Renzo and the Reptile-Man

37-year-old Renzo Pugina was just returning home after having gone to see a movie near Parravicino d’Erba in the Province of Como, Italy, when he noticed an odd glow coming from nearby. It was October of 1954, and Pugina's view of reality was about to be altered forever when he chose to investigate the source of the light. A bizarre reptilian humanoid creature was waiting for him...

## Stock Cubes and Serpentfolk

It was around midnight on the 18th of October, 1954 - and Renzo was in the process of parking his car in his villa's garage when he first noticed an eerie glow emanating from a nebulous source. He promptly brushed it off as coming from the moon, however, and parked his car before ascending the flight of stairs that connected to the principal lane of the villa. He was likely shocked to suddenly catch sight of a bizarre figure stood at the top of the steps, standing just adjacent to a nearby tree. This ostensibly alien enigma had a height of roughly 1.3m, and was stood in such a way that its left side was facing towards the witness.

According to the retelling of the incident given by one of the primary press sources for the story that exists nowadays, Pugina added that he immediately recognised the creature as being a Martian, because '*he couldn't have been anything else but a Martian!*' The entity was surrounded by a gentle, warm luminescence, and was seemingly clad in armour. It wore a helmet with a transparent front section, and through this Pugina was able to see that the creature had '*Oriental*' eyes shaped like almonds, underneath an almost non-existent forehead. Its skin was of an olive hue - '*as if it had been splashed witih car motor oil*'.

Most of the light emanating from the enigmatic entity seemed to be concentrated around the top of its head, and the upper part of its body was covered in slightly glowing overalls comprised of fish-like metallic scales. Its lower body - from halfway down its trunk - was completely contained within a large '*pipe*' of 50cm in height and a width of 20cm. No legs were observed. Attached horizontally to this aforementioned pipe was another, smaller, pipe-like structure. It was positioned just a few centimeters above the ground, and was between 1.5-1.8m long. Towards the end of this smaller pipe was a glowing disc-shaped object described as being '*as large as a bicycle wheel*'. The upper section of this object was domed, and it was orientated horizontally over the end of the pipe - and yet it seemed as if there was no actual physical contact between the two objects.

Presumably having to overcome a significant degree of shock and bewilderment in order to obey his natural urge to investigate, Pugina started to mount the steps towards the entity. However, in just a few seconds his previous apprehension would prove to be very much justified - as the creature promptly swivelled its upper half towards him with a robotic movement. Its head seemed to rotate in the same direction, but at a slower pace - implying that the entity's movements were being controlled by some weird mechanism. In its right hand, the alleged Martian wielded a flashlight-like object with what appeared to be light bulb inside of it, producing a faint glow. The creature pointed this odd contraption directly at the witness, and he was instantly rendered immobile.

Renzo was stuck in this position for quite some time, and it was during these presumably-terrifying moments that he was able to best describe the facial features detailed above. He described that the entity's face seemed normal yet striking, which seems to be something of an oxymoron. Managing to inch his hand down into his pocket, he was able to somehow break the being's spell by grasping a bunch of keys. Pugina was able to advance a few more steps towards the creature - and pleaded with it not to leave by uttering the word '*Marte*' ('Mars') - probably as an attempted show of understanding between the himself and the alien.

However, this was clearly not nearly as successful as the man (who was, by the way, a salesman of stock cubes) was met with what has been described as a disappointed grimace from the creature. Pugina took another step towards the irritable invader, and it hovered one meter off the ground before flying away at this same elevation along the lane - quickly following its course below the tree branches while emitting a faint buzzing sound. Desperate not to squander his potential Martian contact opportunity, Renzo broke into a run behind the creature - but quickly lost the entity when it disappeared behind a bend.

The entire incident had lasted no more than a few minutes. Renzo quickly made his way back home and deposited himself in his house - shivering and in shock courtesy of the bizarre happening. Mrs. Pugina had previously been sleeping, but of course the tendrils of sleep let her go free when her panicked husband hurtled into the household. He was in a seriously sorry state after the event, and could not bring himself to speak. According to his wife, he would keep shivering for the entire night. Renzo would be bedridden for a further two days, according to the story as told by the local press.

Trace evidence backing up the potential truth of this report was found on the gravel lane in the villa the following day. It was described as being an odourless, dry and greaseless oily substance - and seemed to have greatly expanded in size after a few more days of being left to its own devices. It is unclear what became of this spreading slick, but I think that it can be safely assumed to have disappeared at some later point. The local Carabinieri (Italian domestic police) testified to Renzo's veracity as a witness by saying that he was a '*normal*' individual with no known history of psychological issues or drinking.