Bait - Episode 4
Here we go again! Day 4! WOOTILY WOOTNESS!
Today's goal: 7754
Wordcount: 7751 (three words short. >D)
Shidbit wordcount: 2203
Thoughts flew at an insane pace through Dart’s head. If the kid was right, they were on Earth, which meant Dart wasn’t in Kansas anymore, or even the Milky Way. He had sunk to the floor once the immense realization hit him of what had just happened. Somehow, he must have walked into some random portal and gotten zipped here, of all places.
He should have known it was Earth. Gravity here was about twice that of Ni’ija, coupled with the uncomfortable fact that it was suddenly very hot in here. His muzzle and palms broke out in a cold sweat and it was all he could do to keep from panting. Earth? He was on Earth? The Earth? Home planet of the Founders? Earth, as in, human civilization? Human civilization which meant humans running the governments and calling the shots? Dart shuddered to think of it.
“So…. You are an alien?” Henry spoke quietly. Dart sighed and nodded his head. But when several moments of silence followed, he realized that the boy couldn’t see in the dark as well as he. The black-furred beast cleared his throat.
“I guess so.” He wasn’t prepared for this. None of his training had taught him what to do if a random portal transported him to Earth, of all places. Human culture on Earth was far different than that of any human cultures on the Faijian planets.
The boy blinked, confused. Dart glanced at him, shook his head once, and stood to his feet. He’d better complete the formalities. “As I said, my name is Dart. My home is in a galaxy called--“ Again the machine spit out a jumble of garbled syllables, eliciting an irritated growl- a bestial sound indeed- from Dart. “Well, let’s just say it’s not this one. What’s it called?”
“The Milky Way?” Henry said quietly, flabbergasted. This was something that only happened in books and science fiction TV shows! Wasn’t this alien supposed to be eating his brain by now?
“Yeah. Now I remember.” Dart lifted a palm to rub the back of his neck thoughtfully. He looked up to the shanty’s roof as if searching it for answers. “From as near as I can figure, a portal- must have been feral- opened up in my apartment complex and sent me here.” He looked back down at the human to see him staring at him with a confused look on his face. Dart sighed. He’d forgotten. “Portals are basically energy-based rifts in space that link one location to another. They can be summoned by those trained and gifted in the art, and they can also be feral- which are much more unstable and impossible to predict or control.”
A thunderous bellow erupted through the forest, causing Henry’s already-shattered nerves to twitch involuntarily, sending him into a startled leap that sent him an inch off of the ground. The fur along Dart’s spine stood on end and he immediately leapt to his feet, muscles tense and nostrils flaring.
“That was no Earthbeast,” Dart growled. “I’ve heard that roar before.” He put out his palm to Henry in a ‘stay’ gesture. “Don’t move. I’ll be right back.”
“What are you going to do?”
Dart was already on his way out the door. “I’m going to say hello.”
---
Cautiously sneaking his way through the shanty door, Dart stayed as low to the ground as he could and pressed his body against the hut wall as much as possible. His black fur would conceal him against being seen- provided he stayed away from the light of the bonfire burning in the center of a ring of similar huts. Nervous natives scurried around adding wood to the fire to make it burn brighter and hotter in hopes of frightening away whatever was making the noise. Cautiously Dart circled around until he was on the back side of the hut before leaping for the trees.
WHUMP! He stumbled and fell heavily, rolling to a short stop in the undergrowth and causing a small racket. Dart froze, holding his breath while he made sure none of the natives investigated. No, they were busy making their own ruckus building the fire and hadn’t noticed. The were-aya exhaled a quick breath, mentally cursing Earth for having heavier gravity than he was accustomed to. He rolled to his feet and stole away into the jungle, immersing himself into the darkness and becoming one with the shadows.
