Pants's Arc

Chapter 1 of 1

Pants had spent all their life wishing they weren't alone in the universe. They were a grey alien who wore pants, and they lived high in a palm tree home grown by their family. Every night Pants stared past the wide green leaves and hoped some other kind of creature was out there, waiting to be met. Tonight the wish came true, but not from the sky. "Pants! Come quick!" Shoes ran up the curved wooden stairs. Pants's younger brother wore only his sneakers, and his hair bounced with every step. He held out a small stone in his grey palm. It glowed soft blue. "It rolled out of the floor. I saw it move on its own." Pants took the pebble. It was warm. A thin crack split the floor of the hollow room, its edges jagged and dark. Pants had never noticed it before. "Something pushed this up," Pants said. "From below." The family pet uncoiled from the corner. The vine creature crept to the crack and poked one tendril inside. It pulled back fast, leaves rustling. Then it hid behind Pants's leg. "It's scared," Shoes whispered. Pants knelt and pressed an eye to the crack. Cold air breathed up from the dark. Deep down, a light moved. "Hello?" Pants called into the gap. The light climbed higher. Pants heard tiny hands scraping stone. Then a face rose from the crack. It was small, no bigger than Pants's thumb, with pink skin and huge curious eyes. A tiny humanoid clung to the broken edge and stared up at Pants. Shoes gasped and grabbed his brother's arm. "It has a face like us. But so small." The tiny creature froze. Its eyes went wide at the sight of two grey giants leaning over it. It opened its mouth, but no sound came. For one long breath, nobody moved. Pants understood the fear. Pants had felt the same wish, the same lonely wonder. So Pants did the only safe thing. Slowly, Pants set the glowing pebble back down beside the crack. Then Pants opened one grey hand flat on the floor, palm up, and stayed still. The tiny humanoid looked at the pebble. It looked at the open hand. Then it reached out one small finger and touched the tip of Pants's finger. "We found each other," Pants breathed. But the crack shifted. A chunk of floor broke loose and dropped into the dark. The tiny humanoid lost its grip and slid backward with a squeak. Pants lunged, but the little creature vanished down into the black, and the glowing light shrank away below. Pants stared into the widening gap. The floor of the palm home was breaking apart, and their new friend was falling into the world beneath. "We have to go down there," Pants said. "Now."