Shownotes
Today’s story is “A Day With the Skaraks” by C.F. Becker, a 3D artist whose work can be found on FurAffinity under the name CannonFodder. As you can guess from the name, his work explores themes of war and the soldiers who fight it, but such a broad subject captures ideas from all across the fandom. This story is an example of that depth.
The story was originally written as an accompaniment to a four page, full-color, textless comic drawn by the talented furry artist Samareck. The comic can be found on FurAffinity and on Samareck’s website at DeviantArt.
Read for you by Khaki, your faithful fireside companion.
Transcripts
You’re listening to The Voice of Dog.
Speaker:I’m Khaki, your faithful fireside companion,
Speaker:and today’s story is
Speaker:“A Day With the Skaraks” by C.F. Becker,
Speaker:a 3D artist whose work can be found on FurAffinity under the name
Speaker:CannonFodder. As you can guess from the name, his work explores themes of war
Speaker:and the soldiers who fight it,
Speaker:but such a broad subject captures ideas from all across the fandom.
Speaker:This story is an example of that depth.
Speaker:The story was originally written as an accompaniment
Speaker:to a four page, full-color,
Speaker:textless comic drawn by the talented furry artist
Speaker:Samareck. The comic can be found on FurAffinity
Speaker:and on Samareck’s website
Speaker:at DeviantArt. Please enjoy:
Speaker:“A Day With the Skaraks”
Speaker:by C.F. Becker 1. It began when the Skaraks had built a colony on a planet of reptilian natives.
Speaker:The negotiations for establishing the colony took years.
Speaker:While the reptilians had allowed other races to establish colonies on their planet
Speaker:and benefitted from them, the Skaraks had a reputation as warmongers,
Speaker:with their military-dominated government
Speaker:and their seemingly endless interplanetary war.
Speaker:However, their armies were fighting on battlefields on the other side of the galaxy,
Speaker:and there was nothing hinting they would bring their war to this solar system.
Speaker:But there was enough caution
Speaker:that the leaders demanded the colony be placed in a dry desert,
Speaker:someplace separate from any reptilian communities
Speaker:and easy to isolate if trouble arose.
Speaker:The Skaraks agreed to the terms and soon used their advanced water-based technology
Speaker:to build an oasis
Speaker:within the barbed wire walls.
Speaker:Adler was a college student in the closest reptilian community to the colony.
Speaker:While he knew about the gleaming oasis in the desert East of town,
Speaker:like others in the city,
Speaker:he had never been there.
Speaker:Travel in and out of the colony was carefully watched
Speaker:and rumors abounded about it being a first step
Speaker:of the Skarak army eventually invading the planet.
Speaker:Which is why he was so surprised
Speaker:when he found a young Skarak woman studying in the university library one day.
Speaker:A deeply inquisitive soul,
Speaker:he pushed back any rumor-fueled fears to introduce himself.
Speaker:To his pleasure, she was quite good at the local reptilian language
Speaker:and was eager to talk.
Speaker:Adler soon learned how much effort San'ka had gone through
Speaker:to get permission to study in the reptilian college,
Speaker:and how lonely she had been
Speaker:with so many unwilling to talk to her.
Speaker:She peppered Adler with questions about reptilians
Speaker:that he was happy to answer,
Speaker:especially since she answered all of Adler's.
Speaker:Very quickly the two began seeing each other regularly,
Speaker:sharing every lunch period together,
Speaker:meeting up after classes and during study breaks.
Speaker:And not long after that,
Speaker:they fell in love.
Speaker:It was much easier for a reptilian to enter the Skarak colony
Speaker:than the other way around,
Speaker:so Adler was able to follow San'ka home one day
Speaker:without letting his family or friends know.
Speaker:And it was an amazing experience.
Speaker:He enjoyed it so much that he did it again and again,
Speaker:quietly taking his study breaks to the colony to be with San'ka.
Speaker:He wanted to share the things he experienced,
Speaker:but with his friends and parents still fearful of the Skaraks,
Speaker:Adler kept his mouth shut.
Speaker:When his little brother expressed an interest in the yellow aliens, though,
Speaker:Adler told little Torrey
Speaker:under the promise he wouldn't share.
Speaker:When a business trip took Adler's parents to another part of the planet,
Speaker:the college student was left watching over his little brother.
Speaker:Torrey had nearly burst from the excitement.
Speaker:He knew Adler was going to take him to the Skarak colony once mom and dad were gone, and he couldn't wait.
Speaker:When the day finally came,
Speaker:Torrey couldn't control himself and raced ahead of his brother
Speaker:through the barbed wire fence.
Speaker:With the colony sparkling in the distance,
Speaker:he couldn't wait to see what he could find.
