Tisis

Interrupting the food chain (S)

A few days have passed since our little episode at the river.
Fortunately it turned out that the fish I caught was not only edible after grilling it, it was also very delicious, though I still think the meat of the rabbit was even better.

We've settled in rather nicely too.
Nym had me build a door for our cave 'to keep out predators', however we had to overthink the concept because the smoke from our fire collected at the closed door and almost suffocated us in the process.

Nym used some parts of the animals I managed to catch to build those 'canteens' she was talking about and also some shoes and even some protective gear to defend ourselves against bites.
We also managed to finish building that pot so it actually holds the water we pour in and our toolkit is expanding continuously, with Nym proposing most of the concepts as she remembers how to do them.

Good thing I didn't kill her back when we arrived, otherwise I'd be really screwed now.
Sure, her constant lectures are often annoying, but thus far they've done a good job at keeping us alive, so I'll just have to deal with them.

We've started taking longer trips out of our cave to explore our surroundings. We are hoping to maybe find other survivors or other intelligent creatures we could live with in future.

Nym has also been trying to get the 'emergency beacon' or something to work, but judging from her tone of voice while working and her angry face each time I come to pick her up after looking for food, I'm guessing it's not going so well.

If you ask me, she should accept the fact that we're trapped here sooner rather than later, so we can start looking at other options.

"What are you doing, Sirus?" Nym suddenly asks.
I look up and hold up the small book I was writing in and reply, "Remember that notebook you found in the capsule? I figured I could keep a diary. You know, to keep track of stuff."
"You can write? Color me surprised. Where did you learn that?"
"From my elders, obviously. Only this is a lot better than anything we had to write on and with. We left a lot of writings behind for our children, so they will be able to learn who we were even if we aren't around any more."
"Quite an admirable sentiment. Can I read it?"

I think about it for a moment and then pass her the small booklet.
"Sure. It's not like I wrote anything you don't already know in there."
"What, no plans to murder me in my sleep?"
"Nah, you're too useful to have around for that."

Nym stifles a laugh and reads over the few paragraphs I had written and finally shakes her head and replies, "Guess you get to keep your secrets. I can't read that."
"What do you mean 'you can't read it'?"

Nym sighs, takes the pen and writes a few signs into the book and asks me to read it to her.
I look at it, then turn it around and finally scratch my head.

"What...is that?"
"Asmodean. The language I actually speak, read and write."
"As...but then how are we talking?"
Nym points at her head and replies, "My implants come with a translator unit. The implant intercepts the words I want to say, translates them to English and moves my mouth and tongue accordingly. It also intercepts the signals of the sounds you are making and translates them to Asmodean for my brain."

I scratch my head and point at the book.
"No, it apparently does not work for writing. I'd need a scanner module or something to translate that, which I obviously don't have...either way, dinner's ready."

We eat and after a few hours, I wake up to an all too familiar sound.
The hissing and screeching of them damn rabbits.

I startle to my feet and grab one of the spears we left at the ready for cases like that.

Nym mumbles something incoherent and I wonder if I should wake her up, but decide against it.
As I've learned, she has a mean streak to her if woken from her sleep.

I carefully peer out of the door into the moonlit night, trying to make out the source of the noise.
A pained noise, that sounds a bit like a crying child, mixes into the rabbit noises and it sends chills down my spine.
I guess they found themselves a piece of prey.

Reason tells me to just close the door and let it happen, but bile rises in my throat at the memory of them doing their swarm attack against me.
Whatever that thing is, it needs help.

Plus, we're running low on meat and I haven't had rabbit in a while.

I sigh and shout over to Nym, "Hey, I'm going out hunting! You watch the cave, kay?", partially hoping for her to wake to keep me from doing something stupid, but I only get a tired 'Hmm' as a response, which tells me that Nym is far more asleep than awake.

A pained howl echoes through the night, forcing me to get moving.

I follow the sounds, thankful for the bright moon illuminating my way almost as good as the sun during the day.

Sure enough I find these red eyed bastards as they keep launching themselves at a small creature that desperately tries to defend itself, but it's obvious that they're going to kill it if I don't do anything.

I let out a loud battle cry and jump into the fray, immediately redirecting their attention to me, but this time I'm far better prepared than the last time.

One by one the little critters fall to my spear and before long they are on the run, leaving their fallen comrades and their prey behind.

"Yeah, you go and run!" I shout after them, when a stern voice suddenly yells at me, "What in Garkla's name do you think you're doing?!"

"Getting breakfast?" I try to justify my foolishness, but Nym doesn't want any of my apologies and instead begins lecturing me about how dangerous it was and she would have gone on for quite a while longer, if not for something suddenly pushing softly against my leg.

It appears to be the creature the rabbits had been preying on, a small furball with long, floppy ears and tiny feather wings on its back.

It still makes that whiny noise and the wounds look really ugly...if left unchecked, it will probably die before the morning.

I kneel down and take a good look at the big round eyes and the small, but apparently sharp teeth of the creature and ask, "Hey Nym, what do you think this is?"
"...it appears to be some sort of young canine. Now come on, collect your prey and let's get back to the cave, before its mother finds us."

I sigh, pick up a few of the dead rabbits and with one last look back follow after Nym.

But my thoughts keep going back to the creature I had just left to die on its own.

But there's nothing I could have done, is there?
That's just how nature is. Cruel and merciless.