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“She was here,” he confirms.
That means the human has enjoyed an honor she will not understand, and she has destroyed something very precious to me, an act I also am beginning to doubt she has any capacity to understand. She seems to be of the type and mind to simply blunder through life without appreciating any of the treasures she destroys along the way.
My desire to catch her is only growing. She needs to be brought to justice. She needs to be taught a lesson. And she needs to make amends for what she has done within a matter of hours in my territory. This kind of chaos and destruction will not go unpunished.
“She can’t have gotten far.”
“Hard to say. She might be in the digestive tract of a primal one by now, in which case she could be miles away.”
Avel is being practical, but he’s not seeing the clues that strongly indicate her survival.
“There’s no sign of blood.”
“There wouldn’t be. She’d be less than a mouthful for a primal.”
“But there’s plenty of metal shrapnel from the bike here. It would be bloodied. There would be chunks of flesh, bone, and hair. She escaped. I’m sure of it. And she’s probably close.”
“We could bring in the hounds. Track her down.”
“We could. Or we could look around a little. If I’d just seen my first primal, I’d be heading back toward civilization, following the track I knew at least led somewhere. Odds are, we’ve already passed her.”
We turn around in time to see bushes rustling at the side of the track a few hundred feet away.
“There,” I say. “That’s her.”
“Thorn…”
I don’t hear Avel. I am too busy rushing to claim the human I intend on capturing and dragging back home to impart long, hard, hot justice.
I dive into the bushes, wrap my arm around the solid beast I find within…. And drag a small, very confused raptor out. It kicks and flails, powerful back legs replete with claws six inches long, each and every one of them as long and as dangerous as a machete. A sharp-toothed skull flails back against my chest and neck, just barely missing my jaw.
“Let it go!”
Somewhere in the midst of my mind, Avel’s shout makes it through the fog of chaos and makes enough sense for me to realize that would be a very good idea. Fortunately, it is more scared of me than I am of it, and the second I release my hold, it is up and bounding back for the safety of the undergrowth.
“That was bigger than she was. And had a lot more teeth.”
“I’m sorry if you wanted to recapture the human, but the odds something hasn’t already eaten her are low. Do you want to get the trackers out here? They might pick up her scent. Or what is left of it.”
Avel remains convinced that no human could possibly survive the primal wilds. I think differently. I feel her. I can taste her on the wind. I can smell her scent. She is either close by, or so far under my skin I cannot tell where I end and her absence begins.
“I want every inch of this jungle searched until we find either her or her remains.”
Sullivan
Yikes. I’ve really pissed this guy off.
The snarl in his voice as he declares me the object of his obsession is intense. He did also just save my life, however, because that fucking thing he just yanked out of the bushes was one lunge away from ripping my abdomen open and turning me into a soft and bloodied feast of innards for the wildlife.
Someone somewhere is looking after me. They have to be. I’ve had three near-death experiences in the last three hours. Or maybe it’s just luck. But the thing about luck is that it always runs out in the end, one way or another.
I can actually see him, a flash of fire-red scales visible through the undergrowth. It is the strangest thing, but there is an impulse to go to him and to seek safety with him, though I know he is the most dangerous creature I have encountered so far. That massive dinosaur that smashed the bike to a thousand pieces might have swallowed me whole, but it would never have taken me apart the way I suspect this much more sentient and intelligent man-like creature wants to.
I wonder if the fact that his scent is all over me is helping disguise me from him. I would not smell like anything else in this world. That is what is bringing out all kinds of wildlife, I think. When I look down at my feet, there is a small flurry of creatures, small lizards, bugs, even something that looks faintly mammalian with thick, dense fur investigating me. This planet is curious about me and is sending out every little living sensor it has to test and taste and experience me.
Thorn
“I’ll fly back and rally the guard,” Avel says. “And I’ll have them bring your spare bike. Don’t worry. We’ll ensure whatever is left of that human is captured.”
