FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Matty stumbled back. The suit's instructions rang in his ears, a muffled buzz over the pounding of his temples. His knees buckled and turned to mush all of a sudden, and he sank to the floor.

"No tranquilizers," he whispered under his breath, "No fucking tranquilizers."

But the suit already injected him with something. His gaze turned blurry, his eyelids heavy. Even getting onto his swaying feet required an excessive amount of strength.

"Back off," he squeaked at the gorilla. "I'm dangerous. Very dangerous." He pointed the shaking blaster at it and squeezed the trigger. The blasts seared a patch of grass behind it, in front of it, on the sides. None hit the gorilla that scrambled onto its colossal feet.

"Chemical imbalance detected, request approval for safety mode," the suit said.

Matty shook his numb head. "No. Adrenaline. Give me a shot of adrenaline."

"Adrenaline may cause side effects such as--"

"Don't care, just do it." He trudged back a few wobbling steps, away from the hulking mass of destruction striding towards him.

"Mixing the xycheon tranquilizer with adrenaline results in increased risks of..."

Matty blinked hard and fast as the gorilla approached, too fast. His feet tangled upon one another and he crashed onto his butt, arms raised to protect his face. He squeezed his eyes shut when the thumps grew in intensity, until the very ground beneath him vibrated with its footsteps.

"I'm so sorry for shooting you, most oversized gorilla!"

The thumps stopped.

Matty cracked an eye open, only to yelp and fall onto his back when the gorilla's gaunt face filled his vision. It dropped onto its fours and trudged forward. It loomed above him, so close to his helmet that Matty could count the wrinkles on its leathery brow and across its flared nose.

"Who inside," its booming voice came.

An oversized finger dabbed at his chest, and Matty's arm twitched with the urge to summon his particle blade and cut it clean. It took all of his willpower to keep his mind clean of the thoughts his suit would react to.

"Me. It's just me," he blurted out.

The gorilla drew its head back. "It speaks. Metal speaks."

"I'm not metal. A mouse. A mouse within a reinforced saphirium suit."

"Trapped?" The gorilla's arms shot forward, squeezing at Matty's torso so hard the suit enabled its molecular disintegration shield and melted his fingers away.

"Oh fuck," Matty whispered under his breath when the gorilla slumped onto its side, roaring. "I'm fucked."

He ran. He ran as fast as his stiff legs allowed. The jungle sprawled in front of him, dark and writhing. A vine even spat a shot of acid from a tapered sheath. He turned and dashed around the fringes of the clearing instead, until the gorilla caught up to him. Matty stopped in his tracks, whirled to face it and slammed his palm in front of him.

"Stop!"

The gorilla dug its four paws into the ground and tore deep gashes as it skidded to a stop, inches from Matty. "You can talk. I can talk. Let's just talk."

"But mouse trapped in metal."

"I'm not--not trapped."Calculate atmospheric composition and the risk factor of inhaling the composite elements, he thought. "It's just a suit. Like an exoskeleton with various functions."

The gorilla tilted his head and stretched out a hand towards Matty. He jerked away from his touch and chanced a brief glimpse at the holographic data. Zero percent risk.

Matty clenched his jaw and urged his visor to come down with a word and a thought. The gorilla's eyes narrowed, and its hand froze midair.

"Technology," it grumbled. "Need technology. Why I followed meteor. Why came here." He thrust a finger at Matty. "Need technology."

Matty's hand slid towards the blaster tucked at his hip while the other grabbed a dark matter implosion grenade. Let him try to regenerate inside a black hole.

The gorilla's eyes followed Matty's hands as he clasped them just above his tail. "What do you need it for?" Matty asked, pretending he understood its plight.

"Highlanders. Tribe. Up the hill. Like you. Need technology, the one you have."

Matty frowned as its arms began moving in erratic patterns, his hands pointing and turning and flicking. His suit analyzed the hand gestures, and Matty gasped as the translation rang crisp and clear in his ears.

They came from the sky, like you, and have established a settlement sprawled across crags. They made me part of the tribe, taught me how to speak with hands and mouth, so that I can help.

"Like me?" Matty inquired while his fingers kneaded at the grenade's glossy surface. He didn't want to be robbed, nor help, nor kill the impressive specimen standing in front of him. All he wanted was to find Eric.

"On two legs." The gorilla shifted onto its hind legs and brushed the dirt off his palms. "Speak. Have tail. Build meteors like yours."

