To Be Hunted
#1 of Alien World Series
To Be Hunted
By Felsune
They said the first time the Monsters came, it was on a star from the heavens. It was on a great burning light that they arrived, in hardened rock that spewed fire. It burned the land upon which they came to rest upon, starting fires that forewarned what was to come. But, at the time, no one knew or understood what would be in store. The sleepless nights, running every night, one by one, the colony's members unable to escape the exhaustion that came with the constant running. Every day, more and more of the colony's numbers dwindled, unable to escape the terror of the monsters that chased them.
Every time they thought that the enemy had been lost, and bedded down for the night, they awoke to a culling the next morning. But over time, the colony learned how to hide from the predators that nearly spelled extinction for them. Rules were taught to preserve the life of the Colony members. Be even more careful at night, for they can somehow detect without sight, too accurately. Never try to fight back unless it is to escape immediately after, almost no wound is truly fatal to the creature, they have thick stone like skin armor, and they are vengeful. To follow this, even if they seem to have no obvious weapons, they can turn anything around them into a weapon with ease, the likes of which nothing else has ever been able to replicate. Further, even if one is able to harm them, there is a risk of receiving a disease or sickness from them that can kill in a cruel and painful way.
It has been many generations since then, and these creatures have began to increase their numbers at an astounding rate that rivals many other species. Even if you hide from them, if you are not prepared to spend much time and effort hiding, they can and will find you. Able to destroy wood spire bark, tear logs apart, and with a stamina unmatchable by any of even the best hunters, if they find you it is over. These rules are drilled into the heads of every youngling at birth, as well as the understanding that if any signs of the creatures are found, the entire colony must be warned and be prepared to migrate.
Much Ancestral ground has been lost, and the jungles and forests converted into unrecognizable shapes that must be part of the creatures' nesting habits. And worst of all, these creatures are not just predators like our own species. They can eat almost anything, even things that are toxic! Things that burn the skin are regularly used as food by the creatures, mixed in with their creations of meat and vegetation alike. Even the seed baring fruits have been converted into food by the new species as it quickly dominated the ecosystem. In the end, it was deemed to be impossible to fight, and the only hope was to flee until they lost interest in us. But that never happened. We fled, they bred, and they expanded.
Now, it is up to you to survive, where we have failed. We love you, and we hope that with all the things we have left behind, you can build a future for yourself, a better one than we provided.
The symbols started to run together as Xotka put the etched stone leaf back in her mouth, hiding it under her tongue, where it would nestle into the storage pouch between her jaw bones. Xotka had been holding out hope that her parents would return home one day soon from a hunt, but a month had passed now, and she had no right to delay any longer, no excuse to use. Her parents had joined the rest of the old ones in the Great Night. She would keep the note with her for the full mourning period, twelve full nights, and thirteen days. On the Thirteenth night, she would pass it on to her next oldest sibling, adding her own story to it, and he would not be allowed to read it until she had passed on into the Great Night.
Pushing her way out of the wood spire roots, shaking her sides to shake off the dirt, she looked up at the sky, where the Bright Moon burned in the sky, giving all the light she would need to hunt. Xotka was a Zatchi, a race that lived upon the Great Father, stalking within the great woods and jungles that grew along his back. They were a sexually dimorphic race [with the females being larger than the males commonly by several feet] that commonly weighed around a seventy five Korbers (one hundred and fifty Earth Pounds), about four and a quarter Dikos (Eight and a half Earth Feet) long and one to one and a half Dikos tall, (Two to three Earth Feet). Their lips are stiff and almost beak like, with retracting serrated teeth, designed to slice and tear into prey.
Due to a very long and prehensile tongue, they are able to move meat around in their mouth and use their stiff 'lips' to crush meat in a form of 'chewing'. Their bones are less dense than one might expect, but no less sturdy for it. For skin, they have bone like flecks that give their skin a natural chainmail style protection, but with a unique adaptation. Within the skin are long and soft feathers, used to trap in warmth from the surroundings. These feathers can be pushed out from under the bone like flecks to coat the entire body, or pulled in to leave only a rough armor behind. The point of this is to regulate heat for the Zatchi.
