Adaptation: book I by Pepper Pace Page B

what?”
    “Wolves.” He lied. Why was he lying? He prevented his skin from turning yellow in shame.
    “You were nearly dead, Bilal,” his Father-Tom spoke. Centaurians had selected simple names that were easy to form with their foreign mouths and tongues. 
    “There were a lot of wolves Father-Tom. I dispatched them but not before I lost much strength.”
    “What if you had died?” Baba asked.
    Then you would no longer be ashamed of me, would you? Bilal thought. He reached out a tentacle to wrap around hers. “But I didn’t.”
    ~***~
    He rested with his First Mother and was thinking about the brown woman when his two best friends entered the set of rooms allocated to him. His rooms were “human-friendly.” He had chairs and couches and utensils for eating and drinking. He didn’t lie to his mother that the things were for when his friends visited him. He didn’t have to. His mother understood that he liked having manmade items around him.
    “I heard you got your ass handed to you by a pack of wolves,” Lawrence said with a broad smile. 
    Bilal stretched out on his bed, elongated, and came to a standing position. “And hi to you, too. Yes, I’m fine, thank you very much.”
    His other friend, Raj, rubbed his body until it formed a tentacle that intertwined with his arm in pleasure. “Are you okay, little buddy?”
    Lawrence came over and rubbed him until another tentacle formed to wrap around his arm as well. “I’m fucking with you, Bilal. You are okay, aren’t you?”
    He regarded his two friends. They didn’t mind when he touched them in this way. They didn’t think it was like a snake wrapping around their bodies. He could see in their facial expressions and postures that they cared about him.
    “I’m fine.” He released them.
    Lawrence went to get something to eat from Bilal’s cabinet. “Did you find anything interesting down there this time?” he asked while examining a piece of fruit that had seen better days.
    Bilal’s body began to ripple, and Raj cocked his head. “What’s wrong?”
    “I did find something interesting.”
    Lawrence bit into the fruit and studied his friend. Lawrence was twenty, had blue eyes and blond hair, and was strong and sturdy. Raj watched Bilal curiously as well. He was smaller with a compact yet toned body. He was forty and had the golden brown skin and slanted eyes of an Asian. He was Korean but had lived his life in America before the end of days.
    “Well, show us,” Lawrence said while chomping away. “You always find some good shit. Tell us what you found, and we’ll explain it to you.”
    “I can’t. I left her on earth.”
    “Her?” Raj asked.
    “A woman. One last human woman.”
    “Fuck … me …” Lawrence said.
     
    ~***~
     
    Bilal watched the silent house and worried. Maybe she had killed herself. Humans did that kind of thing when they were afraid or confused.
    Bilal had shuffled back and forth before cursing to himself. He had to go inside, and that had not been his intention. He wanted to watch, that’s all, to make sure she was okay. Okay, no, that wasn’t it. He was curious. He wanted to indulge his curiosity. He liked looking at pictures and roaming through dead towns for a semblance of the life humans had once lived. And now here was a human right before his eyes. How could he not indulge his curiosity?
    He lifted a tentacle and raised it, searching the air for any signs or sounds. Bilal turned swiftly. A wolf was coming up on him, stalking him, and he’d been so preoccupied that he hadn’t realized it. It was only one wolf, but it was a big healthy one.
    Bilal withdrew his stinger just as the wolf leaped and went for him with lethal teeth bared.

     
     
     
     
     

Chapter 7
~Wolf and the Alien~
     
    Teeth sank into Bilal’s flesh, piercing the protective outer skin but not enough to cause his fluid to escape. There was pain, but it wasn’t bad. He had no bones, tendons, or muscles, and bites could do little damage. If