After a suspiciously long time, Cantlutloche emerged from her room, walking rather stiffly. Her face was flushed, and she was sniffling and red-eyed. This worried Fisotrano more than anything. In the last three years, since she met her, she had never witnessed the calm, collected Tloche, the “ice queen” shedding even a tear.

Tloche had changed into tight-fitting leggings and a likewise tight-fitting sleeveless crop top, both in matching black. The attire hugged the brunette’s gorgeous curves, leaving little to the imagination. She was barefoot.

“Going running or something” asked Trano, warily.

Tloche rubbed her face with her hands, breathed deeply and answered, a little shakily.

- “No, I’m not going anywhere until this is settled; with you as a witness that I haven’t left the room”.

“Speaking of settled, where is he?”

“Better if you don’t know, Trano”. Saying this, Tloche walked to the table, picked the little man’s boots and socks and, walking nonchalantly to the window, simply threw them away. “Plausible deniability and all that, you know”.

“Well, Tloche, dear. If you and Jablo keep acting this crazy, people will start to think I’m the normal one here. I don’t know if I can live with that”. Tloche chortled. “Seriously, what…”

They were interrupted by the door opening. Jablo was there, grim-faced, flanked by two even more grim-looking female patrollers, dressed in yellow fatigues. One of them had the blue cap of the ImSoc immigration authority.

- “Good evening, ladies”, the ImSoc officer greeted them. “I’m commander Nitladenila and this is patroller Coumo”. Coumo nodded in greeting and produced a notepad and pencil.

- “How may we help you, patrollers?”  said Trano, hoping she looked innocent.

- “Could we have your full names, please?”.

- “Matundhuno, Fisotrano, from Tungi”. Said Tlano, in the customary way of citing your name to an officer of the law, Last name first, provenance afterwards.

- “Parrotflock, Cantlutloche, local, born and raised here in Nanagheda”. The scratching of Coumo’s pencil on paper could be heard.

- “I will need you to produce your ID cards later. Before we continue, Nanagheda’s charter compels me to warn you that misleading, deceiving or giving disingenuous information to a patroller is a felony, punishable by either a flogging of no more than ten lashes to the feet or eight months in prison”. Admonished Nitladenila. “do I need to repeat myself?”

- “Acknowledged, patroller”, the three young women said, in the customary response. Fisotrano shot Tloche a warning glower, which the latter returned in a decidedly out of character pleading, subdued look. What the fuck are you getting us into? Tloche pointedly avoided looking Jablo in the eye. Trano could not help but notice that Coumo was blocking the exit door with her body, her billy-club holster was unbuckled and ready to come out. What a clusterfuck…

- “All of you attend Nanagueda’s University?”

- “Yes, sir”.

“Miss Mal-Jabloki here says you all saw one of the little people the Bitagweh have been raving about lately”.

- “That’s correct” said Tloche, startling everyone.

- “You’re serious?” said the commander.

- “Very serious”.

- “So you freely admit you have it here”

- “He was here”. Continued Tloche.

- “So he’s no longer here? Where did he go”.

- “Well, after…” Tloche added “miss Mal-Jabloki left, we tried to grab him, but he jumped from the table and ran on the floor, I panicked and ran into my room, closing the door. I do not know where it went after that”.

- “Well, miss Matundhuno what did it do?”

- “Beats me, I just climbed on a chair. I did not want him climbing up my leg or biting me”. Added Trano. “I lost sight of him as he ran to the door. Maybe he slipped under it, sometimes froggies and lizards have come that way”.

- “So you just left it escape?” said a flabbergasted Jablo. Nobody answered.

Coumo looked down at the entrance door. There was certainly a gap between the threshold and the door.

“What size was it?”

“I dunno, about this size, added Tloche, holding her thumb and forefinger apart about five inches”.

- “Where did you find it?”

Trano gave a brief statement of the way they had found the little Paah-tshoh and what happened afterwards, omitting any references to little penises

- “You mean there is a, five-inch tall or so man running around the neighborhood naked.” Said the commander in disbelief.  “He did not have any weapon or gizmo on his… person?”

- “No, sir”. Said Jablo. “But what about his clothes? He might have had something of interest in his pockets”

- “I did not see any pockets, and no idea” said Tloche. “They were right on the table. Honestly, I was too startled when he jumped off to notice if he was carrying anything. We argued for a bit before Miss Mal-Jabloki left to call you. He took advantage of that distraction”.

“You’re certain he was a ‘He’” said Coumo, dryly.

- “For sure” said Jablo, emphatically. “He had his thingy and all”. Coumo tittered until the commander shot her a warning look.

- “Yep. Anatomically correct, lemme tell you” added an earnest Trano.

- “And he said he was called Paah-tshoh? Anything else he said?”

- “That is what it sounded like. He did speak a bit more, but in a foreign speech. We could not understand anything; he also did not seem to understand anything we said. We communicated through gestures”.

