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Before me is a giant praying mantis. An alien praying mantis, obviously. Still, it’s an insect, and its head reaches up to my knees. That is NOT the normal size for an insect. Also, it’s blue, but the odd color bothers me the least.
It chirps again, sitting down on its many haunches in front of me like a dog asking for a treat. Unsure whether to scream or laugh, I backpedal all the way to the wall. The mantis doesn’t follow, lowering its head instead and nudging something on the floor in my direction.
I squint at the tiny oblong objects. They could be seeds or nuts. They could also be the creature’s feces. It’s impossible to tell without tasting it, which definitely isn’t on the agenda.
While I stare at the giant blue mantis, my cellmate gets up. He goes to the food pile the gray aliens gave us and unwraps one of the packages. It contains a processed bar of some disgustingly brown/green color that mildly resembles one of those protein bars back on Earth. The kind that only a fitness fanatic would dare to eat.
The tigerman breaks off a small piece and offers it to the mantis. The creature chirps again, grabs the food from his hand, and skitters a few steps away to eat it.
“Huh,” I say, highlighting what an intelligent race us humans are.
The tigerman shoots me a toothy grin as he picks up the tiny things the mantis brought. Searching through them, he hand picks six purple, wrinkled berries and offers them to me. They kind of look like raisins. I like raisins, but who is to say if I won’t die from eating whatever this is?
Not wanting to offend my cellmate, I gingerly pick one of the not-raisins from his palm and sniff at it. It doesn’t smell like poop, so there is that. “Are you sure?” I ask, grimacing at the idea of eating something a giant alien insect has smuggled into our cell.
He pops two not-raisins into his mouth and smiles at me as he chews on them. It’s as good an answer as any.
“Alright.” I shrug. “You only live once, right?”
Unsurprisingly, the not-raisin doesn’t taste like a raisin at all, but it’s sweet and I have to admit that I like it. Offering the tigerman a timid smile, I take two more from his hand. “Three for me, three for you. That’s fair, isn’t it? Although you’re bigger, so you should probably get more.”
Shaking his head, the alien points toward the food pile before offering me all the dried fruit again. Even in the dim light, I notice there is a small pile of the not-raisins and other tidbits already there by the supplies from the gray aliens. That’s good.
What is considerably less good is that the cell next to us is filled with several more mantises. They’re much larger than the one inside our cell, hence, also much scarier, but at least their size prevents them from sneaking through the bars. The smaller one must be a child.
Even though I’m still freaking out over their scary visage, I feel a wave of sadness for the creatures. Not only were they stolen from their home and locked in a cage, but they also have to watch their baby suffer from the same fate.
My black and orange cellmate rumbles a single word, tapping his chest. I take way too long to realize he’s telling me his name.
“Tareq,” he repeats patiently.
The sound is hard to replicate, and I’m certain that his vocal cords function differently from mine, but I try anyway. If I’m stuck naked in his cell, we might as well start communicating. “Tah…req?” I try.
It doesn’t sound anywhere near to what he said, but he smiles and nods anyway. “Tareq,” he repeats before pointing at me, cocking his brow.
“Tareq. Alright. I’m Astra. Astra.”
“As’Trah,” he concludes, his smile growing wider.
His grin is a little scary with all of his sharp teeth, and I subconsciously try to step away from him, even though I don’t have anywhere to go. Noticing my distress, Tareq retreats to the cell door, giving me as much space as he can. It’s only a few steps, and I’m certain he could cross them in a heartbeat, but I appreciate the sentiment.
“Thank you,” I say, giving him an apologetic grimace. He’s been nothing but nice to me, and here I am, cowering from him as if he’s some kind of monster. I’ll have to do better at controlling my fear around him.
My stomach rumbles, and I eye the food packages by the cell door. Tareq waves his hand in invitation and looks ready to move out of my way like a proper gentleman. Gentlealien. Whatever.
“Stay,” I say, indicating that he shouldn’t move. Doing a poor job of covering my private parts with my hands, I walk to the food, my hand only trembling a little as I reach for a water bottle.
Tareq sits down in a corner, still smiling but pointedly looking the other way. Is it because he doesn’t want to embarrass me by ogling my naked body or because he doesn’t find me attractive?
That thought makes me stop. Where the hell did that come from? Why should it matter whether a freaking alien finds me attractive? I should be grateful he isn’t looking at me! Damn my stupid mind.
I unwrap one of the packages, carefully sniffing at its contents. It doesn’t smell bad, but not very appetizing either. A small bite reveals that the food’s taste is about the same as its smell—bland in every way, like eating plain oatmeal. But it’s food, and there’s plenty of it, so I gobble down most of the bar, leaving only a tiny bit.
The mantis has been watching me eat with what I imagine is the insect version of puppy dog eyes, but it stays by Tareq’s side. He’s petting its blue triangular head, and it keeps buzzing in response, as if purring.
“Purring alien mantises,” I say, smothering a hysterical chuckle. “I’m definitely on drugs. Hi there, little buddy. Or is it little girl?” I kneel a few feet away from Tareq, folding my legs so that they hide my private parts. I’ve all but given up on attempts to cover my breasts. They aren’t much to look at, anyway.
With the rest of the bland food bar in my palm, I extend my hand toward the mantis. “Here, sweetheart. You can have that, but don’t bite my hand off, alright?”
