Title: Just Hangin' Around
Author: Auna
Rating: G
Spoilers: None… well, maybe one little tiny one from PKW, but if you don't already know about it, you are a GOD at staying unspoiled
Setting: Approximately one cycle after PKW
Beta's: Absolutely none… so you have been warned. (I wonder if my Word program gets offended when I say that?)
Author's notes: One of the Fluffy Bunnies sent out a challenge to all the rest of us Fluffy Bunnies that I told myself I wouldn't participate in. And I continued to tell myself that the entire time I was typing this. She asked that we write a story about John and Aeryn trying to find a planet to live on. She said it could be happy, sad, angsy, scary, mysterious, shippy… whatever we wanted. And she also told us it could be short. I'm all for short these days. You should be seeing some more of these coming out amongst the other bunnies, but here is a short morsel to wet your appetite. ;)
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"I want it known that it was your idea to try this planet," he mumbled under his breath.
"Shut up."
"'It's got to be better than that hole of a planet you picked' you said."
"Shut up," she whispered angrily, emphatically.
"Didn't I say this was a bad idea? I believe my exact words were, 'This is a bad idea, Aeryn.'"
She rolled her eyes, the only part of her body that could move other than her mouth, and then glared at her husband hanging across from her.
"This isn't helping."
"It's helping my ego."
"That's the last thing that needs any help. Can you move?"
"Same as you, just my eyes and my mouth. So, what's the plan?"
"Got any ideas?"
"No. Besides, this planet was your pick. I had to get us out the predicament on my pick, remember?"
"How the frell was I supposed to know that the Nefghabi would be offended by outsiders during their mating season?"
"How the frell was I supposed to know that the Jooked Crad things would drown in air?"
"All right," she hissed. "We both could have done better research. Now quit gloating and help me find a way out of these webs."
Heavy drumbeats sounded throughout the dead forest, echoing around them. "Are they getting closer?" John asked nervously.
"Frell! I think they are."
"What do you think those long straws on the side of their bodies were for?"
"I don't want to know." Aeryn wiggled her body and the cocoon she was wrapped in began to sway slightly. She put more force into her wiggling, and she swung toward John, her face colliding with his. Their explicatives were luckily drowned by the rising beat of the drums.
"Good idea, wrong direction," he said unnecessarily. "Try sideways."
Both of them began to wiggle, and their enveloping cocoons began to swing, almost in rhythm with the mating drums. Higher and higher they arched as the pounding drew nearer. "You know, if they hadn't been planning on sacrificing us, I could really dig that cadence," John said conversationally as he swung back and forth.
"Catchy, isn't it? Maybe when their mating season is over, we could ask for a recording of the beat."
John wiggled his eyebrows at her as he passed her on an arch. "It could be fun, couldn't it?"
She laughed, straining her eyes upward to the top of his cocoon. "Do you think this is doing any good?"
"I'm not sure, why?"
"Because I think it's going to make me sick if I keep it..." a loud snap interrupted and her cocoon flew through the air, landing on the ground with a heavy thump. Her breath was knocked out of her, and she didn't speak for several microts.
"You ok?" John whispered loudly.
"Yes," she breathed. "I'm fine."
"Good," John whispered. "Because I think Shelob is getting even closer."
A loud snap preceded a weightless feeling, and he realized he too was flying through the. "Oh, man! This is gonna..." his body connected with the unforgiving ground and all last vestiges of air in his lungs was eradicated. "...hurt," he finished.
The cocoon began to loosen, and he found himself free, laying on the mulch of the forest floor, surrounded by sticky webbing. He looked up to see Aeryn standing over him. "How did you do that?" he asked.
Triumphantly, she held up a brown object. "Some of these leaves are as sharp as razors." She held out a hand to him and assisted her husband to his feet.
"How did you find that out?" he asked scanning the trees for which direction the module had been left.
Aeryn held out an arm, revealing a gash in her forearm. "The hard way. The module is this way."
Swearing under his breath, John crouched low and followed Aeryn through the trees and bramble until they reached their destination. It was still in the same clearing they'd originally landed in.
"Something's not right," Aeryn observed. "There's no guards."
"No, they are all off frelling like bunnies. Would you be willing to stay behind?"
She rolled her eyes, but didn't argue, merely climbing in behind him. "I'm going to be late feeding D'Argo," she observed as the canopy closed and the engine's started. "There has GOT to be a better way to find a planet to live on."
"The next one baby. We'll get the next one."
She sighed, but didn't argue. He'd said the same thing after the last six planets. Instead, she watched the grey atmosphere disappear around her and anticipated holding her son again. They'd be home in a few microts.