myrmicat

After the ride in the small elevator to the upper reaches of the myrmicat region, where Richard not only had visited the avian hospital staffed and run by the myrmicats, but also had watched the avians hatching out of brown, leathery eggs under the watchful eyes of myrmicat doctors, Richard knew for certain that there was indeed a complex symbiotic relationship between the two species.

The Garden of Rama Clarke, Arthur C. 1992

All of the remaining images featured either an avian, a manna melon, a myrmicat, a sessile web, or some combination of the quartet.

The Garden of Rama Clarke, Arthur C. 1992

Why had the contents of this mural not been transferred directly to him by the sessile, thereby obviating the entire effort by the myrmicat artists?

The Garden of Rama Clarke, Arthur C. 1992

Richard was about two meters away from the crippled myrmicat.

The Garden of Rama Clarke, Arthur C. 1992

What was left of the mural explicitly defined what the myrmicat/sessile creatures were asking Richard to do.

The Garden of Rama Clarke, Arthur C. 1992

Richard's pulse rate doubled as the cocoon completely disappeared and there was no trace of the myrmicat.

The Garden of Rama Clarke, Arthur C. 1992

Richard understood from the arrangement that the lifetime of the myrmicat manifestation of the species was very short when compared with the lifetime of the sessiles.

The Garden of Rama Clarke, Arthur C. 1992

After another five-minute jog, Richard entered an entirely different section of the myrmicat den.

The Garden of Rama Clarke, Arthur C. 1992

Its surface was intricately and magnificently carved, the central focus of the artwork being a square, four-panel decoration with a flying avian in the upper left quadrant, a manna melon in the upper right, a running myrmicat in the lower left partition, and something that looked like cotton candy with scattered thick, clustered lumps in the lower right.

The Garden of Rama Clarke, Arthur C. 1992

Richard followed a single myrmicat as it moved from one of the thick pools to the water, then over to the other thick pool.

The Garden of Rama Clarke, Arthur C. 1992