Private Finished Broken trees

The pod had entered the Earth's atmosphere. Years of damage by space debris and asteroids had made the on-board navigation unable to escape the pull of the planet's gravity. The friction from the particles off the air caused a combustion at the front of the pod. A lesser craft would have broken up.

Barely functional, the pod deployed counter-thrust to slow its decent and land. Unfortunately, the forward inertia was too much for it and it crashed, skidding across the forest, burying the craft half-way by the time it stopped.

By the time an entity came close, all the lights had gone, the craft's power supply destroyed on impact, leaving the emergency power to operate the red lights around the craft that faded in and out.

The pod had a small window, covered in scratches, dirt and leaves, but if one were to peer through it, they would see what looked to be a girl sleeping inside.

Now, how to get her out of there?

Eli's repeated contact with the pod triggered the emergency release for the pod. A burst of cold air escaped the seams as the air-tight seals disengaged. The door opened, hinged at the top of the pod. It was now clear that this wasn't a human girl. She had the upper body of one, but below that was a black metal body, taking a disturbingly arachnid form.

The spider-like eyes just below the humanoid half lit up. The human half opened its eye lids, revealing red eyes with a pattern reminiscent of camera lenses. The human half grabbed the sides of the pod and lifted herself up. She hit a button that ejected the rest of her body enough for her six-legged spider half to climb out of the pod.

She was facing the creature that had caused her pod to open, seemingly scrutinizing him.

The lenses in her eyes adjusted multiple times as her gaze drifted about the first sentient creature she made contact with. A few moments later, the creature made some back and forth gesture with his hand.

She grabbed his wrist firmly and studied his hand. It was much like her own. Curious, she tried to identify if this creature was something similar to herself. His frame only had his upper half look somewhat similar. A closer look at his eyes revealed that he was organic. Best left alone for now.

Without a word, Farea turned back to her pod and retrieved four cylindrical tubes, each filled with red liquid, which she then inserted into ports on the back side of her spider body. Looking around her surroundings, she would take a few paces in one direction, turn, take a few more paces, and repeat her actions, akin to someone who was lost except without the panic that would set in. If left undisturbed, she would have circled the immediate area within a hundred meters before returning to the pod to decide what to do next.

She seemed to ignore the person's calls, and began to visually scan the surrounding area again, the full 360 degrees while keeping to the same spot. She seemed displeased. She pointed her stinger/spinneret at a tree and shot out red webbing and turning in a full circle, creating a net of red webs about 50 meters in diameter and 5 meters off the ground.

She needed to charge her energy reserves and she needed somewhere safe to do it. The grounds here did not provide that, but a higher altitude should suffice. She climbed up the side of a tree and settled where the largest opening on the canopy above was, the tree which used to occupy that space most likely fallen from her crash. Farea laid down and her back, the tubes with the red liquid retreating into her body, and she sprawled out on the surface of her webs. Faint beeps could then be heard, signaling that she was recharging.

This place was unsettling. Too many unknowns. Too many possibilities for danger. But admittedly, the clear skies were generous to her basking. The creature she met seemed docile enough. She turned her head slightly to see if that humanoid creature was still there. Well, it wasn't in the last place she saw it, but it came closer. Intriguing. Was it capable of wonder? Of curiosity? Hard to tell. It didn't trigger a pattern in her programming. Perhaps it was sizing up a potential prey?

She zoomed in, and saw that he was holding up a device, which alerted her. What was it? A weapon? Does she retaliate to this situation? There was a gap in her routines. She didn't know what, but something seemed missing.

The threat levels of the creature wasn't high enough to warrant any forceful retaliation, but she was cautious nonetheless. She moved a little to be a bit more concealed behind a low branch from the creature below.