Submission (#6736) Approved

Word Count: 417

Romulus was spending the evening working in his garden, tending to the crops that he had been cultivating for the past several months. However, as he dug through the earth, he noticed a rather unruly weed that had rooted itself in between the gourds and the tomato plants. He reached down, taking ahold of the sprout and attempting to pull when— CHOMP! Ouch! Upon taking a closer look, Romulus noticed something interesting about the plant- it had a mouth! Worried about more of the pesky plants, he searched through his garden, finding a small trail of them going into the forest. Following along, he noticed that the further he ventured, the larger the weeds began to get. And to a concerning degree at that, as they were already the size of about a Microbe Terralien. Then a Bug Terralien, then Beast, then Reptile…

As he reached the center of the forest, he discovered that these weeds had grown into a large patch surrounding some sort of object. The ground around it was scorched and the grass had burnt away, as well as the treetop having quite a noticeable hole inside of its foliage. Carefully stepping over the plants- animals? as to not disturb them, Romulus reached his hands out to try and wipe away some of the dust that had accumulated on the surface of the object. Wiping it away, he made out the words “TERRA” on the side, and looking at the reflective paneling, deduced it to be a satellite that had been orbiting the planet. But this didn’t look like any ordinary satellite, no, but he couldn’t say that he was acquaintanced with what detailed a satellite common to this planet. Who’s was this, and why had they not come to claim their fallen possession? Surely this must have been expensive, although its creator must not have been very handy, looking at the quality of the build. Not wanting to risk a dispute with someone should they find their satellite and associated data missing, Romulus decided it best to leave it alone. Surely it had some kind of tracking signal or otherwise method of location should something go awry, so he had no doubt that it would be picked up soon. Maybe then the strange weeds would finally go away to leave him and his garden at peace. Gathering himself and carefully sneaking around the weeds once more, Romulus departed the forest— although he could not shake the sense of worry creeping up on him.