Cassiopeia (standard:science fiction, 422 words)
Author: Gebeleizis	Added: Jul 12 2011	Views/Reads: 3142/0	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
A night spent in a tent near a river leads to a surprise encounter.

The late night sky looked cold and frightening next to the thick foliage
that surrounded the river. It was actually cold, close to freezing, yet 
he decided to sleep here in the tent, to avoid for one night the 
continual noise from the city. A bloody moon was just rising behind the 
pine-covered mountain ridge and looking above he saw the great "W" 
shape of Cassiopeia. The tent was already installed and the fatigue was 
slowly taking over. Inside, the sleeping bag swallowed him quickly 
while the dreams enveloped his head like a cocoon. * The soothing sound 
of the flowing water, only five meters away, seemed to gradually become 
louder. Frequent splashes in the shallow waves were interrupting its 
music. And he woke up. The thought of a boar crossing the river made 
him reach for the lantern and get out quietly. After just a few steps, 
the river became visible in the moonlight, and then he saw them, 
marching upstream in parallel lines, hundreds and hundreds of golden 
fish-like creatures. Some of them reached over half a meter in length 
and all had lizard-like legs. Astonished, he turned the light on, 
observing that the other shore is totally changed from the evening. 
Trees with huge trunks, similar to baobabs, and blue leaves, were 
covering the entire slope. Even the sky looked completely alien in that 
direction, covered by the arms of a huge, unknown galaxy. The boundary 
between his world and the other was marked by a fuzzy area with bluish 
sparks. A huge and beautiful insect, with three pairs o violet wings 
landed on his shoulder. The march was continuing along the river. Now a 
sound of drums was audible. Then, suddenly, everything faded quickly 
and the landscape came back to the familiar configuration. The unusual 
phenomenon had lasted only 2-3 minutes. Yet, on his shoulder, he could 
still see the alien insect. Not adapted to the unfamiliar atmosphere, 
it died in a few moments. Carefully, he took the creature in his hands 
placed it in an empty glass. * In the morning, everything seemed only a 
dream memory. But the glass with the strange creature proved otherwise. 
Back in the city, while preparing for work, he heard the news on TV: 
"... unusually high tides were reported in several coastal locations. 
Some scientists believe this phenomenon could be related to an 
invisible massive object passing in the close vicinity of the Earth. 
Supplementary investigations are needed in order to prove this 
hypothesis. Several fishing boats also reported that..."


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