As we walked south, trying to find my way back to the shelter, I kept an eye on King. He ran from sight to sight like, well, like a puppy. He jumped at insects, shadows, and low hanging brush. Whenever I got too close to him, he would snap and snarl at me. It was clear King didn’t really like me. That, or he was a little shit. I suddenly realized that King had no eyes. It was obvious, really, and I felt dumb that I just realized it. How did he see? I picked up a stick and said, “King, catch.” I tossed it at the dog.
King looked at me and snarled when I said his name. Then, he leaped at the flying stick. He missed, and the stick bounced off his head. King rolled on the ground and leaped to his feet. His tongue lolled out to one side. “Well, you can see somehow.” King barked. If this pulse hound really would protect me, it would make an excellent guard dog. I had a suspicion it didn’t use vision to sense things. That was its purpose, I decided. King clearly wasn’t a natural animal. Like that monkey and eel thing, these seemed to be designed or modified. Was King a normal puppy, but with some sort of surgery? Back home, I heard tales of off worlders with cybernetics, but I have never heard of a dog using them. On that subject, was that why I could see its stats? Some sort of nanomachine cybernetic upgrade that allows me to see other things. I had a feeling that this is why I was here. To interact with this technology. I knew they were watching, keeping an eye from above. Maybe this was all a test to see how people could interact with these enhanced animals? So many questions.
I was lost in thought, but Kings frantic growling and snarling brought me back. He was just standing there, hackles raised snarling at nothing. “What is it?” I asked. The leaves in the nearby trees shook. Something was in the trees, and I had a suspicion of who.
One eye, that’s what I started calling it in my head, suddenly dropped from the canopy. It landed on its feet and it pointed two spears at me. One a sharpened stick and the other my simple spear I made. It screeched at me. Its eye wasn’t bleeding, but it was still dark. As soon as I looked at it, its stats appeared.
SKELKY
DESIGNATION: N/A
SOUL: Warrior
LEVEL: Hatchling 90%
HEALTH: Stable
ENERGY: 5
STATUS: Wild
SKILLS:
Challenge: 50%
Weapons: 40%
Spear: 15%
Trickery: 10%
ATTRIBUTES:
Strength: 1
Agility: 2
Density: 2
Energy: 1
Utility: 2
ATTRIBUTES, DERIVED:
Speed: 1
Intelligence: 3
Toughness: 3
Reaction: 4
THIS WEAPON MAY BE BONDED.
King suddenly stopped growling and pointed his head directly at the skelky. I recognized this pose, it was the same it took when it launched itself into my chest. His dome flashed yellow, then the yellow light ran down each of its back legs. King then leaped forward with the power of a catapult… and missed. He slipped between a pair of trees and disappeared into the forest. I sighed. Stupid dog. One eye turned to watch him go, just as perplexed as I was. That’s when I noticed the silver on the back of the skelky. It was situated between its strange, double shoulder blades. Just large enough to place a hand on it.
I had an idea. I can bond one eye, according to those magic floating words. When I bonded King I touched a similar metal on his head. Would that work? Do I even want to bond this guy? He is a bit of an asshole. More than a bit. Besides, last time I did it I was knocked out for hours. I wasn’t sure if it was because of the bonding or because of the… installing of whatever let me interact with these things. Fuck it, why not?
I lunged forward to touch its back. Too slow. It noticed me and turned, swinging both spears and shrieking. I dodged just in time, but my old knife managed to catch me in the face. A small cut, but it stung. The little shit then went full monkey rage on me. Swinging its spears wildly. I backed away from wild swings and noted that the skelky had no idea how to actually use them. It was like it saw me holding the spear and was simply jealous. I didn’t have a weapon, but I was a lot bigger than it. It’s main advantage over me, its dexterity, was traded in for the two awkward spears. I didn’t really make mine to fight with, so it wasn’t exactly a great weapon. Its main used was to catch some fish.
I waited for it to swing wide and to be unbalanced by the weight of the swing, then punted it. It was harder and heavier than it looked. If it wasn’t for my boot, I am sure I would have broken a toe. One eye flew back a few feet and tumbled to the ground. It lost his stick in the roll but it came up gracefully from the ground. One of its free hands covered its missing eye, then pointed at mine. The fucker wanted my eye. “Fine, come and get it!” I yelled at it. I took a fighting pose. Somewhere off in the distance was a crash. Where was King?
One eye charged at me. Two of its arms scooped mud and threw them at my face. I managed to block the mud from getting in my eyes, but it was enough to distract me from his attack. One Eye leaped into the air, spear raised, and brought it down hard. I barely managed to catch the shaft, but the impact shot pain through my hand, like trying to stop a baseball bat mid-swing. My grip slipped, and One Eye snarled, climbing up my arm in a blur of limbs and hate. It happened in a moment. This thing was agile, fast, and surprisingly strong. Clever too. Suddenly, I didn’t feel confident in my ability to take it. Hatchling my ass. I tried to reach around to grab it while I backed towards a nearby tree. One of its arms grabbed mine and put it in a hold. I suddenly felt hot breath on the back of my head. It was going to crunch through my skull. I regretted my decision to bond the skelky.
