FCF - The Carnivorous Plant

The visitors in the village

This chapter is the first translation from Czech to English. You are welcome to rewrite it, if you make it better, I will send you 10 000 Gift Points.

Please note that I'm trying to write simplest way possible. The story is moved forwards mostly just by using various events.

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Sammy and John walk alone in the jungle. Sammy thinks he knows what’s going on, but he doesn’t want to talk about it out loud.
"How long have we been going after them?"
"13 minutes and 14 seconds." John replies mechanically.
“The pressure in my head has increased.”
“Are you alright, Sammy?”
"So far, I have been successfully blocking it, but we need to find out where it is coming from. It's like the telepathic signal changed somehow. What exactly those aliens shouted as they were running away?"
"One of them mentioned the name Raali."
Sammy thinks. With his head somewhere else, he automatically shoots a pair of preventative pulses into the carnivorous leaves.
To yell something unknown and run away from it in a place with lots of carnivorous plants, sounds like it wasn’t a coincidence, but one thing was probably linked to the other. But Sammy doesn’t get why they didn’t see “it” as well.
Until it proves otherwise, Sammy must count with the variant that they are space pirates who stole a telepathic terminal.
"Raali is apparently a name for something that is trying to somehow subconsciously influence us. But on this planet there are no traces of technology."
"Please specify your conclusion ‘there are no traces of technology’." The android asks.
"Have your detectors found anything?"
"No."
Sammy’s getting impatient.
"Think a little, you moron! Where would such a telepathic signal come from?"
The tension in his head changes again and increases its intensity. Sammy’s adrenalin is growing. He tries not to panic. He subconsciously feels which way the inner emotions are dragging him and he tries to block them by thoughts of something similar, but harmless.
"My database lacks the required context." John replies.
"Exactly! They won´t have a name for it, if they don´t know it and haven´t seen it at least several times. Which means it’s not any kind of technology, because they would s*** themselves from our weapons a long ago... there must be something else going on."
Just as Sammy said that, suddenly in front of them a small Actan starts to dig itself out from under the ground. The earthlings stop and as quietly as possible they move behind a rock ledge close to them, so they don’t scare the little creature off.
"Are you taping it, John?"
"Recording is activated."
"Why are you so uptight? Didn’t they install you with some software for personality?"
It’s not particularly pleasant for Sammy to end up in the present situation with a similar companion.
"At the moment I don’t have any online connection for searching software."
The Actan curiously runs to one of the half-burned carnivorous leave and snuffles to it. It’s seems quite thrilled. It doesn’t carry the leave away, but eats it with an incredible speed.
Then it quickly runs to another one, pulls it and takes it underground.
"Mole?" Sammy wonders without waiting for any reply.
To his surprise, John begins to project a 3D model in front of him with anatomy of the creature they have just seen.
"A kind relative to humanoids on this planet. Unlike them it has strong jaws with prominent fangs and claws."
"What are the jaws and claws for?"
John responds to the question by projecting an earthly mole and beaver.
"Strong teeth of similar creatures on Earth are intended for processing wood. According to the shape, the claws are closest to mole, which uses them for digging."
"Where did you get the information?" Sammy asks surprised.
"Metal-head" is probably not completely useless. Maybe it just needs to be asked in the right way.
"Information on terrestrial animal species is normally a part of the projection unit for androids. During the flight, Jerry requested me to project for him daily human females of different shapes and in different positions."
"Oh really!"
"I'm sorry, if I knew that it would be necessary for the mission on the planet Zebra, I'd get to know you too."
Sammy laughs.
"Now look at you, you actually have a sense of humour! But now tell me more about that mole or whatever it is. Time is pushing us a bit."
John takes time to turn "on". His machine logic didn’t process Sammy’s note successfully.
"In addition to body structure, the most striking difference compared to the local humanoids is the different structure of their brain."
John now projects something that looks like a walnut with lots of symmetrical paths, diverging to the sides like on a plant leaves.
"The front lobes are completely missing and the joints, which should lead to them, are streaked with cranial bone."
"That little rat must be immune to the telepathy! Do you know what that means, John?"
"What does it mean, Sammy?"
"That thing is been here for millions of years.“

