Alix was sure she could hear a howling somewhere in the distance, but there was a more immediate threat that demanded her attention. A fanged, clawed threat that had been watching them from the cover of ferns. Alix kept her raygun aimed at the creature as it lumbered from out of the ferns. Its claws were just large as Figaro had said, like massive black hooks curving from its hand. It had to be at least 500 lbs. Its fur was dark red to blend with the surrounding fauna, and black lichen clung to the ragged ends of its greasy coat. Its six brown eyes were so oddly soulful and large that they took up half the creature's face.

“Wait a minute,” Alix muttered, tilting her head as she studied the creature.

“Wait for what?” Figaro snapped. “Wait for it to shred us?”

“Those claws aren’t for shredding. Look how they’re curved. They’re for climbing, or hanging from trees.” Alix lowered her raygun slightly. The beast made no aggressive move toward her. It paused a few feet in front of Alix and Figaro and sat, regarding them with mild curiosity.

“It’s gonna pounce,” Figaro hissed in her ear.

The creature yawned.

“Well, maybe not,” Figaro amended as the creature languidly scratched its belly. “But what is it?”

“Well, it’s not cataloged in the station database that I’ve seen, but I’m guessing it’s some sort of xenarthran-type mammal,” said Alix.

“Xenarthran? What, so it’s like the sloth’s alien cousin?”

“Well, no actual relation obviously, but they’ve got the same sort of physiological adaptations,” said Alix. “The fangs are a little jarring, but they could be a trait adapted for any number of things. Like tearing a particularly tough plant, or intraspecies fights for dominance.”

“Or scaring the bejeezus out of tourists like us,” added Figaro.

“He’ll be a great entry into the Compendium. I wish I still had my tablet to take photos. I want to be the first to log and name this big boy.” Alix put a hand on her hip and met the creature’s gaze. “How about Magna arbor-puer?”

“What’s that mean?”

“Giant treeboy.”

“Your creativity knows no bounds.”

The giant treeboy yawned again as it got back up to its feet. He sniffed the air and came a few steps closer to Alix until its muzzle was inches from her face.

“So, uh, you’re sure this thing’s a herbivore, then?” Figaro said quietly. “It’s not gonna chomp us?”

“I mean, I’m as sure as I can be. I think,” Alix replied. “If I’m right, he’ll get bored with us and move on any second.”

“If you say so.”

Alix didn’t reply to that. She kept waiting for the treeboy to turn away toward one of the trees, but the massive creature only continued to stare at her. Three of his eyes blinked slowly. Again, the warnings from her nightmare flashed in her head, and her heart picked up its pace. Alix tried to remember the last time she was this close to an animal this big. Those claws evolved for climbing, but they could tear if they had to. So could the fangs.

The raygun felt heavy in Alix’s hand. She had to keep reminding herself not to pull the trigger, had to fight off this bizarre, screaming instinct newly formed within her.

The treeboy snorted and shoved Alix to the ground with a headbutt. It wasn’t hard enough to break any bones, but it sure as hell knocked the wind out of her. As she struggled for breath on the forest floor, the animal loomed over her, still with that curious stare. It could kill her without breaking a sweat. She knew it could. Alix felt like her heart was fit to burst out of her chest, like she’d never be able to catch her breath again as the blood pounded in her ears.

“Boss?” Figaro asked, still clinging to her shoulder. “Boss, you alright?”

Alix stared back at the treeboy, fixing her aim square on the animal’s head. A pull of the trigger and this would be fixed, she’d breathe again. But she couldn’t do that, she was a scientist. She came here to learn, not to kill—

Danger, danger, get away. You’re either the hunter or the hunted.

The treeboy shifted. Alix raised one arm over her head instinctively, adrenaline surging through her as she waited for the swift arc of claws, the raygun trembling in her grasp. But no claws came. Instead, the treeboy sniffed at Alix’s pockets and utility belt, nudging her with his nose.

“Oh!” Alix quickly unzipped a pocket on her belt and took out the half-eaten energy bar. She shimmied it out of the wrapper and held it up for the treeboy to sniff. “Oh, thank God. You just smelled this on me, huh boy? Should be safe for you. Have at it.”

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

Alix flung the energy bar over to the side. The treeboy’s gaze followed, and he lumbered over toward the bar. Alix sat up. She breathed a relieved sigh, gradually calming.

“Jeez, you okay?” Figaro’s eye lenses extended and scanned her.

“Yeah, I just . . . I don’t know, for a second there I thought he was going to tear me in half.”

“Yeah, I could tell that you thought that. I’ve never seen you look that freaked!” Figaro retracted his eyes. “You know, it’s not very fun to see you looking like you’re about to pop an artery two seconds after you reassured me that our new friend was harmless.”

“I-I know. I mean, his body language wasn’t even hostile, now that I think about it. He didn’t do anything threatening. I shouldn’t have been so scared.” Alix rubbed her temple. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me. It’s like my whole system is cranked up to a hundred.”

“Maybe you aren’t eating enough?” Figaro suggested. “Or maybe your system’s still wonky from the time we spent underground with the Aexons?”

