“I don’t believe it. No. No way. You’re just messing with me. Tell me, you’re messing with me. Are you messing with me?”
“Nope.”
“Fuck.” said the devastated Orion, refraining from vomiting. Looking at his face, the creature burst out laughing.
“Would you rather I didn’t tell you? You could still enjoy those lovely breezes.”
Orion looked at the creature with resignation and shook his head. He had just learned what this place was on a slightly smaller scale. The creature admitted that, although it happened very rarely, he could experience dreams of this place.
That’s right, Orion had landed on a living entity the size of a planet. What he initially perceived as warm volcanic winds, had their source in something entirely different from lava. Fortunately, his intuition had told him not to go towards their source. If he had chosen otherwise, at some point he would have come across a huge but rather distinctive hole. The knowledge that he’d enjoyed the feeling of something’s gases on his skin and happily climbed on what he now recognized as hair overshadowed the surprise of the fact that this place was alive and so monumental.
According to his companion, it wasn’t the size that made the universe consider this living place an anomaly. It probably wasn’t even the fact that it had different time zones on it. In addition to the invisible walls that separated the different passages of time, Orion learned that this monstrous beast had teleportation gates embedded in its body, and judging from the description, he had already encountered one. Although hearing this immediately gave him hope, according to the creature currently laughing at him, these weren’t gates that would help him get out of here, at least not directly.
It seemed the place simply fed itself that way. Living anomalies traveling on the surface of its body sometimes encountered something resembling a lake. They entered it, somehow enticed, only to teleport directly to the equivalent of its stomach. Orion remembered that he himself had felt a strange temptation to jump into the dark substance, but fortunately common sense prevailed. Maybe it only worked on the less intelligent ones? He thought.
The creature also explained that to help him get out of this place they would use such a gate, but with a few modifications. Before Orion mentioned returning to the black pool he had encountered, he was also told that it probably no longer existed. The depressions with the gates appeared and disappeared at random intervals. Besides, the creature was not ready yet. Orion used this to change the subject and end being mocked by the creature.
“You mentioned you wanted to modify those black gates? Care to elaborate?”
“To tell you how I’m goin’ to do it, I need to explain a little bit about how I feed myself. Although it may be like tryin’ to explain to a blind person what colors look like, I think you’ll be able to get it.”
The creature was about to continue, but Orion interrupted.
“Oh, wait. You know, I feel bad calling you a ‘weird, annoying creature’ in my mind.”
“Ori, cut the crap. I know you don’t use ‘annoying’. You’re probably thinking of a wonderful creature. Oh, and even more likely, you’re usin’ the ‘sexy’ term. I saw how you looked at my tail.”
“Sure.” said Orion with his regular dead face. “Aaaanyway, what do you think of the name?”
“Ugh, killjoy.” it mumbled. “Why not? Have any ideas?”
Orion frowned, trying to find something suitable. Even though he suggested it, he didn’t think about it before. He had already realized that the creature was eager to mock, but he wanted to take the matter of the name seriously. It wasn’t until he thought about it that he realized he was going to name a living being that’s been in this place much longer than the race he was born as even existed. He also had to admit that he had no experience in naming. Orion still hadn’t come up with a name for his project, and Robert suggested his dog’s name. According to him, coming up with a name like Byton was the pinnacle of genius, referring both to computer bytes and to biting. After a moment’s thought, he spoke.
“I’ve always liked names with meaning. I know a few words in Japanese and, from what I understand, they also like to weave meanings into names.”
“Alright, but it also has to sound awesome.”
“Uh, you’re not helping. I thought of combining two words that popped into my head the first time I saw you. I’m talking about the words ‘hone’, which means ‘bones’: that resembled for me the lighter parts of your body, and ‘yoru’, which means ‘night’, respectively.” Orion said, forming an idea for a name in his head. Having a clear picture now, he smiled and continued. “Combining the ends of those two, we should get ‘Neru’, which, if I’m not mistaken, even means ‘sleep’. Although, I’m not sure if it’s a good idea to name someone after what they eat. It’s like you calling me ‘meat’, or something.”
“Well, I don’t know, man. I think you can find somethin’ that better describes my gorgeous, slim body. I want it to sound majestic!”
“Alright, Bob. So, continue talking about your diet.”
The creature stopped in midair as if frozen, then said.
“No, it’s okay. On second thought, Neru sounds great. Definitely.” Neru cleared his throat, then began to explain his diet. “So imagine that hair is growin’ all over your body, except it’s growin’ in a different dimension. Well, ‘hair’ is not quite a good term, it’s actually more like threads, or maybe tubes of energy with somethin’ like a sensor on the end. Even though we can’t see them, I can clearly feel where each one begins and ends.”
Neru gave him a moment to imagine the phenomenon, though he knew it wouldn’t be easy. Orion frowned at first, but then nodded, signaling for him to continue.
