//------------------------------// // Chapter 01 - The Backyard Anomaly // Story: Backyard Anomaly // by Marmo //------------------------------// The Backyard Anomaly Chapter 1 – Backyard Anomaly Michael is standing in his living room, a migraine slowly creeping up towards his temples while wondering what the heck just happened today. It just unfolded a few hours after finishing his shift at the ACASC, a local branch facility of the ‘Anomaly Containment And Study Centre’. It's an organisation known worldwide and appreciated by the entire population of Earth since it deals with various dangerous anomalies and other mysterious events. Michael wonders what he should do now. Reporting the anomaly to the higher-up researchers at the ACASC would be the wisest idea, right? Never ever had such an intriguing and unique anomaly been discovered and… it could certainly strengthen his position at work, maybe give him a hefty raise as well. Not that he needed more money, but still... cash is cash which could lead to more vacation days. Nonetheless the man sighs. He rubs his temples and starts walking towards the kitchen area, grabbing a can of beer. He quickly closes the door with his hips and opens the can. Michael walks towards the living room and lets himself fall into his recliner, thinking what he should do now, occasionally taking a few sips. ----------------- It just happened after he came back from work. A usual day, quite uneventful actually. After some experimenting with the newest inanimate anomalies at the ACASC, he called it a day and went home late this summer evening. Grabbing his favourite meal from Burger-King® , he finally dashed back home. Already in the driveway, his observant eyes noticed something being off. Next to the path which led to his average three-story house stood his favourite birch tree. Now, he was quite the hobby botanist and cared deeply for his trees and plants in his garden, so, seeing some blue and purple hair strands hanging from a lower branch triggered his inner self quite a bit. “Kids and their hair colours these days…” He shook his head and sighed. Not giving it further thought, he opened the door of his house with the key and steppedinside. Whistling a silly tune, he entered the living room, putting the bag onto the table. The living room was quite spacious with various big windows allowing visitors to gaze into the big luscious garden behind his house. Being a researcher at ACASC definitely had its perks. He stared at his burger and his mouth started to water. Not even bothering to get a plate, he lifted the burger and brought it towards his mouth. He wanted to open his mouth to dig into this delicious treat, but he just managed to mush the burger against his face. His eyes noticed something standing in his garden. Some… thing was standing in his garden. He put the burger back onto its wrapping and closed his eyes, firmly rubbing them. It did not help though. He still saw this small white horse in his garden. It had a colourful mane and tail. “What in the bloody hell?” He gawked at the thing, wondering what kind of crazy prank must be pulled on him. The horse had proper wings and a rather pointy horn which was almost as long as his forearm. On top of that, it had a multicoloured mane and tail consisting of blue, green and various shades of purple. Now as a top researcher in the ACASC, Michael had seen and studied quite a lot of weird shit the last few years. May it be various objects and anomalies like glowing and growing slimes which devour researchers for a living, or vicious bats which influence your mind and turn people into mindless vampires, sucking blood from their prey to serve it to the bat overlord in the bat universe. Those were just two examples of the 'shit' that people like Michael had to deal with in the ACASC. He just wanted to enjoy his damned meal and binge-watch this new anime show on Netflix this evening, not deal with more work! Maybe... Maybe he could just close both eyes for a while and the weird horse would vanish or at least gallop away into the next garden. Someone else could deal with it and bring it to the ACASC, not him! After all, he was a hard-working individual and deserves some proper rest, he thought. But it was now that his left eye started to twitch. The weird unicorn-pegasus-horse-thing started to nibble on his cherished blueberry bushes! It devoured them like a hungry monster who swallows its prey ice-cold. He wanted those berries for his yearly homemade berry jam cooking spree. He always made jam with his parents back in the old days... “Jesus fucking bloodyChrist!” With an annoyed grunt, he stomped towards the exit which leads to his garden. He opened the door swiftly with the intent of scaring the weird horse-creature away. Oii."Oiii!" He yelled in great annoyance. The horse quickly turned its head towards him and gasps in shock. Slowly walking backwards, it almost tripped over its own legs. “Get the hell away from my blueberries, aight?!” He shouted. He used his arms distinctively to shoo the horse away, hoping it would get scared and finally piss off. Michael then tilts his head in confusion when he realized something. - Wait, did it just gasp? – The horse took a few more steps backwards, looking at him with big eyes. He stared at it in awe. Just now he realized how different this horse looks to normal horses. For starters, its eyes were huge with a purple eye color. It matched the purple in its colourful mane. Furthermore, its head is way rounder and the muzzle shorter as well. Staring into its big eyes, it did not look anything like a horse anymore. What struck him the most was its facial features and its expression. The horse had a look of pure fear on its weirdly feminine face. It… showed various emotions unlike the face of a normal horse would. The anomaly looked eerily human now. Michael just blinked in confusion and found himself walking slowly towards the horse in