As Big as a House

As Big as a House

     LaCinda circled around the big three level house below twice more before she dived bombed it. Just before she hit it she curved back up toward the sky above. As she did it she dropped several hundred small eggs. All those eggs smashed into a billion pieces upon impact with the roof of that house.

     Glancing down toward that house after circling it once LaCinda saw her offspring murdered. “NOOOOOOOOO.” LaCinda shouted without opening its mouth. She did it with her mind.

     “What happened to my children? For the last eighty-eight years I have done it this way, and every year it has been the same – until now. I have laid my eggs in the nest under his porch overhang, and two weeks later my offspring are born. Why is it different this year?”

     LaCinda sailed down toward her dead children. Only that time she did it slowly. Just before she hit that front porch she stopped. Using her large wings flapping to and fro she hovered in midair in front of the entrance into, and out of, that house.

     “COME OUT HERE AT ONCE. I want to talk to you.” LaCinda didn’t speak with her mouth. She never did. Neither did the humans who lived on that planet. Not to them – or even among other humans. It all was done with their minds.

     A few minutes later Daevon exited that house. LaCinda opened her mouth, and was about to speak again, when he came out. “What are you shouting about. Why are you here? You have never done that before. At least not in the last fifty-two years, and my parents never said you did before then. So why are you doing it now?”

     “You killed my offspring, and I want to know why.” LaCinda floated closer so they were eyes to eyes with each other.

     Daevon took three steps back and re-entered his house. Once inside the door slid shut. He still Mind Talked with LaCinda, but now he did it from within that house.

     “I didn’t kill anyone or anything. If you are talking about the removal of you nest, I had no choice but to do it. The World Government order it to be done.”

     “Why did they do that?” LaCinda asked as she hovered closer to that front door. Now she floated within an inch of it.

     “Because just before your offspring hatch their eggs grow to the size of most adult humans. It only takes a few minutes to hatch, but that’s more than long enough for them to fill all of my front yard. Luckily for me they only do it in spurts of twenty to thirty at a time. If not, it would be a lot worse than it normally is.”

     “So, you admit it. You killed my children because you wanted them killed.”

     “No, I didn’t. I did it because the World Government ordered it. It wasn’t just me. Everyone all over the world had to do that.”

     “You never really answered my question – did you? Why would they want to see my offspring dead?”

     “It’s because they are afraid of you. Within one month your offspring are as big as one of our family transports, and by the end of the year they are like you. They are as big as my house. That’s why they are afraid of you.”

     “What are they try to do to us? Are they trying to kill us off? This is our planet. You are the invaders – not us.”

     “I don’t think that’s what they are trying to do. They don’t want to kill you. All they want to do is limit your reproduction. There are already enough of you that you outnumber us fifty to one.”

     “What do you think about all this? Do you feel the same way that your government does?”

     “No, I don’t. Most, if not all, of us who have let you nest with us feel like that.”

     “Then why did you do it?” LaCinda backed off from the front door. Now she hovered the edge of that porch.

     “Because we had no choice but to do it. The government threated our livelihood if we didn’t do it.”

     “It’s okay for use to fight in your wars because we are almost indestructible, but it’s not okay for us to live like we have been doing for millions of years. We have protected you among yourselves and offworld invasions, and what do we get for it – this.”

     “We didn’t you that you were here when we colonized this planet seven hundred years ago. How were we supposed to know that every five thousand years you, the TalLacians, sleep underground then return to the surface for five thousand years.”

     “You didn’t, but once we returned six hundred years ago you did because we told you. We taught you a better way to communicate with yourselves – and us.”

     LaCinda waited for Daevon to respond to that. When he didn’t after a minute or so she continued. “We could have insisted, even forced, you leave TalLacia, but we didn’t. All we wanted to do was co-exist with you. That has all changed because of your fear of us.”

     “It’s not me. I’m not afraid of you.”

     “If that’s true then why are you hiding within your house. Please come out so we can talk about this face to face.”

     At first it didn’t look like Daevon was going to come out, but after a few minutes the front door slid open – and he stepped out onto his front porch.

     Before Daevon could speak LaCinda continued. “If it is war that you humans want it’s a war you are going to get. A war that you can’t possibly survive, and I will prove that starting with you.”

     The TalLacians did have mouths, and they could open them to the size of a human. That’s what LaCinda did. She opened her mouth – and swallowed Daevon in one big bite.

The Word Count, including this line, is 1,007.