CHAPTER 31: BEARS HOWEVER, DON’T
So the one that called me a big dork is apparently called Spice, the one that rebutted calling me a sweetiepie is Sugar. Sugar and Spice both need glasses, which apparently they spawned with. Thank heavens Lil and Luni are catching me up in hyperspeed between moments in our mental wavelength.
I slump, slightly defeated, a bit deflated that I basically played no part in our making new friends, or forming a sort of alliance. I also realize how overdramatic I must seem. Every few days I come to the conclusion that I’m dying or dead. I mean, to be fair, if the world worked the way my memories say it should, I would be dead dozens of times over. If I didn’t have my wonderful family risking it all for me or rescuing me, over and over, I’d be dead as well. I really don’t want to come off as some sort of drama-seeker to Sugar and Spice.
I do find it a bit weird that the beaver-folk decided to send their youngest with us. Would you send your youngest children with strangers to form some kind of aquatic alliance along a river? That sounds like a ridiculous question to ask. Yet here we are, two new people, instantly accepted as a part of my family. I guess maybe I’m a bit jealous, which is irrational. The family accepted me just as readily, I should expect this level of acceptance. Or maybe it’s not jealousy, I just can’t figure out why my brain is focusing on certain things, instead of just letting me interact and get to know them.
I think, I think I’m still stuck in survival mode. My mind races ahead to the west side of the river a bit of travel to the north. I want to deal with the bear thing, but I don’t want to kill it, and I don’t want my family to fight it. My plan is to toss the tetrahedron up around it, then throw food inside the pyramid with it. I’d like to wait til it eats, calms down, and then let it out, showing it that we mean it no harm.
Have I forgotten how to interact with anyone other than my inner circle because I’ve been in survival mode so long? Well, then again, did I ever have any social skills? Vague memories of how civilization and socialization works, meeting Lil who did all the work of sparking our friendship for me. The beavers, Lil also did all the work there. Our family, I just put food down, Lil did the work there too. Teuila basically adopted me as her, whatever I am to her. Oh no. Oh no. I want to create a community or society or civilization and I don’t know how to socialize. I’ve never, ever socialized with new people.
“Hah, hah, hahaha.” I probably sound like a lunatic, cracking up hysterically. I’m so overdramatic! And so unsocially skilled! How did I never notice?
“What’s up with them?” I can tell Sugar and Spice are asking about me, but I think I’ve probably cracked under the pressure, or at least look like it.
“Hummm, well, Reggie’s been through a lot. They pretty much die every other couple of days, almost.” Luni explains, in a semi-joking manner.
“What, really?” These two new family members ask simultaneously, or rather, one begins and the other finishes.
“Yup yup!” Exclaims Lil, I don’t think my near death experiences require quite that level of enthusiasm, but I can’t help but to laugh even more. I chuckle, and facepalm. I realize I haven’t been breathing properly so I gulp down a ragged breath.
“I’m sorry, forgive me, I must seem completely crazy. Hi, I’m Reggie, I think.” Why did I add, I think? Ugh, I was probably subconsciously thinking about how I didn’t know my own name and I let Lil name me based on aura colors.
“You think? We know.” Sugar asks and Spice answers. They are are kinda freakin’ adorable. Crap, I didn’t say that out loud did I? I mean not that it’s bad if they know I think they’re adorable, just, it should be something I say naturally, not randomly blurt out.
I can hear Lil and Lu trying not to laugh across our mental wavelength. Thanks for the support, guys, I think at them, semi-sarcastically. In truth they are being really supportive, they’re not teasing me out loud. I’m so very lucky to have them, and our bond with one another.
“Ah, right, anyway, so um, has Lil or Luni told you about my dream? Do you have any dreams? I mean like big goals, not sleep hallucinations.”
“You’ve got some sappy desire like you want to build a place for everyone. Yep, and we want to build anything other than dams!” Spice answers then Sugar elucidates.
“Oh, oh cool! Construction, or, um, architecture, or uh, design? I uh, I guess, well, what aspects of building interest you the most?”
Sugar surprises me with her answer, at least I think Sugar identifies as a gal, since Luni has referred to her as such in our mental wavelength, “I kinda mostly like breaking things, and throwing stuff together!”
Spice rolls his eyes, “I dream of making things that look unique, leaving my own touch on the things we create.” He then mutters something under his breath about it not being as sappy as it sounds. I swear he’d be pushing his glasses up with a single finger if he could manage it.
I think I’m starting to get the picture. Spice feels like he at least has to put up a tough front at the bare minimum, while Sugar is just happy to be however she is, in any given moment. I wonder if they’re twins, and he’s older by a smidge. I stumble a bit as Teuila hip-checks me, after I must have been caught up in reverie again for a few moments, leaving the conversation hang.
“Oh, oh uh, so, you two seem, well you seem like twins, like our Mana twins. Are you? Well, siblings, or twins, i guess.”
“Is it that obvious? Of course!” Spice snarkily sarcastically asks, while Sugar answers honestly. I sort of grimace, worrying I’m making a bad impression on Spice. At least, until he leaps at my chest, where I barely catch him without being bowled over. He stretches up to stare me right in the face, looking extremely serious and grim for a moment, before he just starts rolling around in my arms laughing. “Take it easy! We’re already family already ya big doofus!”
