In Alien Hands: Meeting Merle

Lost pt. 1 - Merle

It took Holli a while to figure out that we wanted her to explore. Grene and I eventually took seats on a nearby bench, having resolved to follow the little human about the park. It was a rather large park, but entirely enclosed and meant for humans. The most dangerous thing here was a shallow lake, and while I had heard a human could still drown in it, it would take some doing. Any conscious human could simply sit upright and be well above the surface of the water. I had been sold that several Plath fish lived in the lake, being ideal for the shallow lake and harmless.

Holli had slowly wandered from us to examine a nearby tree. The website for the park claimed that several dozen of the trees had weather proof toys embedded in them, designed to entertain and stimulate humans. It was all a bit more than I thought necessary, but Grene assured me it was okay. All the toys were safe, as was all of the park.

Holli clearly didn't know that, as she took off running when one of the toys sprang to life. It was a mechanical bird, and it even emitted a - albeit bad - bird sound. I watched as Holli took of running and appeared to trip over her own feet and tumble down the hill. It was quite cute, but I knew she might be quite frightened after the fall.

"Well I guess we better go rescue her!" Grene chuckled, half to himself and half to me. We both got up and followed after her, deciding to take the stone stairs meant to stop exactly what Holli had done. The only problem with these stairs was that I couldn't really see the slope until I got to the bottom. We didn't see Holli at the bottom of the hill, so I assumed she had wandered into the little forest. Before long I caught a whiff of her and headed straight into the wooded area, taking my time and talking to my brother as I went.

Maybe I should have moved quicker, but the slope on the hill was relatively gradual. I knew there was little to no chance she was injured, and even then it would be minor. There wasn't anything that might even scare her around here anyways, except for the toys, apparently. I knew my human would be fine.

When we reached a spot Holli had actually been, she wasn't there. It appeared she had head back the way she came. I half considered waiting there for her eventual return, but I soon heard her voice.

"Merle?" After hearing her call, my brother an I turned to head up the hill to find my human.

Published 6/19/19