- “Well, ladies” sighed commander Nitladenila. “If you had come at me with this wild tale two days ago, I would have laughed and showed you the door. But last day’s events have made the higher-ups order us to take this ‘little people’ sightings seriously”.

“What do you mean?” said a wide-eyed Cantlutloche.

- “I take it you haven’t been following the news”

- “Not really” said Mal-Jabloki.

- “Last night, there was a sighting of a fireball falling near the city hall grounds. Several people saw it. This morning, the caretaker of the city hall park reported a wreckage. Fire destroyed most of the device, but some parts detached on impact. It looks like it was a miniature airship: a little airplane seat was found, but no bodies. Parts of the fuselage with undecipherable script have been found. Somehow Bitagweh got wind of the incident and they have now shown Nanagueda’s government previously unseen footage of a similar aircraft climbing to high orbit in the middle of a blue flash a year ago. Looks like the little people are also somehow involved in the disappearance of a young woman in a shrine there, judging from artifacts found there. Remember those reading-screens that were all the craze a year ago?”

Everyone nodded. Those devices had revolutionized typewriting and phone calls.

“The inventor of those screens was the one missing. There is talk that it was developed with advanced alien technology, from the little people. We are now in high alert. There is talk of a possible alien invasion, if you can believe it. This is very real and very serious”.

The commander shook her head. “I’ve got twenty patrollers searching the neighborhood with bloodhounds. A special army unit is coming. I will now have to search the premises, for your own safety”. Coumo opened the door and two other patrollers entered, with a bloodhound. Cantlutloche stiffened.

 They started to register the apartment, methodically. They did not take long,  as it was a bit cramped, and there were not many hiding places. Even the dog looked bored. Nobody was expecting to find anything. They didn’t.

Commander Nitladenila sighed.

“Ladies, under the authority of the office of Immigration, Security and Smuggling Counteroperations I am informing you we are performing a Frisking Procedure on all of you, with all present as witnesses that it is lawfully and respectfully performed”. Putting her gloves on, she added: “This is your last chance of revealing any hidden contraband you have concealed in your persons”. Nobody answered. The three young women shifted uncomfortably on their feet. These frisk operations might be the rule in Bitagweh, but in Nanagueda and all of Casibare they were rarely performed.

“All of you, stand on a line right there. Raise your arms, hands open, palms facing me. Spread your legs a foot and stand still”. All women meekly complied.

Commander Nitladenila started patting them down with expert efficiency. Tlano flinched when the tall woman’s dark gloved fingers groped her breasts, and double flinched as she felt a hand lift her skirt, and her crotch, ass etc, was as expertly probed as was her every pocket. Tlano was now fuming, as she had never been subject to such humiliating procedure. I’m not sure if I am madder at Cantlutloche or the foreign bimbo right now. Last one to be frisked was Tloche, looking paler than ever. The commander ran her hands all over Tloche’s hair, and only cursory down her body, as her attire was much too tight for anything to be hidden anywhere. But the officer frowned as she slid her fingers over her crotch.

“What is that?”

For fuck’s sake Cantlutloche, don’t tell me you stuffed him there?!! Thought a now frantic Trano in disbelief. I knew her stance was weird. Men, even wee ones could make women do stupid things, but this took the cake.

Everyone looked at a flushed and trembling Cantlutloche as the ImSoc officer started to pull down the pale girl’s leggings, revealing her loincloth-less crotch, covered with dark, rather unkempt fuzz. By the gods, thought Trano, Tloche, havent’ you heard of razors? A fat sanitary pad came out and landed wetly on the tiled floor. It was dark, soaked with menses discharge. Cuomo wrinkled her face and the commander let go of the elastic on the girl’s leggings. She hastily covered herself with one hand, blushing furiously, while blabbing:

“ Er… I’m quite… profuse…. I need extra-absorbent ones, you see…” Commander Nitladenila cut her short with a gesture as she looked in disgust at her gloved hand, probably smeared with menstrual blood. She picked up the pad and handed it to Cantlutloche, who picked it gingerly with two fingers, holding it at arm’s length.

“Too much information. You might pull your pants up.” Cantlutloche complied. Sighing, he added: “Sorry for the disturbance. Patroller Coumo will leave our calling card in case you see anything of notice. Stay safe and keep us informed”. They all left.

“I hope you are satisfied now”. Said Cantlutloche icily, to Jablo. Trano, I’m going to the toilet... with that, she patted her wet crotch in disgust and left, walking awkwardly, still clutching the sanitary pad at arm’s length.

“No wonder she’s cranky”. Said Jablo. “Say, Trano, wasn’t her period two weeks ago?”

“Cranky does nott even begin to describe how I feel right now. I don’t care when anybody else’s periods are, Jablo. Since you started this mess, be a good girl and go get a mop and clean that off the floor before she gets back”.