That Which Devours

[You have gained experience from a Compy.]

My mind was suddenly filled with the image of Compy hearts. The sweet taste, almost like candy, threaded through my mind. I reached out and swung at the next one, killing it as well. A round of chirps echoed through the air as Compys fled from me. I leaned forward, wanting to continue the fight, but I hesitated as the crystal caught my eye.

[You have gained experience from a Compy.]

My stomach growled and it felt like the ground shook. As I stared at the two dead Compys, my mouth watered. I crashed to my knees and used my knife to cut open the first one. It only took seconds before I shoved the sweet warm heart into my mouth.

I closed my eyes, savoring the sweet candy taste. Everything wobbled around me, and my leg went numb. My eyes snapped open.

[You have devoured a Compy and gained insight into Venomous Bite.]

I’d been bit. My calf bled from the bite mark. It was small, but it was enough to make me pay attention. “Shit,” I muttered as I yanked out my pack. I tied a bandage around my pant leg, tossing the pack back into my inventory. No wonder the ground felt like it was moving.

“You got bit, I thought you were smart.” Noseens voice sounded strange.

A yell came from the far side of the compound and I tried to focus to see through the fence. In the distance, on the other side of the compound and the fence, Hawk fought against a cat.

Focus!

I tossed the uneaten Compy body into my inventory and then I raced to the crystal. My hands slipped trying to pick it up, and I stumbled through the cross pieces in the fence to the other side.

The midpoint, I needed to find the midpoint between the two working crystals.

Glancing up at them, I gave it my best shot, flattening the area on the ground next to the fence before placing the crystal. I tried to wiggle it around, but it was solid. After a few seconds, it began to hum way too loud in my ears.

I went to grab my knife, but it wasn’t on my belt. Peeking through the fence, I saw that it was right where I’d dropped it, next to the butchered Compy carcass. It took too long for me to make it back through the fence, grab it, then return to the relatively safe side. The humming from the crystal rang so loud and it made it even harder to focus on the next steps.

Cutting the tree, that was next.

I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts as I studied the smaller tree. I had to find a way to weaken it with the goal of making the bigger trunk fall along the fence instead of into it. Gazing up at the small tree, I found a good spot to try my plan, but I needed to climb up the fence and I didn’t dare do it on the other side.

My vision wobbled as I made sure to put my knife where it belonged on my belt and started my climb up. My limbs trembled and pain shot up my leg with each step. Yet, I didn’t stop. I couldn’t. I was dangling from the underside of the tilted fence, but it was this or risk more Compy bites.

Finally, I was close enough to grab the knife and focus on the tip. It took two tries before it glowed hot enough to start to burn through the wood of the smaller tree.

The small tree shuddered before I was all the way through, and then it cracked. Pain lanced along my fingers as the trees came crashing down, scraping them. I let go at the pain, falling to the ground again, this time from almost the height of the fence. The fence spun in the air along with the clouds above me as my vision blurred.

The sound of the trees crashing to the ground echoed through the forest. I raised my head to see that the large tree, thankfully, had fallen along the fence, landing on top of the remains of the smaller one.

The fence still leaned in, but not as far as before.

Everything ached, and the clouds in the sky danced as I lay there. My mind latched on to the fact that I had another Compy heart to eat in my inventory. Somehow, that got me to sit up and then find my knife, which was still on my belt. I almost lost a finger trying to force the crystal tip to glow, but, after what seemed like forever, I bit down on the heart.

The sweetness warmed me from the inside. Then the notification woke me up from my daze, my head clearing.

[You have devoured a Compy and gained major insight into Venomous Bite.]

[Skill Unlocked: You have unlocked a potential skill: Venomous Bite.]

The heat and pain coming from the bite mark on my leg lessened. I realized one of the guys could come over at any moment and find me chomping down on the raw dino, and I didn’t think that’d be good. Part of me felt like I should want to throw up, the other didn’t care. It took every ounce of willpower I had to stop eating the meat. With effort, everything got tossed into my inventory, and I wiped at my mouth hoping that my face was clean enough to pass. The whole world still had a surreal quality to it as I looked around, but it wasn’t as bad as before. At least the spinning had reduced.