Their eyes were wide with naturally slit pupils that could rotate to gather light from different angles, as well as change how they viewed the world. Being nocturnal predators, the brighter light of day would hurt their sensitive eyes, and tended to bleach the color from the world for them. As such, at night they can see colors vibrantly, or change their perception to see only in shades of grey and black and white. But once the sun rises, all colors are reduced to pale bleached forms, and grow fuzzy.
It had been one single cycle since the Night had started, and Xotka had entered her home to read the Family Rune Page. By right, she was allowed to stay in the Colony, and participate in the food brought back by the other Hunters, but there were already so few Hunters left anymore, that she didn't feel right staying home, even to mourn. With a mental sigh, she began to walk, her tail dragging along behind. Just another thing that was going to be lost to the Invaders from the sky. With a rueful smile, she waved her tail to the lookout as she slipped out into the dark woods, her feathers tucked in.
It didn't really matter, in the end, all they could do was accept their fate. Maybe one day a weakness would be found, or the monsters would give up the chase. But until then, only survival mattered, for new traditions could be formed once they were safe. It was with these bleak thoughts that Xotka began her Night's hunt. Honestly, if it weren't for the lack of Hunters, the hunting would be too easy. For the Invaders caused more than just the Zatchi to flee. Their natural prey also moved to escape and had none of their natural hiding holes either. Still, it was no good to overhunt the prey, lest there be no food left to hunt! And so it was with care that Xotka began to go over the list of things that she could hunt.
Kitwis were starting to become scarce, which meant none of the sweet meat tonight. Her eyes gliding over a small family of Kitwis as she slipped through the mossy mud ground. Her long claws making almost no noise as they knife through the soft muck, propelling her forward. Tonight she would have to dine on the bitter meat of the slow Sxotic. Long teethed creatures that hung from the wood spires and ate the bark and drank the thick sap. Carefully, she began to climb up a fallen wood spire, and onto the soft moss that grew where the sun could nurture it. Thanks to her strong claws, she was able to pull herself ever upwards until she found the first of the low hanging limbs that grew together to form an almost path like network.
For two cycles she hunted, traveling in a slowly expanding circle from the Colony home in search of a Sxotic to feast upon. As the second cycle's time dwindled to half, her first hint of the creatures came to bare. As her tongue flicked out, she caught the flavor of a Sxotic, recently dead, on the breeze. With renewed fervor, she began to crawl towards the scent, letting her feathers flow out from under her skin. Like oil washing down her skin, the shimmering amethyst and ebony feathers drew in the darkness around her and camouflaged her from sight as she slowed her pace.
While the Sxotic wouldn't be able to run from her now, it wouldn't stop other Predators and Scavengers from also potentially having found the scent as well. And if she wasn't the first one to approach the carcass, then she would need to find out before she could decide if it was worth the risk of fighting off the other. With infinite patience, she peaked her head over the edge of the wood spire walkway, and looked down, searching for said carcass. With a flick of her tongue, she quickly found the carcass, but went stock still as her eyes took in the sight below.
It wasn't the sight of another predator, or a desiccated carcass that gave her pause, for the body lay completely intact. No, what gave her pause was the fact that there was the taste of blood in the air, without any signs of a struggle. What kind of creature would kill a Sxotic, without a struggle much less, and then just leave the body behind? Something was...wrong, desperately so. But at the same time, this was an opportunity that was too good to pass up. Waiting even longer, she remained still, waiting for the killer to return. But that wasn't to be, as the killer never returned, and the body began to grow warmer, wafting the stench of its bitter meat into the air.
If she didn't go now, then something else would come and take it for itself! Still, she did not abandon caution, and moved with care. Another quarter cycle mark passed before she touched the jungle floor. Only then did she begin to circle closer, flicking her tongue out in search of the scent and taste of what had killed the other! But the scent she found was completely alien to her, and stale. Or, partly stale, as if it were more than twenty Cycles old! The other scent was fresh, but subtle, and beyond her knowledge. Still, the meat was in good condition, and had not yet started to rot.
