Mapinguari

Who could love a furry beast with orange matted hair and a singular dull gray eye?

Who?

Not even my mother.

What does it matter?

I’m banished from my home, lost in space, this map means nothing, and I’m all alone.

I’m considered the ugliest of my kind.

It’s the orange hair. It should be a dark sienna and my eye should glow green, but I’m an abomination. I’ve come to terms with it.

What I can’t handle is that I’m the only one. I wish someone was as ugly, just so we could bond over our mutual ugliness. I’d like a friend. Maybe something more, but at the least, a friend would d…

Ooowannn! Ooowannn!

The alarm! Shi-

Crash!

Where in Sol am I?

That was the closest star right?

Oww…

A haze covers the debris of my ship. Where ever I am, it’s home now. For a time at least.

Stupid.

Stupid.

Stupid.

If I was paying attention this never would have happened.

And my wrist is broken. Of course!

I kick the piece of junk I called a spacecraft.

Goddammit that hurt!

I decide to walk away and take a look around.

This place is very much like home. There is flora and fauna everywhere and the sounds and smells of life and death are all around.

What's different are the details.

The trees are taller and green, not the red, violet, and quill like leaves I'm used to.

The animals are odd as well. They are short and four-walking. Some are even no-walkers. All creatures on Mapa Ungwai walk on two. 

I see a blue light in the distance and I decide to investigate.

It's an electronic device I soon realize. Maybe a visual transmissions device, and it is. I can be smart when I want to be. At least when it comes to tech.

The device is playing some sort of entertainment visual. A creature, big, black, and hairy is holding a practically hairless animal on a large tower. The beast looks like one of my kind, but he has two eyes instead of just the one. He also lacks the abdominal guzzle that my kind cherishes for masculine displays of who’s ego is bigger.

The beast seems to love the naked animal. It’s a sad sight to see when he is killed. All he wanted was to be with someone.

I wipe a tear from my eye and before I can commit to my sobbing I hear a noise.

It’s the opening of a door.

 I run and hide.

Whatever owns this device is intelligent. The last thing I want is to get caught before knowing what may be my captor.

What steps out is... amazing.

It’s one of those naked animals. A two-walker and from the looks of it a female. These creatures are ugly in the most beautiful of ways. My heart is taken by her beauty.

It’s dark but in the glint of light that is, I can see what little hair she has is red. A creature with red hair! I only fall deeper in love.

She’s everything I could want. Well she is a different species on an alien planet, but close enough.

Oh! I want to say hello, but my safety is a concern.

Instead I find shelter nearby.

The moon fades into sunlight and back again.

I find her even more intriguing and beautiful this next evening. I catch her bathing.  And still I’m amazed with her hair. The lack of it is eerily gorgeous. To my kind, hair is everything. We can feel vibrations in the air. Taste the pollen, which is very sweet here, and when we wed our hair is a way for us to, well, “connect”. To have so little, it’s odd.

Regardless, I feel my stomach float into my throat.

I’m still too wary to make my presence known.

For now, I will just appreciate her beauty from a far.

A week of moons go by as quickly as the river flows.

I am a being from Mapa Ungwai. This is a recording of my trip on the planet Arth made on salvaged equipment from my ship.

I am going to make contact now. I do not know what will come of it. But my heart beats constantly for this womyn’s affection. I heard her say her name is Kimmee. She is a record keeper of life’s wonders. And I can’t stop thinking about her. She is the longing to my endless waiting.

Here goes everything.

Run!!!!

I knew it was stupid.

Stupid.

Stupid.

Stupid.

Apparently there are others of my colored kind. They reside on this planet and they are called Mapinguari in respect to our planet. But that is all the respect they receive. We are a hunted creature.  All foreign creatures are. I have heard of a being of big walkers in a place called Merka and a white relative of his in the Himilayers.

These Hoomans are cruel.

I was captured and was met with torture and beatings and…

Kimmee she is one of them.

She was the worst of all. She pulled at my hair, shaved it, and as I called for mercy she just kept shaving.

The pain!! Oh the pain!

OHohohohohhhh!

I managed to make an escape but not without injury.

This will be my last entry.

I was shot. Not once but twice, the first time was by love, the second was by Kimmee. The combination will be my end, heartbreak and physical wound.

Know that Hoomans are dangerous. If any of my kind finds this stay away. Let the other foreigners to this planet know.

The Hoomans are interesting. The Hoomans are deadly. And the Hoomans are wrong about a lot of things but the Hoomans are right about one:

‘Twas beauty that killed the beast.’