Out of thin air, a pair of feet appeared a few feet above the ground, then her knees, followed by the rest of her body and her head. 

A woman was floating towards the ground in the middle of a quiet park.

The only amazed watcher of this incredible sight was a stray dog. It tilted its head watching carefully her descent. A low growl started building, ascending slowly to a bark.

She landed and took a step forward. Her feet sunk into the ground. She cursed. This planet is indeed brittle. She walked unsteadily, trying to reach harder ground. A few steps later she reached a paved path. She could walk much better on the cement. She felt her heels sinking slightly into the cement. She looked back and saw that she was leaving distinct heel marks on the cement path.  Damn, she thought, this planet is really brittle.

And that damn dog, kept on barking at her heels. She ignored it and walked gracefully mostly on her toes, trying to exert minimum pressure on her heel, so that her heel would not turn the cement into dust. After several strides, she was confident about walking on Earth ground. The dog kept barking as loud as it could.

She pushed the pendant on her breast: “Computer; is this creature a threat?”

“Negative”, was the response. “Low intelligence, limited capability of communication, Ignore it…”

 She did. She focused on walking on the brittle ground with grace.

Two more dogs appeared in the distance, running her way.  One of them was larger than all of them. A few moments later she had 3 dogs barking at her and baring their teeth. She ignored them all, until…

The first dog, the leader of the pack, rushed for the kill. It attacked her from the back, closing its jaw around her right ankle. Almost simultaneously, one of the newcomers leaped in front of her aiming for her throat. It stopped in mid air, as her hand snatched firmly the throat of the big dog.  She saw the dog’s head glaring at her with glassy eyes for a couple of moments, then, both his body and his head fell to the ground with a thud. Her grip apparently was strong enough to sever the head clean from the body.  Damn, she thought, these creatures are so brittle…

While the 3rd dog was circling and barking, unsure of what to do, she turned her attention to the dog that moments ago had bit her right leg.  It was still there with his jaws locked around her ankle.  The dog’s teeth could not even scratch her skin, she felt no pain, yet she had to get rid of this dog. She raised her left foot and moved it backwards, over the dog’s head.  The dog did not move, being terribly busy gnawing at her ankle.  As she was now balancing on her right foot only, her heel started piercing the cement.  She brought her left foot down, pinning the dog down on the pathway.  The dog, sensing that the tables were now turned, stopped gnawing and started to back off. She could hear the paw nails scratching the pathway as it was trying to get free. But it was to no avail. Its head was pinned there as if it was in a vice. She moved her foot downwards and the dog, clearly in pain, let out a short growl, then its skull started to compress and crack.  She continued to lower her foot ever so slowly and the cracking noises multiplied.  The eye of the dog popped out of it socket and turned unnaturally to - seemingly - look at the ball of her foot. Mere moments later, her foot had smashed the jaw and a few teeth snapped out and fell to the ground. The descent of her foot ceased when the sole of her sandal was finally resting on the ground. In fact, all that was left between her sole and the cement was some unrecognizable organic matter made from crushed bone, compressed skin, broken teeth and brain tissue.

She stood there, legs close together, one foot on the ground and the other planted firmly on the dog’s remains. The heavily deformed head of the dog looked gruesome. Its body was still occasionally twitching

She looked up for the 3rd dog.  It was backing away, while keeping its eyes on her.  She reached for the strange weapon on her handbag.  With lightning fast responses, she aimed and shot the dog as it was building up a trot. A stream of multicolored light shot out of the gun and followed the dog.  When the dog was hit, it absorbed all the light and… disappeared. 

Tarja assumed her posture again and walked slowly to the spot where the beam had hit the 3rd dog.  She seemed unaware that she was actually dragging the carcass of the dog with the crushed head for half of the distance. Her eyes were fixed on the ground in front of her feet. Apparently she was looking for something.  And she found it.  There, among the leaves and the dirt there was as cockroach sized dog running for its life.  This life ended in a fraction of a second as her right foot stomped it. There was no audible crunch or squelching sound. The sound of her sandal sole smacking and cracking the concrete was too loud covering up all other sounds.  The poor dog ceased to exist without even making a sound.

Instinctively, she started to grind. She transferred her tremendous weight on her toes, lifting her heel off the back of her sandal.  Her big toe turned yellow from the pressure, her polished toes gleamed in the afternoon light.  If someone could actually be close enough to see her moving her foot like that, he would describe it as a highly erotic action.  Her foot was making love to the soul of the poor creature.  Its body was already liquefied into the cement but her perfect toes were further grinding the cement to dust.  Some blood of the creature was sprayed around her foot print and several cracks on the cement were now visible.

She stopped grinding and looked around to make sure that there was no one around that could have witnessed these unfortunate events.  She felt no remorse of course; she just could not risk disclosure of her identity.  When she was satisfied that no one had seen her, she lifted her foot on her heel and looked down again.  Her foot had left a perfect indentation on the concrete. In the middle of her footprint there was a miniscule furry shape resembling a bear skin.  She reached into her handbag again and picked a paper wipe. She first wiped the blood of her feet and toes, and then picked up the remains of the crushed dog. Almost magically, the wipe absorbed all the organic tissue and the blood off the cement.  All that was left was the footprint and the cracks on the ground radiating away from the indent. 

Teeth clenched, she cursed: “Damn. I don’t believe everything is so fragile here!”

Calmly, she walked back to the other two dead dogs and shot them both with the SR-5.  They were reduced to the size of cockroaches.  She pushed the now miniscule carcasses together and gathered them into a heap. She placed her foot and proceeded to crush them slowly, taking care not to get her feet dirty again.  The resistance offered by these bodies was of course negligible for her hardened insensitive feet and her weight.  She felt like stepping on dough, but she at some point she could clearly hear the bones breaking in an orchestra of cracks and snaps, followed by a wet squelching sound to register that her sole had made contact with the cement path.  She didn’t put any effort to press them down in fear of breaking the cement again. She just stood there for a few seconds, rocking her foot slightly to make sure the carcasses had been reduced to a thin layer of organic pulp under her terrible weight.  She stepped off to reveal that she has done a very good job indeed.  The organic matter of the two animals was mixed and mashed in one unrecognizable flat red blob.  She squatted in a feminine way and wiped the pulp of the ground.  She then turned the wipe into a ball and put it carefully in the outer compartment of her bag.

 She straightened her dress and walked calmly down the park path. She had now mastered how to walk carefully on the path without leaving footmarks.