Epoch of Desolation

Rain’s eyes burned with alertness and vigor, but his heart, on the other hand, palpitated in a manner so rapid that he almost thought he could hear its throbs resounding throughout the hallway. There was also an empty feeling in the pit of his stomach; and as for his hand and the fire extinguisher they held, they were overtaken by tender trembles.

The long silence had won the game of thrones in his mind now; he was seemingly no longer the same brave person he was a moment ago.

Tch. Rain gnashed his teeth together in anger at that sudden realization. Calm down. Deep breaths in and out. This isn’t right. You shouldn’t be like this. Where did your previous courage go, you dimwit?

Insulting himself didn’t help much, but at least he was able to stabilize his breathing to an extent. And as such he finally took hold of the cold handle of the door he was before, turned it, and brought before his view the familiar interior of the hospital room he had woken up in. The sight, though, caused the upper and lower lids of his eyes to part further away from what they were meant to protect as an incredulous look took over his face.

Thanks to the dingy light of the moon making it past the halfway curtained window, Rain knew that what he was seeing wasn’t some sort of hallucination which was as a result of being within the murky feels of darkness for too long. No. This… It was the real deal. The Jaguar he was quite fearful of was still stuck underneath the bed he had sent crashing over it.

He couldn’t believe his eyes.

For some reason he’d thought that even without ‘apparently’ being physically mutated, the large cat would still have an unreal measure of physical strength, and would be able to free itself from such a minor setback.

But it seemed he was wrong.

Was it that all Jaguars were physically weak, or was it just this one?

Rain wasn’t a national geographics or animal expert—maybe he had been, he couldn’t know—so he had no idea what the answer to his question was. In that regard, he did the only thing he could: proceed with caution.

The room’s door was closed silently, hazel eyes were narrowed into slits, sidesteps formed a quiet arc, and after a while Rain was standing opposite his current nemesis. His muscles tensed while his subconsciousness kept itself active in order to make sure a swift escape was guaranteed if any unprecedented problems arose.

Although, as more seconds passed while Rain probed every nook and cranny of the trapped Jaguar, he slowly felt more and more relaxed. And of course it scared him, so much that he began to hope for the Plexus to re-notify him of the dangers of being in the same room as a wild cat.

But nothing came.

It was probably because he had already been notified once, so the whole ‘Side Plot’ was still ongoing and hence there was no reason for any other form of reminder. If the Player forgot that they were to survive then they were on their own.

Due to that, Rain knew the only way to rekindle his fear of the Jaguar was by personally bringing that message back to his view. Although, to do that he’d have to first close the Plexus Interface he had been on previously, and that was too much of a distraction to allow in the presence of a seasoned predator.

After all, this could just be a trap by the Jaguar to force him to let his guard down; it had the wits of a human.

That thought lingered not for long though as Rain slightly tipped his head to his side after catching sight of something unexpected, or rather, something he had not once considered.

He started to notice them then.

The amber eyes of the Jaguar were actually quite dull and sunken; yes, they glowed, but they weren’t in any way as bright as he’d thought them to be. And occasionally, even though he was standing before the animal, its gaze drifted as though unfocused.

Furthermore, its muscles weren’t that of an adult cat, it seemed more like that of a youth. Its frame was less defined, thin, fragile, and gaunt; and looking closely Rain could make out its ribs faintly visible beneath its skin.

It hasn’t roared or snarled at me. No, that’s not it. It just can’t.

Rain was not slow to realize what was happening here. The low, shallow, and pitiful exhales of the Jaguar was what had been the final touch.

The beast was basically him, a hungry, dehydrated, and exhausted youth left to fend for itself, just a different species.

Rain’s heartbeat became significantly slower, and a deep sigh escaped him.

No wonder I was able to escape. As a teenage Jaguar I doubt it has much hunting capabilities under its belt, and it's also dehydrated, so it’s definitely sluggish. Hah… I would have been killed in an instant if it was an adult one.

All the energy in Rain’s legs gave out suddenly, and the blonde-haired boy went sliding to the ground, his back placed on the grimy wall behind him.

His eyes had been on the extinguisher he called a weapon, which he had placed beside him, but now he took them back to the Jaguar. The Jaguar was staring at him, but at the same time it wasn’t.

I wonder if it lost its memories as well.

Rain wanted to talk to it—with it. Maybe it was because he was yet to see any of his kind, and this mutated Jaguar was the closest thing to a human at the moment, but he wasted no time coming up with plausible ways to have an interaction with the beast. And not long after, he had an idea.

There was a syringe beside him, Rain picked it up and tossed it accurately at the Jaguar, prompting it to land just at a reachable distance of the animal’s right paw. No sounds of protest came from the Jaguar, but its eyes became focused once again, this time with hints of something tantamount to curiosity visible in them.

“Yes or no,” Rain began, hoping to himself that the Jaguar would understand what he was saying. “Place your paw on the syringe if your answer is yes, and if it’s no, do otherwise.”

Of course Rain knew the Jaguar most likely couldn’t communicate in the language of humans, therefore he was not weirded out that silence was what had followed after his words. He simply sighed and continued; it was his duty to initiate the conversation.

“Do you actually understand a word I say?”

The most important of questions. After all, a conversation would be pointless if he’d had the wrong notion about what the whole Mutation thing was.

Maybe the Mental Mutation existed just between the cat species or something—increasing their knowledge between themselves—and it was not up to that of humans; or maybe there was not even such a thing as Mental Mutation to begin with. He had come up with that himself to satisfy his curiosity, so it was possible that he was wrong. In fact, he would not be disappointed if he was.

Although, it seemed as though he couldn’t help himself.

Seconds felt like minutes, and with their passage the heavier Rain’s body felt.

Funny me, I actually thought I could converse with a Jaguar. Rain chuckled self deprecatingly at his own delusion. This also disproved his whole Mental Mutation claim, and because of that his self esteem was dealt a fatal blow. So much for thinking I was detective-level smart.

Releasing a heavy sigh, Rain was just about to break eye contact with the Jaguar to bury his face exasperatingly in his palms when he noticed subtle movements. And before he knew it, a smile appeared on his face.

But he was not complaining. Besides… The Jaguar’s right paw was on the syringe.