Well, it’s not Anyana, but It’s close enough. It felt good, being back in the untamed wilderness again. Dart kept a sharp eye out for predators and natural traps, but in the back of his mind he knew Earth wasn’t near as dangerous as the planets in his home galaxy. Even the comparatively tame Nekoo had more to be cautious of than this place. As Dart slipped through the dense foliage, the dew on the leaves compared with the heavy humidity in the air worked quickly to soak him to his skin. At that moment he realized he still had his museum uniform on- and it was perfectly sodden. All it would do from here on out was hinder his movements, but he kept it for the sake of being more culturally acceptable in the humans’ eyes. If he were to walk around without wearing clothes he’d be regarded more as a savage, and less as a civilized being. He’d be all the more likely to be treated as something to be feared, hated, and rendered harmless.
Onward he pushed, scenting the air with his sensitive nose. It was a difficult job, sorting out one scent from another when he had smelled nothing of their kinds before. Kind of like trying to tell the difference between fresh popcorn and a bucket of paint if one had never seen a bowl of popcorn or a can of paint before in their lives, much less smell them. But Dart learned quickly. Even on this planet, which was alien to him, there was a marked difference between the smells of plant life, animal life, and dirt.
He covered quite a bit of ground in the span of a few minutes, stealing as silently as possible through the night and seeking to catch any sign of the creature. A low-frequency rumble to his left grabbed his attention, and he instinctively leapt onto the nearest tree with agile ease, using the sharp claws tipping his fingers and toes to climb into the lowest branches- which, in this jungle, were very nearly at the top of the trees themselves. From this vantage point he could see… very little. The undergrowth sprung up for a good twenty feet in places, but he still could see a path carved through it by something of considerably large size.
He crouched there for a moment on a sturdy limb, thinking. Off in the distance he could hear its flight, passing through the foliage on its lumbering way. What was it? Flattening the tips of his ears against his skull, he took a few steps farther out on the limb, balancing precariously from an incredible height. Once he came across an adjacent tree’s limb he stepped onto it, and from there onto another limb, and so forth. Like this he traveled until he saw a large moving shape in the distance.
Excited, he increased his pace until he was almost directly above it. Even then, it took him a moment for his mind to skim through his expansive knowledge of Faijian species to identify what he saw. It was built roughly like an Earthen triceratops, but with a fan-shaped amored plate beginning at the back of its skull and extending across its entire back. It had a long, thick tail with two tips- both adorned with heavy bone blades sharp enough to slice through flesh, bone-- and wood.
“Twitop,” Dart whispered quietly, finally having made the connection. It was an Anyanan species; not particularly common, but not exactly rare, either. Some of the bigger ones got to be about fifteen feet tall- this one looked to be around twelve.
What Dart had forgotten was that he had not switched off the translator. In its attempt to translate the beast’s name it made a series of garbles and shrieks that would have been quiet in any other situation but in this one was as loud as a siren. Dart flinched and scrambled to turn it off- but the twitop had heard him and was beginning to move at a faster, alarmed pace.
Angry at himself for being so forgetful, Dart finally batted the machine’s on/off switch and slipped off through the trees, following the beast’s flight. While he ran, he wondered what in the world he was going to do. It seemed he had only two choices; kill it so that it wouldn’t endanger the humans and their ecosystem- twitops were herbivores, but they weren’t made with tailblades without reason- or leave it alone and find a way to get it back to Anyana. His choices weren’t the greatest. But they were all he had.
He had to make a decision. So, he picked what he thought would be best.
Dart slowed down and leapt for the nearest tree trunk. With ease he climbed and slid down its entire length, leaping to the ground once he was about twenty feet up and landing easily. Once on the ground he crouched for a moment, shedding his clothes and draping them carefully over a nearby bush. It felt good to be rid of their constricting confines and to be au natural again, and he took a moment to stretch and enjoy it before getting down to business.
He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and exhaled slowly, calming his nerves and putting everything from his mind. In the span of the next ten seconds his body went through a total transformation, exchanging his two-legged humanoid form for that of a full-bodied kumayaki. Four long legs, a lengthy tail with a tuft at the end, a mane atop his shoulders, and a canid face bearing two large saberfangs replaced his previous shape.
Dart stretched again, rolling his muscular shoulders and flexing and extending each limb. It had been a while since he’d been in this form. Too long. He noted with distaste the fact that the extra fat stores he had in his bipedal form transferred to his quadrupedal form, as well. A few extra inches’ girth padded his belly, but not so much as to cause problems. He would deal with it.
