I was abducted by. . . well, let’s say elves. It happened a couple of years ago when we were living in an isolated cabin in the North Carolina woods, a mile up a gravel road. I was taking my usual evening hike through the woods when I heard a scratchy-screeching sound—a combination of fingernails on a blackboard and a cat being tortured. I figured it might be some kind of animal in a trap, so I left the hiking path and pushed through a thicket of kudzu vines.
Sure enough, there “it” was—a gnarled little gray-green creature with bug-eyes and spindly arms and legs. I should say “she.” She was naked, and her, well, parts made it clear it was a female creature. She had apparently gotten tangled in kudzu, which is easy to do. The vines are so thick. Fortunately, I carry a knife with me, and I managed to slice away the vines to free her. All the while, she was screeching with what I thought was fear or pain, but the way it was modulated made it clear to me that it was some kind of language.
Once she was free, she clasped those little arms around me and wouldn’t let go. I finally managed to pry her loose and look into that pinched little face with those huge eyes. I kept asking her “What are you?” and she finally calmed down and took my hand. She started pulling at me, and I decided to follow. She took me deeper into the thicket, where we reached a place where the kudzu had been ripped away by a small, scorched oval object that had apparently plunged from the sky.
She began to gesture excitedly, pointing upward, and I had just craned my neck up to see what she was gesturing at, when this blinding light hit me. I felt a searing heat, and I must have blacked out.
I know this sounds clichéd, but I woke up on this table, with more of these screechy little creatures hovering over me. I couldn’t move, even when there were pokes at various parts of my anatomy. Intimate parts. I blacked out again.
When I woke up, I found myself sitting in some weirdly sculpted chair, in front of me this bug-eyed creature skittering some kind incantation. Beside me stood the little creature I’d saved. She looked over and smiled. She was dressed in some kind of filmy dress.
I’ll make this next part very, very brief, because it’s just too traumatic. There were wedding photos, including one where I was trying to persuade what I think was her father that I just wasn’t her type. But apparently, you save a girl’s life, you’ve got to get married. Then there was (shudder!) the honeymoon. Then (shudder again!) what might have been pregnancy; she had a belly bump. Then (thankfully!) the divorce. Irreconcilable species.
They finally returned me to Earth, but not before I learned that these little creatures were only one of many species that secretly live among us: Mythicals! I wrote my “novel” about it, and somehow the story leaked that it isn’t fiction. What’s more, a photo has shown up of a creature that sort of looks like me, but isn’t human! I’m an alien-baby-daddy!
Mythicals: A scifi/fairy tale thriller
by Dennis Meredith
November 15, 2018
322 pages
Publisher: Glyphus, LLC
They’re real: fairies, pixies, werewolves, ogres! They’re aliens!
Drunken journalist Jack March can’t believe his bleary eyes when he stumbles onto a winged fairy! She vaults away into the night sky, and his unbelievable—and unbelieved—encounter leads to a stunning revelation that all the creatures of myth and legend are real!
Fairies, pixies, trolls, werewolves, ogres, vampires, angels, elves, bigfoot—all are alien exiles to the planet. For their crimes, these “mythicals” are serving out banishment disguised in flesh-suits enabling them to live among the planet’s natives.
Jack reveals their secret to the world, along with a horrendous discovery: they have decided that the native “terminal species” must be eradicated before it ruins its home planet's ecology.
In this riveting scifi/fairy tale, Jack joins with sympathetic fairies, pixies, and ogres to attempt to save the planet from the mythicals, as well as the mysterious alien cabal known as the Pilgrims.
About Dennis Meredith:
As a science communicator, Dennis Meredith has worked at some of the country's leading research universities, including MIT, Caltech, Cornell and Duke. He has written well over a thousand news releases and magazine articles on science and engineering over his career. He consults on research communications and conducts workshops for scientists on how to enhance their communication skills. He holds a B.S. degree in chemistry from the University of Texas and an M.S. in biochemistry and science writing from the University of Wisconsin. And his grandkids call him Googa Funny.
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