Like his?

Matty pocketed his blaster and grenade and, with a firm voice, he whispered, "Safety off." Cold fingers slithered along his back as the suit complied with his request. Before the gorilla had the chance to wrap a brutish hand around him and crush him like a tomato, Matty pulled out his multidimensional storage unit. He threw it, and the gorilla's eyes shifted in the direction of the thump.

"Everything out."

He winced at the clatter of metal crashing upon metal. Items, each more useless than the other, burst out of the storage unit and formed a pile taller and wider than the gorilla itself.

"That's all the technology I have. Look through it and pick everything you may use."

The gorilla's eyes widened at the cornucopia before him, and a rumbling chortle escaped him as he shuffled towards the pile. Matty followed him, his steps firm and his posture rigid. Whatever threat the gorilla posed, it was now lost in the inquisitive snorts, faint mumbling and sharp growls. It picked the radar between his thumb and index, his grip so gentle it slipped back into the pile. He turned towards Matty, head cocked.

"My hands too strong. Don't want damage." His eyebrows rose. "Help?"

Matty swallowed hard, then shuffled towards the gorilla's towering hindquarters. This whole elaborate plan required the gorilla to take some useless crap and scoot. Not him to approach the same beast that brutalized his pod and almost squashed him to death if it wasn't for the suit.

He grabbed the radio and placed it into the gorilla's outstretched palm. "This is a radio. It picks up magnetic waves and patterns, but it doesn't work."

"Why no work?"

Matty squinted under the harsh glare of the gray sun. "This planet's different from Terra."

"Terra," the gorilla repeated with his deep, booming voice. "Is where Highlanders want go. Why they need technology."

Matty's stomach sank. "Take me to them!" he said in the span of a breath. "I'll give them everything you see. All this!" He sprawled his arms to encompass the pile of garbage, whispered the command for the storage unit to store everything, then picked the orb. "Inside this."

The gorilla scratched at a silvery rosette upon its nape. "But vanished."

"It's all inside here." Matty dropped the storage unit onto the gorilla's palm. "All of it. And I'm giving it to you. For the highlanders that need technology."

The gorilla shook his head. "No. I too big, and lose things. Mouse holds it, while I carry him to them."

That's what he wanted to hear. "I can walk on my own," he said as he pocketed the storage unit.

"Jungle dangerous. Ground dangerous. Everything dangerous. Is why... is reason..." the gorilla's lips twitched with the effort to form more words. Then, he sighed and wove his hands in distinct patterns.

"Record," Matty whispered under his breath while the suit translated.

This planet different. Harsh to small and frail two legged beings. Only I can roam through the jungle unscathed and fend off the other predators, because of my strength.

"Everything you do, my suit does better." Apart from the crazy regenerative abilities and who knows what else.

A smile stretched across the gorilla's meaty lips. "Little mouse brave, but he see why needs Silver."

"Silver?"

The gorilla thumped his chest with a fist. "Is me."

"Name's Matt."

Silver stretched out a hand, and Matty grabbed the tip of his finger and tried to shake it. It didn't budge, so he settled for a light squeeze and an awkward smile.

"I carry Matt before storm comes."

There were no clouds. Only wan, barren sky and an oversized grey sun, stronger than Terra's yet surprisingly cool because of the thick atmosphere. He turned his gaze towards Silver, who presented him the platinum pattern of his back.

"I'll walk on my own," he said, then raised his arms for emphasis. "Thank you, but the suit is suited to harsh environments."

Silver cocked his head but did not object. He strolled over to the pod on bare, broad feet and paused before it. "Need. Can carry if good technology."

"Not good," Matty said. "Useless metal. Everything that was inside, is in here." Despite his hand gestures and neck twisting and whatever the suit instructed for non verbal communication, Silver grabbed the rims of the pod's trapdoor and pulled.

He really pulled!

Matty staggered a few feet back at the screech of metal being unearthed and shielded his face with an arm from the wave of debris. The suit's visor adjusted a second after, and he chuckled at his slow, redundant instincts. Whatever he did, the suit did better.

He winced at the loud thud when Silver dropped the pod on the ground, a few feet away from the hole it left. He poked at it with a finger, punched its sides when he couldn't tear it open, and settled his fiery gaze on Matty when all else failed.

"Mouse has enter. Is little, and if break, Silver and the Highlanders will upset."