A grin stretched across his muzzle despite his grim task - for it truly felt good to get back in this form and to be back in the ‘wild’, hunting prey - and he stealthily padded forward through the dense jungle. He stayed in the path the twitop had carved through the undergrowth so as make as little sound from rustling leaves as possible. He traveled at a swift pace, far faster than the twitop could ever go, and soon found the beast’s large shape looming before him.
The hunter darted aside, leaping onto the nearest tree trunk and climbing several feet up before launching himself off of it and colliding with the twitop’s side. His claws sunk into its tough armored skin after one or two attempts at piercing its mighty hide, and out of the corner of his eye he saw the twitop’s tail arching back to strike. It let out an alarmed bellow and swung away from him, spiraling toward a tree with full intent to smash him between itself and the solid trunk. Dart steeled himself and drew his head back as far as he could before snapping his neck forward to send his saberfangs plunging into the twitop’s chest. It bellowed, faltered, and continued on, bleeding fiercely from the twin wounds just as soon as Dart let go. Just then its tail swung toward his head and he let go, narrowly missing decapitation and finding himself a prime candidate for being stepped on by one of the twitop’s four massive, clawed paws. He darted aside and leapt at it from another angle, this time aiming for its armored neck. Short bony spikes protruded from the solid flesh so as to make attacking difficult; but Dart had another plan. He gripped the creature’s neck in his forelegs and craned his neck to take a literal stab at the twitop’s throat between and a little below its jawbones. He hit home, one of the teeth striking a major artery which immediately showered him with a pulsing spray of hot blood. The creature stumbled and wailed, a ghostly sound that split through the forest for miles.
Dart stood back, kicking himself for killing the beast needlessly but knowing in his heart that there was no other option. He had neither the resources nor the ability to create a portal and send it back to Anyana, and simply leaving it to coexist on Earth was out of the question. He watched it struggle in its death throes feeling truly sad.
“I wish I didn’t have to do that, old boy, but you were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“I’m sorry.”
Today's goal: 7754
Wordcount: 7751 (three words short. >D)
Shidbit wordcount: 2203
Thoughts flew at an insane pace through Dart’s head. If the kid was right, they were on Earth, which meant Dart wasn’t in Kansas anymore, or even the Milky Way. He had sunk to the floor once the immense realization hit him of what had just happened. Somehow, he must have walked into some random portal and gotten zipped here, of all places.
He should have known it was Earth. Gravity here was about twice that of Ni’ija, coupled with the uncomfortable fact that it was suddenly very hot in here. His muzzle and palms broke out in a cold sweat and it was all he could do to keep from panting. Earth? He was on Earth? The Earth? Home planet of the Founders? Earth, as in, human civilization? Human civilization which meant humans running the governments and calling the shots? Dart shuddered to think of it.
“So…. You are an alien?” Henry spoke quietly. Dart sighed and nodded his head. But when several moments of silence followed, he realized that the boy couldn’t see in the dark as well as he. The black-furred beast cleared his throat.
“I guess so.” He wasn’t prepared for this. None of his training had taught him what to do if a random portal transported him to Earth, of all places. Human culture on Earth was far different than that of any human cultures on the Faijian planets.
The boy blinked, confused. Dart glanced at him, shook his head once, and stood to his feet. He’d better complete the formalities. “As I said, my name is Dart. My home is in a galaxy called--“ Again the machine spit out a jumble of garbled syllables, eliciting an irritated growl- a bestial sound indeed- from Dart. “Well, let’s just say it’s not this one. What’s it called?”
“The Milky Way?” Henry said quietly, flabbergasted. This was something that only happened in books and science fiction TV shows! Wasn’t this alien supposed to be eating his brain by now?
“Yeah. Now I remember.” Dart lifted a palm to rub the back of his neck thoughtfully. He looked up to the shanty’s roof as if searching it for answers. “From as near as I can figure, a portal- must have been feral- opened up in my apartment complex and sent me here.” He looked back down at the human to see him staring at him with a confused look on his face. Dart sighed. He’d forgotten. “Portals are basically energy-based rifts in space that link one location to another. They can be summoned by those trained and gifted in the art, and they can also be feral- which are much more unstable and impossible to predict or control.”
