Marianne Dyson - The Shape of Things to Come

“I challenge you as leader,” she signaled with her eyes.

Enupten could not fight her and eat, so she let the trap bubble collapse into vinelike ropes to hold the creature. But before they engaged, the wounded thing responded by emitting a high frequency wail, warning its leaders. Suetork noted the little thing had enough sense to use a warning code likely to be captured above the loud sucking of the rock-thing. Being able to warn the group to flee would be especially important for creatures that couldn’t change shape quickly.

Seeing one of its kind trapped, logically, Suetork expected them to cut their losses and flee. But the second tallest being not only rushed toward the small one, it threw a rock at Enupten.

This action confused Enupten, but Suetork suddenly understood. These creatures had found and killed some other whose base shape was rocklike. If the small one added mass suddenly by eating this rock, it could break away. Perhaps these beings were not as dumb as they looked.

As she’d done to evade elaw, Enupten shifted air from her holding sack to the impact point. The rock bounced off harmlessly.

Then the tallest one took a straight section of the white thing, which Sue-tork had now decided must be a form of tall dried grass, and swung it at Enupten’s vines with a force that shook the sand! Suetork was both shocked and amazed. The longer an appendage, the weaker it should be. But the blows were anything but weak. Enupten tried the bubble routine, but she had used up too much energy with her showing off and playing around to move quickly enough or change to liquid form and escape. The tallest one pounded Enupten into pieces.

Each piece of Enupten which held an eye had the potential to grow into a new creature. The weather, the elaw, and other predators would make sure only the best survived. Suetork hoped a smarter Enupten would evolve in a few seasons.

As soon as Enupten was scattered, the one who threw the rock snatched the small one to its front. Suetork noted the small one was leaking where it had been bitten and also from its two main eyes. The large one pressed it to its mouth. Suetork rolled her eyes to one side, knowing what this must mean. The small one was probably leaking too much to save, and was too young to scatter. The leader, with more manners than Enupten had shown, meant to put a quick end to the little one’s suffering by eating it. Many species did that, but Suetork had no desire to watch.

She turned just in time to see the tallest one swinging at her with its deadly white thing. Already it had scattered several of the young ones, all of whom had copied Enupten’s… Suetork’s shape! She should have realized this large a creature would require many pieces for food. As the blow struck and the pain shot through her, Suetork knew she would soon be scattered. She must retain this unlucky form to distract the being, giving the others time to change and escape. She signaled to one of her sisters to have the group use the blue wave shape with eyes of shells in the surf.

As the group changed, edges curling into white foam tinged with pink, Suetork braced for the next blow. To her surprise, it merely scratched. The being apparently had run out of energy. It threw the white reed-thing down and rushed away, clumsily throwing sand everywhere.

Suetork blocked her pain, and wished she could join the others in the soothing blue. But, all around her were the eye pieces of Enupten. As much as she had disliked the former leader, she would not slide over her eye-pieces and crush them. Besides, her wound would bleed upon the sand or into the blue and bring the elaw or sand thogs upon them all. For the safety of the group, she would have to stay apart from them until her leaking stopped.

Some of her sisters floated as oil stains on the blue, offering what comfort they could from a distance. They would wait to see her fate, recording her interaction with the tall ones as a lesson to be shared with others of their kind. They honored her bravery with their own, but they were in danger as long as they waited so close to her seeping fluids and Enupten’s. Elaw were pretty stupid, but they would scent her soon. As if in response to her thought, one of her sisters signaled from the wet blue, “Alert! Elaw approaching!”

Suetork moved her eyes back toward the dunes. There they were, two elaw disguised as large rolling bushes with black thorn eyes, coming her way. Only the sight of the tall beings made them hesitate. Elaw rarely risked attack by more massive creatures than themselves. For example, they would never attack Suetork’s kind during the annual mating when the group merged into one giant creature.

Eventually though, if the tall ones continued to ignore the fresh food on the beach, the elaw would conclude, as she had earlier, that the tall ones were not hungry, and therefore not a threat. Then the elaw would come for her.

As one of the tall ones turned its eyes away from her direction, perhaps sensing the elaw, she noticed the small one clung to its back! So, it had not been eaten after all. It had also reverted to its previous pink color.

While Suetork waited, wondering which species would claim her first, she distracted herself by considering how the tall shape might have survival value. Being large and slow, the beings must have been attacked often. The ability to lift young ones so they didn’t leak on the sand and attract additional predators would be useful. It was similar to her old leader’s trick of making a leak into a pool. It worked great for small leaks caused by thorn scrapes or falls. These quickly dried in the sun. Unfortunately for her, Enupten’s scattering released fluids and food that would continue to attract scavengers for days.

Unless… What an idea! If the tall ones were as dumb as she imagined, it should not be too difficult to fool them into thinking she was one of their young ones! They would pick her up and carry her to safety. Later, she would change into something else, and they’d never know what happened. It just might work!

All her life Suetork had changed to suit her environment. Now was her chance to try out a really different shape.

Quickly, she studied the small one. She was about the same mass, but with a leak, she could not maintain the pressure needed to fill all those branching digits. She could manage four simple appendages arranged evenly about her spherical night shape though. Quickly, she redistributed her mass into the right general shape.

She clustered her eyes into two large areas and raised her hairy surface sensors to their full height. Instead of matching the sand, she warmed herself to a pink color like the young one. She felt incredibly exposed, but if she hoped for the beings to notice her, she had to take the risk. It wouldn’t be long before the elaw got up the courage to come close enough to scent her anyway.

The shape changing caused her to seep even more fluid into the sand. She paused, thinking how best to disguise the hairless leaking areas. Examining the small one again, she noted its mouth shone with wetness. In fact, the big ones had wet mouths, too! She was repulsed, realizing that this opening must serve for both eating and waste rejection. But she would use this knowledge to her advantage.

With some difficulty and discomfort, Suetork forced the leaking areas to merge. She then rippled her surface until the hairless area was below and centered between the two eye clusters.

Before the elaw had a chance to move closer, Suetork completed the new shape, but the beings ignored her. After all this, she feared they would gather their strange rock-thing and leave her to the elaw! What could she do?

Then Suetork remembered the high frequency wail the small one had made to warn the tall ones. Could she make such a sound? She stretched a section out, then sucked it in, creating a bubble like Enupten had done to deflect blows. Only instead of popping it rudely the way Enupten had done, she let the air out slowly through a small opening.