Some Choices
fiction by Sam Thielman
Clorth
The clorth is an eight-legged creature with an ovoid thorax and smaller, humanoid head segment, in appearance reminiscent of the Terran spider (much larger, of course). It is both endoskeletal and covered in a tender hide and silky fur not dissimilar from chinchilla or ermine (fauna, again, of Terran origin). The clorth is often hunted for its fur despite its extreme territoriality. Its sophisticated hive culture produces visual and musical art, samples of which are reproduced right here at Some Choices. Its native world is the fourth planet from Deneb. The clorth have even given the planet their own name, translated into English with as much fidelity as possible to the subtle tongue-and-mandible combinations of the clorth language, as Throlc. The clorth perceive time as a solid object and understand its linear passage to be an error of perception on the part of Homo sapiens, sometimes exacerbated by the ingestion of neogyn. They are smoked for nine hours and their legs are served with chef Dionysus Mandrigold’s zealous, piquant dry rub (available for purchase at the cashwarp) in a basket with fried cracklings and your choice of two home-style sides. Don’t be surprised if Dionysus himself stops by your table to make sure it’s perfect! (Ψ34.95)
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