Family from beyond the Stars

Nobody you can Trust

It had been three days. Kenny was running on empty. The three children had been skittish at first to be in an entirely new environment. They'd sniffed, touched, and flinched at everything. Their bodies were bizarre, to say the least. He had been correct in thinking of them as some sort of hybrid between large hunting cat, ape, and komodo dragon. They had a feline posture and poses, but walked primarily on the forward knuckles of their lower pair of arms, although they often broke into full-out runs that used all six limbs. They also had a high-centered stance and moved their whole bodies through every motion when going slow.

Then there were the specific details that stuck out so much now. Their heads were feline in shape but had heavy sections of plated scales and ridges running along their skulls, from around which stuck up a thick coat of soft, luxurious fur in varying colors. They had spiny-tipped ears that could swivel completely around to the other side of their head like the head on an owl, although so could their entire necks, spines, even their shoulder-plates, and hips, making for some very bizarre flexibility.

Their four arms all had long claws able to retract and extend from each digit of their bizarrely six-fingered and human-like paws, while their hind paws were distinctly more feline. Their teeth were double-layered, making for two rows of fangs on top and bottom, and they were actually slightly see-through. Their bodies contorted from head to paw with muscles that seemed hyper-sharpened and focused, so soon after birth, into incredibly dense coils. Each of the males had simple, long, ambidextrous tails, matching the tentacles on their sister's back.

The strangest detail though, above all of that, was they weren't entirely flesh. Their bodies seemed to be a combination of living tissue and plates of actual machinery but more advanced than anything Kenny had ever heard of. During his frequent pettings of the children, he noticed actual seams at various joints and connecting spots on their bodies, although they didn't compress or open.

They also moved and reacted differently than either material should have, rigid but also able to flex. The lights, flashing along the lengths of their bodies, at all waking hours, were built into the actual skin. They also changed color depending on their moods. As far as Kenny had been able to learn: green meant happy, blue meant peaceful, yellow was alert, red was anger, orange was in danger, and they had this weird pink that would cover their bodies, combining with other colors when they played or rough-housed.

And every single one of them had entirely different personalities, not just mannerisms but true, honest to God, rational minds, attitudes, and ways of expressing themselves. They weren't just a uniform male-female type mindset of species. They were complex, highly intelligent, and curious creatures who were very aware of being alive and eager to explore their new world.

The sister was obviously the one in charge, being the largest, and also the most fearless it seemed like. She had a big attitude and often commanded the playing of the other two even when she wasn't involved. She always checked things out for the boys first, but also played with things last. Other than that, she was a bit of a trouble-maker, often spending her time deliberately messing with or destroying things. Whenever it came time for snuggles though, she never abstained or played hard to get. Her need for being petted was constant but she wasn't pushy. He'd woken up more than once to find her snuggling him in her sleep. Now that they were in the light, her fur was patterned similar to a tiger but with dark, reddish-brown fur and pitch-black stripes but with a white underbelly.