{"sf1_id":891168,"sf2_id":"dmWZN6Re","title":"The Merrin, part 16","author":"Sovereign Kyle","words":1168,"posted_at":"2015-07-26T21:24:00.000Z","tags":["Crustacean","Human","Merrin","Sci-Fi","Story Progression"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/891168-the-merrin-part-16","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/s/dmWZN6Re","image_url":"https://cdn.sofurryfiles.com/submissions/thumbnails/08/bd/08bdb579-8d38-40b5-943a-e6efae6f7559","description":"#16 of Merr\n\nsecond pod acquired, and Avy's gone, again.\nNext: Part 17","content":"Having not seen Avy since giving her the larva a local day ago, Key tracks her using the tracking signal from the tag. As he nears her location, he realizes that he's in the same area where he had originally landed. Realizing her knows where she's at, he jogs to Alice's grave. When he gets there, he sees a hole.\n\nIn that hole, he find an empty shell. He quickly realizes that the shell is much larger than Avy, he could easily fit inside it.\n\n\"Is this hers?\" he asks, putting his hand to the shell.\n\n\"Yes, but I do not understand why it is so big.\"\n\n\"Think she grew again?\"\n\n\"Must\u0026nbsp;have. This is easily four meters long.\"\n\nKey looks back at the tracking information on the tablet. \"If she's not here, then why...\"\n\n\"I would guess that the tracker came off\u0026nbsp;and\u0026nbsp;is stuck to the pod.\"\n\nKey continues to examine the pod for a moment, then says, \"Well, if she's not here, I've no reason to be.\"\n\nApproaching the shelter, Key sees that the door is slightly open, and there's a trail of disturbed ground. Something was drug into, or out of the shelter.\n\n\"Drudge, what got in,\" he asks as he gets closer.\n\n\"I am unable to establish a link with the shelter,\" Drudge states. \"I would surmise that it ran out of power.\"\n\nKey frowns, he'd installed a fresh power cell this morning. The heat and humidity, combined with the air pressure, have been causing the cells to drain faster than they should. \u0026nbsp;He'd tried recharging them with the solar charger that Alice made, but the ambient air conditions ruined that\u0026nbsp;too. Normally he'd use the shelters cooling system as a thermal charger, but with Avy needing the nutrients in the air, he hasn't been able to run that.\n\nAs he opens the door, he notices a trail of dirt and sand leading into the shelter. He now knows something is inside. He pulls his pistol and makes ready.\n\nA tablet slides across the floor to him, and looks up to see where it came from. He sees a large, green-toned crustacean-like creature leaning against the side wall. Its body is sectioned with the first three being upright, and the last, longer section, laid out behind it.\n\nHe takes a moment to study the creature, before looking down at the tablet. Starting at the head, which is shaped similar to a human's, he sees two triangular arrangements of eyes. Each has two black and one white section. There is no nose to speak of, but there is a simple, short beak like mouth.\n\nIts upper body is two sections, one with four arms attached, the other with four legs attached. All have four joints and four digits at the end arranged like Xs. The toes don't appear to bend, but the fingers each have two joints, allowing them to grip things. Right now, two of these hands are holding onto a shelf and one of the shelter's support poles. All have smooth coverings, and are near the same size as Key's arms.\n\nThere are also six large wings attached to the back of the upper torso. These appear very insect-like and are long enough to touch the floor, or would be if the ends weren't wrinkled and deformed.\n\nThe last section, the one laying on the floor behind the creature, is more like a caterpillar or a worm. Its basically a long, banded tail about a third meter across and over two meters long.\n\nWith the creature looking weak and harmless, Key cautiously picks up the tablet and checks it for damage. What he sees surprises him.\n\nKEY, HELP. I HAD TO RUSH MY METAMORPHOSYS.\n\n\"Avy?\" He drops the tablet and rushes to her side. \"Pond, Drudge, coordinate knowledge bases. Let's fix what we can for her.\"\n\nTaking off his armor's gloves, Key starts with the obvious, her wings. Gently as he can, Key slides his hands down each wing, allowing his AIs to learn about, and then repair the damaged wing tips.\n\nWhen those are done, he moves to her tail. What he had though was hard shell, turns out to be a leathery skin. Not seeing any obvious problems there, he moves up to her lower thorax. There are some cracks in her plating that he quickly addresses.\n\nWhen he moves up to her upper thorax, she gasps and shutters when he brushes against her chest plates.\n\nStartled, he steps back. \"Sorry.\"\n\nShe shakes her head and reaches out to him, touching his armor's chest plate. When he doesn't react, she tilts her head and taps on it. She then slides her claw along it to the side, finding the seam where it meets the back half.\n\nHe realizes she's curious and removes his arm and chest pieces. \"This is just armor. Not part of me,\" he says as he drops it to the floor. He then pats his chest. \"This is my skin. Very little protection.\"\n\nShe softly touches his chest and he realizes that the inside of her hand is actually soft, almost velvet like, and it tickles. Seeing his skin ripple at her touch, she pulls him close and hugs him, making sure his chest touches hers.\n\nA bit puzzled, and not knowing what else to do, Key returns her hug, putting his hands under her wings. After a few moments, a thought comes to him and he begins to realize that she's in love with him. Slowly, she lets him go, and he resumes checking her.\n\nFinding no other cracks or obvious damage, he take a moment to examine her hands. They're still able to close together and be spike-like if needed, but they're bigger, almost the same size as his own hands. What he thought was velvet is actually a fine fur, and it's nearly pink.\n\n\"I know you're still changing, is there anything that I can do help you?\"\n\nShe gestures to her mouth.\n\n\"You're hungry?\"\n\nShe nods.\n\nKey gently rubs her cheek, allowing Drudge to scan her mouth. \"Drudge, can you use the converter to make something appropriate for her?\"\n\n\"I believe the plankton at the lake would be appropriate,\" Pond states.\n\nAvy nods her agreement.\n\n\"It will be more like a paste than the plankton was,\" Drudge adds\n\nKey retrieves a squeeze packet that appears in the portable converter and hands it to Avy. She quickly starts squeezing its contents into her mouth.\n\nIt doesn't take long before she's emptied it and Key gives her another. This one she eats slowly.\n\nFeeling exhausted, Key grabs himself a bite to eat and then lays down on his cot.\n\nAvy closes the door, then lies down on the cot next to Key and tries to snuggle against him. Her tail hangs off the cot to the floor.\n\nKey gives her a curious look for a moment, realizing that he may just love her back.\u0026nbsp;Then with a tired sigh, puts his arm around her under her wings, and\u0026nbsp;closes his eyes.\n\n  \n  \n\n","series":{"name":"Merr","previous":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/889172-the-merrin-part-15.json","next":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/891894-the-merrin-part-17.json"}}