Speaker:And Adler couldn't wait to share it.
Speaker:The city was amazing.
Speaker:They met San'ka in the city square,
Speaker:eager to see her boyfriend and meet his little brother.
Speaker:All around, the city bustled with activity,
Speaker:hundreds of storefronts selling fish and other seafood,
Speaker:jewelry and dry goods.
Speaker:The air was filled with music from a street drummer
Speaker:pounding on a whole circle of drums,
Speaker:his arms, elephant-like nose and reptile-like tail
Speaker:all pounding out complex rhythms.
Speaker:Giant pipes above their heads held Skaraks swimming across the city,
Speaker:gliding like dolphins through the water.
Speaker:Torrey was scared when the first shopkeeper reached out to him,
Speaker:speaking in his Skarakian tongue,
Speaker:holding out a necklace.
Speaker:San'ka reassured him
Speaker:that it was a gift,
Speaker:and he should take it,
Speaker:so he did. And it was followed by another shopkeeper
Speaker:handing him a bracelet.
Speaker:Adler grinned inwardly.
Speaker:He had learned from San'ka that Skarak ancestors had once worshiped gods that resembled anthro reptiles.
Speaker:While the old religions were gone,
Speaker:the traditions still lingered, and for many Skaraks, giving gifts to a reptile would bring good fortune.
Speaker:Adler learned something from this the reptilian leaders never did—the Skaraks had wanted to build their colony to bring their people luck.
Speaker:Conquering reptilians would be unthinkable.
Speaker:Adler even knew that no Skarak would harm Torrey in the colony
Speaker:because of those old traditions.
Speaker:And it was great to see his little brother getting free gifts.
Speaker:As they headed to the dining district to get lunch,
Speaker:Torrey saw a movie theater and asked to go inside.
Speaker:Only it wasn't a movie theater.
Speaker:Instead, a news reel was showing images from the front lines of the Skarak war.
Speaker:The footage had come from the other side of the galaxy,
Speaker:so far away, but this was what the reptilians feared,
Speaker:what fueled all those rumors.
Speaker:Torrey watched with confusion,
Speaker:seeing a side of the Skaraks
Speaker:he had been told was true,
Speaker:but hadn't fully believed.
Speaker:But so was the side that had put a necklace over his head.
Speaker:He watched longer than he likely should have,
Speaker:thinking more about what he was learning than
Speaker:what was being shown
Speaker:—up until he noticed that San'ka wouldn't look at all. 2.
Speaker:Lunch came next, which was good, because Torrey was hungry.
Speaker:He thought his big brother was joking
Speaker:when Adler told him to jump onto a slide to get to the restaurant,
Speaker:but when San'ka slid down first,
Speaker:he figured it was safe.
Speaker:It was, and it was fun, too,
Speaker:as all three slid into an underwater room
Speaker:with a big pool in the middle.
Speaker:This wasn't like any restaurant Torrey had ever seen.
Speaker:The waiter arrived from under the water to take their orders,
Speaker:then dove back down
Speaker:as they lay on the floor,
Speaker:resting their arms on the cushioned edge of the pool.
Speaker:Torrey had no idea what to order,
Speaker:so he asked lots of questions to San'ka, who patiently answered them.
Speaker:On his brother's advice,
Speaker:he picked an urchin,
Speaker:one of Adler's favorites.
Speaker:But San'ka looked concerned when Torrey asked for an extra large one.
Speaker:Urchins were tasty,
Speaker:but too much at once
Speaker:could be tough on the stomach.
Speaker:Still, once it arrived, it was hard to dissuade the youngster from the bad ass looking dish.
Speaker:Afterwards, they went to the arena.
Speaker:This was why Adler was going to the colony in the first place.
Speaker:In his earlier visits he had come to learn of Ko'kippak,
Speaker:a Skarak sport. And it was
Speaker:awesome. The older reptilian was practically squirming in his seat before the game began,
Speaker:with Torrey looking all around,
Speaker:astonished by all the Skaraks,
Speaker:so many aliens inside this space.
Speaker:Then the lights came on,
Speaker:a Skarak with a white armband came out
Speaker:which San'ka explained was the referee,
Speaker:and then two large, athletic Skaraks
Speaker:stepped into the ring
Speaker:with long staffs.
Speaker:Torrey jumped in his seat when the drum beat signaled the start of the game and suddenly those long staffs
Speaker:broke apart into smaller sticks!
Speaker:In a flurry of action, the two competitors broke their staffs into smaller pieces,
Speaker:swinging at each other with the rods,
Speaker:moving them rapidly around their hands,
Speaker:noses and tails! And then they would snap the pieces back together at the ends,
Speaker:reassembling them.
