Challenge #03094-H186: They Will Write to Each Other

A human child, hearing a loud bang, finds an alien who looks, at least to the human, like a medium sized dog that's hurt. The child picks up the alien to bring them home and then gives them a bath since they were covered in mud and sticks. The alien wakes up realizing they're now wrapped up in bandages, stuck in what looks like a makeshift "hospital gown", and the child is rocking the small bed they were put in, reading them stories in a children's "my first" storybook. -- Anon Guest

Go hiking on Ruggedia, they said. It's a sparsely-populated Deathworld, they said. All of them are isolationists, but they're relatively friendly, they said. And then they said the worst thing they could say: "What could go wrong?"

The universe hates questions like that. It is very willing to provide answers. Painful, educational, and above all demonstrative answers. You want to know what could go wrong? This, that, some of this, and a whole steaming pile of excrement in your face. It started with an earthquake, then there were bats, snakes, and a strong wind that the data services insisted was not a hurricane.

Poflid Leez remembered falling down some unstable scree. The world turning about and losing coherence as she lost consciousness. She had not gone out into a wilderness unprepared. There were alert systems in place in case of medical, emotional, or physical distress. This event counted as all three. Leez could only hope that someone heard the automated call and arrive before another disaster struck her.

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