“In general, when lookin’ for food, the tip of this hair gives me guidance like ‘warmer, colder’. Although I can’t move the middle part, the sensor section is quite mobile. That way, I can track the sleepin’ individuals. But even when I locate it, I don’t always find a sleepin’ entity, as it can happen that by the time I reach it, it’s already awake and gone. In situations like this, I may decide to leave the hair in this place and wait for it to come back. I’ll also mention that the dream energy that I’m actually feeding on is still there for a while, even after someone wakes up. Which means even if I’m late, I still have a snack.”
As Orion imagined moving his invisible hairs, a thought entered a side door in his mind that began to intrigue him.
“When you say ‘dream energy’, what exactly do you mean? Like... is it some real energy that if you eat it, the sleeping person will feel the loss of?”
“Have you ever heard any complaints like, ‘hello, someone ate my dream while I was sleepin’?”
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“Uhm. I think of forgetting dreams or feeling bad when you wake up. I don’t want you to think I’m accusing you, or something; I’m just curious. Anyway, I think that when it comes to food, humans and carnivores are much worse.”
“That’s the way nature normally works, and I think the sooner you get that through your stupid head, the better. The strong and the wise survive, the weak and the foolish are food, both metaphorically and literally. But back to the point, when I eat other dreams of the same person, I never recognize any negative effects. I also had a theory about that. To use another analogy, I’d say I feed more on exhaust fumes than on fuel.”
“Another thing I’m curious about. I understand that you’ve lived a long time, but how did you learn to speak so fluently, and even use words like fuel and exhaust fumes? I imagine that dreams aren’t the best source of information. We dream about absurd crap all the time. How do you tell the difference…”
Orion paused as he saw the ground moving in front of them. It seemed their voices had awakened some creature that had been hiding under a blanket of heavy ash dust. It was still far away, and was dragging itself out of its hiding place rather lazily, giving Orion a moment to quickly think things through.
He was already aware that this is what nature looks like. Between the predator and the victim, there was no room for empathy or compassion. Although he may have held back for a long time, the knowledge that he had already killed one living creature, eventually reached him. When that happened, he had to come to his senses again. Besides, at some point, he decided that one day he would find the people responsible for the deaths of Anna and Byton and those who kidnapped Martha and bring them to justice. He also promised himself that he would return and ensure the safety of his family and those closest to him. In order for that to be possible, he had to harden himself and assure that when the need arose, he would be able to deliberately harm someone. The very thought of it gave him a bitter taste in his mouth, but he was prepared to pay the price.
Neru looked at him the moment he saw the anomaly, thinking for a moment that he might have frozen in fear. But seeing the look in his eyes, he realized that Orion was already fighting. Before they could deal with the beast in front, he first had to enrage the beast inside. Neru saw this kid’s memories from the moment he was born almost until his death. This was the first man whose history he could trace in this way, and he started doing it without thinking. Although it was a moment of rest for Orion, he lived the full twenty-five years of his new friend’s life with him. Almost full, he thought, grimacing inwardly.
He saw his first steps, his first words, his first friendships. It was a little bit like watching a movie, but with the difference that he knew it all happened. Besides, he was a direct witness. Although he couldn’t recognize Orion’s thoughts from his memories, he could feel every feeling and pain. The pain that made him run like a coward when Orion’s torture began.
Naturally, he didn’t mention this to his human companion, but he felt ashamed of his escape. He jumped out of the dream and returned when Orion was already waking up in this place, only after he had gone through it all alone.
They ended their thoughts at a similar moment and looked at each other. Orion took a step towards the anomaly that was watching the two warily.
“I’d like to handle this myself. Is that okay?”
“Alright. Go.” said Neru. It’s about time. He added in his mind.
Neru still assumed that Orion couldn’t appreciate the importance of the event that was taking place in the outside world. So far, he managed to squeeze a few shards of the dream energy that have penetrated these new seals. Although the fragments were small and far too distorted to form valid conclusions, he could roughly estimate the feelings and emotions that people now had. There was a huge probability that the event was so significant that all of humanity would start from scratch. If this assumption were to prove true, to survive, his companion would have to acquire the necessary strength, but he couldn’t expect it from someone who didn’t even want to have it. So he was quite relieved to see what Orion had decided.
Orion was quite nervous about the fight ahead, so he appreciated the humorous gesture when Neru twirled around in the air and showed him both middle fingers. Then, to Orion’s surprise, still floating in the air, he seemed to fade, and the pattern of teeth on his face formed an even wider smile. He finally vanished without a trace, just as the beast began to charge.
Even when thinking about his approach, Orion tried to somehow compensate for his lack of combat experience. He looked at the creature and tried to deduce possible weak points, while at the same time preparing his trusty weapon. The beast resembled a deluxe version of anteater, in structure, having elements that looked like bony armor with quite long, sharp spikes and a slightly more muscular body. Its snout was just as long and slender as its Earth counterpart’s, but it ended not in a small mouth, but in a mouth full of teeth that gaped all the way to the neck. Some of the armor overlapped the jaw, pointing upwards, acting as eye protection. Quickly assessing, the mouth, while terrifying, did not look like it had a huge force of pressure, but the sharp teeth suggested painful attacks that would cause many bleeding wounds. Considering its back armor, he also couldn’t afford to throw himself on its back and strangle it, like he did with the first beast he encountered here.
