THE VISITOR
As the last rays of the sun were slowly vanishing behind the horizon, the small ship set down on a small hill overlooking a small village. Nobody in the village seemed to notice the arrival of the small ship, or if they did notice, they evidently did not care. One by one, lights appeared in the various small village houses and other places that stayed open past the setting of the sun. As the night wore on, fewer and fewer of the lights in the village could be seen as they were extinguished for the night. Still, no one seemed to take any notice of the fact that a small star craft had landed outside of their village. It was roughly an hour before daybreak when the ship finally opened a door and let someone out. What stepped out of the ship appeared to be almost human, except for a few minor facts, such as he was covered in fur, had a tail, and that his features seemed almost catlike. Another small thing that set him aside from the others was the fact that his eyes were also like those of a cat, and that he tended to move as carefully and yet as gracefully as a cat. As the figure climbed down a small ladder that extended from the underside of the ship, no one in the village seemed to take notice that he was even there. As he walked away from the small ship, the ladder retracted back into it as the door way in it slowly shut. The clothing of this being was almost manlike as well, except for a few minor details. The vest that he wore looked to be metallic in nature, but yet did not reflect light that shined on it. There was a small reddish-orange light in the middle of the vest that seemed to always be shifting in colors between red and orange as he walked towards the village. Hanging from a belt of some type at the waist were two objects of unusual shape and appeared to also be made of some unusual type of unknown metal as well. The walk into the village was of a short distance, and therefore did not take much time for the being to accomplish. Whenever he passed an occasional person on the street, they tended to shy away from him as if he were something to be feared. Still, the creature kept walking through the tiny little village as if it had a specific destination in mind, though what that destination was, nobody could as yet tell.
Finally, the creature stopped at the door of a small bar called, "THE DRUNKEN CAT", and carefully surveyed the look of the place before opening a door and walking in. As he walked across the rough wooden floor towards the bar, he looked around and seemed to be taking note of everything and everyone in the establishment. As he reached the bar, a drunken patron attempted to rob him of one of the oddly shaped things hanging from his unusual belt. Before the would be thief could touch the item, a fur covered hand with claws in it back handed him across the room of the bar and into one of the other customers. The customer who was then knocked almost off of his feet spilled his beer down the front of the serving lady's shirt. This was followed up by the serving lady quickly punching the poor man in the jaw, which unfortunately knocked him into a nearby table where another group of people were playing some kind of card game. The cards, coins, and drinks went flying into the air as the man landed on the table. One of the men at the table jumped back quickly, only to knock over an old man in strangely colored robes. As the bar room fight broke out, the catlike man simply stood at the bar calmly and quietly, as if waiting for something or someone. As the man in the strangely colored robes got up, he began to move his hands in an intricate pattern and mumble some strange words. Just as the old man finished mumbling and waving his hands, he was knocked over once more as a chair hit him in the back. A blast of fire flashed forth from the man's outstretched hands and went out through the open bar doors, across the street, and promptly hit a cart of hay that was being hauled by a horse and a man. The hay instantly ignited, which in turn caused the horse to spook and take off as fast as it could through the town. As the cart full of burning hay passed through the small village, it in turn set several other small carts ablaze as well before the harness holding it to the horse finally burned away. The burning cart promptly crashed into a warehouse full of some strange kind of powder that burned when touched by fire. The place then proceeded to explode in a large blast of smoke and fire as the powder in the place caught fire. This in turn destroyed almost everything in the town with the force of the explosion, except conveniently enough, the bar where it had all started. The loud explosion shook everybody off of their feet except for the bar owner, and the strange catlike man that had come into the bar from the ship on the hill. As the people began to get to their feet, the bar owner walked out of the back room where he had been sleeping. As he surveyed the scene before him, he began to frown and look for the cause of the fight that had broken out. His eyes quickly settled on the catlike man standing calmly at the bar and holding something small and round in his hand. He walked over to the owner of the bar and then spoke up. "Are you John Diller, late of the planet Alanatus ?" The bar owner eyed the creature carefully before speaking. "I am. And I suppose you are the one that started this mess that has just destroyed almost every building in this village?" The catlike man looked at him and calmly pushed a button on the round thing he was carrying. A picture made of light stretched out from the thing and displayed what looked to be some type of document with a large amount of numbers and symbols on it. "I am from the intergalactic tax service sir. It is my duty to tell you that unless you pay your tax fine of one galactic credit within two standard business days, We will be forced to foreclose on your property and auction it off to pay the remainder of the debt and all expenses accrued in the process of said action. If you do not have sufficient funds available at the moment, you may pay the debt off with an amount of valuable metal worth the equivalent amount of the debt. If you have any questions regarding this matter, you have one hour from the time of the notice to ask them." The man looked at the catlike creature with a look of disgust and surprise on his face. "I don't have a single galactic credit and you know it!!" he yelled at the creature. "And just how am I supposed to pay the bill off with what you consider valuable metal when I have not got access to a conversion chart on this planet anyway you stupid flea ridden idiot!!" The catlike man bent over and picked up a bent and scarred copper piece off of the floor and looked at it for a moment. "I believe that this piece of extremely rare metal should do quite nicely to pay off the bill you owe. I will log the debt as paid as soon as I return this to the main office. Have a nice day sir, and thank you for your help and patience in settling this matter." The catlike man then turned and walked out of the bar with the small round thing and the coin still in his hand. As the catlike creature got a little ways from the bar, people starting running out of it in all directions. A moment latter, the owner of the bar walked out shaking his head in disbelief at what had just happened. He was about to say something more when there came a loud cracking and groaning sound from behind him. He spun around just in time to see his bar collapse into a pile of debris and slightly charred ground. He was still standing there staring in shock when the small ship left the planet on it's way back to the home office to pay the taxes that the man had owed. The trip had only cost the home office a mere 5,000,000 galactic credits to collect the taxes from this man, but they considered it bad policy to let anyone get away with not paying their taxes.
5/29/99
~DANIEL INGRAM~
TALES FROM THE DEPTHS OF LIMBO
DARK THOUGHTS OF PAIN AND SUFFERING
GAMES PLAYED IN LIMBO
FONTS USED IN LIMBO
