Belling the Cat: A Tale of Alika

By Anne Welborn

Alika, a largely unexplored planet sufficiently Earth like that it is seen as a good prospect for colonisation. Most landmasses are thickly covered with lush vegetation and a good deal of mud due to the near constant rains that sweep across the planet. However Alika is inhabited by a race of small humanoids, -the L'ia, - about which little is known and before plans for colonisation can proceed they will need to fully investigated and documented. This task has fallen to the Terran First Contact Agency, - though to date their investigations have not gone well. In the past year three fieldworkers who were assigned to Alika have been killed under mysterious circumstances by the L'ia tribe they made contact with. Unaware of this past history Margaret O'Neil, - a fieldworker with a checkered past with the agency, - has been sent to Alika in the hope that she might solve the mystery.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Anne Welborn
• Release date: Apr 21, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223944966

Anne Welborn

The written word and the worlds that can flow from out of a writer's pen have endlessly fascinated me. It was the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings that captured me when I was young and set me on the path to wondering,'what if' with a pen in my hand.  Apart attempting to write down what I see in my imagination I have been a social worker and then a third order religious sister.  It was the sometimes heretical writings of the Christian mystics that stole me away from the Church and eventually led me to look more deeply into myself and my imagination.  Alternative realities, body divergence, gender divergence, the world beyond the mists of the dawn and questions about death and what might lie beyond are all subjects that I like to explore in my writing.

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Belling the Cat-Cover Small

Belling the Cat: A Tale of Alika

Anne Welborn

Published by Anne Welborn, 2023.

This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.

BELLING THE CAT: A TALE OF ALIKA

First edition. April 21, 2023.

Copyright © 2023 Anne Welborn.

ISBN: 979-8223944966

Written by Anne Welborn.

My sincere thanks to those who encouraged me to write.

Belling The Cat.

Alika: Year 126, 911; 3rd Month of Leaf fall (Ba'jima Reckoning).

She wanted to scream as she fell sprawling in the mud. Her impotent tears of frustration were washed away instantly by the driving rain. When had she last been dry?  Margaret found it hard to remember. Pushing herself up out of the viscous mud, her clothes pasted to her body, Margaret caught a glimpse of her light sphere bobbing above her. 'Sometimes it's only that Willow the Wisp that keeps me sane,' she mused to herself.

'Tear of the Sun', remembering the name of her Willow the Wisp sparked enough anger inside her to help to push her back on her feet. Margaret's eyes met the gaze of the slender naked L'ia female who crouched waiting for her on the trail. Water flowed like a garment over the small pale body, over breasts like china doorknobs and down child-like limbs. The L'ia female blinked, translucent lids covering her large dark almond shaped eyes. She grinned revealing her small neat teeth.

Ta? she asked. Her voice was high pitched, but not unpleasant to listen to. Ma-ti-ta quoi-ni haha, the little female concluded, or at least that was what Margaret thought she'd said.

Ta, Margaret answered and managed a smile. And at that the little alien female stood up quickly and headed off along the trail at once.

Shit! said Margaret with feeling, Hey not so fast. She tried to hurry, her boots sinking into the ooze so that every step was an effort as she fought the gripping suction. At least she had her light sphere, without it she'd never find her way in this dark wilderness and driving rain. Plodding on, she was relieved to find the little female waiting for her on a rise in the trail.

Great, uphill, said Margaret and bent over placing her hands on her knees to catch her breath and rest. The rain beat down on her, plastering her hair against her head. As she bent forward, water sluiced around her face and ran off her nose. She adjusted the angle of her head to keep from inhaling any of the warm stream of water and her eyes met those of the L'ia female.

The little humanoid was patiently watching her, not seeming to