Flint

Posted on Sat 27th May, 2017 @ 11:14pm by Lieutenant Coco Kiralbi
Edited on on Thu 8th Jun, 2017 @ 2:17pm

815 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Unity Week
Location: Deck 44: Holodeck 8
Timeline: MD-01: 0530 Hours

Coco was walking through an ancient forest, a forest where the trees shimmered high above, smelling of the age. Every step she took crunched some more twigs beneath her. The forest was near the end of its life cycle, the whole place rotting from within. It was a smell that Coco had never interacted with before, but one that refreshed her. She walked, following a makeshift path, walking, never stopping. The forest was almost mystical like, as if a creature could pounce out at any time and attack her, and only the surrounding trees would know of her fate. She glanced up, noticing a shadow moving from above as the sun shone down through the leaves. She continued walking, following the lurking shadow.

As she walked, she avoided the giant roots coming out from the ground, as if they were trying to grab her legs and pull her in, never to be seen again. She was almost bouncing between each of the roots, almost gracefully in every step she took. The colours of the forest were streaming into her eyes, the dark brown from the trees, the leafy green, the shining sun, the blue that came from the sky, the reds from the types of berries among the forest, the black from the shadow above.

This was a different kind of holodeck experience that Coco was not used to. Normally she would be a fan of setting up an archaeological dig in the heart of Egypt and spending weeks coming back to it. This was new to her. New was good.

The shadow from above stopped high above in one of the biggest trees of the forest. If it were real, it would be seen as the King of the woodlands. She covered her eyes from the sun as she looked up. There was a hole in this tree, about four times her height up, where the shadow had burrowed itself into. There was no way she was getting up there to take a closer look. In her childhood she was a natural tree climber, but the older Coco had got, her confidence had slipped. Plus this tree was massive compared to the small ones she used to climb at home.

"Flint!" She bellowed upwards.

She waited for movement. Nothing happened. "FLINT!" She shouted even louder.

This time there was movement from the hole in the old, ancient tree. A bat like head popped out of it. A black stripe ran from its nose upwards, centrally onto the small creature's back. The same black ran around the creature's black, but fairly large eyes and around the small squirrel like ears. The rest of the fur was a light grey color, with this particular creature, there was a diamond shaped bald spot in the middle of its forehead. The animal was only 11 inches in length, fairly small and something which could be considered to some as cute.

"Flint, it's time to go!" Coco barked.

The animal chirped in reply, but continued to nest in the hole. "Come on now, I have to start work in half an hour, I don't have time for this,"

This time the creature chattered in reply, but moved forward, edging further out of the hole. It jumped from the hole, roughly 25 foot high off the ground, Coco letting out a small gasp. The shadow moved but opened its arms out in order to glide gracefully down from the air. It flew round in a swooping circular motion, downwards towards Coco. She held her hands out for the sugar glider, which landed gently and without harm. "I wish you wouldn't jump like that, you scare me every time you do that Flint"

Flint moved his beady eyes to look at Coco. Although the sugar glider was a nocturnal animal, Flint seemed to get on well with sunlight, which was extremely rare in any case. "Don't look at me like that," Coco said, raising the glider closer to her face.

Flint continued to look at her, with the same mouse like expression. "Fliiinnt, stop it! You know you're a cute little thing," Coco said. "This isn't an everyday thing, taking you to a forest so you can have a little party. It's a treat. This happens every so often and that's it!"

The creature remained motionless, "Okay, okay, I will take you out more often!"

Flint joyfully chirped, getting his own way. "Right, enough of this, I'm running late as it is."

She popped Flint into her pocket, his head poking out ever so slightly, before she rushed off out of the holodeck. Vanguard was to host different events as part of Unity Week, which meant everyone was even busier than they normally were. Still, it meant something different from the day to day work. She couldn't wait for some of the cultural exhibits, well, if she got the time for it anyhow.

 

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