I didn't know what a potential skill was, but now was not the time to try to figure it out. Every time I tried to think hard, a humming sound interrupted my thoughts. I climbed to my feet to see if I could leave the crystal where it was, or if I should move it closer to the fence. The humming softened a little and I took that as a sign of the venom flushing itself out of my body.

I crept toward the fence and the large tree heap, trying to spot a better location for the crystal. The thick trunk would work. From within the fence, I pulled out my knife and carved a flat area into the top edge of the trunk to level it out. It took longer than it should have, since my hands shook and I didn’t want to injure myself further. With a grunt, I finally lifted the crystal up, stopping the hum. Then, I tried to fit it into the flat area I had carved.

It took some more adjustment before the crystal sat in a nice carved spot, unable to move. I waited until the hum picked up again before turning back toward the dropship. This time, I didn’t stick to the shadows, and instead I slowly made my way across the open dirt. My foot ached since the damn Compy had taken a bite out of the same leg that was already injured. I guess that meant at least one leg was good, though right now, that wasn’t much comfort.

Hawk sat on the ground near the two crystals, skinning a cat carcass. There was a second, larger one by his side. He glanced up as I approached. “You do good work.”

“I got the job done.”

He eyed the white bandage on my leg. “You better have Doc look at that. What happened, cat?”

“Compy got a bite in while I was on the other side of the fence.”

“Little fuckers can be fast.”

I nodded, still feeling off.

“You better drink lots of water, and get some rest.”

“No rest for the wicked,” I muttered as I entered the open wooden doors in search of Doc. My stomach growled again, which was strange since I’d just devoured something. I ignored it for the moment, searching the dim room. Doc sat next to Denver’s cot, holding a mug of water. His gaze snapped to me as I entered.

“The fence fixer returns! I’m surprised.” He eyed me up and down, then saw the bandage. “That makes more sense.” He stood up and moved over to the bench. “Let’s see your leg. What was it?”

“Compy…”

His face darkened and he frowned. “That’s not good…” I sat down and undid the bandage before pulling the pant leg up, which had bloodstains on it.

The bite mark was perfectly formed, and it hurt as Doc prodded it. “Hmmm… not too much venom, that’s good. Surprisingly, you're walking, so you must have a natural resistance. Normally, people get sleepy and unfocused.”

He grabbed the water jug from the table and poured some over the wound before using the bandage to wipe away a little grime. The water felt surprisingly good, cooling the area down. “No stitches, but I wish we had some glue to seal any blood in. You shouldn’t leave the fenced area until this closes. If you were a higher level, this’d be nothing.”

“I know,” I muttered. My head did feel a little fuzzy, but it wasn’t bad. Yet, his concern about leaving the fence before it clotted up bothered me. John was waiting for me, and would run out of food and water soon if I didn’t get back.

“Eat something, drink some water, and rest a little.” He pointed to the darkened doorway. “There are more cots down the hall to the right. You should take a short nap to recover.” His eyes didn’t leave the bite mark, and I wished I knew what he wasn’t saying.

I nodded, standing up, and then stumbled toward the darkened doorway. My calf didn’t hurt as much as I thought it should, but I tried to keep my weight off it as I traveled down the dark metal corridor. Turning right at the intersection we’d gone left at before, I found a bunk room set up.

Two beds looked like they’d been slept in, but the other six were clean and made. I hobbled over to one deeper in the room and sat down. The only light source was a single crystal attached somehow to the ceiling. My stomach growled again.

“You need to eat,” said Noseen. “That doctor is a hack. Lots of food, some water, and a little nap will help, but that bite isn’t anything for one of us.”

“I wondered if you had any comments,” I whispered back.

“You are mostly smart, but sometimes dumb. The entertainment value is immense. Wings would help the falling problem you have.”