curiosity. “S-Stay back!” The horse shouted with a strong but feminine voice while walking back a bit more in fear. She lowered her head, the horn now aimed towards him. Michael has seen a lof of weird shit during his last five years studying all the various anomalies on Earth. But right now, his brain feels like it got slapped, soaked in gasoline and finally put on fire as well. “D-Did you just speak English?” He sputtered out in shock and excitement. It was now that he realized, that she was wearing a golden tiara and a huge golden necklace. Even on her hoofs, he could see some golden slippers. She looked straight out of a Disney movie. The small horse kept walking back in terror and her rump finally connected with a big thuja hedge. Realizing there would be no way out, she shot out some laser ball towards Michael’s direction. It missed him by a meter though. He recoiled in shock and confusion. “Oii, Bloody fucking...!” With him being clearly distracted, the horse took her opportunity and spread her wings. Shaking off some debris and leaves from her big wings she started flapping them, producing quite a lot of wind. Instinctively he grabbed for his stun device he sometimes had to use against other anomalies back at work. Aiming the high-tech device towards her, he squeezed the trigger. With a quick zap, the device made quick work of the white horse. She stopped the wing flapping and quickly fell unconscious towards the lush grass. Michael’s head was pounding hard right now. Did he just capture a motherfucking English-talking alien horse with wings and a horn? Did this horse just talk and shoot lasers towards him? Now his brain was really on fire. He quickly looked past his house, peeking towards his neighbours and the nearby road. No one had seen or heard anything. So far so good... (present) Still sitting in his recliner, Michael stares at his can of beer which rests in his palms. He wonders what he should do with this weird but fascinating alien horse, which he locked up in his guest room. The most sensible thing would be to let the ACASC handle this situation. Even his contract mentions that every anomaly had to be reported to the ACASC immediately. He knows that every anomaly must be studied and experiments need to be conducted. It’s for the better of mankind as he has been told and as he has told many others. However, he just can’t get the picture of this eerily human-looking creature out of his mind. It...She looked so scared. Not like when an animal is scared and cornered. It was different. She was clearly a sentient species. A sentient horse species. He chuckles to himself, "huh... I guess no Netflix for me today... heh." Taking another sip of his beer, he wonders when she is going to wake up. Now, he assumed that the horse would be female. The looks of the horse and its voice clearly indicated it, but he was no horse lover so what did he know… Standing up and putting his cup into the dishwasher, he starts opening the fridge. “Hmmm.. Berries… Some Fruit. Maybe a bit of salad?” He takes a few things out and closes the fridge again. After filling up a big bowl with water, he makes his way up the stairs towards the guest room on the second floor. Slowly putting the key into the keyhole, he turns it over and carefully opens the door. Peeking carefully into the room, he could see her still laying on the carpet floor. Her chest rising slowly up and down with her dirty wings firmly tucked against her side. Now that he had time to look at her properly, he noticed how bruised and dirty she looked like. Her fur is smudged with dirt and grass. A few feathers are misaligned. Her tail and mane also don’t look too fresh, so it was no surprise that the room now had a distinct wet horse smell to it. Slowly stepping into the room with the food and water in his arms, he notices her groggily waking up. He curses himself for the bad timing, wondering whether he should just quickly drop off the food and head back out to lock the door again. She did fire some laser at him for crying out loud! He quickly checks if the stun gun on his belt is still there. Luckily it is. Noises start coming from the room now. Gasping for air, the horse opens her big eyes and looks to the left and right, clearly frightened by the new environment. She crawls back into a corner, looking at him carefully while glancing towards the open door and back at Michael. “D-Don’t worry. I won’t hurt you.” He tries to use the softest and safest sounding voice he can produce, almost whispering. Slowly squatting down, he makes himself smaller to appear less threatening to her. “I bet you' re hungry…” He gently puts the plate with some apples, grapes and berries in the middle of the room with the bowl of water next to it. Gently walking backwards, he gives the horse some space and a friendly smile, trying to calm the poor thing down. Giving food must be a universal peace sign, he thinks. She keeps looking at the open door for a while and then back towards the food and water. After resisting the food for a while, a low rumble from her direction indicated that she was indeed hungry. The small horse slowly and weakly crawls forward, eyeing the human at the other side of the room carefully. She then glances back towards the plate on the floor. The fresh fruit look delicious to her, and the water is crystal clear. It was clear that her mouth was watering just from looking at the food and water. Quickly she pulls the bowl of water towards her and grabs it with her forelegs while sitting on the carpet. She quickly starts drinking from it, gulping the big amount of water down quite quickly. Then she hastily grabs some of the fruit and swallows them quickly. “T-Thank you...” She says weakly while warily but tiredly looking towards the human's eyes. She then slowly proceeds to eat from the plate. At first slow, then she greedily buries her face in the platter, trying to sate her hunger as quickly as possible.