Zan’s Prehistoric World Zan was jumping up and down trying to see through the small port hole outside. It seemed like it was taking forever to get the ship secured. The doors finally opened and Zan ignored Tarlock’s warning to wait. He was the first one out the hatch and down the ramp. Zan stepped off the ramp and on to his home world for the first time, and then fell over and started gagging and gasping for breath. Zan was desperately trying to push his fingers in his mouth to pull the obstruction out when Tarlock calmly knelt, pushed Zan’s hands away, forced his jaw open and stuck a finger down the boy’s throat and pressed the emergency nerve release. Zan spit up a silvery spider web. He had forgotten the breathing web that had been placed in his lungs when he had first arrived on Terra Prime as a baby, allowing him to breath Earth’s thin atmosphere. It wouldn’t work here and had been suffocating him. “You’ll be fine now,” Tarlock said. Zan took a deep breath. It was the sweetest air he had ever smelled. The air had the sweet smell of sulfur with just a hint of methane and ammonia-sulfate. “I have a few errands,” Tarlock stated. “Head down that walkway, cross the bridge and when you see the obsidian arches turn right. You’ll come to a beach. There are probably some boy’s swimming down there. Go make some friends.” Zan did as he was instructed and shortly arrived at the beach and his mouth dropped open. There were four boy’s swimming in a sea of lava! One boy seemed to be surfing in it. One of the boys swam over and looked up at Zan. “Hi there,” the boy said. “Did you just come off the ship?” “Yes, replied Zan. “Our Tarlock just dropped us off,” the boy explained. “Our father is assigned on that ship and is coming home today.” “I’m here with my Tarlock,” Zan replied. “What species is your father?” the boy asked. “How do you know my father isn’t Demon?” Zan shrugged. “Duh, you don’t have a tail,” the boy acted like Zan had just asked the dumbest question. “That only happens when the father isn’t the Demon. But don’t worry, nobody will make fun of you for it. It’s not your fault.” “My father is Kitsune,” Zam said and then knelt down next to the boy. The boy’s tail was out of the lava and idly scratching the sand. Zan reached a hand out toward the tail. He wondered how sharp the barb was. The boy pushed back slightly and the tail whipped away from Zan’s hand, flipped around and the flat of the barb smacked Zan on the head. “Hey! What’s wrong with you?” the boy exclaimed. “A boy doesn’t touch another boy’s tail, you bone-skull. That is unless you really, really, like that boy.” The boy made a wry smile.” Zan’s eyes went wide. “No! No!, it’s not like that,” Zan stammered. “I’m only teasing you, bone-skull,” the boy said. “My name is Talur, come on, lets swim.” “I don’t have any swim trunks,” Zan started to say when the boy lifted himself out of the lava. “Oh,” Zan said and tried to look at the sky, the rocks, the horizon and just about anywhere except at Talur. The Kitsune would never ever go swimming like that. “Those Kitsune really screwed up your head,” Talur stated. “How long you think swim trunks will last in that?” He pointed at the lava. “Put your stuff over here with our stuff.” “Okay, but turn around,” Zan said. Talur rolled his eyes but turned around and a few minutes later Zan was in the lava flow. It was wonderful. For the first time ever Zan didn’t feel cold. The sky was starting to get dark when Zan saw Tarlock standing on the bank. “Hey boy’s,” Tarlock shouted. Zan and the four boys all turned at the same time and shouted back, “Father!” The four boy’s turned and looked at Zan. “You’re going to be my brother, bone-skull?” said Talur. “Awesome!”