Free Terra by Mitch Benn

Had he been asleep? He felt weirdly vulnerable; it was the first time he could remember being asleep out in the open. Fnrrns had been using gravity-wells to sleep in for eras and found the notion of lying down to sleep, as animals do, to be slightly degrading. Lbbp himself hadn’t just dozed off like that for a long time.
    - You were asleep! giggled Terra . Flat on your back like a jrrg or a big grey gff-gff.
    - Or a Ymn, reminded Lbbp. You’re having a Ymnising effect on me.
    - Don’t worry, I won’t tell your clever Postulator friends that you fell asleep in the forest and lay there snoring away like a big—
    - I do not snore! protested Lbbp.
    - How would you know?
    Lbbp got up and stretched. The slice of configuration 9 was still in his hand. He took another bite, then asked - How long was I asleep for? Fnrrns don’t dream, not adult Fnrrns anyway, so they can have difficulty keeping track of time while sleeping. For all Lbbp knew, he could have been unconscious for six shades or half a cycle.
    - About half a spectrum. Don’t worry, I kept myself busy.
    - What have you been up to?
    Terra was holding her slate. She’d sketched the flower that Lbbp had been leaning on. The flower was three times her height and was changing colour, almost like a clock; purple, red, orange, red, purple, blue.
    - It does that to attract lots of different birds and insects, said Lbbp. They all have a different favourite colour, so this way it gets them all sooner or later. Look, the hjj bugs like the red best. Terra noticed a little swarm of blue insects hovering around the flower. Ingenious, Lbbp went on. Makes it difficult to draw, though.
    - Look, said Terra holding up her slate. She’d animated her drawing so that it changed colour like the flower.
    - Clever, said Lbbp.
    - And here . . .
    Lbbp looked at the bottom of the drawing. Terra had sketched him, leaning against the stem with his eyes closed.
    With a giggle, Terra tapped the figure of Lbbp on the slate and it began to make little snoring sounds.
    - A bit TOO clever, said Lbbp.
    Terra laughed and tapped the slate to make the sound stop. The sound didn’t stop. Or rather it did, but a similar sound carried on. A snorting sound, then a rustling sound. Terra and Lbbp exchanged curious glances.
    The sound was coming from behind a hedgy patch of purple bush. - What is that? asked Terra. She put her slate down on the grass and skipped off to investigate.
    - Just a moment, said Lbbp, but Terra was gone. He put down his slice of configuration 9 and went after her.
    Terra found herself in a clearing overgrown with tall reedy grass. She looked through the grass towards the rustling sound. She saw nothing. She was about to decide that whatever she’d heard had already gone when a great section of undergrowth moved. She gasped and kept very still.
    What had looked like a grassy mound was in fact an almost perfectly camouflaged animal. Twice Terra’s size, it crawled along the forest floor, visible only when it moved. Terra couldn’t quite make out its shape; it was covered in long purple quills which were almost indistinguishable from the grass. She couldn’t tell which end was the head, or even if it had such a thing as a head. A brightly coloured sknth, a small furry arboreal creature, was scampering down a tree trunk about an arm’s length away from the creature; at that moment, the creature settled the question of which end was its head. It reared up and bared a set of sharp yellow teeth, taking the sknth with one swift chomp.
    Terra froze in fear. She watched the creature chewing its prey in horror and fascination. Something touched Terra on the shoulder. She started in fright. It was Lbbp. She wanted to punch him but was afraid to make any noise.
    - A znk! A wild znk! Fantastic! whispered Lbbp.
    - Fantastic? hissed Terra. I know at least one sknth who wouldn’t agree with that.
    The znk spat out a ball of multicoloured fur.
    - Isn’t it beautiful? enthused Lbbp, getting a