I don’t remember waking up. One moment I was asleep, and the next I was awake. It’s always been interesting to me, where the line between consciousness and unconsciousness resides. It’s one of those things that is so mundane that you forget how extraordinary it is.

It didn’t really matter now because I knew I was awake. I looked at the sky and winced at the harsh sunlight. I squinted my eyes to give them time to adjust and looked at the world as well as I could.

I never really took the chance to look at the sky while I was awake, but right now it looked rather beautiful. The clouds spun and swirled around the beaming sun, illuminating the blue sphere of the sky above me. If I wasn’t paying much attention, then everything looked just like it did back on Earth.

The thought of Earth made me feel a little longing inside. My stomach ached at the thought of my home and the people I had left behind, not because I missed them or anything. No, I hurt because I knew deep down that no one was waiting for me to return.

Looking back on it, I never made the most of my time in Urona, let alone on Earth. The connections I made with others were shallow at best, and utilitarian at worst. The only person I could say came close to being a friend was Dr. Attick, who was my boss and at least sixty years older than me.

I stared at the sky and thought for a moment, not reminiscing but something close to it, at least. I would’ve stayed there for hours if I didn’t feel another streak of pain hit my stomach. I remembered just then that I hadn’t eaten for nearly eighteen hours, and I was starting to feel it.

“Maybe that pain from earlier wasn’t nostalgia, but my stomach begging for some food. Maybe the others have found some?”

With my eyes adjusted to the light, I leaned my head to the side and looked around. There were surprisingly few people in the clearing, as it seemed nearly a dozen or more had left to go who knows where. No one was sitting and sulking underneath trees either.

Two men were bent in the middle of the clearing swinging what looked like large stones at something on the ground. Another duo was moving thin branches towards a rather impressive pile of lumber. I craned my head backwards on the ground and could barely make out the forms of people walking in the woods immediately surrounding the clearing.

As I was looking around, a shadow blocked out the sun above me, temporarily blinding me as my eyes adjusted yet again.

“Looks like you’re awake sleepy head,” a female voice rang from above my head.

I peered at the form and couldn’t make out much besides a wide bush of curly brown hair catching rays of golden sunlight between their coils. A streak of movement came, and I flinched in response, shifting my hips back to try and get to my feet.

“Easy there lady, I’m not gonna cause you any more trouble than you’re already in,” the voice responded, seemingly startled by my sudden movement.

I looked up and realized that she had only stuck her hand out above me. I looked at her for a second before I sighed and grabbed her fingertips. She chuckled at me and pulled me up with a grunt.

“Glad you feel good enough to come to your feet. By the way, when someone helps you up, grab them by the wrist or forearm. It’s easier for everyone that way.”

The woman had a beaming smile framed by her round cheeks. She had very pale skin that made her glow in the light of the sun. Her eyes were the same brown color as her hair, with lighter portions scatter throughout.

I said in response, “Oh, I didn’t know that, sorry.” I noticed that I was standing with my shoulder rolled slightly forward and I wasn’t meeting the woman’s gaze. I straightened my back and met the woman’s eyes.

“Thank you for the advice, I’ll be sure to use it in the future,” I said to follow my previous statement. This wasn’t a place for weakness, and I needed to stay on top of my game. “I’m Olivia, by the way.”

“Nora, it’s nice to meet you. I know you’re probably exhausted, but we all are, so we’re going to have to ask you to keep pushing forward for the time being while we get things sorted around here.” Her eyes scanned the clearing, and I followed her gaze.

“I see you guys have gotten to work while I was napping,” I joked back at her. “I actually feel surprisingly good, so don’t worry about that. Oh, I am a bit hungry, though.”

She gave me a light chuckle in response. “We’ll take any pair of hands we can get right now. We don’t have any food right now, but we’ve got a duo working on getting some right now.” She looked back at the two people who were bludgeoning something with the stones in their hands.