Earthling Jerry, aliens Jaffa and Neme go through the jungle together, their faces reflect many unasked questions.
Jerry feels a little guilty. He realizes that he’s been chasing the two aliens for about two kilometres through the jungle, although he doesn’t have a clue why. Why was he so impulsive, and why did the aliens came back for him when the feeling disappeared?
He tries unsuccessfully to call Sammy and John via his silent communicator, but in an environment without civilization and local connection, the signal can only reach a few kilometres. They have to be a little farther. Maybe they are already dead. All he can do is to follow the aliens so he doesn’t create suspicion, and in the meantime he´s gotta devise a plan.
Out of nowhere the jungle thins out and large stone walls appear before them. About two metres high, not too well aligned and not decorated.
One older inhabitant of the settlement is standing at the main gate without any doors and looks dumbfounded at Jerry. Obviously they aren’t used to see visitors ..at all.
Jerry surprisingly looks at the construction and settlement with farms, situated behind the gate.
There's something wrong, he thinks. The data from the probes available to them, didn’t mention any humanoids, never mind such buildings. Even analyst Rone himself recommended the graduates for this "simple" mission. Well, maybe that's why.
"What’s the monster doing here?" An extremely scaly guardian stops them.
Masking would therefore be a natural part of the equipment.
"This is our new friend. He comes from a distant village behind the desert and mountains." Jaffa explains.
"Let us in, dumbass. My wife’s going to be very angry by now." Neme goes on and pushes him aside. After all, he’s been one of the ‘elders’ too for a few years.
Behind the walls you can see the settlement in all its glory. Emerging agriculture and animal husbandry, single-story buildings of stone and wood. As in the classical, agriculturally developed civilization from the Stone Age, known from all the history books and two alien civilizations that humanity discovered already.
"Welcome to our village." Jaffa spreads his arms proudly as if he was holding the settlement in his hands.
"I'm glad you brought me to your place after all."
"It was definitely a Raali, like I said. Neme and myself know this sudden feeling very well!"
"Don’t worry!" Neme adds and smacks him on his back.
Such reaction means that Jerry is one of them and not a plant as they first thought.
Jerry recognizes, however, that he should continue to work on his identity of a visitor from a settlement beyond the mountains, who tried his luck and looks for help for his comrades.
"I never thought that it would be possible to live with animals!" Jerry shakes his head in surprise: "You must have lots of food!"
"Well, yes kid. It's been a few years since we came up with the idea of ​​farming."
Neme eagerly nods.
"Jaffa is too humble, he came up with that idea himself! Since then we have had a wonderful time!"
Everyone is thrilled. The aliens experience an unknown sense of pride over what they have done for someone completely strange to them. Their colony is the only one in Zebra. In fact, humanoids don’t live anywhere else.

Meanwhile, Sammy and John wander through the jungle and the telepathic signal transmitted to his brain keeps changing. At one point, everything seems a little scarier, then he feels hungry, sometimes everything seems more colourful and prettier to him.
"f***, it pisses me off, my moods change more often than those of a pregnant woman."
"Can I help you, Sammy?"
"Yeah, make the least possible noise. Don’t even breathe, nobody will see you here and that irritates the s*** out of me!"
"Activating silent mode." John replies calmly.
"I have to concentrate on something else other than my own thoughts. Would you like to sing? Maybe it will attract the natives."
"To sing?"
It doesn’t seem that John completely understood. But when Sammy starts, he repeats the words after him.
My mood is obviously getting better, fortunately, the entire forest is dead, Sammy believes.

