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Things were fairly quiet on the planet, no sounds of wildlife audible with only the winds blowing past the foliage and water sources flowing being what keeps the area from being completely silent. Clouds billowed overhead and even flowed over the peaks of the more mountainous regions, providing fresh rainfall to the landscape below if the clouds had been dense enough. Other regions were just as barren of wildlife despite being lush with foliage, just as silent as the others aside from winds or water billowing or flowing.

It wasn’t completely barren, as a patch of foliage gave way to a figure falling through them, letting out a grumble as they picked themselves up and brushed the leaves off. Blue colored, short body fur made up most of their body, wearing a shirt that was a darker shade of blue, with a pair of shorts that contrasted it with the bright violet coloration it had. Dark gray fur formed a type of mane around the base of their neck and reached up to cover most of their head, leaving a short snouts worth of the blue fur color uncovered, their lips pursing to let out a puff of air to blow away a small portion of the bangs that covered their face. It had been a rather unfortunate situation for them, having visited a friend wanting to see whatever was to be shown to him. A flash later and him found himself in the flora of this place…wherever ‘this place’ was, since there were no familiar landmarks for him to work with.

His fall did put them just outside of a forested area, opening up nicely to a wide field that had some gentle rolling hills, seeing the ‘waves’ the wind left behind on the grass. The figure would trudge on, a bit glad that he wouldn’t be trying to trudge through bushes or small trees now, calling out for his friend, though wanted to find someone, anyone, here. He would get over the first hill of the field only to just about fall on his face when the area had a sudden and powerful quake. Getting down anyway was the safest bet, laying flat on his belly only to feel the quakes subside just as quickly as they arrived, silently wondering what it was that caused them.

Getting up onto his knees, he was about to stand up again only for the quakes to return, letting out a yelp as he lost his balance and landed on his back, thankfully cushioned by some of the tall grass in the area. Grasping hold of the grass would keep the figure from tumbling about thanks to the shakes, but like before, they would quickly fade. Instead of getting up right away, the figure would try to look around, sitting up only slightly so as to try and find out what it was that caused the shaking. Something would catch his attention, looking up to the clouds and saw something parting them with ease.

Some kind of monolith, far thicker than buildings he was familiar with, and it was coming down towards the ground fairly close to him.

-0-

Saph’Eak let out a sigh of relief once he managed to get back home, package in tow and exhausted from a trip to an uncharted sector, on top of having to deal with a more violent convict that was due to being processed earlier today. His home – while located on one of the various ‘residential worlds’ the empire had, of a continental-typed planet – was in one of the core sectors close to the colony’s administrative structures. Very busy, yet the residential towers often had penthouses that tried to offer isolation from the noise and sometimes unpleasant sights thanks to their rather unique designs.

The front entrance was shut and now the avian was alone, knowing that his brother would be home later tonight since he was having to do multiple processes at once, something the avian was confident that his sibling could handle. For now, he would stretch to ease up the joints in his body and some of the aches that bothered him during his trip here, also being mindful of the little pouch he had at his side, to not jostle the contents of it too much.

First things first was a shower to try and let his body further ease up on tensions, removing the pouch, necklace he wore, and the device used for his work and carefully set it all aside, gathering up some clothing and towels before stepping into the bathroom of the housing unit. Half an hour or so later and the avian would emerge, refreshed and content, brushing his hands through the plume of feathers on his head. Drying himself off was quick and simple, and getting into a set of more casual clothing was even better since it honestly meant more freedom of movement compared to his business outfit. The augments he had would normally make such a thing moot, but he was still organic to a degree, and it wasn’t a feeling he wasn’t going to just forfeit. A good shower does wonders for the spirits, after all.

Once his personal cleanliness was all sorted out and in more relaxing attire, he would look over to the package and other items he set aside earlier, gathering them up to head to his bedroom. A bit of a mess to him, but it was a personal sanctuary, away from the rest of the galaxy even if at small intervals of time. Setting the device and necklace on a shelf close by, he would open up the pouch and carefully reach in to pull out the contents of it.