He rolled his eyes at the stupid request. "There's nothing in there," he whispered under his breath.

The gorilla's eyes widened, and Matty froze in his steps. "Do as Silver says. Mouse came from the sky. Every creature who comes from sky is confuse."

Matty's heart skipped a beat. Eric! "Did you come across a pod like this one?"

Silver scrunched his nose. "Is other like you?"

"No," Matty lied. "Was curious. If there are other intelligent beings on this planet, I'd like to meet with them, help however I can." And make use of their technology to augment my machinery, he thought.

"Highlanders is the only speaking animals, apart from Silver and Matt."

Matty's fists clenched. Wherever Eric crashed, it wasn't on this side of the planet. The memory flashed through his mind, a planet split into two opposite sides, one barren, one lush with water and vegetation. Why didn't Eric's pod adjust its trajectory to find a suitable landing spot? Like this very clearing?!

He licked his parched lips and went inside the pod, if only to please Silver. Once inside, he sat onto a bench concealed from his eyes, cupped his visor into his palms and let out a drawn-out sigh. Silver seemed unusually tame after he was shot and had his fingers melt through his suit's plasma shield. Matty expected a fight to the death, with explosions and torn limbs and everything else Eric had told him about life and death encounters. Yet Silver proved to be more than reasonable, and even offered to carry him to a sanctuary crawling with other intelligent beings.

However convenient it sounded, Matty had no choice. Better to be kidnapped and being experimented upon than forfeit his only chance at being reunited with his brother.

He propped his chin against a fist and glanced around the cabinets. Empty, save for an antique fire extinguisher. Red and shaped like a torpedo from the Dark Eons, the thing was living proof of how cheap and disgusting Terra could be. He grabbed it and handled it to Silver.

"Don't squeeze it," he said, a moment too late. It burst into Silver's hand, coating them both in a layer of white foam. Matty's suit disintegrated it with a particle ray while Silver still thrashed his limbs about, grunting and wobbling.

"I'm sorry," Matty said. "That was the only thing I found. It's a fire extinguisher. Used to put out fires."

"No fire," Silver spat. He wiped away the last of its traces from his face and stomach and turned to regard Matty with the same intense gaze. "Why put it out, when so hard to make?"

"Easy for me."

"Because of metal coverings?"

Matty smiled. "You catch on quick. Lead me to the Highlanders so that I can speak with their leader."

Silver thumped his chest with a fist. "Is me."

Matty's smiled turned wry, then he bit his lower lip for fear of offending Silver. "That's...I'm honored."

Silver shook his head. "No honor. Until you become part of Highlanders. Then, both honored."

"Win-win situation," Matty said in the heat of the moment. Silver, as expected, cocked his head. "Means we both have something to gain after I meet your people."

"Yes. Devise technology, so can go home before Endstorm comes."

Matty frowned at the unusual term, but remained silent. He didn't intend to help anyone unless they helped him find Eric first. "If they leave the planet, won't you join them as their leader?"

"Silver was before them, and remains after they leave. Highlanders not first people. Many others before, that Silver helped."

"How many?" The question slipped past Matty's lips.

"Many," Silver said.

Matty cocked his eyebrows. "How old are you?"

Silver pointed at the grey sun. "Appeared with it."

Matty urged his suit with a thought to record the words. He would search for the connotation later.

Silver took his silence as the cue to get moving. He strolled at Matty's side, each step of his encompassing three of Matty's strides. When they reached the clearing's edge, Matty enabled his thermal scan, bioscan, infrared scan and shifted the holograms to the edge of his vision.

Voice alert for critical information only. Record every foreign element, sort them out based on relevance and similarities to Terra's database, he thought to the suit.

As soon as he stepped onto the slippery blanket of the jungle, an oversized orchid spat a thin strand of clear goo at him. Silver caught it on his arm, and his suit's warning rang in his ears. That substance was so acidic that it could eat through the suit, yet it dribbled across Silver's fur like water.

"I think carrying me is a good idea," Matty said through heavy, panicked breaths. He only caught a sliver of Silver's smile before he slung him on top his shoulder. Matty's stomach lurched from the sudden movement, and his legs twisted the opposite ways as he straddled the gorilla's neck.

"Stay there. Is high enough from Spitters and Thornbushes. Vines no harm unless squeeze, so no squeeze."

