That Which Devours

The baby dino took off away from where I was hiding high above, and something chased it. I hoped it could run for a long distance. The more space between a kill site and me, the better. The circle of life continued.

My heart pounded until I couldn’t hear the thud of the chase, then I got back to my own survival. Again, I thought to myself that I needed to find a way to make sure I didn’t fall out of the tree while sleeping. My stomach growled ever so lightly and I wanted to groan. The full feeling was gone, but I hadn’t noticed it had vanished. Otherwise, I would have gotten a quick bite in before climbing this tree for the night.

The scent of the meat might linger, and I didn’t want it around my safe zone. I still had the rations, and they didn’t smell like much of anything. Before I could talk myself into eating meat, I took my pack out and searched inside it. The dirty bandages were on top. I had forgotten about those, and I quickly tossed them into my inventory. The ration bars were sealed, and I grabbed one. In the pack's bottom, I found some rope. That would work to solve the non-hunger problem.

Everything but the rope and ration bar went back into the inventory stone. The rope I tied lightly around my waist and the thick tree branch above me.

Then, I cracked open the ration bar. The first bite was like eating cardboard, but I forced it down. The second was worse, which was strange. Normally, I didn’t mind the ration bars. I checked the flavor, and it was peanut butter. Not my favorite, but in my top ten. I only made it halfway through the bar before tossing it into my inventory and yanking out the canteen to get rid of the taste.

Did this have something to do with my class? Eat and grow were the tenets, but did I have to kill everything I ate from here on out? I realized I also hadn’t wanted the meat that had been dead for a while, back near the craters. I guessed that meant I wasn’t a scavenger, but more of a predator. But, what did that mean?

My stomach didn’t growl, but I felt unsatisfied. Still, the hunger was reduced enough that it wouldn’t keep me up, and that was all that mattered for now. I just needed to make it to the morning and find the tall tree, and the compound. In the far distance, a cry echoed out, then cut off. It was done, and it sounded like it was far away; both were good news. Something had eaten, and the kill site wasn’t nearby. That’s all I could hope for out here.

The buzzing showed up again, and I rolled my eyes. It was too much to ask that the bugs leave me alone. I swatted again, trying to take this one out, and it didn’t work.

“That’s just rude, you know.”

I froze with my hand in the air. My eyes went wide as I tried to figure out who was talking.

“I’m just checking you out. You smell familiar.”

I swallowed hard. “Familiar?” I whispered, still not being able to see who was talking.

“Like me. A devourer.”

If I hadn’t been sitting on the tree branch roped in, I might have fallen. My hand lowered as I tried to figure out who or what was talking. The buzzing moved, but it was too dark to see what it was. Something touched my hand, then was gone.

“You are a devourer. Different from me, but still.”

“Are you a bug?” I asked, keeping my voice as low as I could.

“Occasionally.” It finally answered.

I was talking to a bug, and it was a devourer like me. The meat must finally be getting to me. This was how I went out. A fever in a tree in the jungle. My brother would die in the crashed shuttle and the colony would fail. But at least I’d have imaginary company.

“You think too loud,” said the bug. The buzzing moved closer to my face, but I still couldn’t see it. “A strange one you are, here of all places. Though it’s pretty safe to grow here…”

I didn’t know what to say, or what to make of its commentary, which continued but changed into a humming sound that I couldn’t make out. Finally, it moved close enough I could hear words again.

“It’s a protected area… Hmmm. You must be smart. I’ve decided.”

“Decided what?” I might as well humor my hallucination.

“That I will help you. I am a Great Blood Devourer after all.”

It clicked. “Are you a mosquito?” I was talking to a mosquito. I really was losing it, and only after being in the jungle for one day.

“Right now, yes.” The buzzing stopped.

“What should I call you?”

“Noseen.”

I resisted the urge to laugh, and closed my mouth, nodding. Once I was under control again, I spoke. “I’m Alex.”

“You ate that meat, while all out of control. So you have a different path than I did, but you’re still similar.”

I blinked in the darkness, wondering how it knew I had eaten the dino meat, and what did they mean out of control? Though, they weren’t wrong. I had lost control of myself while eating. I went to open my mouth to ask about control when they cut me off.

“You need to rest, I will watch. Sleep.”

The command washed over me, and I found my eyelids drooping. Before I could comment, I was out cold.

***

I studied the creature in front of me. It was a human, of all things, so very squishy. Usually, they were pretty tasty, too. The branch I was on gave me a good viewpoint. In this form, it was much bigger than me, but the limitations of being in this place made this the best shape for me to take. They called themselves Alex, and it was clear they were young. Not to mention weak. I hadn’t known humans could be under level 10, unless they were children. Yet, though young, they clearly weren’t a child.

Again, I opened my quest screen, trying to connect the dots. This had to be why I was here.

