(A/N: second chapter done in one day! How's that for timing, huh?)

Light On The Mayo
by The Great Red Dragon

Chapter 2

Far from Gantu's ship, in a small and lush clearing aside a peaceful waterfall, major changes had affected the nature.
Of course, this wasn't in a way that humans might feel the need to do so, like clearing room for buildings or cheap garbage dumps. No; far from it.
The area, which seemed now almost fit for living (by human standards), was so beautifully and non-violently altered that one might think nature itself had done it. Vines that hung down from the trees into the area had been redirected in their growth voyage; now they spanned seemingly naturally across the trees, without feeling any hate towards their hosts. Flowers and colorful plants were now growing in happy unison, having been individually re-planted to give them the best share of sunlight in the clearing. The waterfall, which had once been raging, angry, and polluted, now ran in a birth-given state of serenity and silence, completely clean and sparkling like only the purest water could.
Several feet from this, on the trunk of a mossy and flower-growing tree, a miniscule ladybug skittered restlessly across it. The tiny insect would crawl a few seconds, and then stop, then crawl, then stop, and then start the whole process over again. The motives of this action seemed very much un-guessable...but not a thing not to imagine about.
From the 'horizon' of the log, a pair of very large eyes slowly crept upward. Purple-colored pupils followed the ladybug's movement intently; the eyelids never blinked. As the beetle spread its upper shell and zipped its wings skirmishly, the eyes moved up as an entire head appeared.
A claw, giant by the ladybug's standards, carefully crept up behind it. Using only this one hand, and an extreme amount of care and patience, Experiment 322 coaxed the insect onto his clawed finger.
It settled itself comfortably onto its perch, and 322 stood up carefully. He used his other main hand to shield the creature from the 'rush' of wind as he did so. After he was sure that he'd make no more quick movements, he let down his hand-shield, and brought the ladybug close to his face. It skittered around adolescently on his finger, as if not sure where to stay still. Its constant movement brought a wide smile to 322's mouth.

"Oooh...", he cooed in the natural astonishment.

He studied its movements intently for several more undisturbed minutes, completely enthralled and unperturbed in what many would consider 'boring' research.
After some time, the ladybug began to open its shell and shiver its wings again. 322 seemed to understand something in the motion, and carefully raised his hand into the air, as high as he could.

"...Magatah!", he urged the ladybug, in his native language.

The ladybug turned around, as if obeying, towards the sky. It opened and closed its shell several more times, before it finally took flight, and soared higher and higher into the air, until it flew completely out of the clearing.
322 followed its course for as long as his eyesight would allow. His face was set in much more than amazement at the spectacle that many others don't seem to care about.
As if in trance, he mumbled something in his awestruck-ness in Turian, which would be understandable as;
"Such grace and power of flight...to a creature so small..."

He stood spellbound for a much longer time than necessary before he turned his back and walked towards the edge of the pool created by the waterfall, where the rocks bad been arranged to form a little 'pool'. At the base of one of these rocks, in a pack woven of dried banana leaves, he pulled out a sheet of hemp parchment and a charcoal pencil. He turned himself so he could lean against the large stone comfortably, and examined his sheet. Most of it was filled in with Turian alphabet, in 322's attempt to create a journal. Almost all space of it had been filled in, save for a tiny bit perhaps large enough for a single paragraph. 322 handed the pencil to one of his back-hands, and it clumsily brushed the tip against the rock in a sharpening motion (he had decided that was the only thing his back-extended appendages were good for). The pencil passed from hand to hand again, and 322 began to write an entry about his new discovery.
322 wrote slowly, yet carefully and determinedly. His academic level wasn't very high at all, even though he was extraordinarily intelligent. Perhaps it was the fact that he had been created for the natural world, and not a life of laboratory-science and calculation. But, as said, his plain writing was often bland and with many grammatical mistakes...but it was true to its word.
For example, his exploit in cleaning the waterfall was like;
"Water clean not. Bad things throw into water, fall down. 322 hole make where go bad things; not in water. Dug new water go. Green leaves take out bad things. Pick up and burn fire. Ash use flowers. All good now."