Lack of maneuverability, limited range of vision, exposed fragments of body on limbs, probably low intelligence, he assessed, mentally forming a preliminary plan. Although a sharpened rock was ready in his right hand, in the other he still held a primitive sack made of the first monster’s skin, and in it the remains of hyena beasts. He waited a moment, allowing the beast to approach, while adjusting the grip of his left hand and preparing to jump away. When he decided that the time had come, he threw himself to the side, simultaneously throwing the contents of the sack at the head of the charging creature.
Orion assumed a lack of intelligence, due to the small skull relative to body weight of the enemy, but he was unsure of this point, considering the unknown nature of the place. He had also known cases of small but intelligent animals. However, it seemed that in this case he wasn’t mistaken, as the moment the remains of meat approached its mouth, the creature grabbed some, trying to attack and bite it. Tearing the meat, the creature splattered it randomly, and some of it stuck to the place of the eye protection, blocking its field of vision even more.
Unfortunately, mostly covered was the left eye, and Orion avoided the charge by jumping to the creature’s right, so he couldn’t take advantage of that fact immediately. He could only hope that the obstruction would stay in place so he could use it in the future. His theory about the lack of maneuverability was also confirmed, as after passing him, the beast still had to travel quite a distance, slowly slowing down to a stop. Before it turned around, Orion noticed another difference from its counterpart, namely the complete lack of a tail. He was glad about that, as knowing how life goes, the variety from here would most likely have a tail with a sharpened tip or something like that.
As the creature slowed and turned towards its enemy, preparing to charge again, it noticed its opponent kneeling in pain. It wasn’t going to waste this opportunity and rushed again, running straight at him.
With the creature close enough, Orion finished his act and quickly stood up, leaping away, this time to the left of it, while preparing his left hand to release the new contents of the leather sack. He didn’t have to aim too precisely, as the beast moved in a straight line, and it didn’t take much effort to block its entire field of vision with the released cloud of ash dust he had hastily gathered while being out of its field of vision.
The beast most likely now had dust in its eyes, but Orion didn’t dare assume that it had completely deprived it of its senses. It could have had some invisible membranes protecting its sight, a heightened sense of smell, or other methods of targeting that he didn’t know about. With that in mind, he decided to attack cautiously. Regaining his balance after the jump, he moved towards the beast. It slowly tried to slow down its momentum, allowing him to catch up with it rather quickly.
The beast’s predictability allowed him to prepare for the blow, and just as it tensed to slow down again, Orion aimed for the joint of its left hind leg. He chose that particular limb, planning to damage the entire left side of his foe. Its legs seemed sturdy, so he put as much force into the blow as he could muster. The sharp edge of the rock connected with the beast’s body, causing it to screech deafeningly. His blow had undoubtedly done some damage, but Orion didn’t celebrate, jumping back as soon as he regained his balance.
He assumed that the beast would be able to quickly attack him in anger, once it stopped its momentum, but what he saw almost made him laugh. The creature seemed to have taken his unspoken comparison to an anteater to heart and tried to stand on its hind legs, pretending to be larger. From what Orion could tell, it seemed to be in a defensive position, trying to scare off an enemy. Considering the big spikes on its armor, it might have even worked, if not for the injured left leg, which gave up under the beast’s weight, causing it to fall over on its back.
Low intelligence double-checked, he thought as he approached the beast. At this point, it looked defenseless, but Orion was not letting his guard down. He approached it again from the left and slashed a rock into the creature’s exposed lower abdomen, causing another loud squeal. His cautious approach did not pay off this time, as the beast; apart from moving both its front and one of its back limbs; couldn’t move.
The armor spikes wedged in the ground, he realized. It was a scenario he had imagined, but he hadn’t bet on it actually happening. He assumed the ground would be too loose, but it turned out that it was hardening beneath the surface layer, which, given the true nature of this place, could have been the case.
Orion didn’t want to cause unnecessary suffering, so as the beast thrashed, he cautiously stepped closer to its head. He took a moment to assess whether it would suddenly attack him. After planning his next move, he took advantage of its covered left eye and lunged for its neck. Leaping, he swung his right hand to deliver a decisive blow, and laid his left side of the body across its jaw, preventing any sudden bites.
Unfortunately, for both him and the beast, this one blow was not enough.
Even though it had no way to defend itself, Orion had to land several more blows to finally bring about its death. Before he finally succeeded, the beast twisted somehow, causing its uncontrollably flailing foreleg with its long claws to hit his leg, causing a nasty gash.
A terrible pain attacked him, clouding his thoughts and stopping his body from moving. With the last bit of his will, he noticed that the monster was slowing down, but he couldn’t afford to lose consciousness yet. He summoned all his determination and, screaming loudly, delivered several desperate blows to the large, open wound on the beast’s neck.
Each time the sharp rock struck the creature’s exposed flesh and bone, it caused it to cramp until its body stopped responding.
Fuck, he thought, losing to the pain.
Finally, Orion let himself give up and lost consciousness.
And what about his new name?