A thunderous bellow erupted through the forest, causing Henry’s already-shattered nerves to twitch involuntarily, sending him into a startled leap that sent him an inch off of the ground. The fur along Dart’s spine stood on end and he immediately leapt to his feet, muscles tense and nostrils flaring.
“That was no Earthbeast,” Dart growled. “I’ve heard that roar before.” He put out his palm to Henry in a ‘stay’ gesture. “Don’t move. I’ll be right back.”
“What are you going to do?”
Dart was already on his way out the door. “I’m going to say hello.”
---
Cautiously sneaking his way through the shanty door, Dart stayed as low to the ground as he could and pressed his body against the hut wall as much as possible. His black fur would conceal him against being seen- provided he stayed away from the light of the bonfire burning in the center of a ring of similar huts. Nervous natives scurried around adding wood to the fire to make it burn brighter and hotter in hopes of frightening away whatever was making the noise. Cautiously Dart circled around until he was on the back side of the hut before leaping for the trees.
WHUMP! He stumbled and fell heavily, rolling to a short stop in the undergrowth and causing a small racket. Dart froze, holding his breath while he made sure none of the natives investigated. No, they were busy making their own ruckus building the fire and hadn’t noticed. The were-aya exhaled a quick breath, mentally cursing Earth for having heavier gravity than he was accustomed to. He rolled to his feet and stole away into the jungle, immersing himself into the darkness and becoming one with the shadows.
Well, it’s not Anyana, but It’s close enough. It felt good, being back in the untamed wilderness again. Dart kept a sharp eye out for predators and natural traps, but in the back of his mind he knew Earth wasn’t near as dangerous as the planets in his home galaxy. Even the comparatively tame Nekoo had more to be cautious of than this place. As Dart slipped through the dense foliage, the dew on the leaves compared with the heavy humidity in the air worked quickly to soak him to his skin. At that moment he realized he still had his museum uniform on- and it was perfectly sodden. All it would do from here on out was hinder his movements, but he kept it for the sake of being more culturally acceptable in the humans’ eyes. If he were to walk around without wearing clothes he’d be regarded more as a savage, and less as a civilized being. He’d be all the more likely to be treated as something to be feared, hated, and rendered harmless.
Onward he pushed, scenting the air with his sensitive nose. It was a difficult job, sorting out one scent from another when he had smelled nothing of their kinds before. Kind of like trying to tell the difference between fresh popcorn and a bucket of paint if one had never seen a bowl of popcorn or a can of paint before in their lives, much less smell them. But Dart learned quickly. Even on this planet, which was alien to him, there was a marked difference between the smells of plant life, animal life, and dirt.
He covered quite a bit of ground in the span of a few minutes, stealing as silently as possible through the night and seeking to catch any sign of the creature. A low-frequency rumble to his left grabbed his attention, and he instinctively leapt onto the nearest tree with agile ease, using the sharp claws tipping his fingers and toes to climb into the lowest branches- which, in this jungle, were very nearly at the top of the trees themselves. From this vantage point he could see… very little. The undergrowth sprung up for a good twenty feet in places, but he still could see a path carved through it by something of considerably large size.
He crouched there for a moment on a sturdy limb, thinking. Off in the distance he could hear its flight, passing through the foliage on its lumbering way. What was it? Flattening the tips of his ears against his skull, he took a few steps farther out on the limb, balancing precariously from an incredible height. Once he came across an adjacent tree’s limb he stepped onto it, and from there onto another limb, and so forth. Like this he traveled until he saw a large moving shape in the distance.
Excited, he increased his pace until he was almost directly above it. Even then, it took him a moment for his mind to skim through his expansive knowledge of Faijian species to identify what he saw. It was built roughly like an Earthen triceratops, but with a fan-shaped amored plate beginning at the back of its skull and extending across its entire back. It had a long, thick tail with two tips- both adorned with heavy bone blades sharp enough to slice through flesh, bone-- and wood.