She continued, “I’m actually surprised we don’t have food already considering that they’ve been working on that carcass for nearly thirty minutes. Mind coming with me while I check it out?”

I nodded, and she started walking over to the duo. We heard a few heavy thuds and the sounds of stone hitting flesh as we made our way over. I saw a scattering of long white and gray feathers along with some blood splattered on the mossy grass. One of the men noticed us approaching and dropped his stone with a sigh of relief.

The man let out between heavy breaths, “Finally! We’d love to get some help with this bullshit.” He then looked me up and down before looking back at the woman, Nora.

“Is she swapping with one of us?” the man asked as he shrugged at me while only looking to Nora.

Nora smirked, “Tired already? You boys both talked big game earlier about having wilderness training.” She then looked to the two blood-covered stones tossed to the ground. “Shit, we could’ve gotten anyone to do this if all it took was hitting the thing with a big rock.”

I looked over Nora’s shoulder and wasn’t surprised to find the seagull from earlier. Its body was still littered in small wounds with the obvious missing head. I could see a portion of the bird’s flank that was crushed and caved in from repeated impacts. Interestingly enough, the skin hadn’t been broken in that area, as there was still a covering of white and gray feathers present.

The other man dropped to one knee and leaned forward, his elbow resting on the top of his knee. “That’s the thing, we can’t break the skin. We started with small rocks, breaking them on this here to break off flakes.” He gestured to the large rock he had dropped earlier.

He continued, “The flakes are sharp and good for cutting, so we tried those first. The problem is that we couldn’t cut the flesh, only move it around a bit.” Nora nodded as she listened to the story.

The other man jumped in, “At some point, we decided we needed a bigger rock, and got the edge on this one to be pretty sharp. Even after using it as a chisel to cut through the flesh, we couldn’t get anything done.”

Pushing past Nora, I squatted down next to the bird corpse. The guy closest to me grabbed my arm as I knelt down.

“Hey, you should keep your clothes clean, so avoid getting in the blood-“ He cut himself off as he looked at my clothes. There were numerous cuts in my clothing, with many parts soaked in blood, both mine and the birds.

He let go of me and I continued inspecting the bird. I ran my fingers along the bird’s side, feeling the wounds and cuts. My hands ran along to the severed neck of the bird. I hesitated, but eventually wrapped my fingers around the flesh. It was absolutely disgusting, but I’d rather be grossed out than die of starvation, and we needed this bird to become edible.

I continued and eventually pulled my hand away. “All of the cuts are open, and some even go into the muscle.” I looked to the duo, who had both stood up and were looking at me like I was crazy.

“Can I see one of those sharp flakes?” I asked one of the men, who shrugged and tossed one to me. I fumbled it, and it fell to the ground, embedding itself into the earth.

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

“Well, they weren’t lying about it being sharp, at least.” I pulled it from the dirt and moved back to the bird.

One of the guys leaned to the other and whispered, “This is the chick who started giggling and then passed out right?” The other guy nodded and added, “Yeah, seems like she is taking this worse than most. I give her a day before she goes psycho on us.”

He continued, “Dude, then why did you give her a weapon? Dumbass.” I ignored the two idiots and got close to the body. I probed with the stone blade, and unsurprisingly found that it wouldn’t pierce the skin.

“Amazing,” I said quietly to no one in particular, “It’s like its pushing back on the blade. Is it a post-mortem reflex?” I continued thinking through the problem to myself.

“It’s possible it just developed pliable skin to resist cuts? No, that doesn't make sense since it got all those other cuts from the fall.”

“From the fall?” Nora’s voice chimed in from behind. “I thought that Scalisth cut off its head?”

“He did cut off its head, but it was already on the brink of death when he did it,” I responded without turning away from the bird.

Nora paused for a moment before adding, “How can you tell?”

“Tell what?”

“That it was already dying. You don’t know if the bird got cut up fighting that alien dickhead or from something else entirely.”

