WNP    2/8/13

An alien lands on Earth and encounters humans for the first time–at a cattle ranch in Texas.

Rusty , the ranch foreman, and the other ranch hands gathered in the cabin after having eaten a hearty meal.  The conversation tonight centered around strange sightings out on the range.  Several of the hands were spooked by the bright lights they saw in the night sky, flitting about like giant fireflies. Even the cattle seemed spooked, restless and stampeding at night which is a rare occurence.  Cody found strange markings on the ground in the grass that he observed from a plateau overlooking a ravine.  They were used to seeing strange writings on the rock walls.  Those were attributed to the Indians that were in the area many, many years ago.   Some of the local Indians had deciphered what the writing said.  But this was different.  Made the hair on the back of your neck stand up.

Several days past and the cow-hands were seeing more and more the the strange lights in the night sky. They seemed to be coming closer and closer. Their were rumblings of taking along their high-powered guns.  They were uneasy. Local  Indian legend told of lights in the sky and visitors who wee not like men.  But surely that was folklore.  Hysteria.

Jed spoke up as they were getting their horses ready to head out to the range.  He was reluctant to speak, didn't want to be considered a "scary-cat."  "Rusty," he said clearing his throat and stopping to look at him.  "Me and the boys have seen more strangeness out there at night.  Think makybe we can move the cattle to another area, that place is weird."

Rusty stopped what he was doing and strode over to Jed, kicking up dirt as he sckuffed through the dry earth.  "Naw, Jed, we need to let 'em graze where they are,  you know how it is."
"Yeh, but," he stammered.  There's some strange stuff goin on out there.
Rusty merely looked at Jed and returned to his horse and mounted it, riding off he said.  "Ya comin, or not?"
Jed mounted his horse and rode out after Rusty and the others.

That night as they sat around the camp-fire drinking coffee, the conversation stopped when suddenly they saw a bright light beaming down upon them.  Shielding their eyes they looked up into the otherwise pitch black night sky.  They were frozeen in a beam of light.  Unable to speak, they sat like stone sentinels unable to react in anyway.  Coming toward them was an alien about three feet tall, shuffling as it walked and making clicking sounds as if to speak.

They don't remember much after that.  They never talk about the night they encountered an alien.