Alex’s parents promised them a good life, and they delivered. They promised Alex a good home and 3 meals a day, as perch from which one day Alex might soar. Alex fumbled at first, but on unsteady wings they flew higher and higher, until they flew higher than they had ever dreamed of.
How bitterly ironic, Alex noted, that Dextrose was soaring without Alex’s help, and their unplanned flight might very well be their death.
Alex was not an experienced tracker, and they suspected even experience would falter in the face of a flying, alien hunter.
Luckily, Alex had the perfect counter to a flying predator: A camera tracking their every movement.
Every moment of their baby’s flight was seared into their brain, and with a bit of effort, they could trace the exact path and direction the eagle flew, and they hadn’t flown far, with the eagle flying “just” five minutes past the rolling green plains and into a distant mountain before they stopped, circling around for some reason Alex could not fathom.
Just gotta go across a giant plain, climb a mountain, and fight an eagle in its native territory before it eats Dextrose.
Alex paused.
And avoid losing another eye to the bastard.
Alex wasn’t sure if it was the same eagle, but they were eager to tear it open all the same.
“Let’s rumble.”
With that said and spears in hand, Alex set off to rescue Dextrose.
On Alex’s end, the walk through the plains was uneventful. The Jerkilla’s kept their distance, and despite seeing exotic new species, none of them did anything but run or observe as Alex marched through the plains.
One of the species were rabbits with spiraling antlers where their ears would normally be. They hopped to and fro, butting heads with each other and the ground before getting back up, none the worse for wear. Sometimes, they landed antler first into the ground, and wriggled for some time before another rabbit nudged them until they fell over.
I’d love to stop and watch them if I had the time.
“But I have a duty to uphold, and a charge to protect.”
On Dextrose’s end, things were much more eventful.While Alex was marching to a mountain rising in the distance, Dextrose was squirming several hundred feet in the air, until they were unceremoniously dropped onto a sharp peak of the mountain, with a singular grey spike jutting out as Dextrose’s doom. Panic rising in both of our protagonists bodies, Alex raced for a solution faster than gravity.
Wriggle little one, wriggle!
With that frantic order given, Dextrose twisted their body.
CRACK went the mountain side, as Dextrose just barely avoided impaling themselves and instead bounced off the rock, rattled but mostly unhurt in their undeveloped body as rocks tumbled down all around them.
That’s my boy! Or girl! Alex thought while pumping their fists up in the air, Dextrose clinging to the rocks as Alex did a little dance.
The eagle-creature wasted no time in going for the kill once again, grabbing Dextrose for no doubt another pass on a sharp rock.
Again they dropped Dextrose, and again Dextrose dodged a fatal blow, rattled but missing no limbs. But Dextrose was now breathing heavily, and movement came slower to them as they leapt to the side of the charging eagle.
We can’t win this battle of attrition. The eagle can just drop Dextrose again and again, and Dextrose can’t be lucky everytime. I need to find another angle of attack, one in which we can win.
Dextrose, any ideas?
Thoughts of hunger and fear entered Alex’s mind, with a focus on the snatching claws of the eagle and a gnawing desire to run away.
The eagle is faster than you Dextrose, so you can’t run from them. We need another idea-
A thought struck Alex like lightning.
“Let’s use the eagle’s momentum against it.”
Hearing Alex’s instructions across time and space, Dextrose faced the eagle this time around, legs ready to jump up, if not exactly pounce.
Ready, ready, BITE like you’ve never bitten before!
As the eagle went to scoop up Dextrose, Dextrose leapt. This was not the jump of a tired worm like creature with stubby legs, but the hidden art {Leaping beast} slamming into a charging animal who had no idea what was happening.
Dextrose bit down on a claw of the eagle, tearing it apart with just a shake of their head. The eagle-creature shrieked loudly enough for Alex to cringe and cover their ears.
If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
Dextrose spit out the mangled limb and went for the other claw.
The eagle-creature was in pain. Greater pain than it had ever felt, in fact. Its’ mate had spoken of a fearsome insect creature with a tusk of wood longer than its body, and capable of shooting its tusk to hunt down its prey. Was this a similar creature? It was certainly lethal enough to make the eagle regret touching it. With one foot mangled, the eagle activated its’ hidden art {Evanescent Gale} and phased through the reaching maw of Dextrose. The panicking Eagle aimed and fired {Slash of unseen wind} at Dextrose’s soft face, but aimed sloppily and instead hit their suddenly raised up front legs. The cut caused no blood to come forth, such was the burning and cauterizing power of this eagle’s upgraded {Slash of unseen wind}.
Dextrose stumbled on the mountainside, and Alex quickened their pace once more, stopping only when they came across an uncrossable gap.
It was not a big gap in the scheme of things, but for the schemes of Alex, it might have been as wide as the Atlantic ocean. It was a steep drop downwards, almost farther than Alex could see, with no visible alternative paths for Alex to consider. Grimacing, Alex looked once more for a path out of their predicament, and their gaze rested upon their spears. They were sturdy things now, not at all like the fragile first spears that Alex had made. They were as thick as Alex’s fist, and nearly as tall as Alex was with sharpened stone points adorning their edges.