Speaker:All of it happened so fast, the fighters so fluid in how they broke and attached the pieces,
Speaker:rearranging them,
Speaker:swinging them, trying to make contact with each other.
Speaker:Finally one competitor delivered a firm blow to the other's arm,
Speaker:making contact and play stopped,
Speaker:the referee awarding a point.
Speaker:And after reassembling their pieces
Speaker:—six pieces each, as Torrey finally counted
Speaker:—they stood ready with their one long staff
Speaker:for the next drum beat to signal a new round.
Speaker:Adler cheered. He got so into the game, he jumped out of his seat,
Speaker:his enthusiasm matching that
Speaker:of the most excited Skaraks in the audience.
Speaker:He loved this sport!
Speaker:San'ka helped explain some of the details to Torrey,
Speaker:like how points awarded were determined by the number of sticks used to make contact,
Speaker:and how striking with the tail
Speaker:would award more points
Speaker:than with a hand or nose.
Speaker:She also noted how contact with a limb without a stick was illegal,
Speaker:and one competitor who swatted his opponent on the leg with his bare tail got penalized,
Speaker:having to give up one of his sticks for the following round.
Speaker:Torrey would have wondered what amazing technology was involved in making the sticks so effortlessly assemble and disassemble as they did
Speaker:if it hadn't been for the fact the urchin was really getting to him now.
Speaker:Adler couldn't believe they had to leave the middle of the match.
Speaker:Poor Torrey was feeling so sick,
Speaker:moaning about his stomach, he had to go.
Speaker:San'ka had offered to take Torrey to the pharmacist so Adler could keep watching,
Speaker:but the older reptilian decided to stay with his little brother.
Speaker:He was a little worried when San'ka mentioned a pharmacist.
Speaker:He had never had to look for medicine in the colony and honestly didn't know what to expect.
Speaker:He had assumed the Skarak wearing rubber gloves on his hands and nose was
Speaker:some kind of plumber
Speaker:with all the pipes full of water in his store.
Speaker:But San'ka said he was the pharmacist,
Speaker:or rather the hydropharmacist,
Speaker:specializing in curing through water.
Speaker:Adler wasn't sure if this was for real
Speaker:—he was used to pharmacists giving pills and injections.
Speaker:But San'ka assured him—and the poor, moaning Torrey
Speaker:—that he could help.
Speaker:As soon as she told him the young reptilian had eaten too much urchin,
Speaker:he seemed to know just what to do.
Speaker:He took some water from each of several pipes,
Speaker:mixing them together in a test tube.
Speaker:And despite Adler thinking to himself it's all just water,
Speaker:after Torrey drank it,
Speaker:the boy started to feel better.
Speaker:As Torrey recovered,
Speaker:Adler asked San'ka about the water he had just drank.
Speaker:Was it not actually water?
Speaker:Was it laced with something?
Speaker:San'ka said she didn't know,
Speaker:being she wasn't a hydropharmacist herself.
Speaker:But she knew that the waters he mixed all came from different sources,
Speaker:some of it from oceans,
Speaker:some from rivers on their home planet,
Speaker:some of it drawn from plants or even the bodies of animals.
Speaker:Torrey made a face at that.
Speaker:When he asked why Skaraks would do something gross like suck water out of animals,
Speaker:he quickly regretted it.
Speaker:San'ka looked away,
Speaker:having that same look on her face she had had in the theater.
Speaker:Adler cringed. He apologized to San'ka,
Speaker:saying he should have told Torrey about that before they arrived. Torrey was
Speaker:confused and ashamed,
Speaker:not understanding what was wrong,
Speaker:but apologizing all the same.
Speaker:Adler suggested to San'ka that they show Torrey something,
Speaker:using a word that Torrey didn't understand.
Speaker:But it seemed to make San'ka feel better,
Speaker:and she agreed. 3. Torrey had wanted to try out the water tubes that criss-crossed the colony.
Speaker:Walking around the marketplace,
Speaker:he could see Skaraks swimming as sleek and fast as seals,
Speaker:zipping across the town on those floating rivers.
Speaker:But this tube was different.
Speaker:Instead of being over the city, where he hoped he might see the streets below,
Speaker:the tube was dug underground.
Speaker:It worried Torrey at first,
Speaker:thinking the water pressure might squeeze him the further down he went,
Speaker:but something about how the tube was made seemed to keep the pressure off his body.
Speaker:He might not have been as good a swimmer as his big brother,
Speaker:and certainly nowhere as good as San'ka,
Speaker:but it wasn't difficult for him to keep up.
Speaker:When he emerged at the other end of the tube,
Speaker:Torrey couldn't believe what he saw.
Speaker:The room was bathed in blue light,
Speaker:the ceiling towering overhead,
Speaker:a sheet of glass revealing the bubbling lake
Speaker:that buried the chamber.