"Y--yes," Matty stuttered. He leaned forward to rest his chest against the gorilla's scalp as walls of text swarmed the sides of his visor. To sum it up, everything was deadly to him. Even the freaking soil, if he stepped onto the thin, vermilion roots, the bulbous black ones, the oval shaped leaves...

The list went on, and on, until Matty shut it with a thought and listened to the rhythmic thumps of Silver's footsteps. Why didn't the vegetation affect him? By all means, he should have been more dead than ever. The blaster's plasma was a mere tickle compared to some of the composite elements within these plants.

A theory started to build within his mind by the time the sun turned a deep violet. It cast a garish light through the thick canopies, creating soft, flickering dapples. Matty urged his suit to record everything as a smile stretched his lips to their limits. Terra wouldn't give him and Eric a mere ship. They would command an entire fleet for this discovery!

His focus shifted to the number of foreign elements detected, their description and semblance to Terra's. Over fifty similarities, thirty which still loaded due to their foreign nature, and ten new ones. And still counting!

"Far enough," Silver's voice came.

Matty blinked once, then twice. The darkness didn't vanish. Night already?! His suit's invisible bubble revealed the hollow that Silver chose to make camp. The ground slanted into a mini crater, with hard packed ground at its center. Silver dumped an armful of twigs that Matty noticed just now and lowered himself onto his fours.

"Need fire against Rakk, else they grab you, drop you, return when you tender."

Matty slid off Silver's back and pet his burly arm. "Thank you for looking after me."

He looked away, to the pile of twigs. "No need say that. Silver does what he does, because he does what he does."

Was he embarrassed? Blood rose to Matty's cheeks as he rounded the crater to sit opposite to Silver.

"And why do you do what you do?"

"Is only thing Silver can do."

"What about a mate?"

Silver's eyes shifted into his, his pupils wide in a platinum sea. "Found none. Every Endstorm brings new Silver, but never Silver gorilla."

He grabbed two loose rocks and smashed them against one another near a pile of tinder.

"Let me," Matty said, and stretched his arm forward. Fire shot from his fingers, and Silver drew back with a growl. As if fire could hurt him to begin with.

"Not even Silver can do that."

Matty winked. "Silver doesn't have this fancy suit."

"Nor need. Matt small. Has to be strong somehow."

"I used to think my strength comes from my mind. Highly developed analytical skills, superior cognitive functions, that sort of stuff." He paused to lay on his side when Silver scratched his cheek with a blunt nail. "Everybody has their strength, right? But, no matter how smart I am, I didn't feel fulfilled until I failed at everything my brother put me through."

Silver nodded, but said nothing.

"I think strength means improving your weaknesses, not surpassing others because of a superior trait you've been born with."

"Strength is all I am. Use strength to help others. Is all."

Matty chuckled, low enough for his helmet to muffle the sound. "You can be whatever you want to be. Or, if not, be with somebody who is the opposite of you."

He shook his head. "Not know how. Silver only learned words. All he capable of. Learn words to help better. Is all."

"Who taught you?"

He clasped his hands at that and straightened his posture. "Stefan. Capuchin monkey. Frail like Matt. Was first to find Silver, and reason for Silver to help Highlanders." His gaze sank for a moment before his eyes bore into Matty's, big and empty.

A shiver crept through Matty's frame. It made his fur stand on end, his skin prickle and his tail twitch restlessly.

"No other reason?" he probed.

"No. He helped, I help. Is how world works." His words bore the same deep nuance, cold and devoid of any trace of emotion, just like his gaze.

Matty swallowed the lump forming in his throat, shifted onto his feet and shuffled closer to the gorilla. He stopped a few feet away from him, then covered the remaining distance between them once Silver nodded his great head.

"The people you meet make your world," he said. "They color it, shape it, change it. I had my brother do that for me, to change my world of pain into one of joy."

"Too many words."

Matty scoffed. Only Eric did that to him. "What I'm trying to say is that you should find a likable person and stick with them."

"They die," Silver said, and swiped his arm. "All die. Like flowers after storm. Only, they not come back." He turned towards Matty. "If you no help Highlanders before Endstorm, they all die."

Matty's tongue stiffened within his mouth. His jaw hung, wide open, until the wind picked up and the boughs rustled, swished, cracked.

Silver twisted his head this way and that, his fists clenching and loosening in unison with his breath. "Storm come."

His hand shot towards Matty before he had the chance to twitch a limb. He deactivated the already deactivated defense mode of the suit as Silver tucked him tight against his chest, then wrapped his other arm around his torso. Everything turned pitch black in mere seconds, and Matty's head still whirled from the rough handling.