“Twitop,” Dart whispered quietly, finally having made the connection. It was an Anyanan species; not particularly common, but not exactly rare, either. Some of the bigger ones got to be about fifteen feet tall- this one looked to be around twelve.
What Dart had forgotten was that he had not switched off the translator. In its attempt to translate the beast’s name it made a series of garbles and shrieks that would have been quiet in any other situation but in this one was as loud as a siren. Dart flinched and scrambled to turn it off- but the twitop had heard him and was beginning to move at a faster, alarmed pace.
Angry at himself for being so forgetful, Dart finally batted the machine’s on/off switch and slipped off through the trees, following the beast’s flight. While he ran, he wondered what in the world he was going to do. It seemed he had only two choices; kill it so that it wouldn’t endanger the humans and their ecosystem- twitops were herbivores, but they weren’t made with tailblades without reason- or leave it alone and find a way to get it back to Anyana. His choices weren’t the greatest. But they were all he had.
He had to make a decision. So, he picked what he thought would be best.
Dart slowed down and leapt for the nearest tree trunk. With ease he climbed and slid down its entire length, leaping to the ground once he was about twenty feet up and landing easily. Once on the ground he crouched for a moment, shedding his clothes and draping them carefully over a nearby bush. It felt good to be rid of their constricting confines and to be au natural again, and he took a moment to stretch and enjoy it before getting down to business.
He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and exhaled slowly, calming his nerves and putting everything from his mind. In the span of the next ten seconds his body went through a total transformation, exchanging his two-legged humanoid form for that of a full-bodied kumayaki. Four long legs, a lengthy tail with a tuft at the end, a mane atop his shoulders, and a canid face bearing two large saberfangs replaced his previous shape.
Dart stretched again, rolling his muscular shoulders and flexing and extending each limb. It had been a while since he’d been in this form. Too long. He noted with distaste the fact that the extra fat stores he had in his bipedal form transferred to his quadrupedal form, as well. A few extra inches’ girth padded his belly, but not so much as to cause problems. He would deal with it.
A grin stretched across his muzzle despite his grim task - for it truly felt good to get back in this form and to be back in the ‘wild’, hunting prey - and he stealthily padded forward through the dense jungle. He stayed in the path the twitop had carved through the undergrowth so as make as little sound from rustling leaves as possible. He traveled at a swift pace, far faster than the twitop could ever go, and soon found the beast’s large shape looming before him.
The hunter darted aside, leaping onto the nearest tree trunk and climbing several feet up before launching himself off of it and colliding with the twitop’s side. His claws sunk into its tough armored skin after one or two attempts at piercing its mighty hide, and out of the corner of his eye he saw the twitop’s tail arching back to strike. It let out an alarmed bellow and swung away from him, spiraling toward a tree with full intent to smash him between itself and the solid trunk. Dart steeled himself and drew his head back as far as he could before snapping his neck forward to send his saberfangs plunging into the twitop’s chest. It bellowed, faltered, and continued on, bleeding fiercely from the twin wounds just as soon as Dart let go. Just then its tail swung toward his head and he let go, narrowly missing decapitation and finding himself a prime candidate for being stepped on by one of the twitop’s four massive, clawed paws. He darted aside and leapt at it from another angle, this time aiming for its armored neck. Short bony spikes protruded from the solid flesh so as to make attacking difficult; but Dart had another plan. He gripped the creature’s neck in his forelegs and craned his neck to take a literal stab at the twitop’s throat between and a little below its jawbones. He hit home, one of the teeth striking a major artery which immediately showered him with a pulsing spray of hot blood. The creature stumbled and wailed, a ghostly sound that split through the forest for miles.
Dart stood back, kicking himself for killing the beast needlessly but knowing in his heart that there was no other option. He had neither the resources nor the ability to create a portal and send it back to Anyana, and simply leaving it to coexist on Earth was out of the question. He watched it struggle in its death throes feeling truly sad.
“I wish I didn’t have to do that, old boy, but you were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“I’m sorry.”