, in a caged section which took up almost a quarter of the prison sat this giant creature that looked almost identical to my captures. Except it didn’t have any bone things on any of its legs. It growled in some strange language. Then it looked towards a creature that looked like smaller ugly grey version of me. I noticed that it had a grey puffy tail nearly the size of its body. The grey creature stood up and started to speak.

“Gore Gotta Numa demandeth hush, as we dis cover our fresh comer, whose cage call it Sub African Mere Cat.”

It spoke in a language similar enough to my own that I could understand him, or her. Then it hit me as that little grey creature said a word something about me that I had heard before. “Africa” that was my home. Then the creature spoke in another language – maybe it was multiple languages – for a bit of time. After it finished speaking, the giant creature in the big cage once again spoke with its growls.
The creature with the puffy tail started to speak again. But it did so in one of the other languages first. Each time he started with the words “Gore Gotta Numa.” I assume that it was a name. It sounded like a powerful name but the puffy tailed creature had such a high pitched voice that it sounded more comical then authoritative.

“Gore Gotta Numa,” I laughed to myself at his voice,
“demandeth the fresh comer to talk out if he recognizes words.”

“I understand you.” I sounded so meek but couldn’t rectify it. I waited for a long time to see if anyone would respond. Finally the big caged creature made a series of soft growls. Then the puffy tailed being spoke to me.

“Be greeted. I am called Gada, the wordy-one. The gorilla called Gore Gotta Numa is our leader. He is learn-ed and communicates with our captures: Greg, Mia, and Steven. Each of us was stolen from our land of life in order for the human captures to experiment.” I had never heard the word “experiment” but it sounded scary.

“What do you mean ‘experiment’?” I called out, trying to not to sound as frightened as I was. Gada spoke to Gore Gotta Numa, who growled as I expected.

“Gore Gotta Numa tells of talking. The human captures seek to speak with us. We have created a chain of talking. The captures refuse to think that different species can talk to each other. So we let them try to communicate. They are a complex yet simple minded species. If we no begrudge them, they not begrudge us.” It sounds like this is going to be my home for a while. I don’t want to live here.

“How do I get home?” I asked and was shocked to hear a reply from the cage next to mine.

“Never,” a low dry voice spoke. “Never request for home. Never long for home. This is your home now. If you try to escape we shall thwart you.” Suddenly I heard I sound like that of small stones banging together. “If you can not handle it, then I can end your suffering.” Two sharp curved spears bust through the wall of my room and then retracted. Through the holes that the spears made I saw a brown and black evil looking snake peering back at me.

I’ll never get home. The thought hit me like backing into a cactus. My spine trembled, my head ached, and I urinated on the floor. I looked around realizing how many of the creatures could easily kill me. I broke down. And my first day here ended with me crying in a puddle of my own pee.

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