It couldn't be the Endstorm Silver spoke of. He didn't even had the chance to help out his people, let alone find Eric! Yet, when everything cracked and snapped above under the wind's roar, it certainly felt like it. Matty's heart thumped in his chest, his temples pounded, and he yelped every time Silver jerked and let out a faint growl or a sharp groan. He didn't hear the suit's instructions over them, or what it pumped into him. His eyelids just turned heavy, his mind too numb, and his ears too deaf. Darkness took him just as Silver whispered something.

Matty dreamt of Eric being swiped away by too strong winds. No matter how fast he ran with his Saphirium enhanced legs, the howling gale carried Eric away. He stretched a hand forward, screamed from the top of his lungs at Eric.

"Activate your stabilizers, thrusters, anything!"

Nothing happened. No response, not even a twitch of his limbs. Even with his suit enhanced vision, Matty did not see Eric's face before the winds carried him away into the ubiquitous darkness.

Matty awoke with a gasp. Thick arms enveloped him, and sleek fur blanketed his entire frame but for his head. Silver. He slept in his embrace, after last night's storm.

He squeezed his eyes shut as everything came back to him.

"Nightmares are a common occurrence--"

"Shut the fuck up and don't give me anything," Matty whispered to his suit. "Shut down secondary functions, disable neural interface. Every command goes by voice."

He spoke the password for every single one of those redundant functions, then sighed after the suit complied with his requests.

That's fucking stupid,_Eric would say. _Saphirium suits are designed to react before your mind does, and only high trained soldiers should disable their functions.

He grit his teeth at that. Yes, he was fat, and slow, and clumsy. Yes, the suit did everything better than Silver the monstrous gorilla. But that high pitched female voice and its tranquilizers violated his ears, his functions, his mind.

Whatever he did from now on happened on his terms.

First, he chanced a look at the gorilla's flared nostrils. His steady breath turned his visor foggy, but Matty wiped it on his fur rather than using the suit's functions. When Silver didn't even twitch a thumb, Matty trudged out of Silver's grip into the biggest pile of debris ever. Whole trees crashed upon the gorilla's back, along with waist deep torn foliage. Strangely, there was no water or signs of moisture. What sort of storms shed not even a single droplet of water?

Matty waded through the debris, grabbed a thick branch, and hurled it away. He summoned his particle blade to cut through the smooth trunk of a tree when Silver stirred. A groan escaped him before his eyes cracked open.

"Stand still while I--"

Matty lunged back when Silver got onto his feet, swiped and hurled the uprooted trees like they were toothpicks. The, he grabbed fistfuls of debris and tossed it on the higher ground above, creating a storm of dust and swirling leaves.

When Matty opened his eyes again, the hollow looked positively clean. "Matt stood still instead of help," he said with an elegant smirk.

"I was about to," Matty retorted. "But then I realized how much fun you were having, tossing whole trees to make room for..." he trailed off when Silver fell on his rump and stretched, a moan rumbling in his throat.

"Did Matt sleep?"

"He did, in fact," Matty blurted out as his gaze fell on Silver's exposed genitals. His flaccid shaft was as thick and long as Matty's forearm, and his balls were huge! Like, astronomically huge. He took his eyes off the coal black cock and the platinum speckled spheres. "Thanks to you. I thank you. Very much, in fact."

"Is what Silver does. Protect. And feed." He leaned onto his fours and yawned. "Stay here. No follow. Predators more dangerous than Silver. More dangerous than metal coverings."

Matty nodded. "Staying put is what I do."

Silver grumbled and, with a single leap, landed onto the upper ground fifteen feet above. Matty strode towards the deep furrows his feet left on the ground. He analyzed the soil's density, the pounds per square inch required for such a leap, and compared it to the data he gathered on Silver. It made no sense at first glance, how a being like him could be so strong in a high gravity setting. There had to be an explanation behind his abilities!

Equations, possibilities, explanations churned through Matty's mind, each more complex than the other. Yet, every time a reasonable answer surfaced, his thoughts drifted to Eric. To his blank expression during the nightmare, moments before the storm swallowed him.

Matty bit his lower lip in frustration. His bigger brother wouldn't give up without a fight; he never did that. Wherever he was, Eric searched for him, just as Matty searched for Eric.

Or did he?