[Quest: Visit the Sanctuary on Mondas. Take a Vacation.]

I had been minding my own business when I’d scented the human in front of me. It’d taken me longer than I would have liked to track it in the jungle, but that was a weakness of this form. I could only move so fast.

Something crawled along a branch toward the sleeping human.

Alex, I reminded myself. It was Alex.

My stomach grumbled for the first time in a century. Time to drink!

***

Something touched my hand, and I snapped awake. The rope kept me on my branch as I glanced around wildly. A weird dream about a talking mosquito stayed in the back of my head. I couldn’t figure out what had touched me, but I yanked my knife out when I spotted the bug. It was giant, covered in what looked like armored segments, and about the size of my arm. It didn’t move from the end of the branch, it just sat there.

I waved my hand, and it didn’t move. Then I poked it with my knife. It crumbled into dust, floating away on the little breeze that was blowing this high up.

“What the fuck?” I whispered to myself as I quickly untied the rope, sticking it into my inventory. After a glance around, not seeing any danger, I climbed to the ground, wanting to get as far away from the dust bug as possible. My stomach growled as soon as my boots touched dirt, and I reluctantly grabbed a hunk of the meat. It wasn’t dripping blood anymore, but it still smelled okay. Not as fresh as yesterday, or warm from the carcass, but still good. I used my knife to slice bite-sized parts off and tossed the rest back into the inventory before I could make a mess.

Then, carefully, I ate a small piece. The flavor exploded over my tongue as I started walking through the jungle. I paced myself, demanding that I chew each bite completely before swallowing. Then I counted to five before moving on to the next bite. Everything inside me screamed to eat more, but I would not give in. I couldn’t afford to lose myself again.

Heck, my dream bug even warned me I had been out of control. By the time eight pieces were gone, my stomach felt satiated.

[You have gained a stat point in Willpower.]

[You have devoured a parasaurolophus. You have gained some understanding of camouflage.]

The notification flashed by without warning, and I stopped walking, quickly opening my stat sheet. The additional point in Willpower was there, along with another asterisk next to Stealth.

So, eating things changed my skills, though I bet the Willpower stat was from forcing myself to eat slowly and not make a mess.

The 24 free stat points stood out, but I still wasn’t sure what to use them on. It felt like a large number, but I had so many stats to increase. I could just increase everything by 3 and be done with it, but that felt like a waste. After all, the jack of all trades was the master of none, and I didn’t want to end up in that trap.

I closed the screen, doing nothing for the moment. Right now, I was still getting used to my new stats. It had only been a day. Tonight, before I slept, I resolved that I would figure out how to allocate some points. I sipped on the water after refilling the canteen from one of the bigger water jugs stashed in the inventory.

The jungle felt different today, louder and more active. I moved slower, trying to find a tree to climb to make sure I was still on track. More creatures moved through the trees, both big and small, but either nothing spotted me, or nothing found me interesting.

I found a decent tree and up I went, making it to the top much more easily than before.

[Skill Unlocked: Tree Climber. Climbing a tree is like walking. Instinct.]

The notification almost spooked me, but I hesitated only a moment before climbing a little higher to see where I was going. I swore once I spotted the tall tree I was looking for. While I had headed north this morning, I had gone way too far to the west. I’d need to backtrack to my last tree mark and go north from there.

By the time I got back to the ground, I had pushed away the feeling of defeat. It wasn’t a long walk back to the last tree ring, and from there I just needed to travel north. Hopefully, I could find another tree to climb before I made the next mark, just to confirm I was on track.

This time I spotted a tree with ease. I was up it and confirming I was correct and down it carving a ring before I could think about it. Honestly, the skill helped more than I could possibly have expected.

Being back on track caused a smile to come over my face. I shouldn’t have far to go, maybe an hour before I came across the tree or the compound. My thoughts wandered to John, and I hoped he was okay. Or at least, doing better than the last time I’d seen him.

“You are rude, leaving me like that,” whispered a voice.

I spun about, trying to spot whoever was talking. A soft buzzing filled the air. “Noseen?”

“Who else would be in this jungle?”

It was daylight; I was out and about and walking. I wasn’t even hungry. This wasn’t a dream.

Still, it could be a fever from eating the meat.

“I didn’t mean to leave you…” I tried to explain, but to be honest, I still wasn’t sure if they were real. Or even how to see the blood devourer.

“Hmph. Well, I over-ate a bit with that armored bug. It was just so tasty.”

The image of the giant bug that had turned to dust when I touched it with my knife flashed through my mind. That hadn’t been fake. Weird as heck, sure, but not a delusion. It was before I’d eaten my breakfast, too.

My jaw dropped as my mind raced. “You ate that bug? It turned to dust…”

The voice sounded a little ashamed. “I over-ate a little. It happens.”