I stopped my inspection to think. It seemed that Scalisth didn’t tell the group about how the bird got killed, but just gave it to them instead. That means they didn’t know about my fall or how I got the bird hurt by using it as a parachute. Is it better to keep something like that to myself, or to reveal it to others?

On one hand, it could be good to show others that I was strong enough to kill the creatures on this planet. That could be good for acquiring support and gaining respect from others. That could also backfire and make others see me as a threat to survival.

On the other hand, I can’t trust this group yet. Sure, we’re all stuck here together, but that doesn’t mean everyone here is batting for the same team. There could be some unsavory individuals hiding within our midst, and I should lie low to avoid their attention.

I realized I was being too quiet, so I knew I to choose quickly.

“As cool as I’d feel being a badass hunter, it would be better for me to fly under the radar while I scope out the situation. And it's not like I actually killed the bird, I just got lucky that Scalisth killed it after I roughed it up a bit.”

I cleared my throat and said, “Well, that Altum clearly killed it by decapitation. Why would he hurt it with these small scratches when he is capable of killing it instantly?”

It wasn’t a perfect answer, but Nora nodded her head in agreement, nonetheless.

“Regardless,” Nora continued, “How does it help us to know that it got hurt some other way?”

I frowned in thought before answering, “Well, if it got hurt elsewhere, that means it can still be cut. What we’re doing right now isn’t the way to do it, but at least we know it’s possible.”

One of the men decided to chime in, saying, “That makes sense, I guess. But who knows if we can do that? What if it was some super alien monster that shoots magic laser beams from its eyes that did it?”

The other three laughed at the suggestion, but I didn’t. “Maybe he’s onto something.”

Instead of getting distracted, I decided to focus on recreating that feeling from before, the feeling of power and knowledge beyond all possibility. I breathed in deeply and closed my eyes, trying to feel the beat of my heart in my chest.

It took a second, but I had blocked out enough of the external noise to hear the rhythm of my heart pounding in my chest. My heart rate wasn’t very high, likely because I had just woken up from a nap.

I opened my eyes as I continued focusing on the rhythm. I looked at the still carcass, which had no head to return my gaze. With every heartbeat I could feel the blood rushing coursing through my veins. Blood that was coursing through the veins of every human on Earth. The only difference was that mine wasn’t entirely human.

I focused on the bird and felt deep within myself, looking for that feeling of power I had before. My heartbeat slowed even more as I deepened my focus further, ignoring everything around me. I was within myself, and within my body, I was master of all things.

“My will controls my body. Everything about me is controlled only by my thoughts and my actions guiding them. Nothing can control me but me.”

For a split second, I felt something stir within me. My Altum bloodline, which was ingrained in my very being, was forced into action by my will. My heartbeat quickened as I willed the alien blood in my veins to move and pulse throughout my body.

I focused on my eyes, and I could feel the blood pumping into them with every resounding beat of my heart. As if matching the rhythm of my heart, flashed of subdued color began to paint the world around me. I was close, but something was missing before I could truly grasp the power in front of me.

I looked at the tapestry of energy as it flickered into view before disappearing a moment later. This cycle continued as I pondered what was wrong. It took another dozen beats before I understood the problem: my eyes.

I focused my willpower on my eyes. I strained my vision to capture and hold that brilliant canvas of energy in place so that I could see it properly. Eventually, like an antique projector screen, the flashing images merged to clearly overlay the world before me.

The world of light I saw before was similar to before, though much more subdued. Instead of seeing the entire world lit up in light, I could only see two things holding the light within them.

The first was my hand, which was outstretched towards the dead creature. Swirling veins of energy moved up and down my arm and into my fingers, where they return to flow into the center of my body.

The second was the bird itself. While very dim compared to the energy I had seen before, the deceased animal still had some remnants of energy flowing within its body.

“That’s it!” I exclaimed aloud once I realized the problem.

It seemed that everyone stopped their conversations after I yelled out, which embarrassed me slightly. The lapse in focus caused the tapestry of energy to fade away beneath the physical world in front of me.