Great, I was entertainment to a mosquito.

Shaking my head, I pulled out more Compy meat. This time I was able to keep my wits about me and eat it cleanly. Chunk after chunk went down without ever feeling full. The bones I tossed back in my inventory, which I’d have to clean out once I left the fence.

I also finished off the little para meat I had left, cleaning out my inventory of all the raw meat.

I still didn’t feel full, but I did feel better. Next was a few gulps of water from my canteen, then I laid back on the bed.

“Nap, I’ll keep watch. I don’t trust that Doc.”

I closed my eyes, but I kept focusing on my hearing to try and tell if anyone was headed my way. After several minutes, I instead tried to concentrate on my breathing to fall asleep. It worked

A buzzing close to my ear caused me to wake up in panic.

“Time to wake up,” said Noseen. “They are talking about you.”

My heart pounded in my chest and it took a few moments for my breathing to return to normal. My calf was doing substantially better, which was good.

[Skill Unlocked: You have unlocked a potential skill: Consumption Healing.]

Before getting up I opened my stat sheet, feeling clear-headed enough to dig into potential skills. I didn’t know what they were.

[Potential Skills:

Venomous Bite: Grow glands in your body that let you produce a weak venom that you spread via your bite. Increase the knowledge of biological venom and poisons.

Consumption Healing: Devour calories to slightly speed up the pace of your natural healing abilities.]

The consumption healing skill looked overpowered as hell, though I knew most people got offered an increase to healing sometime around level ten. I’d just gotten it early, and I eagerly agreed to add it to my skills.

Next to Skills appeared a ‘8/10’. The number of skills I could learn was limited, and the more I stared at venomous bite, the less I wanted to learn it. Still, the resistance I seemed to get from it was handy. It had kept me upright already. So I left it there under potential skills for now. Maybe when I hit 10/10 skills I’d need to do something with it, but for now it wasn’t doing any harm.

Finally, I got up and stretched, then headed back to the main area. The smell of cooking meat filled the air. Hawk sat at the table with a mug of water, with Doc facing him. They spoke softly. Both glanced up as I entered. I noticed coals burning near the door with a large pot sitting on a grate above them.

“I was wondering when you would get up,” said Hawk. “Glad to see you didn’t die in your sleep.”

“I hadn’t known that was an option.”

“It’s not,” buzzed Noseen softly. “Idiots.”

Hawk glanced at the Doc. “Well, you fixed the fence, and I made some progress on repairing the path to the tree. Jimmy still won’t come down, but once those crystals completely ground he’ll get back inside the safe zone. Everyone needs sleep after all.”

I approached the pair, but stayed standing. “So, does that mean I can take a crystal and go?”

The Doc glanced at Hawk, his fingers tapping on the table.

“Potentially…” said Hawk. “That crystal is heavy, and I doubt you can move it back to the shuttle on your own, even with your new levels.” He leaned closer to me. “Here's my deal. You help us fill up all our water containers at the spring, and I will let you borrow a sled to get it back to the shuttle. Plus, I'll even toss in a shower.”

A sled would speed up my progress through the jungle, especially if the crystal was as heavy as Hawk made it out to be. “Let me see how heavy it is…” I headed toward the doorway without waiting for a response. The crystals in front of the door had moved. One now sat in the center of the doorway, about ten feet out from the opening. The other was off to one side, still humming softly.

Time had passed, more than I’d thought. It had to be mid-afternoon already, and my stomach lurched. This trip to the spring to fill up their water needed to be fast, really fast. Otherwise, soon after I left it’d be dark out.

I went to the crystal that was set to the side and tried to pick it up. I lifted it slowly in the air. It was doable, but not while trying not to die on my way back. I’d be a sitting duck. Carefully, I set it back down and returned inside. “You’ve got a deal.” Time was ticking, and just maybe the sled would help speed things up.

“You are only borrowing the sled. We will need it back,” said Hawk with a dark look.

“Of course. I know how important they are, to all of us.”