A whole crowd of aliens from the settlement surround Jerry. Lots of pregnant women and children up to ten years of age.
"That's alright, calm down. It's our new friend from a distant settlement beyond the mountains," Jaffa explains.
Present faces are even more curious and discuss it noisily among themselves.
"Look how big and white he is!"
"What is he wearing?"
"He looks like someone has skinned him!"
The crowd bursts into laughter.
The smallest children try to touch Jerry, until a pregnant women pushes them away.
"It looks like a ghost." A little girl babbles with her high voice.
Jerry starts to become annoyed. He tries to encourage Jaffa and Neme to get him out of the curious crowd.
"The settlement, from which Jerry comes, is behind the desert and mountains at the end of the world!"
"Uh?" The whole crowd sighs in disbelief.
"He came to see how we farm here to help his people. It was a long journey, so give him a bit of freedom, let him rest." Jaffa continues dominantly.
Neme is obviously impressed by the tone of his voice. His old friend, he meets every day, has the final word in the entire village!
Jerry feels a little bit awkward. They make a space for him to pass.
Finally, if I had a mask, this monkey business could be avoided completely. Good thing they're not cannibals, Jerry thinks, while he registers a woman who isn’t pregnant and not so flaky, how she stares at him. The woman licks her lips and sends him kisses.
"So are we going to eat anything?" Neme looks up high into Jerry’s face.
"With pleasure."
They get through the crowd toward a line of buildings.
"Since we’ve been farming, our village have experienced a population boom."
"Jaffa is being too modest again," Neme smiles while trying to push a few children away from Jerry. "When we were kids, there were only a few people in the village, we ate only berries and leaves. The Raali took somebody almost every week and ate them. But since we’ve been farming, they try to avoid us."
"How is that possible?" Jerry wonders.
"Our older inhabitants think that the Raali wants us to be happy."
"Raali wants you to be happy?"
Jaffa and Neme ignore the ironic expression in his eyes.
Jerry meanwhile notices that some roofs look like giant turtle shells.
"What the hell is going on here?"
“What?” Neme asks just to be polite.
"Oh nothing."
In the meantime, they approached the building. The alien crowd dispersed and left to do their own things. After all they have lots of responsibilities around the farm animals, and so on.
The buildings have grown and you can see that trading basics has started to flourish here. There are stands selling meat, vegetables, clothes, tools and also weapons.
Jerry pulls his guides towards the weapons. He doesn’t expect that he could use the pulse pistol, without arousing suspicion among the natives, but with a proper sword or spear he can defend himself.
An old arms dealer watches the visitor with hesitation, but after he receives an explanation of what’s going on, he´s sniffing out a convenient deal. Unfortunately, in the shop are mostly sticks, bows and stone maces more suited for "their" size than Jerry’s. In the hands of a human they look like little hammers for dolls.
Neither of Jerry’s guides looks too enthusiastic. They have to shop from that ass-kisser Sabera.
"So, you fighters would like some weapons? Well I think my offer won’t disappoint you."
"We're just looking, thanks." Neme says grumpily.
"No wait, I'll really need something for the way back!"
"I didn’t want to say it, Jerry, but your friends are probably already dead." Jaffa says sadly.
"We can’t be so sure."
"Even if they managed to escape for a while, they don’t have a chance against the Raali or the dead forest."
Jerry doesn’t respond to that and looks at the greatest maces of wood and stone. The window displays all kinds of shapes.
"I don’t think so. I’ll go back to jungle, first thing in the morning." Jerry says.
Old Sabera senses an opportunity and smiles from ear to ear.
"You sir, you seem like a very strong young man." And after looking shaky at his skin without scales, he carefully continues so he doesn’t insult the visitor: "For such a strong young man I have a big, strong club, what do you say?"
Jerry is bothered by something, and tries to figure out how to ask.
"Uh, do you use for making weapons ... so to speak ... materials other than wood and stone?"
"My arms are made from the best wood and the hardest stone, what should they be made of?”
"Oh nothing, I was just curious."
Jaffa and Neme look at each other puzzled.
Old Sabera has an feeling that he is missing a great opportunity, so he tries to save the situation.
"A good weapon isn’t just a tool to hunt or fight with, but it’s the thing that represents you in front of others. You will feel much better when you wear this nice bow, finely decorated."
Jaffa and Neme roll their eyes and turn away from the merchant, so they don’t have to watch him any longer. They’ve heard it all a million times. Hopefully Jerry will be done soon.
"If I can offer you something special, take this curved club. It’s the only instrument made in a similar shape. The edges are slightly stiffened for a stronger punch and when you meet someone else on the hunt, you can be sure that it is you who is holding something special and looking really cool."
While it appears that this weapon looks almost the same as the others.
"I'm here only for a short time, but I'll take it, and also the bow with some arrows." Jerry smiles politely.
"Yes sir, you made a great deal!"
Sabera spreads a bunch of leaves on the counter and proudly wraps the weapon into them.
Jaffa feels quite embarrassed when he sees it and nervously rubs his palm over his face.
„You don’t have to pack it up, we’re fine.“
Sabera feels a bit upset.
After a while, Jerry is finally armed and walks with his guides to Jaffa’s building.
"I must apologize for the merchant. He's just trying to ... “ Jaffa wants to defend the reputation of his settlement.
"It’s alright, we have them too."

