The Strand

Alabaster woke at the crack of dusk, that moment when the sunlight warming where she slept began to recede from the depths of the cave and the air began to cool. She slowly dragged herself outward as the sun's rays faded. It was near the end of the day, and they would soon arrive bringing their offerings. Not everything would be to her liking, but she accepted all of it as gracefully as she could manage.

She could not remember how long it had been since landing on this strange shore. Her memories of home were starting to fade. She had grown old among strange creatures who revered her almost as much as they feared her. Once in a while a small group would brave the darkness of her lair to poke and prod her. They measured her temperature at various orifices. The sampled her body fluid and attempted to ascertain her mass. Somehow that seemed long overdue, as if they had lost interest in her. And quite frankly, she had grown quite tired of having her sleep interrupted by the ordeal.

Daisy had gathered all the ripe quinces that had fallen to the ground in the orchard behind her house. She wanted to arrive early at the cave to great the giant caterpillar. She knew the creature wasn't actually a caterpillar, but it was long and quite furry like the one in her favorite picture book. No one had bothered to name the poor beast. The adults always called it that. "That poor beast should be put out of its misery." She didn't know what that meant, but it didn't matter.

She packed up the fruit and some food for herself before venturing off to the shore. The climb down the cliffside had been made easy over the years with the installation of stairs that zigzagged down the face. Her first time down she was helped by her mother. This time, she carried her mother's pack down to where Alabaster slept. Daisy was quite proud of having picked out that name for the caterpillar. It was a word for something white and Alabaster was covered in long white fur.

As Alabaster slowly emerged from the maw of the cave, she opened her mouth to speak, but a small creature stood in front of her making a shushing noise while holding a digit in front of its mouth. The ape-ling had short sand colored hair and wore woven plant fibers over its body. It had come alone with an offering of Alabaster's favorite edibles. She listened carefully to the small ape's chatter as it offered her each edible and waited patiently for her to finish before offering up the next. The expected town folk never arrived, perhaps because she had been silenced by the ape-ling, or perhaps due to lack of interest.

Alabaster had no measure of time, having ceased to count the comings and goings of the sun as they held no regular interval. Yet, she felt the long passage of time in her bones. She had paid little attention to all else, each day being much like any other. But today, she had only one visitor who doted on her. And clung to her whenever Alabaster ventured into the surf. The ape-ling would grab hold of her fur and straddle her neck with its walking limbs and ride the surf while making noises that Alabaster came to interpret as expressions of joy as the creature showed no fear in repeat performances. At the end of the day, Alabaster waited for the ape-ling to leave, but it seemed determined to stay.

As the first rays of a new day broke over the horizon, Alabaster lumbered back to the cave. She ventured into the darkness until she came upon her den and curled up to rest safe from the heat of the coming day. The little ape-ling followed her into the dark and curled up against Alabaster, quickly falling asleep. 

Seven-year-old Daisy Jones hadn't come downstairs for her supper. Her parents searched the house thoroughly before reporting her missing to the local constabulary. The villagers did an equally thorough search of the countryside before giving up for the night. In the morning, Albert and George Plant decided to search one more place. They crept into the cavern until the light faded with their shotguns raised ready to shoot should the beast attack. It was sleeping with little Daisy nestled against it. They lowered their weapons and George handed his gun over to Albert. George carefully crept up to where the girl lay and slowly lifted her away from the beast.

Suddenly, the beast awoke and ignoring both the men and the girl, rushed out of the cave onto the beach. A sound which the men had never heard before echoed back into the cave. It sounded very much like a siren meant to alarm the town folk. George gently placed the girl on the ground and grabbed his gun from Albert. Both men then ran to the mouth of the cave.

Alabaster felt the girl being gently lifted away from her. She feigned sleep despite being wakened by the footsteps of the two apes entering her home. She sensed that they were only interested in rescuing the ape-ling and would leave her alone if she posed no threat. But something else had disturbed her sleep before the apes came. She couldn't quite place the sound she heard. But when the first metal ball hit the surf, the hiss of the rising steam caused her to act. She bolted out of her den onto the sand and into the bright sunlight.

Sensing danger, she rose up like a furry tower and began to bellow. It wasn't her usual call. The tone was one of alarm, a high-pitched warble much like that of a siren. A warning to the townsfolk to take notice. Flaming chunks of metal were falling from the sky.

When George and Albert arrived, they saw the white furry creature standing upright. The shrieking ended as it slowly lowered itself to the ground and started to dig. Their attention was diverted by the splashing in the surf as the last of the large chunks of metal fell into the surf. Thankfully most of the debris had burned up in the atmosphere and the village was unharmed. When they turned back to the giant furry being, it had buried itself in the sand and Daisy was crying. "Alabaster, I'm sorry. Please come back," the little girl pleaded. George picked Daisy up off the sand. "We'll check on her every day," he promised. As they climbed the stairs, Daisy's tears gave way to sniffles.