Matty began pacing around the hollow, hands tied at his back while he took in the vegetation. Deadly as the vines, flowers and bushels were, he had his suit, designed by the most advanced of aliens. He crouched, ready to leap to the surface of the hollow, when a faint thumping filled his ears.

A boar fell from the sky, followed by Silver. "Still here? Thought Matt would go after Highlanders, ignore what Silver advised."

"Can't search for them while dead," Matty said, harsher than intended. "I don't know the jungle. It's your world, and I respect that."

"Respect is given by eating with Silver." He shifted the boar from its tawny side to the dark grey one and groped one of its muscular flanks, so hard his nails sank into its meat.

"I can do that," Matty said. "I can slice it, remove its fur, and prepare it for the fire."

Silver raised his head at that. "Silver knows how."

"So does Matt. It's my pleasure. For keeping me safe."

Silver cocked his head, but said nothing as he turned around and scooped up the remaining twigs.

Matty sighed. He trudged over to the boar, an impressive specimen with onyx tusks, glazed emerald eyes and a snout bigger than Matty's head.

Everything's bigger on this damned planet, he thought as he rounded the boar. Thin spikes bearing the same color of its tusks jutted out of its shoulders, and its tail had a mace-like tip, heavy and chitinous. Maddy shuddered at the sight.

"Analyze the creature's composition and its anatomy. Bring up the dissecting interface," he requested. Data filled his helmet. Everything was within the normal parameters, with a few exceptions that the suit passed as 'acceptable.' Matty scrunched his nose at that, but shrugged his shoulders when indicative lines appeared on every portion of the boar's body.

If this thing's poisonous, this suit better have the damn antidote, he thought, then summoned his particle blade, a short, almost translucent beam of Neomatter. He molded it into a dagger with his thoughts, then inched closer to the boar's haunch.

You can't do this bro,_Eric's voice rang in his mind. _It's fucking disgusting. You'll throw up after the first cut and fill your helmet with puke.

Matty shook his head to dispel the worries. "Monitor my heartbeat and my body's functions. Administer whatever I say, when I say it." He clenched his jaws, glanced at Silver to make sure he still had his back to him, then cut through the rump.

Blood surged from the torn limb. It crashed against Matty's gauntlet and colored the Boar's rump in crimson red.

"Ranahrian stabilizer," Matty barely managed through his fit of gagging. His stomach lurched, his vision clouded, and bile rushed up his throat at the disgusting sight. His blade flickered, turning into various shapes and lengths, too long and too curved. The Neomatter blade sliced the boar's hindquarters into gory chunks, and its sickle shape tore its gut open.

Matty took a deep breath as intestines and organs flooded the ground. The glistening serpents slammed against his thighs with a squelch, but the stabilizer steadied his thumping heart and cooled the sweat off his brow.

"Ranahrian sense enhancer," he said. With both drugs pumping in his veins, Matty licked his lips, adjusted his blade into a dagger, and cut along the anatomical lines his suit brought up. He worked with surgical precision, splitting the boar open and shifting his particle blade into the corresponding form. By the time everything was sorted and the redundant bits buried into a pit Matty carved next to the boar's belly, his drugs worn off. He stumbled back and fell on his rump, panting as he sheathed the Neomatter particle blade.

"I did it," he said. "The geek freaking did it." With more than a little help, yet a wave of satisfaction still shot through Matty's frame. His tail twitched with renewed vigor, and his hairs stood on end at the pleasant sight before him.

While Silver huddled over the tiny speckle of flame he managed to ignite, Matty brought out all sorts of seasoning from his storage unit, sprinkled it over the meat, then scooted back just when Silver's eyes met his.

"Done?"

"Done," Matty said, a smug smile plastered on his face.

Silver inspected his work, eyes wide as his finger dabbed at the chunks of meat. "Good split. Will roast good."

"Taste better, as well," he said.

"Why?"

"Roast and find out."

Silver did just that. He skewered the meat upon sticks of various lengths that he placed between Y shaped twigs located on opposite sides of the fire. Then, he placed another row on top of the existing one, another row to lean against the horizontal skewer, another, and another, and another. Matty's jaw hung at the hiss of meat under the fire's hungry licks. He was burning half of the boar!

Matty's mouth shot open, only to slam shut when Silver rotated one of the side skewers. He proceeded to do the same with every single one, until the meat roasted to a rich brown. Silver handled Matty a thin branch with small chunks of meat while he picked a similar one.

