“Fuck fuck fuck…” Phovos quietly hissed as she switched communications to telepathy. But since there was a massive creature lurking around, she didn’t want to make any real noise, in case it could hear her.
“Not a fan of telecoms, are you?” Tenuk mentally joked.
“I find it infuriating, having to split my brain up into certain parts so I can send and receive unspoken messages. But you already knew that.”
Tenuk shrugged, turning his attention to outside. The team was taking shelter behind a cashier inside a fully edible fuel station. They were supposed to just be exploring and potentially scavenging an abandoned rest stop, but Phovos had detected something in the darkness and had driven her teammates inside.
“Are we going to just sit and hide?” Elksi asked. Phovos could tell that Elksi was also struggling with the telepathy, as she’d accidentally muttered her first word out loud. “Or do we have a plan?”
“The plan for the moment is to wait,” Phovos silently explained. “It might have just been passing by, but it might also be hungry. Since it hasn’t immediately attacked us, I think that if we stay quiet, it will just leave.”
“And if it doesn’t?”
“If it attacks us, then we attack it back!” Phovos wasn’t quite as silent that time. “But I’d rather we avoid conflict with the massive serpentine creature outside. Especially since our ship is parked out there.”
Retvik glanced at Phovos. “Did it attack the ship?”
“No. Not that I’m aware of.”
“Did you turn on the refracting parking?” Retvik turned to Tenuk. “Or the camouflage shields?”
“Of course I did! I always do! Now I’m doubting myself. Thanks…” Tenuk frowned, again peering outside. “Wait, is THAT what you saw?”
Something large and golden creaked around outside. It seemed to hover in front of the ship, then curled itself around it, as if to share warmth. After all, the whole fuel station was insanely cold, and the ship was still warm for having just recently landed.
“Piss sticks, is it REALLY coiled around our only way out of here?” Tenuk tutted in irritation. “Why can’t we just have giant monsters that want to leave us alone?”
“Most giant monsters do leave us alone,” Phovos explained. “That’s why we don’t see them all the time. We’re in a cosmic jelly in the space between universes, of course there are going to be colossal monsters in the dark. Heck, if I was a giant space monster, I’d probably do the same.”
“So what should we do?” Elksi felt a tad confused. “It looks… asleep.”
The four Decayons glanced at each other, looked at the giant golden serpent, then glanced back at each other again. The monster’s eyes glowed green briefly, before closing, and the creature yawned loudly.
Phovos shook her head. “We might be stuck here for a while.”
“That is fine,” Retvik whispered. “While it is distracted and sleeping out there, we can go to the warehouse around the back and check that out…”