Alex wished they signed up for their school’s pole vaulting class, as they leapt forward, propelled by the leverage of their spear against the ground. Flashes of text went past their eyes, too quick to catch.
Their decision was very nearly lethal. Alex came up just short of the cliff side,and it was only due to their superhuman strength and reflexes that they were able to grab hold of the cliff edge. Several clay-brown rocks and two of their spears tumbled into the abyss below as they were jostled about by their momentum.
Alex had taken a lot of risks in their short lifespan. In their previous life, they lived on the edge of ruin every day. Not the fun kind of ruin where you end your days fighting against the system or living life in the fast lane, but the far more present ruin of failing to pay bills and starving on the streets. It held a thrill for Alex still, knowing that every moment could have been their last, making every mundane grocery run a desperate flight for survival, their stomach churning every step of the way. Every chocolate bar was a temptation to be resisted, every roach a harbinger of destruction. It would not be fair to say that Alex liked these things. No, Alex required them to function. Without the thrill of life and death, what purpose was there to modern day existence? What point was there to knowing of the world if you had no access to the levers of power?
Alex would not wish for any other fate. But they would never wish this fate on anyone else. Alex was careful to keep others at bay after they lost their family’s fortunes in ill thought schemes. That way, no one would be hurt by them when they inevitably crashed and burned. It had worked for some time, until Alex no longer needed to keep others at bay, to dodge phone-calls and requests to hang out. It took longer than expected, but Alex managed to achieve a quiet and frantic peace, one where they alone would face the world in their little corner of Paradise. Valhalla, Alex called their little corner of the world. Every day was a battle, and every dawn was a hard-fought victory.
Nothing had changed for Alex, except that someone else’s life was on the line. Dextrose, their Chitin and blood, was on the verge of death and dismemberment, and Alex was still so far away. Alex gave them life. If they did not act, the world was to give them their death, slow enough for agony, and too swift for goodbyes. And if Alex was to fall in this chasm, away from their young charge?
Death would most certainly await them both.
And Alex couldn’t let that happen to another.
To themselves, though..
Hoisting themselves up with a renewed vigour, Alex scouted the nearby mountainous pass. A shimmer of strength curved through Alex as they lifted their entire body weight.
Alex knew they were close to the Eagle and Dextrose, but still had to climb up a treacherous path once more. Grimacing, Alex steeled themselves for the final climb.
Dextrose was panting, wounded, and rattled. Its’ birth-day was traumatic enough to scar an adult of any species, and yet it still watched, scanning the air as two eagles soared nearby, one with a mangled leg courtesy of their own jaws. The two birds screeched in their indecipherable language, communicating in their harrowing falsetto, no doubt about their failed quarry. Dextrose knew Alex was close, but was disoriented and hungry. They didn’t even get to eat the claws of their prey of opportunity! Bristling at the unfairness of it all, it wanted to meet with it’s parent and be soothed with song and feast. But what of the skies above? Dextrose wondered for a minute, tapping its remaining legs on the ground to sense vibrations in the ground.
Tink tink went the ground around Dextrose.Completely solid there.
Thunk thunk went the ground to the right, in between them and Alex. It was the sound of their steps echoing in stone, and it was comforting.
Dextrose chirped at finding a cave nearby, and feelings of safety entered Alex’s mind. No longer were their thoughts completely full of panic, but now a reassuring note thrummed through their head. An image of a deep but not dark cave echoed through their mind.
A way out of this mess?
Another idea forming in Alex’s head, they rushed to Dextrose’s position just as the uninjured eagle swooped from on-high.
The eagle phased through the first spear Alex hurled at them, the spear disappearing over the horizon. They sent a {slash of unseen wind} directly at Alex’s face.
This time, Alex was prepared. With their upper right arm covering their face, they advanced without even staggering, staking their spear into the ground, stone tip glittering wickedly in the evening sun.
The eagle shrieked. It was not a shriek of pain, nor a shriek of rage at having been impaled on a talon larger than you. They communicated only one concept to their lifelong mate:
Flee.
And so their mate fled, running back to the communal grounds from which they were hatched and raised.
Who had won today? A babe was kidnapped and maimed, its’ parent helpless against the initial onslaught. An eagle was slaughtered, its mate fleeing to grounds unknown. Of all the questions that could be asked tonight, only one had a definite answer.
Who went hungry that night? It was not Alex and Dextrose. The eagle was gamey, the feathers prickly against their mouths before the acid melted them. None of that mattered before the sweet taste of victory as they devoured their enemy raw. The claws were deliciously sharp, cutting into Alex’s throat.
Before new predators could arrive, before the scent of blood drew the opportunistic and desperate alike, Dextrose lead Alex to a cave. This was a cave unlike many others, for it would offer them shelter for the night.
They settled deep within, confident that none would find them.
Head in Alex’s lap, Dextrose was the first of the two to fall asleep. Images racing in Alex’s head kept them from restful slumber, allayed only by the promise of a new dawn, with time and understanding to pin them down.
Before Alex’s head eyes fully closed, they saw orange text flash before their eyes:
{Achievement unlocked: Survivor. Would you like to level up?}