Aarvo recalled the image of the monster staring at him from the bottom of the black pit—those eyes, those legs, the body curled up under him. He thought it looked like something, some animal that had lived on Eera, but he couldn't remember which of the many that his mother Lissa had shown him when she was still alive. Its eyes reminded him of skitters (insects) or liptriffs (birds) and its size of bombasses, but its legs, its swollen body...
"Grokr... " he whispered. Yes, its almost looked like the monster he had met. It wasn't exactly the same, but it was close enough. Certainly not in size though. If he remembered well the grokrs were small, tiny in fact, while the monster he had seen was gigantic. He frowned, trying to squeeze out of his mind everything he could remember. And the grokrs weren't dangerous either because they only ate skitters. Could it be that this giant grokr, like those who once lived on Lissa, did not feed on trkrits? It was true that there weren't many around, though. So, it was because it had never tasted one, or because had he already eaten them all? No, that was impossible, otherwise his mother would have told him, instead of just telling him to stay away from the far side. Although, in all honesty, his mother Lissa hadn't told him a lot of other important things. Anyway, this giant grokr had to eat something though, and it had to be something that was abundant on the far side, or it wouldn't survive one day.
'They're eating me from the inside... '
He didn't know why, but he had a hard time picturing a creature so monstrously huge, that filled an entire crater with his swollen body, digging tunnels underground and eating his mother one bite at a time. And the holes he had seen so far were too small for it. Certainly, it was fit to chew off mountains, but even those were still standing. No, it had to be something else... Maybe the moonhair... ? For what he had seen, the whole far side was coated in it, so it wasn't such a far-fetched idea. Therefore, there was a chance that the giant grokr wouldn't be interested in eating him alive.
This thought reassured him and led to an even more reckless idea: if the grokr wasn't interested in eating him, then perhaps he could become his friend, right?
Aarvo immediately recognized the desperation behind this idea, but he couldn't suppress the excitement he felt. It was crazy, of course, trying to make friends with a giant monster, yes, of course, but was it all the more crazy than trying to build a bridge between two worlds? And perhaps that monster was smart—perhaps it could show him how to get to Eera. Hadn't he come all that way to figure that out?
Slowly, he climbed out of his hiding place and looked around: no grokr in sight. He came out into the open. He still didn't know how he'd approach the beast, but he immediately had a couple of ideas. He stuck his fingers into one of the slabs of rock that had served as his hiding place and cut off a piece to use as a shield. Then, he picked up some stones, sharpened them, and decided to throw them at the monster, if he tried to attack it. He hoped these precautions would be enough.
This time, he didn't feel like meeting the monster at night, so he waited until the sun shone high in the sky, then set off. He came out of the crater that had kept him safe, spotted the mountain of the grokr in the distance, and headed there, keeping his hiding place always behind him in a straight line, so that he could always find it easily.
As he approached the den of the giant grokr, he felt fear mounting again inside him. The idea of facing such a colossal beast still made his legs shake. He decided to adopt a double resolution: first, to approach the grokr with extreme caution; second, to be ready to run away, if things took a turn for the worse.
As he marched on across the lunar prairies, he began to wonder why the moonhair had become so hot—it hadn't been like that during the night, but now it felt as if the stalks were sucking up sunlight until they became hot. They also moved differently than at night: when the sun was out, he had seen them move chaotically, swaying and bumping into each other, while now they were all bending in the same direction, as if an invisible hand were combing them that way.
Finally, he reached the foot of the mountain, circled around it to find the best possible route, and started climbing. For the first time in his life he would encounter another living being face to face, he thought terrified and euphoric at the same time, holding his shield. The encounter was dangerous, but the prospect excited him anyway. He had to be careful, he repeated himself: careful not to scare the colossal beast so that it'd consider him a friend. He had to be polite, yes, polite and brave, he nodded.
He reached the top of the mountain and sneaked up to the crown of the crater. Hiding behind the edge of the ridge, he took a moment to gather his courage. He felt his fingers creaking and realized that he was squezzing the stones in his hands too tightly. He made an effort to relax and loosened his grip. Brave and polite, he repeated himself, polite and brave, but also careful if he wanted to stay alive. Prepare yourself for the worst; hope for the best. He nodded and climbed over the edge.
This time, he came out in a different place than before and found himself looking at the giant grokr from the side that was staring at the sky with all eight glittering eyes pointing upwards. It certainly had more eyes than Aarvo felt comfortable with: two huge central ones, flanked by two smaller ones, then a whole row of four lined up underneath. The giant beast was crouched on a bed of gray dust in the center of the huge pit with part of its belly hidden in the shadow cast by the crown of the crater. In the sunlight, it looked less frightening than at night, but far more imposing. It was about thirty steps tall, with a dark red body a couple of times longer, and twelve violet legs stretching around it for about sixty steps. Its stocky and stubby body was enclosed in a carapace of overlapping plates, as was its head.
That was a really, really big friend, Aarvo thought, as his legs started shaking.
The grokr didn't move, still crouched down and apparently unaware of the intrusion into his lair. Aarvo didn't want to catch it unawares and startle it, so moved around the crown until he was in front of it. But the grokr didn't blink, didn't shake, didn't even stretch its creepily long legs.
All that immobility made Aarvo nervous to the bone. Was it a trap to draw him closer and tear him apart, or was the grokr asleep?
"Hey!" he blurted out. The crackling of his own voice took him by surprise and made him jump. The grokr, however, didn't stir.
"Hey, hey!" Aarvo called again out louder.
Nothing. The grokr continued to stare into the void, as motionless as a rock.
A weight dropped in Aarvo's stomach. Was it...? No, he didn't want to think about it, but his eyes nonetheless caught sight of something he hadn't noticed before: the grokr was... Well, yes, it covered in dust. At first he didn't realize it, because he had been too nervous and scared, but now he could clearly the thin layer of lunar dust covering the grokr's vast dark red back, its legs, and above all resting in small gray piles on its glittering eyes.
It was dead. All that hope had been for nothing. He let all but one of the moonstones slip out of his hand, then took aim, loaded his arm, and threw it. The projectile struck the back of the beast with a thunderous electrostatic bang that echoed throughout the crater and lodged in the carapace.
A shiver ran through the whole body of the grokr as if it were shaking off the heavy veil of sleep.
Aarvo held the beats of his core.
A swirl of smoke fanned out around the scorching hole left by the moonstone.
It must hurt a lot, Aarvo thought. It wasn't something the grokr could ignore so easily, if it was alive.
But it did—it didn't stir, it didn't turn his head, it didn't open those scary jaws. The only thing that moved was the dust that slid off his eyes and legs, drifting lazily to the ground. It was as dead as a rock, dead as stone.
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