“Well, you’re right, it is a river,” Reece replied at the obvious scene as the group stood side by side in front of the rushing water. Thornton figured it must have been around a hundred feet wide, and a quick look from one side to the other showed that it originated from mountains off in the distance, probably snowmelt. He didn’t know if that made it any cleaner though.
“Except we don’t have any iodine and no way to boil water, do we,” his older brother continued, his frustration obvious even without Thornton having to taste it. “I assume you don’t have fire breath, do you, Mom?”
“I don’t think I do, and I’m not sure I want to try. If I do, I don’t want to burn my mouth or burn someone else doing something I don’t understand.”
“Of course.” His older brother rolled his eyes and then paced back and forth in front of the bank as the dragon and two horses sat down. Their father talked softly to Denver about something as he rubbed her back, and his mother kept to herself as she breathed deeply, once again looking uncomfortable and seeming like she was about to have a breakdown of her own. It wasn’t a good sight, with Denver seeming like she was completely out of it and his mother clearly trying to hold it together. The anxiety coming off of her tasted kind of sour, like a lemon, and made the alien bug make a face.
He did his best to tune out all the emotions he took in and tried to help his brother think. What could they do? If they were animals, then… well, the water wouldn’t be any safer, he thought, but maybe they’d have more resistance. Wild animals drank from rivers and streams all the time, right? And with his dog lapping up the river water right next to him, it gave him more confidence in the idea.
But food. He wanted food more than water, and was starving for anything. Grass had to be better than nothing, right? It was all that was around him, and he had hooves like a horse, even though he didn’t know what aliens ate. Heck, he didn’t even know if actual horses ate grass or just hay. But trying something to curb the stinging ache in his stomach had to be done.
Or perhaps not. The grass tasted like, well, grass– disgusting and bitter just like he expected– but an even more sure sign that this was a bad idea was vomiting the stuff up a few minutes later after trying to take a few bites. During this time, both Reece and his father copied him in trying it, but they didn’t seem to have the issues Thornton was having. Alien bugs apparently were not built the same as horses or mooses like his family was.
“Are you okay, son?” his father asked, the worry in his voice readily heard as the horse watched him. It was another thing. Not only could Thornton taste the emotions, he could readily pick out each one, able to differentiate worry from nervousness and fear and skittishness and excitement and every other possible emotion that could be felt. Although sometimes they blended together into a weird mix that he couldn’t quite identify, none of them tasted the exact same, and each flavor sent its own message. It was like he had synesthesia.
“Do you think it’s just you being more different than the rest of us?” he continued. “Or something worse?”
“I don’t feel poisoned,” he said nasally as he coughed up a lung. “I just need water. Dumb ass alien bugs don’t eat grass apparently.”
“It doesn’t taste that bad to me,” Reece said. “Kind of like plain oatmeal or bread,” he described. “It’s not the best, but I guess it can tide us over for food for a while if need be. Well, at least Dad, Denver, and I, given your reaction.”
“I don’t wanna eat grass!” their little sister said. “I don’t wanna be a horse! I wanna go home!”
“Well, once we figure out what’s going on and home becomes an option, we can do that. Right now though, I don’t really see our house or a way to change anything in the short term. For all we know, our house could be just over the next hill, or we could be on a completely different planet. So unless you have a way to get home and fix whatever is going on, stop complaining about it.”
“Can you not be so harsh with your sister?” the dragon asked. “She’s just frustrated and scared like we all are. Please don’t yell at her.”
“I’m not yelling. I’m just trying to tell her that we’re all in the same position, and so complaining over and over about it isn’t going to help us.”
“Neither will you snapping at her, son,” his father said. “Your sister doesn’t deserve the attitude you’re giving to her, and you need to cut it out.”
Family was family, wasn’t it? Even in the midst of… whatever the heck was going on, they were still arguing with each other just like family, annoyingly enough. That seemed like it was never going to change.
Barney stood near Thornton as he looked out at the river while the rest of his family talked to each other. Once again, he felt a little bit less hungry as his dog ran his body and fur against his weird greenish-black skin. He didn’t know how it was happening, or why, but he would take it. His stomach felt just a little bit less painful near Barney, especially after vomiting up grass. He hoped the same thing wouldn’t happen if he went for water now.