There was only one last test to make certain this situation was safe for her. Reaching out a claw to the carcass, she began to tug it towards herself. Only to find out the true danger that had been hidden within the corpse! Without a sound to warn her, a strange stone like jaw slammed over her limb with a sickening crunch. Like a thin Wood Limb, her arm bone snapped in twain, sending a wave of raw agony up her limb and strait to her brain. A wave of freezing cold slammed through her, causing her feathers to ruffle as she screamed out in terror and agony.
Like a shock to her system, her heart seemed to stop for a moment before the blood began to roar in her head. Any movement caused agony to roll through her, in spiking waves that made her heart stop and go at random intervals. Her whole body felt cold, despite the feathers twitching to draw in more heat from the surrounding area. Uncertain what to do, quivering in pain and fear, everything began to run together as her thoughts blurred and melded. She needed to escape, but couldn't, and even as she struggled with the great strange smelling stone jaw, trying to pry it open without success. Only succeeding in causing herself more agony as her blood began to slide down the jaws and her arm.
She had no idea how long she struggled to escape before she finally gave up. She couldn't possibly do anything to open the jaw, and there was no way she could chew through her own leg to escape. Even if she somehow was able to chew through her bone or at the broken point without passing out, without all of her legs she was doomed. Finally, her clouded mind figured out what she needed to do. While she didn't have the tools to truly carve the symbols into the Family Rune Page, but she could leave a message for them to etch in once they found the page.
Carefully, she began to collect her blood draw the symbols needed to pass on her message. A warning of abandoned carcasses. The danger of the Stone Teeth hidden near the body or under it. She wrote all of this down, before sprinkling dirt upon it to help it dry faster, and dragged herself to the limits of where the jaw would allow her to move. Once there, she carefully began to dig with her remaining good foreleg, placing the leaf of stone into the hole just a few scoops down. Dragging the dirt over it, she carefully patted the muddy soil back into place and returned to laying near the carcass.
She was exhausted, her mouth felt dry, her heartbeat felt strange, and the whole world seemed to be a bit...floaty. As time passed, she found herself growing more and more nauseas, soon enough dry heaving from the pain and stench of the body next to her, the bitter and horrid scent of slowly rotting meat. But it was at this point that things went from bad, to worse. She could hear it, the crunch of footsteps on the small wood spire droppings. But it really didn't matter anymore, whatever was coming, would end her pain, and her kin would find the note, and be safe from this suffering in the future. That, alone, gave her some comfort in the end.
And within moments of her hearing their steps, the Invaders strode from the shrubbery around, as the first light of the first blinding Sun began to rise. Even as he vision began to go out due to the increasing light, she could tell that they truly were Kitiks. Monsters that stood three dikos tall, covered in their strange stone like skin, with a blank slate that looked as if it should have had their face. She thought of this in a sort of detached way as she lay still, the pain beginning to fade as the ever consuming cold began to grow worse, even through her feathers. In their appendages they held sharpened lengths of wood spires with rock tips, which would be able to penetrate her armor if thrown close enough. Or in this case, just stabbed down through her chest.
Not that it was going to be needed, she thought, for she was already as good as dead. If they wanted, they just needed to wait. For a full twist she waited for the Kitik to attack her, to end her suffering, but they just stood there. As if waiting for something. Then, when she could no longer bring herself to care, one of the Kitiks approached her, with slow and steady steps. Carefully, with a whimper of pain, she rolled a bit onto her side, giving him easy access to her softer underbelly. This way his weapon would have no trouble ending her misery.
But instead of a quick sharp pain in her belly or chest, she felt a pressure release on her foreleg, with another wave of pain making her cry out. She could no longer see well enough to know what was going, but this was something that the colony had no knowledge of, and that should have scared her even more. But really she just felt a vague sense of annoyance as they began to poke and prod at her mouth. Opening it to look at something within, and apparently coming to a conclusion quick enough. For the last thing she felt was a strange touch to her neck, then a tiny prick. A rush of relief flowing through her as the pain seemed to leave Xotka's entire body. And with the loss of the pain, her body went limp with relief, and darkness consumed her.