1/29/15

EVOLUTION
By LELA MARIE DE LA GARZA


“That’s a bad sign,” Thorpe said. “Listen.”

Lucy gave her husband a puzzled look. “I don’t hear anything.”

“Exactly. Birds on Corfus are always singing. If they aren’t something must be wrong.” Lucy looked at the purple trees with their stiff, straw like leaves. Thorpe was right. Usually there were tiny winged yellow creatures (what the Corfus natives called “kals”; what she and her husband called “birds”) perched in the branches, chirping their bell like songs. Something must have happened to scare them away.

Suddenly there was a crash. It was followed by another one and another. They sounded like gigantic footsteps. Lucy heard a sound like a roar and a trumpet and a warble combined. She turned to Thorpe quickly. “What is it?”

“I’ve heard there are dinosaur like animals still roaming this planet. Corfus didn’t evolve the way earth has. Humanoids came into existence before the earlier population had died out.” There was another crash, and it was very near them. Thorpe lifted his gun. “This fires a hundred rounds, but they’re small bullets. They wouldn’t stop anything large. And it might be armor plated.”

“We can’t possibly outrun it,” Lucy said. “What are we going to do?”

“We’ll have to hide. Maybe—”

Suddenly something gigantic and lizard like stood before them, blocking out all three suns. It looked like a cross between a tyrannosaurus Rex and a brontosaurus...as well as being armor plated. Then it spoke, in a deep but pleasant voice. “I am a Glofindel. And you…are humans?”

Thorpe swallowed “Y-yes.”

“Don’t worry. You have nothing to fear. We Glofindels are herbivorous.”

“Are there more of you?”

“More all the time.”

“How is it you can talk to us?”

“You’ll have to excuse me. I took the words out of your mind—not invading your privacy, of course.”

Lucy shook her head in bewilderment. “This is too strange. We’ve been on this planet for almost a year, and only a few natives have learned even basic English words. Yet you speak it perfectly. Why?”

“Oh. There is much you need to know. I will explain about our planet. The great Mandelo created Corfus out of the endless green sky dust. The Glofindel bowed his head and struck the ground with his tail three times, in reverence. “He then juggled three pink balls, to give us light. With His mighty finger He dug the sea and filled it with red Bral (what you call water) to give us moisture. He planted purple trees that we might have shade. Then He made life." Again the Glofindel struck his tail on the ground.

“Did it take seven days?" Thorpe asked.

“No. The process took billions of your earth years. What I have just told you is the story the Corfus natives use to explain the mystery they cannot fathom. They also have a tale of two infants, one male; the other female, who grew up to populate the entire planet. But humanoid life (what you call humanoid) came to Corfus in this way:

A tiny one-celled organism crawled out of the red sea. It split in two, and thus was reproduction. Soon there were two-celled creatures. They became more and more complicated. Some sprouted feathers and became the kals which fly about. Others grew fur and claws and walked on all fours. There were those who stood upright and became what you think of as human.”

“Something like our own planet,” Thorpe muttered.

“Something like that,” the Glofindel agreed. “But the bipeds on Corfus—the fittest, the strongest, the most intelligent—continued to grow. Then began developing magnificent tails.

Lucy looked at Thorpe. “Tails?” she mouthed. Just then they were surrounded by chirping, fluttering yellow birds. Some perched on the Glofindel’s head. All of them sang with joy. “Poor things,” it said fondly. “They’re still learning.”

“Learning what?” Lucy asked, apprehension in her voice.

“That Glofindel is now the dominant life on this planet. The natives are evolving into us.”


- - -
Lela Marie De La Garza has had work published in “Behind Closed Doors”, “Pound of Flash”, “ChickLit”, “Daily Romance”, “Creepy Gnome,” “Passion Beyond Words”, “Black Denim.” and “The Western Online”. She was born in Denver, CO. in 1943 while her father was serving in WWII. She currently resides in San Antonio, TX. with three and a half cats, some stray kittens, and a visiting raccoon.