I live. Here. Now. In this moment. In this light. This light. The light that gently floats down through the leafs and softly warms the ground beneath me. The thin canopy of the trees. Here is the best spot to sunbathe. The sounds of the birds eco in the distance, creating their effervescent tones that lift my spirit higher this morning and... I breathe. The sigh of relief that escapes my face creates a light fog out of itself. Letting my cares slide off of me, I raze my face to the new sun hoping to catch some more light before I hunt. The smell of fresh wet greenery fills my olfactory processes and makes me wish I could say like this forever. I am afraid to look away from the light like it might leave me forever.
Another sigh slips out of my mouth, but this time in sadness, for I have to leave my tranquil sunbathing to start the day's chores. My stomach is empty, and its gurgling signals the end of my light. I do some last minute stretches; having just awoken I am very rigid with sleep stillness. I flex my arms up and back. My shoulders click as my shoulder plating rubs against itself. Next I bend my elbows inwards and my arm plating rubs against itself. My arms are weird… well when compared to others that I've met anyway. My forearms, past my elbows, are a single piece about one and a half times longer than my upper arm. This forearm ends in a sharp spike, and has the thickest armor on my body. On the underside, at the ends of them, are little hairs that help me grip things. Also on either side of this hair are two omnidirectional fingers that let me pick up things. These normally slide into little groves until I need them. Most if the others that I've met just have a hard protuberance on the end of their front legs. I was lucky enough to have been born with arms. I hear that this is a rare trait to have. At least here in the forest. My legs need less stretching, but one after the other they are stretched out, then down and in until I am fully recovered from my slumber. I do this stretch every morning to check my body for parasites or defects within me. Lucky I have only ever found one parasite and no defects.
But enough of that, my stomach is becoming a rhythm of sound and I must feed it. If I remember correctly I spun three traps last night. One to the South, one to the North-West, and one to the East. The farthest is to the East. So, to the North-West it is. I turn my body in that direction, my innate instincts telling me when I am pointed in the right direction, and begin crawling that way, my heavy steps thundering into the dirt as I travel along; all my legs moving in unison as each of them digs a small hole in the earth. The noise is fine for now, the others have learned to avoid me, and I don’t mind so much. The trees whip past me in a blur of motion as I travel ever forward. I never thought about my size much, but considering what I encountered yesterday… well let’s just say that I am big. Not overly big, I don’t think so anyway. But one of those creatures, the one with hooves, got stuck in one of my traps. Poor thing must have been there all night, because when i found it, it was all twisted up in the web. It’s reaction to me was less than friendly. It screamed at me at first, taking me aback as it spoke some kind of language I didn’t know. Mother might have… but… she wasn’t here to translate it for me. I tried to tell it that I could speak too, but I just screamed louder. The awkward moment went on like that for some time; me trying to talk it down, it talking nonsense. Eventually, I just gave up. After all what could I do? It was like trying to talk to the trees.
Oh! Is that some fruit? Up there? My internal monolog, broken by fruit just within reach. I did like this part of the forest. The way the shadows played with the moss, truly a beautiful sight. The bugs on the nearby trees, and the different birds here…. Sometimes I’ll just climb a tree here and let the animals play while I watched. I know of some Mole Rats that lives in the tree just to my left, the Swallows that love to sing there melody, and the occasional wolf pack, but they will not come out to play while I’m ‘here’. I’d have to sneak in here to see them, just like all the other times. I pluck some of the fruit out of the tree, I’ll need it later, and move onward to the first trap. The place where I put it was something, I thought at least, clever. The trap was placed in between two trees so that the leaves were covering it just enough to dissuade the wind from knocking the leaves into it. The best part is that the spot was worn from so many others going through it. Not to mention the closeness to my sleeping spot, and the sunbathing spot, it's too good. I've caught a grand total of fifteen things here. Normally I would stop at nine or ten, but it was such a good spot that I found myself reusing it. I haven't gone hungry for some time. Ah, here we are. The trap should be just beyond this bundle of trees. I just know something is caught in it I can smell it strange odor now. And…. what?
The trees… they look all black and gnarled, the trunks are smoking, and they are glowing red in spots. That isn't even mentioning my trap. It's just gone. I circle around the spot for some time looking for clues. What I find is that there was a forest fire, but that doesn't make sense. How is the rest of the surrounding foliage untouched by the flames? What phanamina is this? I shake my head in confusion. <Strange> I say to myself. But then I turn around and walk away, this mystery will have to wait until my stomach stops complaining about it's lack of fill. Resolving myself to swing to the South and through some of the wetter parts of the forest. It wasn't a swamp per-say but I found that the waters around that area particularly troublesome. The only reason that I put anything there was in the minor hope of catching something water based. I once caught a bird with one still in its beak, and let me just say: I loved it. Finding the spot was the hard part. I had to trudge through some of the muddiest parts if the forest just to get to something that was deep enough. Damn those birds for hoarding all the tasties to themselves. My anger abandoned me as I stepped into the mud making wet sloppy sounds as I did. The new sounds marking the new environment as a different, dangerous place that even I had to be careful in. Those big mouthed, big toothed, green scaled monstrosities that lurk just below the surface scare me. I saw one take one of the others down when I set the trap up yesterday, but I want the water food… so here I am.
