- The Keanulint -
Disclaimer: I am not worthy of owning any of the ideas from the fantastic game Uru; they belong to Cyan Worlds.
A/N: This story grew out of my own frightening experiences with those delightful little Eder Kemo critters we know as "keanulint," named after the silverfish-like bugs that were stuck in Keanu Reeves' belly button in the movie The Matrix. I'm sure that many another explorer has also experienced the sudden intake of breath upon turning around to find one of thosebig black blobs hanging just a bit too close to their avatar's head. This story is for everyone who knows that behind those six silent, innocent-looking eyes, something sinister is brewing.
"Kasey, stand next to the fountain and let me get a KI snapshot of you!" John smiled and waved at Kasey, balancing on one of the smooth boulders that sat in the sandy basin on the south side of the Eder Kemo garden. Kasey sighed, watching the clouds darken in the sky above as the bamboo surrounding the gazebo started to shake violently with the growing wind. She really didn't like Eder Kemo that much-- it was always rainy and a little too cold, and once you'd seen the flowers and the Bahro drawings, there really wasn't much of interest there. And those bugs, the "keanulint," as the DRC had comically named them, still gave Kasey the shivers. She'd been told time after time that they were harmless lichen-feeders who posed absolutely no threat to explorers, but she always found that hard to believe when she was face-to-face with those six bulging eyes and those clicking pincers. Still, John had some idea that all female exlporers found Eder Kemo the most romantic Age in the D'ni Library, so he'd taken Kasey there for what he had probably inteded to be a charming picnic that afternoon.
Kasey considered John as she looked at him on the rock from her seat in the gazebo a few yards away. He was sweet, yes, and not bad-looking. He'd made a well-intentioned but ill-fated attempt to prepare her favorite food for their lunch, but he'd miscaculated the boiling point of the water on Relto and his pasta ended up so soft that it barely stayed on the fork. John was a good guy at heart, Kasey knew, but the fact of the matter was that she just didn't like him the way he liked her.
"John, I'd really rather not," she said. "We should probably link back to D'ni. I've got work to do translating some of the Asemlef texts tonight, and besides, it looks like it's going to rain." For the fourth time in the past hour, she thought but didn't say.
John looked dissapointed. Kasey wished that he would just get a clue, but she was starting to think that she would just have to tell him outright that she wasn't interested in him. She hated to do that, especially since John had never specifically said that he was interested in her. It was hard to turn down a guy who hadn't even really asked her out yet.
"Please, Kasey?" he pleaded, slipping down off of the rock and walking toward the gazebo. "It's such a beautiful Age, and you're such a beautiful woman, I would hate to waste this opportunity to get you both in one picture." His tone was vaguely playful. Kasey guessed that this was John's attempt at flirting.
"About that," she began, thinking that she should just get it over with now. "I know that you really like me, John, and I--" Kasey stopped mid-sentence. Her mouth hung open as she stared at a point just above John's head.
"Kasey?" John laughed a little. "Kasey, what's the matter? Have you been stunned by my awesome physique, or are you justARRRUGHAGAHAAHAAA!"
John didn't have enough time to finish his lame come-on. Kasey watched in frozen horror as the huge black teardrop leapt from the wall, outlined for an instant in mid-flight as lightning burned its image on her retina. The bug's pincers dug into John's scalp. His body convulsed and fell to the ground, blood seeping into the sandy puddles at Kasey's feet.
Kasey didn't see the second bug drop from the wall behind her head until it was too late. Thunder echoed across the sky as rain pelted their inert bodies.
The keanulint had struck again.