Anthro Universe

The bar didn’t have much to offer other than hot broth and eye-watering moonshine. It didn’t help that the alligator bartender referred to both as swamp water. Fifty-fifty chance you would actually get what you were looking for. Rob, an old tiger, took a cautious sniff of his cup. Not liking the odour he switched cups with his human friend, Sheila. Sheila took a swig, her face expressionless as she focused on writing in her little black notebook.

Rob took a careful sip. He didn’t like it. There wasn’t much he did like these days though. The old tiger had lost everything after a devastating hurricane had destroyed his sleepy little fishing village on his backwater homeworld, 7BZ. His friends, his father, and his little white dog Pepper were all dead. If he hadn’t found Sheila, he’d probably still be wandering the wreckage, tail hanging in defeat. After nursing her back to health, the woman had been able to get him a visa, both of them traveling to her home planet, Alpha 006. Having nowhere else to go he had been sleeping on her couch while Sheila found them some freelance mercenary work. Protecting Sheila was his life now.

Out on the street, a flash of tiger stripes caught his attention, but an annoying beeping drew his eyes away. The stripes disappeared into the crowd of humans and anthropomorphs. With a growl, he tugged his new HUD glasses from his breast pocket, uncertain how to make the sound stop.

“Just put them on,” Sheila said, not looking up from her notebook.

Rob slipped the glasses over his eyes, a white envelope filling his vision. He made a series of hand gestures, unable to remember which one would open the envelope. Flicking his hand upward was the one that did it. The old tiger's whiskers twitched at the sight of a digital cheque from his insurance company. He tugged the lenses from his face, rubbing at the orange fur between his eyes and sitting back with a huff. Sheila, having finished writing, tucked her little black Moleskine into her breast pocket, “How much?”

“20k.”

“Insulting,” Sheila confirmed, the mirrored surface that perfectly covered her one eye reflecting Robs disgust. 20k would barely cover living expenses for the next few months on this planet. He couldn’t simply go back home and start over either--the planet was still in a state of emergency. The woman twirled her pen in the air, her visible eye shifting out of focus while Robert continued to watch his reflection in the silver lens. Robert assumed she was looking at something he couldn’t see. The lens worked like an advanced version of his HUD glasses. She could see in any spectrum of light she chose, more than even some androids were equipped with. The tiger took a sip from his cup, black tipped ears backing in distaste while he waited for her to return to the present.

“You won’t like this,” she said after a couple of minutes as she brushed her tightly braided hair from her shoulders.

Robs tail twitched, “I don’t like sleeping on your couch either.”

“At least you look cute when you sleep curled up like that,” Sheila teased, her voice flat despite the dimples evident on her dark cheeks, “There have been reports of something killing people in the underworld.”

“Another rabid dog to be put down.”

Sheila was right. Rob didn’t like it. As a young cub, finally having reached the legal age Robert had served as a marine but years later, when his father suffered a stroke he had moved back home to care for him. For the past couple decades Rob had run a sport fishing vessel while caring for his ailing father. Here and now though, he didn’t even have a pole to dip into the water. Even if he did, Sheila told him the water on Alpha 006 was so polluted you were more likely to fish out a plastic bag than anything edible.

The tiger slammed back his mug of swamp water and climbed from the booth, “Let’s get this over with.”

Alpha 006 had cities built on top of cities, the underlayers going deep into the core of the planet. It was a dangerous place, even for those that called it home. Layer upon layer of concrete and asphalt making for a labyrinth of endless alleyways all enshrouded in smog. Everything seemed to be covered in a thick crust of grime leaving Rob longing for the lush rainforests of 7BZ. He had been following Shiela through the maze when she raised a hand, signaling to stop.

“What is it?” Robert asked, voice muffled by the rebreather mask.

Sheila kept looking straight ahead, muscles tightening, “I’m not sure. My infrared readings are picking up something strange.”

They waited. Rob squinted into the smog, “Just a couple of teenagers.”

He started forward unconcerned at the sight of two dark figures but his confidence faltered when the two silhouettes merged to become one rippling figure. Like water refusing to obey the laws of gravity. Robert backed away as Sheila’s gun flashed. The laser fire made the shape slide backward for only a second before shimmering tentacles of silver lashed out at Rob. The sound of hundreds of whispering voices grew louder as the silver rope tightened around Rob like a python strangling it’s prey. The words were hard to make out at first, odd phrases of past lives mixed into to the repeated whispers. Hungry. Starving. Must eat.

“Feed me!” The voices suddenly shouted in union. Rob struggled, tendrils of liquid mercury tugging the rebreather from his face. The old tiger was quickly hitting his limits. He could just let it all go—would that be so terrible? Maybe he would see his dog Pepper in the next life. Maybe his father would be healthy again. They could all go fishing. The thought was so tempting but then, what about Sheila? He couldn’t leave her to this thing.

With a roar, Robert pulled a knife from his belt and slashed at the starving creature giving him just enough room to push back with all of his strength. Sheila shot a volley of laser fire at the quicksilver mass black scars briefly marring the mirrored surface before the thing suddenly retreated, the oozing mass squeezing through a sewer drain and leaving Rob gasping for air.

"So not a rabid dog."

Sheila shook her head in disbelief, "What was that?"

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Written by Kelsey Reich on March 2/2021 in Ontario, Canada.