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The Quantum System
Chapter 63: Between a rock and a herd place

Chapter 63: Between a rock and a herd place

“Well, shit.” Ryan complained to Fury as he gazed at the vista in front of him with dismay. From horizon to horizon the hills were covered in a teeming mass of uncountable milling antelope, voraciously advancing towards them, leaving nothing but denuded bare earth behind.

“This reminds me of the historic accounts of the Voortrekkers or Frederik Selous. A never-ending herd of Springbok, denuding the land, leaving nothing but bare earth and their dead behind.” he clarified his apprehension. Fury only grunted in apprehensive confirmation. The Proliferous Antelope were ever so slowly heading south and impeding Ryan’s progress north. In average, the members of the herd were low level, most barely hitting even Level 5. A few Springbok at the forefront had breached Level 10 but any one individual wasn’t a threat to the pair. The problem lay in their numbers. The uncountable multitude would quickly swarm them if they ever decided to charge the both of them and could literally crush them by sheer weight of numbers, no sharp horns or hooves needed. He had seen a few foolhardy predators attempting to prey on the fringes of the herd succumb to their collective wrath in exactly that manner.

Ryan had thus no intention to end up in a confrontation with the herd but he desperately needed to find a way past them. Halfway to Otjiwarongo and his eventual destination, the Waterberg, he happened on this stumbling block and was no stymied by his lack of forward progress. The solo scouting expedition that he had embarked on, accepting its necessity, had so far been uneventful but now come to a grinding halt. He’d packed gear for an overnight stay because he knew that under no feasible circumstance could he complete its objectives within a day, but annoyingly, he had been stuck in front of this obstacle for a few hours and would need to find a campsite soon as the sun was heading towards the western horizon at an uncomfortable pace. This was problematic because he still hadn’t managed to create a second dimensional anchor and, should he chose to return to the fortress now would have lost most of a day’s progress and would still need to find a way past or around this obstacle.

Shifting past the herd was a no-go as he couldn’t see anything within line of sight that wasn’t covered in Springbok. Moving east then west for several dozen kilometres had been futile too. Currently he was staring at his most promising prospect for success. A rocky granite kopje was rising out of the herd like a rock splitting the waves and seemed to be mostly unoccupied. He couldn’t be certain as it was covered in the thin haze of dust that was covering all save the front of the herd but Ryan was seriously considering taking the risk. He was just busy psyching himself up to it.

“You’re sure about this?” the worried tone in Fury’s sending didn’t escape Ryan so he more or less reassured her with. “Not entirely, we’ll shift in under Refractive Shield. They won’t spot you and its unlikely they’ll spot me. In any event, if shit hits the fan we can Shift straight back here, but I hope we can find a spot beyond the herd from that kopje.

With that he shifted them to just below the summit of the little hill and disaster nearly struck the instant the shift was completed. Ryan hadn’t accounted for the gradient of the exit and just managed to grab Fury before she disappeared from his reach desperately scrabbling at the sheer slope of solid rock. In the process he nearly lost his own footing and tumbled down the hill. Once they both calmed their panicked breath he softly soothed Fury. “We’re okay. We’re okay. Good girl.”

“I’m not your good girl you imbecile. That nearly killed us.” she hissed into his mind angrily. Even in her anger his bond remained unmoving while he secured her to his chest awkwardly with the help of the chest strap of his backpack. It wasn’t a good solution but as he couldn’t reach his backpack and grab the rope the only one he could come up with. If he was careful it should keep her secured during the short climb to the top. Hopefully. He was annoyed at himself. In theory, not shifting into a position that delineated their form against the horizon and shifting out of line of sight of the herd which were moving past and away from the kopje was a great plan. Not accounting for the gradient of their emergence point was a stupid mistake. It could have gone worse but Ryan knew he could have handled that smarter. Shifting somewhere else now would have been great but all Ryan could see were the next few metres of steep slope and turning around for a better vantage would probably result in a not so pleasant tumble down the slope. The only option that was left was following through with his initial plan and move up the slope so he could carefully peek over the summit and find a free area beyond the herd.