He was, however, very good at drawing, and his sketches easily deciphered his often hard-to-understand literation. The pictures to go along with the waterfall-cleansing showed him digging a ditch right in the streams that fed the waterfall, where all of the trash would end up if it came down the river. He dug an alternate way for the water to travel by until it reached the fall; he filtered this new way with banana leaves until the dirt and grime had finally gone away. Finally, the sketch showed him picking up the large portions of trash and burning it; it made surprising good fertilizer for the flowers.
The current entry he was writing was as unsoundly scribed as the previous, but would be coupled with a very accurate illustration of the ladybug. 322 completed his sketch of the insect before he began to write, which went along like this;
"New find small red tiny. Wings have. Legs quick, quiet. Wings sky high bird; not bird. Hurt not; only know more. Become on-"

His entry was cut short; he felt something moving against his leg. Stricken by more surprise than panic, he lifted his parchment and pen out of his way of vision to get a first look at the seemingly-silent intruder.
It was a sleek, yellow-colored python. It slithered against him seemingly carelessly, by navigation of its heavy, blunt head; is tongue flicking out frequently.
322 almost dropped his utensils in excitement. Deciding against possibly upsetting his new guest, he carefully set the parchment and pencil aside and waited for the snake to pass him by, with a large, enthralled smile returning to his face.

"Oooh..."

The snake slithered passed him, seemingly unaware that he was even alive, and completely unperturbed as it slithered through the grass, almost liquid- like. 322 dropped to his hands and knees and began to crawl in unison to reptile's movements. He followed it, dropping lower and lower throughout the time, until he was finally almost on his belly and slithering just like the snake. His wide, curious eyes remained fixed on the python, with as much enthusiasm in them as they held for the ladybug.
The snake paid no attention as the Experiment moved along beside him. His heat-sensing tongue had detected his scent long ago, but found him both without a threat and unappetizing. In other words, none of his business. He didn't care when 322 quickly moved his hand in front of his face, to see if he would bite; he didn't.
322 carefully placed his hand flat on the ground in front of the snake. It moved right over his palm without hesitation, which excited 322 even more...would the new creature allow itself to be handled?
Deftly, he placed another flat-pressed hand in front of the python's path. As the snake moved over it, he lifted the reptile up several inches off of the ground. He half-expected it to resist in any way, but that wasn't the case; the snake, obviously perfectly at ease with him, calmly continued to slither forward, through his raised fingers, back towards the grass.
322 loved this. He began placing hand after hand in front of the elevated snake, and it moved through his grip as serenely as before. 322 admired the cold sleekness of the snake's scales, and he took great pleasure touching and feeling its texture; it felt very good.
After several minutes of the snake-handling, 322 let the snake back into the grass. It creeped away from him neutrally, even though the Experiment watched it move with awe and true recognition. Without knowing that snakes didn't possess ears, he stood up and departed it with a cheerful;
"(in Turian) Farewell, my Earthling friend! Live long and well; I pray for you!"

The snake disappeared into the shadow of the trees at the edge of the clearing without any response.

322 stood in his place for a long time, looking on. The warm feeling that was quelling inside of him was well-known to him...but it was special whenever it was there. It wasn't just because he could handle the snake, or because he could clean the river or because he let the ladybug climb on his claw. It was something much deeper than that...it was to experience the purpose of his life to the fullest, and never growing tired of it.
Some people might never understand what he knew, but it was his reverence for life that defined his existence.
He hurried back to his spot by the waterfall rocks, eager to squeeze in another journal-entry about the snake.
But as he got down and reached for his materials, he immediately froze in his tracks. Something, making a noise unlike any animal, was entering his clearing to his left.
For the split-second in which he could only hear and not see who it was, 322 had a fearful revelation that it must be a human, indigenous to the planet. He wasn't afraid of humans in a way that he was afraid of wild animals; much, much worse. He had learned by experience that humans would take without asking, cause agony for their own entertainment, and treat anything or anybody the least different as a freak.
His fears were immediately stemmed as he turned his head and looked. What had come to join him was certainly not a human, but humanoid. A gray- colored giant with bright blue eyes and wearing a black, red-trimmed jumpsuit had stepped out of the trees towards him. 322 wasn't the least afraid; he had known many aliens before, and some of them had been quite nice.
He smiled invitingly at the stranger, who didn't smile back; he only reached for something in his belt.

"Hello", 322 spoke in Turian.
"I'm very happy to see you...who are you?"

The giant had taken hold of what he had been searching for in his belt. He was now lowering the strange instrument towards 322's level.

"No one to worry about...", the giant answered in a deep voice.

"Do you want something?", 322 offered.

"No...", the giant answered; his instrument was now steady.
"But I have somebody that I'd like you to meet."

"Oh, who?"

"His name is Dr. Jacques van Hamsterviel."

"Hamster-"

Just then, Gantu's net-gun fired.

(A/N: I hope everybody liked this chapter. I'll admit; the real story isn't going to pick up until the next one, but I thought it would be important that I express 322's nature and being before anything else happened by the way, I'm sorry if I turned 322 into Martha Stewart; I didn't mean that!
See y'all soon!)