(SYNC COMPLETE. ACCESSORY DEVICE UNSATISFACTORY. REQUESTING PERMISSION TO ASSIMILATE.)

  “What does that mean?” he wondered, peeking out from the debris hill blocking the entrance. A small creature he recognized from earlier was sniffing around where the dead snake had been. Its bone tail waved back and forth, held off the ground by a stump. His eyes roamed over its soft tan fur, and he wondered if he could figure out how to tan it. It would be nice to have a soft bed.

  Reminding him a lot of foxes, he itched to attack it to find out just how soft its fur actually was.

  (PERSONAL EVOLUTION DEVICE HAS LIMITED PROCESSING CAPABILITIES. ASSIMILATION WILL ALLOW PERSONAL MENIAL SERVANT TO ACQUIRE EVOLUTION OPERATIONS AND IMPROVE ON THEM.)

  “Improve, how?” The itch was growing, and he unconsciously scratched his arm.

  The creature drifted closer, and he saw that it had a whitish tinge over its head, that made it look almost like it was wearing a bone faceplate. Sneezing, the bone fox lifted its head and stared him in the eyes. It had beautiful steel grey eyes. Before either of them could react, it heard something, and darted off.

  A flying bike entered his line of vision, making almost no noise. The Josagn hunter studied the ground, jumping off the bike to get a closer look. Pulling his knife closer, he prepared to attack.

  (CURRENT EVOLUTION ABILITY ALLOWS PERSONAL EVOLUTION DEVICE TO CHANGE GENETIC MAKEUP OF HOST WITH WHATEVER GENETIC MATERIAL IS PROVIDED VIA ITS PORT. AFTER ASSIMILATION, PERSONAL MENIAL SERVANT WILL BE ABLE TO MAKE CHANGES IN A SIMILAR FASHION, BUT DATA WILL NOT BE LOST AFTER EVOLUTION. ALL GENETIC CHANGES WILL REMAIN VIABLE UNTIL DATABANK IS FULL.)

  “Great,” he thought, not really paying attention. The alien had just stepped close enough for him to reach.

  Surging up out of the debris, he sunk the knife into its belly. The beak opened and it gave a slight squawk, before crumpling in on itself. He jerked it up, making sure to pierce the heart, before allowing it to slide off his knife.

  “Wait,” he thought, as he ran back through the words of the bracer. “There is no way in hell I am going to have a PMS on my arm.”

  (NEW NAME AFTER ASSIMILATION WILL BE PERSONAL ENHANCED EVOLUTION DEVICE, UNLESS HOST WOULD LIKE TO SPECIFY A NEW NAME.)

  “Yeah, that’s fine, I just don’t want to handle PMS. God, I’ve had enough of that for a lifetime.”

  He looted the body, then dragged it across the clearing, perching it against a tree that had those little black beetles with fuzzy antennae. Backing away, he watched as they swarmed over it. Shaking his head, he stepped back a few more feet and watched them strip it to the bone. He knew bugs were horrible!

  Suddenly a large bird with razor-like claws jumped at him from the bushes. Its green plumage had blended in with the leaves to the extent it had been all but invisible, but he had noticed it because of its heat signature. Slashing with his knife, he didn’t even hesitate as he cut it down. Its body fell to the ground in a pile; feathers flying everywhere.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  Turning to the bike, he smiled. Time for a joyride!

  Jumping onto it, he studied the controls for a moment, then turned it on.

  (ASSIMILATION COMPLETE. READY FOR GENETIC MATERIAL.)

  Opening the port, he wiped the blade of his knife in the edge.

  (GENETIC MATERIAL ACQUIRED. ANALYZING.)

  Grinning, he revved the engine, and shot into the sky. He was going to head somewhere that didn’t have quite so many creatures. Somewhere less boring, to await the day the ship returned to take him back home.

  (ANALYSIS COMPLETE. AVAILABLE EVOLUTION OPTIONS: INCREASED INTELLIGENCE, FLAT GRINDING TEETH, SOFT FLEXIBLE SKIN, WARM-BLOODED, G-TOLERANCE, SINGLE MINDED, AND UNFAZEABLE.)

  “Give me the increased intelligence, warm blooded, G-tolerance, and unfazeable.”

  (EVOLUTION INITIATED.)

  Spying the flying rug in the distance, he laughed. There was no way it could fly as fast as this bike. No sooner had the thought entered his mind, then the bike began to sputter. Looking down at the fuel gauge, his eyes widened in alarm. It was empty. What kind of fuel would a bike like this take? And how in the hell did he run out already? Guiding it down towards the ground, it suddenly died, and plummeted.

  Screaming, despite himself, he tried to aim for a tree. Maybe he could catch a branch? The tree that he aimed for looked to have lots of leaves, but as he got closer, he screamed again. It was the tree with the vines that could kill.

  Grabbing the bike, he tried to redirect his fall, by kicking off from it, but it really did nothing. The television lied!

  As the tree grew larger, an arm reached out and grabbed him out of the air. He lost his breath as the arm tightened around him, swinging him around, and setting him gently down on a branch. Breathing hard, he found himself looking into the face of the long legged, twig armed creature. It really reminded him of a stick bug, only much, much bigger.

  Swallowing, he nodded in thanks again, and went to climb down, but stopped. The bike had landed in the very middle of the vine tree and exploded. The root monster howled as it burned. Vines were whipping everywhere, and creatures great and small were fleeing. As the stick giant climbed higher, he followed, unable to look away.

  The tree had a large tuber root under the crazy twisting roots that had the mouth filled with thorn teeth. He had seen the teeth before, but never saw the tuber. It ripped up the ground trying to put out the fire, but the fuel refused to be quenched.

  A hand, from the stick giant, swung down and tapped his PED. Looking back up to it, he saw it lean down and study it for a moment, then turned and looked at him. Pulling out the device he had just stolen off the hunter, he handed it over, and the giant wasted no time placing it on its own wrist.

  Could this be another person, thought to have died, but actually, had merely lost his device? The implications ran through his mind.

  (EVOLUTION COMPLETE.)

  If he had to evolve to survive the year, what was keeping them from saying he had died? They couldn’t do a DNA scan to find him. There wasn’t a human around to gather genetic material from, to swap back. If anything happened to his PED, they could easily claim he was gone. Or even worse, the realization hit him, they could claim an alien creature ended up with his device, and take it from him, leaving him here.

  Watching the stick giant reach out and snatch one of his scales off, he stifled an angry grunt. It hurt about as bad as someone pulling out a hair. However, there wasn’t a port on the device it was wearing. Dustin couldn’t tell if it was angry or sad when it started moving away from him.

  Turning to view the burning tree below, he saw that it was dead. Was there enough animal in it for him to get a genetic sample? Being able to paralyze or kill with a single touch was very enticing, so he began to climb down.