"Why not start with the big one over there?" Matty pointed at the thick limb coated with a layer of thick slabs.

"No, both start small. Silver not above Matt, and Matt not above Silver."

Matty paused. "It's just meat. Why keep the best for last?"

"Last we share, as proof of friendship."

Customs. They never made sense. Matty shrugged his shoulder, lifted the visor of his helmet, and waited for Silver to take the first bite.

He gulped down the first chunks, then chewed on the third. His eyes widened, and his tongue poked out of his mouth to dash across his meaty lips. "Is different. Stings, but not hot, and tastes like a lot of things."

Matty chuckled.

Silver took another bite, moved it through his mouth, gulped it down, then tried a shaky, uncertain smile. "Put herb on it?"

"Seasoning," Matty corrected. "A combination of herbs and oils meant to enhance the flavor."

Silver frowned as he slurped at his lips. "Strange. So strange but good." He reached for a second row and handled Matty a spare one as well to grab in his free hand. "Eat. If too slow, meat gets cold and hard."

"Trying." He took a bite out of the first chunk of meat on his skewer. Five more followed. "You have a mouth and belly big enough for the whole boar."

Silver growled in rumbling laughter. Matty chewed the first bit only once before swallowing it whole. After months of eating synthetic food, the spiced meat overwhelmed his senses. Drool flooded his mouth, and he merely nodded, groaned, moaned at everything Silver said while gobbling the savory chunks. They had a balanced texture, hard yet juicy, and the seasoning had a soft bite that stimulated his appetite.

They spoke no more during their meal, Matty's mouth too full and numb from the dull ache of chewing. Silver swallowed slab after slab of meat, his eyebrows raised and his eyes big whenever he stretched his hand out to Matty to offer him another skewer.

"Had my fill," he said as he crashed on his back, arms wrapped around his too full stomach.

Silver's deep laughter filled the hollow. "But ate only two branch of meat."

"Which is more than enough." He tilted his head forward when Silver's swishing footsteps alerted him. He grabbed the remaining skewers filled with meat and shuffled towards Matty.

"I'm not taking another bite, even if my life depended on it." His stomach groaned in protest as well.

"No. Need store, so we eat together. Silver can't eat if Matt can't eat."

Matty hoisted himself onto his rump, tossed the multidimensional storage unit on the ground, and pointed at it. "Hold them next to it and say the word 'store', followed by 'meat skewers'."

Silver's eyes sought his, and Matty smiled encouragingly.

"Store meat," Silver said. The meat vanished, but the sticks remained. He stared at them, blinking.

"No harm done. Tell it to store the wooden sticks."

"Store wooden sticks," Silver said, and they too, dissolved into nothingness. "Is good now?"

"We'll have to skewer the meat again for an authentic experience, but you did well." Matty clapped his hands, but Silver merely scratched his head.

"Saw gesture in Highlands. What means?"

Matty rolled onto his feet and wobbled towards Silver. Every step reminded him just how full he was. "Appreciation. It's supposed to congratulate you."

"Like nod, or word?"

"Just so."

"Do it again," Silver urged.

Matty clapped his hands, and the gorilla's features softened. He slammed his palms together as well, hard enough to produce an earsplitting clap. Matty yelped and staggered while Silver laughed in his own rumbling style.

"Was loud. Now every predator come here."

Matty's jaw hung. "Aren't they supposed to run away? That clap almost burst my ears!"

Silver nodded. "They curious about strong being that make strong noises. Want to challenge Silver, but never succeed."

A cold shiver crept along Matty's spine. "I'm sure of that, but I don't want to wait for a demonstration."

"No fight. Silver fed. No need to hurt or kill." He lowered his back for Matty to latch onto his scruff.

"That's what I wanted to hear," he whispered to himself.

"Mhm," Silver said. "They strong, but witless. Mind more dangerous than strength."

Matty opened his mouth to say something, but only a shriek escaped him when Silver dropped onto his fours and dashed through the jungle, so fast Matty wrapped his arms around Silver's neck and squeezed Silver's shoulders with his thighs.

"And running beats it all!" Matty shouted, and Silver chuckled.

He pressed his chest tight across his muscular back, swaying in unison with his movements. Plants, trees, bushes, and flickers of movement dashed at the edges of his vision, but Matty ignored it. For the first time in however long it passed, he postponed the calling of science and research to enjoy Silver's rippling thrum.