A sphere, but not just that thanks to a rather bad habit that he and his brother picked up a while ago. A planet, just the size of a grapefruit, made possible thanks to the same tech that is used when on duty and affected by a unique property when it was reduced to such a size in that simply holding it wasn’t causing it irreparable damage. The avian couldn’t help but chuckle at the feeling that always welled up when doing this, lifting the miniature planet up and focused on it, taking in the varying details that the landscape below had. Flowing hills and bountiful forests dotted the continents of the world, the oceans flowing with natural currents beneath their surfaces.

A beautiful world sure, yet one that was barren of any sapient or even sentient life. That the avian made sure to triple check when he found it, so as to not disrupt any potential cycles of life occurring on it. The flora was something that was passable since it was easier to undo anything to it, and due to the lack of creatures, it would be categorized as a ‘tabula rasa’ type of planet. For now, he would lower the sphere down and move over to his bed, using a foot to drag out a ring from underneath it. A basic hover ring, but one that would work for what he had in mind, giving the power button of it a tap and held the sphere over it.

Letting go of it, he would see it drop, only to slow and halt once the ring caught onto it, smiling as he moved over to the re-scaling device and picked it up, pointing it at the small orb for what he had planned. Pressing a button on it, he would watch the world start to grow back in size, smiling as he kept the device active and walked around the area it was to be occupying. Doubling its size in a few seconds and only getting faster, the avian would make sure that it wouldn’t spiral out of control. Once the world was nearing roughly half of his standing height is when he would let up on the control, just as easily stopping the growth of the object, setting it aside for the moment and walked out of the room to fetch something.

Returning a minute later, with a data pad in hand, he would turn on the device and flick through some menus on it. He wanted to test something with the small planet before him, a few things actually, but most importantly to see if the durability quirk was still active. He would pace around the object, circling it, sometimes moving away and then back as he was checking some statistics of it first, like size, mass, density, and so on. He was so focused on it that his talon would snag on a piece of clothing on the floor, getting a chirp of surprise as he fumbled, instinctively throwing his hands out and managed to catch himself on the small world. It did budge, but thankfully not enough force to send it tumbling out from the gravity ring’s grasp, a grumble coming from the avian as he looked down to the offending article of clothing, using his talon to pick it up and toss it away, standing himself back up after.

A rather unexpected test, but he did see that there was a hand print on one hemisphere of the planet where he caught himself, seeing the landmass he unintentionally smothered at the moment inch back to its previous spot. It did give him confidence, enough to do another test, reaching his hand to the world again with one digit extending out and started to part through the clouds. Soon enough, he would feel his claw touch down on the surface, giving it a bit of force and watched it not only push down on the land but also cause the areas around it to dip in with it, no signs of it fracturing or breaking in the process.

-0-

The monolith would easily touch down on the ground and, to the figure’s surprise, cause the land around its impact site to dip in like how one presses down on a cushion instead of fracturing. Even though it was dozens of kilometers away, the rate the land was sinking into where the object was pushing down easily caught up to where the figure was resting at, a yelp coming out from them as he scrambled to get away from the forming sinkhole. It was an exercise in futility, quickly finding finding himself trying to run uphill, slipping and landing roughly before starting to tumble down, letting out grunts with each landing.

After a few bounces and he would quickly snag hold of handfuls of the lengthy grass of the area, looking down to see the monolith continuing to push down further, the light from above being blocked out by whatever it was that it was connected to. He cried out due to the event, squeezing his eyes shut and hoped that it was a dream to pass. Sure enough, it would, light slowly coming back as the area felt like it was starting to rise up again, though he didn’t dare open his eyes just yet. It’s when the movement stopped and he felt wind against his back again is when he did so, slowly looking around and then up. Sure enough, there was a gap in the clouds from where the monolith came from, and he could have sworn that there was something else past them.

