A human goes to a Havenworld and an animal tries their very hardest to attack them. It is adorable! -- Anon Guest
If there wasn't a precedent for optimistically-named worlds turning into ironic hellscapes, Human Caer would have named this world Elysium. The air was sweet, the water contained zero pathogens, the fruit and vegetation were simple and not even remotely infused with all the subtle chemical weaponry that Caer was used to. It was bland, but nourishing, so it had her grudging pass.
She didn't even notice the critter until she got back to her rough landing campsite. There, once the dinner was on the fire, she spotted the small fluffy thing vigorously butting at her right boot. According to the tracks, it had been following her for some time. It was cute - all creatures from a Havenworld were cute - and evidently pissed off.
"You're going to exhaust yourself, little dude..." Caer warned. She sliced off a piece of something tasty-ish and offered it in front of Fluffy's nose. Making friend should have been easy. Not with this little fellow. She laughed as it tried to bite her fingers.
She snuck in a little bit of the native fruit, and at least distracted Fluffy for a couple of minutes. Minutes that she used to slice up more fruit.
"So what'd I do to you, huh? Got too close to your nest? Or did I threaten your territory?"
As long as she kept offering bits of fruit, Fluffy was satisfied. It still sounded angry as it worked on the food.
"I get it, I get it. You want me off your dang planet. Bad news, Fluffy, I'm pretty much stuck here until I can rebuild my Klystron Manifold. You got any clues on that?"
Fluffy made a small growling noise, sounding like a kitten making 'back off' noises to its littermates at the food bowl.
"Yeah, I thought not," sighed Caer, and handed Fluffy another slice.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / Magone]
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