Speaker:Light streamed in from the stained window behind him,
Speaker:cast down the long room and the hundreds,
Speaker:maybe thousands of shelves on either side.
Speaker:As he climbed out of the water and put his feet on the warm floor,
Speaker:he could see that inside each shelf
Speaker:were bottles of water of all shapes and sizes.
Speaker:Torrey thought maybe this was storage for the hydropharmacist,
Speaker:with even rarer waters collected.
Speaker:He was about to open his mouth to ask
Speaker:when the silence stopped him.
Speaker:San'ka and Adler hadn't spoken a word since entering the chamber.
Speaker:With their wet footsteps echoing down the hall,
Speaker:the blue light cast a somber glow on everything,
Speaker:as if the room were asking all to hush.
Speaker:Torrey was still feeling guilty for upsetting San'ka,
Speaker:even if he didn't know what he had done.
Speaker:He chose to follow as San'ka and Adler
Speaker:walked down the hall,
Speaker:stopping at one glass-sealed shelf.
Speaker:San'ka stared at it.
Speaker:Her large, black eyes were always a challenge for Torrey to read,
Speaker:but he could see she was sad
Speaker:as she stared at the water bottle sitting alone inside.
Speaker:Her yellow fingers touched the glass
Speaker:as Adler came to her side,
Speaker:putting a hand on her shoulder.
Speaker:San'ka sniffed, her long nose curling up on itself,
Speaker:an apparent show of grief as she reached up to touch her necklace.
Speaker:Torrey had barely noticed it,
Speaker:figuring it might have been another gift given to her
Speaker:like the necklace he was still wearing.
Speaker:Only hers was of a small tube
Speaker:filled with a bit of water.
Speaker:Torrey understood then,
Speaker:and he hung his head.
Speaker:Torrey remembered how San'ka mentioned taking water from the dead.
Speaker:How carefully the hydropharmacist was handling the water in his shop.
Speaker:Discovering this underwater chapel,
Speaker:silent and solemn,
Speaker:where all of these bottles of water were being held in such reverence.
Speaker:The way San'ka picked one out and stared at it,
Speaker:then touched the bit of water she held around her neck.
Speaker:And finally, how hurt she was at his suggestion
Speaker:that drawing water from the dead
Speaker:was gross. Torrey felt awful.
Speaker:He watched for a moment,
Speaker:seeing his brother hold his girlfriend in the blue silence,
Speaker:supporting her in this moment.
Speaker:Torrey drew up the courage to come up to her opposite side,
Speaker:to put an arm around her hip
Speaker:to show his own support.
Speaker:And she puts her arm around him.
Speaker:That felt better.
Speaker:He was truly sorry. 4.
Speaker:Torrey couldn't remember the last time he'd hugged someone for so long.
Speaker:His mind raced with thoughts as he felt San'ka's hands on his back,
Speaker:feeling the rubbery alien skin on his scales.
Speaker:He was so thankful for everything he had seen;
Speaker:all she had shared with him.
Speaker:But his gratitude was drowning in guilt
Speaker:at what he had said earlier.
Speaker:He didn't know what to say,
Speaker:fearful to be honest lest he reopen the wound.
Speaker:Then he felt San'ka hug him back,
Speaker:her nose caressing his head,
Speaker:and he thought maybe all was forgiven.
Speaker:Adler embraced San'ka.
Speaker:It was a huge relief on him when he first learned that Skaraks kissed
Speaker:just like reptilians do.
Speaker:It took some getting used to feeling that nose holding the back of his head like an extra arm, but he learned to like it.
Speaker:After all, he could use it as a guide to find out how much San'ka wanted to kiss.
Speaker:This time, with the sun dipping under the horizon
Speaker:and the sky turning purple,
Speaker:her nose held very tightly.
Speaker:With the colony shimmering in the distance,
Speaker:blue light gleaming behind trickling water,
Speaker:Adler look a last glance over his shoulder
Speaker:at San'ka. He saw her doing the same.
Speaker:Torrey faced forward,
Speaker:chin down, still swimming in thoughts of youthful guilt.
Speaker:He'd get over it.
Speaker:Adler knew San'ka was happy to have met his little brother,
Speaker:and he was happy to have introduced him.
Speaker:It was worth every pain,
Speaker:whether stomachache
Speaker:or heartache, to teach one more reptilian
Speaker:of Skarak culture.
Speaker:It was what the colony was there for,
Speaker:after all.This was
Speaker:“A Day With the Skaraks”
Speaker:by C.F. Becker, read for you by Khaki,
Speaker:your faithful fireside companion.
Speaker:Thank you for listening
Speaker:to The Voice of Dog