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The short climb with the awkwardly secured Fury at his chest frayed his nerves, his sweaty hands nearly losing their grip on the rock that was near burning to the touch more than once. Rivers of sweat were pouring down his face, burning salt in his eyes and no relief possible as he needed both hands to progress with the climb. His improved stats helped immensely but as soon as the slope evened out before the summit Ryan collapsed with heaving breath. The short climb had taken more out of him than he ever would have believed. He regulated his breathing and then unstrapped Fury from his chest who had remained uncharacteristically quiet through the ordeal, not willing to distract him and put both their lives in danger.

Stealthed the little lioness padded up to the summit while Ryan was staring at the sky, reminded of his mortality by a single simple mistake that nearly had cost them both their lives. Again. Ryan once more reinternalised that post-initiation earth wasn’t a world that suffered the weak or foolish.

“Uhmm, oh great and immaculate partner of mine, we might have a problem.” Fury’s sending interrupted Ryan’s morbid train of thought and reluctantly he scrambled up the little remaining piece of slope to observe for himself the reason for that statement. As glad as he was to find her usual spunk returned he really really didn’t want to deal with further problems. Spotting the problem he simple refused to deal with it.

“Fuck it. We’re sleeping here.” Even from this elevated position he couldn’t see an end to the herd and no safe point to shift too. The kopje was steep on all sides and the Springbok, considered plains antelope, weren’t venturing even close to the steeper parts. They should be safe on the summit until the herd had moved on so he decided that this would be the location of their overnight stay. After a short back and forth Fury agreed to split watch with him but only because she accepted the necessity in the first place.

“You know lions sleep up to 20 hours a day. You should take at least two thirds of the watch.” she complained one last time before she settled on the camping mattress he had lugged around for both of them. His retort that she had way better night-vision and hearing than him didn’t faze her in the slightest but his insistence that they were equal partners in this endeavour was actually what had convinced her before and so he just grunted in annoyed acceptance. “Fine.”

Hours later, his status report to Michelle long since complete, the rock had lost the comfortable warmth it was radiating into the clear night sky and Ryan shifted again, trying in vain to find a comfortable perch on the unforgiving granite. The moon had long since set and Ryan judged it past time to wake Fury for her watch. He couldn’t bring himself to do it. Fury was still adorably snoring and the background noise of the endlessly passing herd had long slipped beneath his notice so he was occupied with thoughts of the future when a new sound caught his immediate attention. It wasn’t a sound Ryan often had occasion to hear in the past but nonetheless the intimately familiar jipping laughter of the spotted Hyena sent shivers down his spine. Gently he nudged Fury awake, needlessly as she was wide awake already, roused by the sound.

“I hate Hyenas.” she let him know silently. “Craddle-robbers. Kill-stealers. Dangerous.” Ryan always found the animals fascinating. Much maligned as cowardly scavengers they were intimidating predators and occasionally even chased a pride of lions off a kill. The conflict between lion and hyena apparently imprinted on Fury’s genetic memory and now able to express her loathing clearly she had no compunction to let him know her views.

“They’re good news. Or more good than bad. Means that the herd is nearly past. They’re probably ceaselessly feasting on the dead or weak springbok at the back of the herd. Probably very high level though. We don’t want to face them so we’ll just sit tight and hope that there’s more attractive prey.” he explained his reasoning to her.

Impatiently awaiting the promise of dawn the two of them cuddled on the foam mattress kept wide awake by the serenade of feasting hyenas. Their vocalisations where easy to endure, the crunching, ripping and squelching sounds as they feasted less so and both of them strained all their senses to detect any possible threat climbing up the kopje. Slowly, ever so slowly the gruesome sounds moved past the kopje into the south, replaced by the sounds of lesser scavengers feasting in the dark.

As the first traces of light graced the eastern horizon Ryan slowly relaxed from the tension he had held himself in since that first yipping laugh. Once he could actually see a safe place to shift to in the north they would ditch this joint and continue with their scout.