His worries would ring true as the clouds were being parted even more, the whole area going dark as something massive was coming down. All he could do was let out a meek sound as he braced himself.

-0-

“Hmm…poking it with a claw seems fine.” Saph’Eak would state as he saw the information relating to the planet not budging at all. No loss of mass, no damage at all, lasting or not. Only thing that happens is it just squishes in and slowly fills back out. He wanted to make sure it wasn’t a fluke though, adjusting the data pad before reaching a hand down, having it out flat and moving down to the globe.

-0-

No way was he was ever going to outrun this one, seeing the massive object break through the cloud layer and thus down and around the entire landscape he was on. The most that the figure could do was just brace himself for the impending crush, eyes squeezing shut as well. It would come and he easily became immobile as he was pressed flat against the ground, yet despite how much force was being put into it, something was keeping him from actually being hurt. Like with the monolith, he noticed that the ground wasn’t cracking at all, and the only sounds he heard was the near-literal wall of…something…pushing down onto the earth around him.

Due to the press, trying to move was entirely out of the question. Sure, he could do subtle twitching, but trying to move anything more than an inch was impossible, yet oddly enough – and fortunately – breathing wasn’t being hampered. He would have questioned it had the press not felt like it was starting to let up after less than a minute, nearly the same amount of time as with the monolith from before. In fact, it was letting up faster than what he could figure is the ground going back up, watching as light filtered in from the edges of the massive object.

It wouldn’t take long for him to see what it really was; A hand, from something that was comparable to the size of the planet he was on. Not just that, but thanks to it parting the clouds, he could almost clearly see the one it belonged to, even if blurry from not only how far they were, but also the sheer scale of them. Once he felt the rise of the ground stop, he would scramble up and try waving both of his arms to get the cosmic giant’s attention, even yelling out as well.

-0-

“Pressing a hand to it is fine as well, even for how far I went just now…” Saph’Eak muttered as he saw the results of such, similar as with the poke.

With the results from the previous two tests, he had one more he wanted to do, crouching down to fiddle with the gravity ring, primarily to adjust how high it was to hold the small world along with anchoring its rotation if to make sure he wouldn’t fall off from it spinning. Once it was done, he stood back up and did a small stretch, thinking he deserved that rest he was looking forward to now. He would then turn around and lean back down and onto the orb, now being used like a mere cushion.

-0-

The tiny figure’s waving and yelling would only intensify once he got a clear view of the cosmic giant, seeing them much more clearly thanks to there being no more clouds in the way. The actions would slow not only from him tiring himself out, but also when he saw the giant turn around in his spot and start to back down onto the world. The sight of such a view, one that would normally be rather cataclysmic, would only get a flushed response from the small figure, another meek sound coming from him as he just only watched the giant descend down and around his spot.

-0-

“Saph, I’m home!” Crim’Eak sounded as he emerged through the front door of the house, rolling his right arm as he set aside a few bags on the island counter of the kitchen area. Bit of a busy day for him, having to work for a bit longer than anticipated, which did entail removing multiple dangerous criminals from the galaxy at large. Still, it wasn’t without its risks, all of them having gone violent yet were subdued, which made the trip back home all the more satisfying.

He was about to call out again, only for his hearing to pick up on snoring, smirking as he realized that his brother was asleep yet wanted to check up on him regardless, moving to the door leading to his bedroom. Carefully opening it, he would peek inside to see what was going on, only to suppress a chuckle, seeing that his brother was asleep, but also on a rather deformed micro planet, not even needing an explanation on where he got it from.

For now, he would simply close the door and choose to look after himself for a bit, cleaning himself up being first on the list. Various other things being done afterwards in the house and he would go to check up on the slumbering bird again, chuckling as he saw that he hasn’t really budged much since he last checked up on him, this time fully entering the room and quietly walked up to him.