His reaction sort of knocks the wind out of my sails, and even though I kept my footing, I just sort of let myself fall to my butt. I do so, so that I can let Spice drop into my lap as I facepalm, while I flush with embarrassment. I sigh and start laughing a bit maniacally again, then I heave another deep sigh.
“I’m sorry, I just, I haven’t had very many chances to ever interact with new people, and it’s been a pretty much mixed bag of them either wanting to kill me, making me a part of their family, or resenting me forever.”
“Woah, that’s uh, that’s rough buddy.” Spice’s comment triggers a brief BSOD flicker in my mind, even though it sounds like something Lil would say at any given moment.
“Yeah, I suppose it is. Obviously the ones here mostly fall into the middle group.”
“Mostly? Which group do some of them fall into?” Sugar queries curiously.
“I’m not one hundred percent certain, it’s touch and go between first or third group, with at least one of the family, if not three of them.” Lil, Lu, and Te exchange glances as I explain my guess as to how Mata and the twins feel about me, without naming names.
“Come on dinglehopper, enough of that gloomy talk, get up, let’s go flying!” Teuila basically orders me to evolve Lil and go on an aerial joyride together. I look over to Lil and Luni for permission. Luni mostly, since she seemed to be getting pretty comfy chatting with the beavers with Lil next to her. I say Luni mostly since Lil is pretty much always down to evolve and fly around. Lu just smiles brightly at me, and it melts my heart with how warm it is.
“Don’t fly too long, we’ve been invited into their dam!” Lu calls out as I help Lil evolve, and Teuila veritably drags me onto Lil’s back. Lil launches into the air before I get a chance to respond, but I hear Sugar and Spice replying in a pouty manner that sounds like they hoped we would be leaving rather than spending a night here. I guess they’re excited to start a new life elsewhere.
This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.
Teuila hugs me from behind as Lil takes to the skies and breaks the canopy, something we’ve rarely ever done. I don’t know why, but we’d always cautiously flown beneath it. I see dark dots on the horizon far to the south, the winged dinosaurs returning, though they’re likely many, many miles away. I wonder what their lives are like, why they travel so far, so often.
I feel a bit of a pain on the back of my skull, and realize Teuila is, as usual, rapping me on the noggin to get my attention. “Come on, get out of your head!” She exclaims, squeezing my waist from behind with her right arm. “Cheer up, we did it, your dream is coming true!” I can’t help but smile. She’s the best, absolutely the best.
“Ahem!” I hear in our mental wavelength, from Lil. Heh, whoops, you’re also the best Lil, you know I love you buddy. Lil laughs across our shared thinkspace, they weren’t seriously offended, just teasing me.
“Oh, oh hey look, I think I see something down there, like a peak, or a point, Lil could you take us below the canopy for a closer look?”
“You got it, partner!” Lil circles into a slow dive in the direction I indicated. Sure enough, there’s not just a peak, but a fairly massive pyramid. It’s sticking out of the jungle, though it seems to have been built in such a way that several trees pass through it, so as not to break up the canopy. I can’t see any entrance though as we circle it.
“Let’s maybe land for a second? Teuila, do you wanna check this out with me?”
“Always.” Her response is somewhat expected but also hard to parse. She always wants to check out this specific thing with me? No, I know that’s not what she meant. She'd probably bonk me for cheekiness if I asked her that. Lil snickers at my train of thought across our shared wavelength, and I think back at Lil to stuff it, which just earns me more laughter.
I love how lighthearted we can be together. As we dismount, I drop the tether to Lil for a bit, so we can all explore at the same pace, and fit into the same spaces. There doesn’t seem to be any point of entry however. There are diagrams, or depictions, art of some kind. It’s a bit simplistic, but I’m certain that it’s humanoid at least.
“What’s that Reggie?” Lil asks, pointing out a slightly larger image of a figure standing over others, the ones below have arms outstretched.
“A man, I think.”
“But what is a man?”
“If I recall correctly, a miserable little pile of secrets. Wait, what?” My brain fritzes on me for a bit. Firstly, why would Lil be asking what a man is, Lil knows what humans are after being around me, or at least what we both believe humans to be. I might be the only one, but this structure makes that seem less likely.
“Wait, what?” Lil also asks in response, seeming confused.
“Uh, sorry, why did you ask what a man is?”
“When did I do that?”
“Just a second ago, right Te?”
“I didn’t hear anything.” Teuila looks at me quizzically. She doesn’t look like she’s teasing me.
“Okay, somebody’s messing with me, I’m not sure which of you it is, but someone asked what is a man, after I said that looks like a man.” The two exchange a puzzled glance. “Okay, then I guess I’m just imagining things again.”
Teuila wraps her arms around me from behind, and nuzzles her face into my neck. “Is it like that one time?” She asks, intimating the time I thought I went on a rampage. It doesn’t feel like that though, this was for sure a waking moment, and only a single instant. I sigh and shrug, leaning into her embrace.