Later in the evening the sun falls down over the village and now there are two moons and millions of stars in the sky. This makes a twilight everywhere even during the night.
Jerry sits inside one of the houses and eats grilled meat along with some strange corn pancakes. Jaffa’s four children aged 8, 7, 6 and 4 years sit at the table with Jerry. On the other side of the room in the corner, a pregnant woman prepares food while she feeds a baby suckling her breast.
Jaffa smiles at the children. Then he takes a piece of meat from the plate and hungrily bites it.
"So you have a lot of children, Jaffa."
The children laugh.
"I 'm looking forward to when they get little older. Then we will farm and go hunting together... " Jaffa is proudly looking at his children.
"I was with my dad in the jungle twice." One child says.
"Me too!" The younger one says.
"No, you didn’t go because you’re a coward!"
"You are both brave boys!" Jaffa stops the debate: "One day we will kill a Raali together!"
The woman in the corner of the room suddenly moves. She looks very strict.
"What did I tell you? Raali are dangerous! Don’t say such nonsense to children!"
Jaffa doesn’t even try to resist, but still doesn´t want to feel embarrassed in front of Jerry, so he leans toward him and quietly whispers.
"Women, what do they know huh?"
Jerry understands what's going on. Earthly women from his century are also accustomed to deciding everything. Although he doesn’t have problems with his girls.
"Back home I also have a girlfriend." Jerry says and winks at Jaffa to let him know he understands what he meant.
"How many children do you have?"
"What? Oh, no." He hesitates for a moment: "I have to first prove to her father that I deserve her."
"Do you have any special tradition of proving yourself to her father? I also have a daughter." Jaffa casually moves his eyes towards his four-year old daughter who wrestles with a piece of meat and has it all around her mouth.
"Yeah, but I think with this farming it’s not going to be a problem anyway." Jerry laughs.
"Would you like to show yourself to her father? Now it´s your chance!"
Jerry doesn’t understand. Jaffa with a mysterious expression stands up, goes to the corner and takes two training sticks for a close combat.
The children laugh.
"What? You wanna fight with me?"
"If you're not scared. If you lose, I’ll say to your girlfriend that you’re just a scared piece of s***." Jaffa encourages.
The children quickly run out of the way, excited about the fight. Jerry takes one of the fighting sticks and tries not to look too confident. After all, passing tests against androids which handle all the known combat techniques, prepared him for absolutely everything.
Besides the size of the aliens is like if they are somekind of midgets.
Both leave the house. Jaffa’s woman doesn’t protest this time because practice fights have become a traditional entertainment every evening since they’ve had plenty of food.
In the meantime the children managed to summon everybody around to go watch the fight, so all the aliens with loud chants of "Jaffa! Jaffa!" gathering around the fire to make enough space for the fighters.
"It will be nice to stretch a little bit after dinner, take Neme with you. You are too small for me anyway, no offence." Jerry provokes.
Jaffa senses an opportunity.
"I wanted to get you on my own, but if you want to squeal in pain like a pig, okay."
Neme readily jumps in. He will to help his friend get this white giant down!
"Don’t worry and fight hard, because so I will! And if you lose, I'll get the word out in your village that you're too weak for your woman!"
Jerry tried not to, but he explodes with laughter for a second. Jaffa is surprised by his reaction.
All three fighters look focused now while the whole village loudly applauding.
Jaffa is trying to surprise his opponent with a direct attack to the head, Jerry bounced back his attempt, but then receives a hit like from cannon right into his stomach. The audience is so excited and the kids are screaming with joy.
Jerry quickly recovers from that and makes one attack after another. One for Jaffa, another one for Neme .. but they cover them!
During another onslaught from nowhere Jerry receives a hit below his knee. He’s not fighting with amateurs!
So he brings on a different style. He spins his stick in ninja style. Aliens have never seen such movements and their confident expression freezes.
After a while it’s not so difficult to defend himself from the aliens’ assaults. They aren’t very well synchronized and when one attacks, the other one is holding back. Jerry doesn’t want to torture them any longer. He blocks Jaffa’s stick and encloses it with his other hand. Then with a strong jerk he disarms him and throws it on the ground. After Jaffa's disarmament, Neme gives up.
The audience is silent through amazement. Jaffa probably doesn´t lose around here.
"I had very good teachers." Jerry breaks the astonished silence.
Jaffa is obviously shocked, and it takes time till he can produce some words.
"Tell me about it, we should all applaud our guest, one really good fighter Jerry!"
The aliens are in awe of what they just saw! They applaud as perhaps they never have before! Jaffa’s adrenalin raises, but he doesn’t want to let them know about it. He realizes that Jerry is just a guest, and this is nothing personal. It’s very difficult to lose when someone is constantly used to winning.
Suddenly, one side of the audience where the children and pregnant women are standing, start to yell. Then run away screaming "Raali!".
The earthlings Sammy and John are approaching them. The crowd is calmer as they get closer, because they can see that they have the same skin as Jerry.
"Look John, who is still alive."
"Hello colleagues! How did you find us?" Jerry welcomes them by waving from the other side.
Sammy passes through a group of aliens and ironically evaluates them with his eyes.
"It wasn’t that hard. We just tracked the places where you s*** yourselves."
Jerry immediately turns to Jaffa with an apologetic expression, but Jaffa ignores him. The Raali doesn’t kill anybody anymore, it seriously got a brain.