“Hey, Saph.” he started in a quiet tone, gently pressing a hand to the slumbering avian’s side and gave him a nudge. “Wake up.”

Saph’Eak would shift from the nudge, turning to laying on his side, but otherwise didn’t wake up. At first, Crim was gonna give him another nudge, only to have a smirk come to his face at the idea that just formed. Looking down at the gravity ring that the cushion-planet was being held by, he would reach down to it and to a couple of knobs on it, carefully twisting one of them and watched it being lifted up ever slightly higher. He would see that the slumbering avian had pretty much fit himself completely onto the object, even his talons being lifted up from the floor.

Once the warped planet was up a good foot or two from the floor, Crim chuckled to himself as he moved himself away from the general spot, moving his hand over to a different button and gave it a press. It was the same one that anchored the planet from rotating, and just as quickly as it was disengaged that it started to tilt to the side. The tilting of it only sped up as the weight on it was going to the side, soon completely having the avian thrown off and landing on the floor, a squawk coming out from him in surprise mixed with the mild pain of the landing, laughter erupting from Crim as his brother was trying to come to his senses thanks to the rude awakening.

“Hey Saph.” Crim managed to say once he calmed himself down, resting his hands on his knees with a wide smile on his face.

“Hey Crim…” the fellow avian responded, pushing himself up into a sitting position as he rubbed one of his eyes. “Never could pass up a chance to mess with me after last time, huh?”

“Nope.”

“Figured.” Saph sighed, getting up fully from his spot. “Well, despite dozing off, it did prove what I wanted to find out.” he stated, looking over to the small world that was still spinning in its spot, if slower than a minute ago.

“Which was?” Crim asked in return, getting up as well.

“Well, a little change to our gear can kind of make it so that planetary bodies don’t have the usual…properties, so to say.” Saph explained, walking over and rested a hand on the planet if to stop its rotation. “Makes it like ‘memory foam’, if I’m getting the name right for the stuff. Can press and squeeze it to your heart’s content, and it won’t falter or break, always springing back to its original shape. Bodies of water will get displaced still, but they won’t soak into anything other than what they originated from.”

“Heh, so you made it so planets could become personal cushions or something like that?”

“Well…y-yeah.” Saph chuckled as he replied, rubbing the back of his head.

“I’m guessing that this one was barren of life? Aside from the foliage, from what I’m seeing.”

“Oh yeah, it was. Tabula rasa planet, no signs of sentient life on it. I checked to be absolutely certain of it.”

With a nod, Crim would turn to start heading out of the room, mentioning that he did get something for the two to eat, Saph following after him since he was rather peckish at the moment.

-0-

Turns out that the giant landing on the planet wasn’t going to be another case of full immobility, but it did provide a rather interesting challenge for the tiny figure. Unlike the hand that pinned him down, he was instead pushed up and into the weaving of the clothing that the giant wore, but where exactly it was at the figure had no idea of knowing, not even after managing to climb up and through the weaves to the point of reaching what could only be described as the down feathers of the colossal bird.

Even climbing through them wouldn’t be an issue, but footing would be an issue when gravity shifted for the tiny figure, tumbling and landed on another of the massive feathers after a rather sizable fall. Despite such, he wouldn’t end up injured from it, just disoriented, more so when the place gave out beneath and put him through another fall. Instead of landing on another feather, he would instead land at what he could only guess is the hide of his ‘host’, getting himself up to look around. Dark, but not enough to be impossible to see as there was some semblance of light filtering through the strands and feathers above, now serving as the sky of the place to him. Lost on the giant, yet still interesting to explore something else at such a size.

Finding a way home though would be an even bigger issue, but something that he felt could manage to do in due time.

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Third short story involving the warden birds, and this one was done purely to tease Xazzon , whom did help me in fleshing out the two past the fawning he frequently did for 'em. >u>
Was also a good chance to try and flesh out their off-duty lifestyle, even if it's just at their house.

-0-

Crim'Eak and Saph'Eak belong to me.