I slammed myself backwards into the tree. Crushing it between myself and the titanic plant. I slammed again, feeling the creatures chitinous shell dig into my back. My arm freed, but there was no time to use them. I slammed back a third time, this time slamming backwards with my head as well. I felt the two canines pierce my scalp as I shoved its head, jaw open, into the tree. I heard a pop and the skelky dropped from my back. That was too close. My breathing was deep and erratic. I was running on pure survival instinct. I could hear furious barking as King got closer to us. One eye crawled away from me, one hand holding its jaw. It was open at a weird angle. I managed to dislocate it. The spear was also in my hands now. I went to begin my attack when it finally arrived. There was a crash of leaves as something large pushed its way onto the small clearing we found ourselves dueling in. One of its huge, three toed claws slammed into the ground next to one eye, and the beast roared. It was the same roar I have heard several times before.
The newcomer was giant. Its head level with the branches, eyes like smoldering coals that locked onto me with chilling intent. It looked like a tyrannosaurus, but with four legs instead of two, and every step it took sent tremors through the ground. Its rock-like scales glinted with flecks of silver, like a statue of a primal god come to life.
PRINSAUR
DESIGNATION: N/A
SOUL: Mountain Primal
LEVEL: 26
HEALTH: Stable
ENERGY: 5
STATUS: Wild
SKILLS:
Savagery Level 3: 95%
Strong Jaws Level 2: 5%
Tremor Level 2: 5%
Kinetic Shield: 50%
Intimidate: 31%
ATTRIBUTES:
Strength: 7
Agility: 3
Density: 10
Energy: 3
Utility: 2
ATTRIBUTES, DERIVED:
Speed: 0
Intelligence: 5
Toughness: 17
Reaction: 5
THIS WEAPON CANNOT BE BONDED IN CURRENT STATE. REDUCE STATUS TO LIFE THREATENED IN ORDER TO BOND THIS WEAPON.
Now?! It shows up now?! I knew that I was in this things territory, but I had yet to actually see it. Our fight had drawn its attention. I shared a glance with one eye. With a sickening crunch, he snapped his jaw back into place. He growled at me, then scampered away from the monster. The meaning was clear. We will finish this later, it seemed to say. God damn it, I did not want to have to fight him again. The prinsaur, or mountain primal, or dinosaur thing, whatever it is turned its large head my way. I could see thick saliva dripping from its massive jaws. I was rooted in place. The sheer terror of standing before this was like nothing I have felt before. I used to hunt, sure. But the biggest thing on my homeworld was no larger than a deer. There was a yellow flash of light from the trees.
“No, no, no! Stop!” I cried, just as King came hurtling out of the jungle like a football thrown by a robot death machine. The silver bullet that was King ricocheted off of the prinsaurs chest with a shower of blue sparks, and then slammed, once again, into my chest. I was knocked back into the tree. I somehow managed to catch King, holding him to my chest.
The monster wasn’t expecting a suicidal pulse hound to come hurtling out of the jungle, and the attack seemed to confuse it. It didn’t seem to be hurt at all, but it gave me enough time to start running. Some sort of energy shield had protected it. The prinsaur roared started after me. King, still in my hands, was going crazy. Barking and snarling at the monster as it crashed through more trees.
By some miracle, I was faster than it. I didn’t have to push through thick vegetation like it did. It also seemed… heavy. Every movement of its seemed sluggish and slow. Soon I was out of its sight, but I didn’t stop. I kept moving, stumbling, and crawling my way through the jungle while desperately holding back King from trying to fight the thing. If I keep him, its going to be a real problem.
Finally, I couldn’t keep going. I stumbled again, this time falling into a mud patch. My chest heaved. King continued to bark as he was released. But, after a moment quieted down and made a disgruntled growl. After a minute, I caught my breath. Everything hurt. My head, hand and chest in particular. I gingerly touched my head. There were two cuts, but they were not as bad as I feared. I could use the spray, but I wanted to save it for a life threatening injury. I only had one left, after all. Then I checked my hand. I winced when I touched my middle finger. It was broken. I needed to splint it. My father taught me all sorts of handy survival techniques. Our family hunted, its what we did for the community I grew up in. In that, I was blessed. I actually had an advantage in a wilderness scenario than any of my fellow prisoners. That snare was well made though. Small, but sturdy. Seemed to be made of cord and plastic, a specialized snare rather than something improvised. Maybe I was at a disadvantage after all.
After what felt like hours, I finally managed to climb from the mud pit. I had moved things around in my pack before so nothing would fall through the hole King made, so I still had everything. I lost my makeshift spear when King hit me. But I was alive. Counting King, that’s what, four monsters I have seen in this many days. Back home, you could go days or weeks without spotting a carnivore. That told me that there were a lot of monsters in these jungles. I splinted my finger best I could to a straight stick I found. It hurt like hell, but I’m going to need all 10 if I want to survive.
“Alright, bud, let’s find out where we are.” King gave a small growl in agreement. A few minutes later, I found myself stepping onto the beach. OK, easy enough for me to find my way back from here. I couldn’t see my pod, but I was pretty sure I had to be east from it. I looked out over the blue sea. There were two massive flying creatures fighting. Flying back an forth, clashing over and over. One of them unleashed a bright line of fire. They were far enough away for the sky itself to obscure them in a blue haze. They must have been big. Mind boggling big. “Where the hell am I?” I muttered, my voice barely a whisper. The sky turned into a battleground as the massive creatures clashed, their wings cutting through clouds like knives. The world around me felt too big, too ancient, like I was nothing more than a bug underfoot. I hugged King to my side, his small warmth the only thing tethering me to reality. I ignored his snarling. This place… it wasn’t just a prison. It was a world I was never meant to survive.