Alix sighed again, watching as the treeboy delicately sniffed at her food. “Maybe it is because of what happened with the Aexons. But not because we were underground with them.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, I was so wrong about them,” said Alix, getting to her feet. “I thought they were half-witted rodents, and they turned out to be a sentient species. I don’t think I’ve ever been more wrong about anything. So when this treeboy came closer, I guess something deep within wondered if I’d gotten it wrong again. If I can’t trust myself to figure it out.”

“Alix, come on. You’re not the only one who underestimated the Aexons, everyone on the station did. You can’t just stand around and beat yourself up over every mistake you’ve ever made, or we’d be here all day!” Figaro said brightly, then paused. “Perhaps I could have worded that better.”

“Nah, it’s alright. I’ve just got to get a hold of myself, I guess. Can’t let the forest get to me.” Alix glanced around at the trees, all the red leaves, ferns, vines and bushes surrounding her.

“That’s the spirit. We’ll get through this. Now, pardon me while I go rescue the remains of your snack bar.” Figaro scuttled down Alix’s arm and hopped onto the ground. The treeboy had lost interest in the bar evidently, leaving it on the ground for Figaro to go scoop up once more. The little bot stabbed two limbs into the bar and held it in the air, declaring “Sixty second rule!”

“Gnarly.”

“Beggars can’t be choosers.”

Alix held her hand out for Figaro to deposit the bar. She took a few bites out of it as Figaro crawled back up to her shoulder. Figaro did have a point about food. Hunger would make her weak. She’d need to find another food source, and soon.

As Alix finished the last of the bar, she felt a mild rumbling beneath her. “What’s that?”

“What’s what?” Figaro asked.

“That shaking. Like a tiny earthquake.”

“Tiny earthquake? Don’t tell me you went and got seismic sensor implants while I wasn’t looking!” Figaro swatted her cheek lightly. “I’ve been begging for that exact upgrade for months now!”

“It’s way too expensive, which is why neither of us has them. I don’t need them to feel this, anyway.” Alix felt it grow slightly, sending a tingling through the soles of her feet. “You seriously can’t feel that?”

“Well, now you’re making me question myself.” Figaro leaped from her shoulder to the ground and stood still for a moment. The rumbling grew stronger. “Alright, now I feel it. What’re the rules for an earthquake again? Duck and cover? Stop, drop, and roll?”

“Er, stand still and hope for the best?” Alix ventured. She glanced over at the giant treeboy, who had similarly taken notice of the ground shaking beneath them. The treeboy sniffed the air once, then broke into a trot to a large tree nearby and scrambled up at a speed Alix wouldn’t have thought possible. And the treeboy wasn’t the only one with the idea of getting to higher ground. As the rumbling continued to worsen, dozens of nearby malars shot into flight, a flurry of scaly wings and terrified chirps as they fled the area. Other small mammals and reptiles that had previously been hiding in bushes and ferns also scurried up the trees or dashed for their burrows. It seemed every inhabitant of Kabir’s Crimson Forest was seeking shelter anywhere other than where Alix and Figaro were standing.

“When in Deimos X, do as the Deimosians do, I guess.” Alix, struggling now to keep her balance, threw herself to a tree beside the treeboy’s and started climbing. Whatever was happening must have been a frequent occurrence for the native fauna to have developed this response, and this response clearly kept them alive if they were still doing it.

Alix was halfway up the tree when the source of the rumbling became clear. She stopped as she heard a cacophony of bleats and grunts sounding behind her in the distance, growing louder as the shaking grew worse. She turned her head to see a stampeding horde of parvolopes weaving between the trees in their direction.

Parvolopes were, in any other context, adorable. With striped orange and black fur, big eyes, spiral horns, and fangs like toothpicks, they were like miniature versions of Earth’s antelopes. Alix had tagged and studied numerous pairs and family units during the past few months. It had been a joy to watch hidden cam footage of the little darlings prancing about the forests, munching on tiny flowers and insects.

The parvolopes running toward her now were definitely not little darlings.

“Jesus Christ! Are those parvolopes? What’s wrong with them?” Figaro shrieked as hundreds of parvolopes flooded into the area, madly jostling each other. “I thought they didn’t gather in herds!”

“They don’t!” Alix clung to the closest tree branch as the parvolopes swarmed around it. Looking down at the maddened parvolopes bleating up at her, Alix could see that their pupils were so dilated that their eyes were black pits. A sickly green foam dripped from their mouths. Their muscles twitched visibly. They were clearly in the thrall of some sort of illness, but Alix couldn’t begin to guess what that was.

In their frenzy, they surrounded Alix’s tree, and only Alix’s tree. The parvolopes screeched and pawed at the trunk, trying and failing to run up it until the ones in the back trampled the ones in the front, scrabbling up each other’s bodies to go higher until they were snapping at Alix’s heels. Alix could only stare down at them, frozen in terror and awe.

The tree itself trembled with the force of the parvolopes essentially throwing themselves at it. Figaro jabbed at Alix’s ear.

“Climb, climb!” he shouted, snapping Alix out of her trance. She reached for the next branch and resumed as fast an ascent up the tree as she could, trying to ignore the insanity unfolding just below. She didn’t dare look down until she was as high as possible in the treetop, engulfed by its blood-red leaves. The tree continued to shake as more and more parvolopes threw themselves at it. Alix waited in vain for the stampede to slow, certain that the creatures would have to lose interest in her tree eventually. But the parvolopes only grew more crazed and the shaking more violent as their quarry watched from above.