“Seems we lost you for a second, space cadet. What is it, did you find something?” Nora seemed puzzled at my behavior, but her curiosity seemed to win out over making a joke at my expense.

“It’s the bird! The bird is stopping us from cutting it!” I looked back at her, overjoyed at my discovery.

One of the men to the side whispered, “Dude, I told you she lost it, she thinks the bird is still alive.”

I shot him a harsh glance, but Nora brought my attention back to her.

“The bird is stopping us from cutting it? Like, its skin? Or its muscle?”

I let out a breath in frustration at their lack of understanding. “No, no, the bird is dead, we know that. It’s that the bird is willing us to be unable to cut it through the will remaining in its body.”

Everyone shot me weird looks, and no one responded to my theory. “Damn, they’re all going to think I’m crazy if I don’t show them what I mean.”

I gestured for the group of three to come forward as I tried to get back into the headspace from before. Two of the group went, but one guy grabbed the other by the shoulder.

“Don’t do it man, she’s going to cut you, I know it.”

Nora yelled out over her shoulder, “Shut the fuck up Brad and get over here.” I didn’t pay attention after that, but I thought I heard three people standing behind me.

After taking a second to level my breathing, I tried to grasp my internal will and command it to my eyes like I did earlier. It didn’t take as long as the first time for me to see the flashes of light begin to appear before me.

With a final push, the image became clear, and I was able to see the remnant energies of the bird in front of me.

“Nora,” I began, “Take this and try and cut the bird.” The woman didn’t protest, as she took the thin stone edge and tried to pierce the bird’s flank. As the blade moved across the skin, I saw blue energy surge to push back against the stone blade, stopping it in its tracks.

“Didn’t work?” I asked Nora, and she nodded in response. I focused on the energy pushing against the stone blade and moved my hand towards it. I pressed my hand on the bird’s side and felt it shift towards me.

“Come on, don’t make me look like an idiot right now,” I thought to myself. I felt a minute pressure meet my hand – no, my will. The pressure wasn’t very strong, but it seemed that I wasn’t very strong myself, as I felt it vying for control over me.

“I’m not going to lose to a dead animal. I was able to beat the bird when it was alive, and I sure as hell can beat it when it’s dead!” I didn’t know how to control this energy, so I started blindly pushing back. It was like flexing a muscle I hadn’t used in years, and I could tell I was hardly producing anything.

Regardless of my weakness, it seemed to be enough. I pushed the energy away, dispersing it from the body lying on the ground. It floated in the air like a fine mist before I saw it disappear from my vision. Just as the remnant willpower left the beast, I heard Nora break the beast’s skin with the stone edge.

“H-Hey! It worked! Look you guys!” Nora waved to the others to try for themselves. Sure enough, the two men were able to cut through the beast’s skin and into the supple flesh.

One of them put his hands on his knees and sighed heavily, “This, this can’t be real. Hey, lady, what did you do? Did you find a soft spot or something?”

I chuckled softly, “Sort of, I guess you could say that.” I didn’t notice, but I had slumped over with an overwhelming feeling of weakness. It was like I had just lifted something too heavy, and all the blood has rushed from my head. I felt a hand grasp my shoulder to keep me from falling to the ground.

I looked up and saw Nora, smiling like a fool above me. “Are you gonna pass out? If you do, then can I have your food if you don’t wake up again?” I smiled right back at her, though mine was a lot more forced.

“I’m not going to pass out,” I said with bated breaths. I was tired, but not tired enough to pass out for the third time since coming to this planet.

Our lighthearted conversation was interrupted when a group of people noisily made their way into the clearing. There were five people, three men and two women. The man in front had a hard expression, and everyone behind him was similarly serious.

Before I could ask Nora about the group, the man in front yelled into the clearing.

“Everyone! Stop what you’re doing! We’ve got something we think you’d all like to hear about.”

///