Astronomicon: Behemoth

Chapter 16 - The Orchard

"Don't move too fast, but help me get more fruits from these trees," instructed Megan quietly as Aron crept slowly into the room.

"What is this place?" he asked quietly.

"Seems like some sort of indoor orchard," she replied.

"Oh m...What are these creatures?"

"I don't know," she replied, "But they seem quite friendly."

"I hope you're right. They look a little like giant scorpions!"

"I think they're more like lobsters. Anyway, they've shown no indication of being a threat so far."

As Aron moved slowly nearer to one of the alien trees, several blue beams swung away from Megan and illuminated him instead. Rapid clicking sounded in several parts of the room, but there seemed to be no reaction otherwise. None of the lobster creatures moved more than to turn to watch him.

"Should we call the others in too?" he asked, walking cautiously towards her.

"No," she replied, "Not yet. Give these guys a chance to get used to there being more than one of us first."

Megan had moved to a second tree and had already plucked two more fruits from amongst its branches. Aron headed slowly towards a third tree, further over to his right.

"Is there a good way to pick these fruits?" he asked.

"Give them a gentle twist and they seem to snap right off."

She handed one of her newly picked fruits to the lobster which had been pointing the torch. As soon as the fruit was within its reach, it immediately took hold of it, spun around and excitedly scuttled off across the floor to deliver it to one of the more distant lobsters. Still fascinated by the entire situation, Megan waited for it to return then handed it the second fruit causing it to do the same thing again. During this time, Aron had successfully retrieved three of the fruits from his chosen tree.

"These feel...unpleasant," he chuckled quietly. "Like the flesh on one of those latex sex dolls."

"What? How do you..."

"Don't ask," he cut her off, "Engineering school was full of pranks."

"Don't worry, I don't want to know more than that," she laughed.

Another lobster scuttled quickly across the floor to Aron and waited in front of him.

"They're big but they move fast. Are you sure they're not dangerous?"

"Give it one of the fruits! Slowly," she urged. "They don't seem to be a threat to us."

Very tentatively he reached one of his fruits to the lobster and looked relieved when it carefully plucked it from his grip and set off to a group of nearby lobsters.

Over the next ten minutes, Megan and Aron picked enough fruits so the lobsters, all seventeen of them it turned out, were carrying one each. It was probably impossible to read their emotional response, but Megan thought they all looked somewhat triumphant, each holding a fresh fruit aloft in front of it.

The lobster that Megan suspected was the leader, approached her, its feet strumming the floor as it walked. She turned to face it, wondering what would happen now. It appeared to simply look at her for a few seconds then it raised its tail and dropped its front-end close to the floor. A ripple motion passed through its spindly legs, again three times then it straightened up and lowered its tail. Holding its fresh fruit up like a trophy, it turned quickly towards the door, clicked rapidly and scuttled forwards.

In a mass of rapid click noises, the other sixteen lobsters accelerated after it, flowing around the bases of the trees and also holding their fruits aloft. Three of the lobsters who passed close to Megan paused in front of her and quickly rippled their legs too before racing off after their leader. Within a matter of seconds, the entire group had passed fluidly out through the open door.