Lil perks up for a moment, and starts to growl. As I’m about to tell Lil that there’s no need to get jealous, they can join the hug, I notice the ground shaking as well, as if something heavy was approaching fast. Looking around, it’s hard to see anything around the base of the pyramid, due to its construction wrapping around so many tree trunks. Teuila, Lil and I hop to the forest floor quickly, so we’re not smacked off an edge of the structure.
We fan out slightly, unsure which direction the sound is coming from. I place down the bottom face of the tetrahedron, that I had to recreate after I lost the first one. My partners look at me suspiciously, but I motion to further spread out. Not more than a moment later, I’m sailing through the air with a gash on my torso, I still haven’t changed back to the Valkyrie gear, that’s my fault. The feathered bear rears up on its hind legs, standing on the tetrahedron’s base.
I see Lil spinning around blasting a gout of flame, and Teuila drawing her sword as she leaps forward, but I yell no, to both of them. As the creature drops from its hind legs, I swiftly toss up two faces of the tetrahedron. The bear roars in confusion, thankfully it fits and doesn’t seem injured. I sidle around to the side as the bear begins to back out, throwing the final face up just in time, trapping it inside.
Teuila approaches our smaller pyramid, sword drawn. She looks to me for permission, but I shake my head. “We don’t need to kill it.”
“Leaving it trapped in there, it would starve to death. That’s pretty cruel.” Teuila frowns at me.
“I’m not doing that either. Give it a second to tire itself out a little, then I’ll throw some food inside.”
“And then what?”
“And then, after a while longer, I’ll let it out. Also, ow, my chest stings like heck.” I curiously poke the gashes on my chest, the front of my leaf leather is totally ruined now, and my skin sticks and pulls away from the wounds when I poke it. I grimace in pain. I see Teuila rolling her eyes at me as I explore my wounds.
“Stop that, you dingus.” She marches over to me and swats my hands away from my chest. “We really need more than one of those soapstone things.” Her pawed digits trace the rough edges of my now destroyed torso-covering.
“Well, we could probably get another one when we finally get home, if I bleed in the pond and we fight off Vampguppy again, if it happens to spawn again. Or maybe if it spawns again, the stuff it drops will be entirely random, I’m not sure.”
“Hey pal, do you think we’re going to make a new friend by doing this?” Lil bounds up and down around me, full of energy as usual.
“Well, I doubt a friend, but hopefully at least a neutral party that will leave us alone, maybe in trade for fish.”
All the while, the bear thing has been roaring, but there isn’t enough room in the pyramid for it to really get any momentum to try to break its way out. It lets out a sad, defeated sound, when it finally realizes there’s nothing it can do. I summon some fish meals from my inventory, and try to carefully drop it through the holes we’ve left in the pyramid. This proves difficult, as we made the holes purposely smaller on the outside, larger on the inside. We did that when I had planned to use this against the serpent, from the inside, so we could wiggle spears around from within. Eventually I drop a few bits through holes on each side of the pyramid. After a while, I hear what sounds like a dejected snort. A few moments later, I can tell the fish is being consumed. There’s a vague sense of chewing sounds in the air, though food isn’t consumed by chewing. Maybe the bear is just licking its chops, or its, well, beak. I think it has a beak.
When it sounds like all the food has been consumed, I drop more in. I shoo Lil and Teuila around behind a tree. Touching the tetrahedron, I carefully claim the furthest face first. There’s a startled noise from within, and an obvious shuffling. I remove the two other standing faces when I’m pretty sure the bear has turned around, then I begin to slowly creep away.
Sadly, the bear turns to strike, rushing at me, so I throw two faces of the pyramid up again, and it lets out something akin to a sad howl. Once I think it gets the picture that I can place these at any time, I try to remove them again, and just stand still, staring at the bear.
I know I probably shouldn’t make eye contact with a wild animal, but I don’t know the right course of action here to be able to spare this thing’s life. I hope it can see the plea in my eyes. It lets out a huff, turns, and ambles away.
I drop to my butt and heave a sigh of relief. “Hooo boy, I honestly did not expect that to work.”
“You what!?” Come simultaneous cries from around the other side of the tree, whoops. I probably shouldn’t have said that.
“Hah, sorry, I mean, uh, I’m. Heh, sorry guys.” I just chuckle abashedly, staring at Teuila and Lil as they approach. They keep approaching with grim faces, until they leap upon me, attacking mercilessly. I didn’t even know I was ticklish til now. “Ahh, hahahaha, stop, stop stop stop, hahaha. I give, I give, you win, I’m sorry, hahaha.”
The three of us burst out into a fit of laughter, rolling around as we hold onto one another. I find myself thinking we should get back to the others, less for our sake, more because I realize that our family’s three warriors are out playing around. Us, that is. We’re goofing off, and sure, the only threat that I know of is up here, with us, but the threats that I don’t know of are likely the far more dangerous ones. Those ones we should be near our family to prepare for. As I express this to the others, I’m met with confusion.
“What could possibly go wrong?” Lil asks, and I’m immediately panic stricken. Never ask that, ever. I send my energy tether to Lil, who is all too happy to resume draconic form. Teuila shrugs and mounts up with me, so that we can set off back towards the dam.