Sneaking through the water so as not to disturb it. The slow movement is agonizing to my hunger, but I know I can go a long while without. Not that I want to; it's quite painful. Also I don't know just how long I can go without, I've never tested it. Not that I'd want to. On top of that the water makes me cold, and I'll have to sunbathe again, not that I mind. Ah, finally the spot where I left it. ...and the black maring is here too! On top of that my trap is just gone. The branches have the same black naraling and glowing redness too. Just how does something start burning over water!? This is really confusing. I take a moment to do a quick search of the area, and the biggest thing I notice is the lack of any animals around my trap. Hm, well there is nothing for it, I just go to last place I have a trap and hope this hasn't happened there too. I slowly climb back out of the water, just in case, and start back to the last trap. On the way I can't help but feel disturbed by all this. The burning doesn't seem natural, and now that it happened to two of my traps disturbs me further. The ground one I dismissed a stray spark from another denison of the forest, but the water one can't be explained away like that. I make a note to keep eyes out for other similar looking sites with glowing red spots. As I near the trap I have this unusual feeling of being watched. Not that I haven't felt this before but something was watching me, I am sure of it. Normally, if this was a predator, they would have attacked me by now.
Either it was a predator I have not had a brush with, or something foreign to me was watching me, and if so: why? Why watch? My eyes began to scan for the hostile one, and less on glowing sites. My legs, despite my best efforts, slowed down to make less noise. What was this… thing doing watching me? It is creepy. Visions cloud my peripherals and figures swim there. Visions of falling water, rising fire, green mists, uncountable rage, and a lost soul in time come at me unabated with more assaulting my mind making it hurt.. They showed me spilled blood, uncontrollable hunger, lost children, an old promise, and the desire to die. What are these scenes; what do they mean? I’m still holding my head after a few minutes. I didn’t even notice I had stopped walking. I shake the fog from my mind and hurry back before I’m too late, but I can smell the burning before I see it. The one tree I had hung my trap from was still burning. Not a roaring fire, but a fire that was just going out. The flames flickering and struggling to stay within the land of the living. <Fear>, was all that I could say. This made me shiver from my head to my spinners. I was being targeted by some hateful force. What would they burn next? My mind reeled and my eyes went wide with the realization. I had to get back. Fast. My legs headed there automatically and I added my arms for faster movement. Damn my empty sumic and damn my body temperature, I had to get, <Home!>
My home! My six legs pound into the underground churning up dirt and plants as my two hearts pound in rhythm to the trees that daire get in my way. Trees spinnered by my arms fling them to the dirt with great thumps. I carve my way through the forest my mandibles already pulling out from my fanged mouth, dripping with venom that marks my path of destruction. The six eyes on my face turn white as I charge, taking in everything in my path to home. <Home! Home! Home! Protect home!> I had to! Mother was there! <NO!> Mother must not be harmed! My mind fills with adrenaline, reverting my thoughts to base forms, and I let out a monseris below from my throat. They will not harm home, <Home, precious! No harm home!> The smoke from the fire permeates the air even at this distance. It chokes my lungs, and clouds the air. Another shot of adrenaline, another push of speed, and my eyes go blood red. No! Mother must be saved! My home was dieing. The red flames could be seen from here, licking at the edge of my home. Another tree fell to me as I entered the clearing where my home rested high off the ground, supported by two trees. Once the bloated corps of my mother serving as my home. Her body once petrified could be hollowed out to serve as food and shelter for her yung: me. Now she was a mass of flames.
The anguished below that rang from my throat echoed off the distant mountain. Salt water flowing from my eyes in small rivers. No! No! Nononono! <NOOOO!> My head could not look away from the crumbling body that once was mother. That's when they made themselves known, “Well well well. Looky 'er boys.” My head made a audible snap as I looked at them. There is just five of them. They had the same body type. All of them had rubbery skin, two rows of sharp teeth, a fin like protrusion on their backs, and two eyes. They each has slightly different shades of blue for the skin and different placement of their gills. They were also about half my height. Any details after that got lost in the jumble of thoughts. Seeing that one if them was holding something that spat fire from some kind of pipe. <You!> They burned mama, and they burned my traps. “Thought that this huntin’ trip was wasted when we found the dead on’.” The big one mouthed something.. He would die first. I let a low rumble emanate from my mouth. “Now, now hold on girl, we don't wan’ t’hurt you now.” His mouth noises didn't translate in my brain, and were filtered out.
I charge and put my pointy bits within stabbing range, but as I swung my arm at him he fatty rolled out if the way. As my second arm swung out he yelled something, “Get her to the net!” My arm caught him mid-boddy, sending him flying into a nearby tree, snapping it in two, and he fell to the ground in a heap the tree fell with him, landing next to him with a soft thud. The others started to flee. I lined my upper body up with my thorax and charged at them, mandibles out and ready, and roaring as i did. They would pay for their sin. My anger would be justified, and justice would I find for mama. Her burning grave would find no respite in my pure white anger. I caught up with them in seconds, my eight legs outrunning their two. The one with the flame spat a gout of flame at me, I was hot and I had to close my eyes and through my arms up to shield my face. In my blind charge I think I felt my sharp legs draw blood from one of them. My suspicion was confirmed a moment later when he screamed out in pain. Checking what I had trampled over I saw one of them, he was not the fire spitter. Where did they go? I can hear the three of them running to behind and to the left of me. I spun my body around and vaulted in their direction, smashing through two more trees as I did. Their surprised yell was only matched by my own as a metallic mesh surrounded me and as the trees fell it wrapped the metal net around me and flung me to the ground. I pulled and tugged at the net, the soft groaning it did was drowned out by my roars of unclaimed, it never giving into me. One of the survivors through a powder at my face. The powder was smelly and as the world grew dark I heard a voice
-Finally, I have a body again.-
<Who?>, I said weakly.
-Another one? Curious…-
“This one is dangerous, The Matarabi Family bett’a pay us big for this’n..” More sounds from outside my head.
-We’ll 'talk’ later.- And the world slipped away...