Guardians of the Stars

The creature had a similar body structure to a human, but that was the only similarity. It resembled a humanoid urchin with all of the rotundity of an overweight American, and it's skin was the color of dead flesh. Its eyes were glassy and milky white and its mouth was full of needle-like teeth, each one over an inch long. Its feet were cloven like those of a goat, and when it walked it left behind hoof prints in the dirt.

The creature also had two retractable spinal columns extending from just behind its shoulders to just above its pelvis; they were tipped with four sharp points each. The passengers on board ship Horus knew this because they had seen them -- in the flesh, so to speak -- and they had felt them as well. In fact, the creature hadn't done much except stand there and watch as most of the ship's crew fainted because their minds were invaded by it. Some didn't even have time to faint; they just collapsed where they stood and stared at nothingness while the creature tore through their thoughts like a bull through a china shop.

It was this invasive nature that made it one of those creatures everyone wanted to get rid of as soon as possible. A few brave individuals tried fighting back, but the creature was stronger than it looked and had little trouble swatting them about with its spinal columns. It wasn't until one of the passengers remembered how humans used to hunt for fish in lakes that things began to change for the better.

"Hey! Hey you! You ugly fucker!" shouted Kyle, who was carrying a thin wooden stick with a stone at the end. He'd gotten close enough to strike out at the creature several times by now, but it kept dodging him easily enough. No matter how many times he hit it in the thighs or arms or head, there seemed to be no effect on the monster whatsoever; only when Kyle hit it in its stomach did he cause any sort of reaction. The creature laughed whenever Kyle tried hitting it somewhere else, but when he struck its abdomen it would double over in pain for a moment before returning to normal again.

"It's worked before," said Kyle under his breath as he swung at the creature again without causing any further damage than before."I'm just gonna keep doing this until I figure out what's going on."

"You got that right," said another passenger standing nearby as she watched Kyle swing wildly at the thing with her arms folded across her chest "I saw you do this once already and thought you were nuts then too." She sighed heavily after saying that and shook her head in disbelief before continuing "You know what? Forget I said anything." She turned around and walked away while shaking her head some more before adding "Jesus Christ."

Kyle heard what she said and stopped swinging his stick around for a moment before turning around and asking "What?" at which point she walked up next to him, took his stick out of his hand, threw it into some nearby bushes, grabbed him by his shirt collar and pushed him against a nearby tree as she answered "What? Nothing! Nothing at all! Just leave me alone if you want me to live through all this," she replied before putting some distance between them again and walking off once more before adding "And don't try doing anything else stupid without thinking about how absolutely moronic you are first."