It didn’t, although it certainly tasted like river water. He’d never drank water directly from a river, but now that he did, he could say it tasted exactly the way he thought it would. Thankfully not too terrible, but not something he’d be going for more often than he needed. He hoped he wouldn’t get sick from this. But then, dehydration would kill him before sickness. And starvation before that with how intense his hunger pains already were.
“If you get sick and die, Thorn, we’ll know not to drink that water,” Reece said as he stepped up to the bank. Thornton watched him look around between the mountains and the rest of the forest the river ran through, and decide, “We should head that way. I don’t imagine we’d find very many people in the mountains, and as unfiltered and untreated as it is, this river would be a good source of–”
“I hear something again,” their mother interrupted again, around the same time as Barney’s ears stuck up and his head turned on the alert. They were both staring toward the mountains, and caused the rest of the group to turn instinctively that way, too. A few moments later, Thornton sensed a few more trails of emotion coming to him, although these ones weren’t as complex. In fact, the emotions were simple: ravenous. Like hungry beasts were out there just as starving as he was.
“There’s about four people out there, I think,” Thornton started. “Or maybe four creatures. Four somethings. And it feels like they’re looking for something to eat. I think we should get out of here.”
“How can you tell all that?”
“I think I can, like, sense emotions and stuff. Actually taste them. I don’t know how though, but I guess it just comes with being a weird alien. But seriously, we should get going.”
Both Reece and his father looked at him skeptically, and even his mother looked a little bit confused by what he was saying. And he understood it. He was probably more confused by what was going on with him than they were. But the new emotions he tasted were flaming hot, like habaneros, and felt almost as intense as he felt hungry.
“Seriously,” he continued. “I don’t think standing here is a good idea. We should go.”
“If there’s people out there,” Reece started, “we should find them and try and talk to them. If they could get us to a doctor or a scientist or someone who could help us, that would be the best.”
“If there are people out there, how are they even supposed to be able to understand us if we’re animals?” Denver asked. “I wanna go home!”
“I know!” Reece suddenly turned to their sister, his anger flaring up and tasting hot– or perhaps a better descriptor was spicy– as he raised his voice at her.
“I know you want to go home! We all do! But saying it over and over again isn’t helping, so just stop it!”
It was apparently Reece’s turn to be upset by all that had happened, although his reaction seemed to be the most extreme so far. While the others were confused and frightened and sad, he was frustrated. Angry. Angry enough in fact that Thornton thought he could see faint wisps of white smoke flowing out of his ears and off of his fur like a cartoon character. He wondered what that meant.
Denver didn’t say another word, and instead layed down on her stomach and let out a long, depressed sigh. Their mother was the opposite, now angry as well, although not as angry as Reece seemed to be. Still, she was upset, and reprimanded the moose-horse.
“Don’t talk to your sister like that! She’s trying her best to get along! If she wants to complain, let her complain! It’s not like it’s over nothing!”
“It’s not helpful! I don’t want to hear her complain about the same thing over and over!”
“Um, we really should get going, guys?” Thornton interrupted. “Whoever or whatever is coming this way isn’t looking to make friends with us.”
“There’s no way you can know that, Thorn,” Reece said, spinning around to him now. It was weird how natural his movements were, and how natural Thornton’s own were, too. It was like they’d already spent a lifetime being whatever creatures they were now.
“If there’s people out there or someone else who’s going through what we’re going through, we can’t just walk away and pass up an opportunity to talk to them.”
“You’re gonna have to just trust me on this. I don’t know how I can tell it won’t be good, but I can.” There was a little hesitation from the bug before he squinted and continued, “No, it’s not bullshit. I really can tell. And no, it’s not a lucky guess as to what you’re thinking. I can taste your emotions somehow, to the point where it’s almost overwhelming.”
“Look,” their father suddenly spoke up, getting the two’s attention. “I’ll check it out, okay? If it looks bad, then we’ll listen to your brother and steer clear. Problem solved.” He never really sounded commanding, and seemed even less so with how his voice was changed, but Thornon guessed that was a good idea. After all, he was just guessing, right?
But now it seemed Barney was offering his opinion, clearly frowning and shaking his head as he used his eyes to indicate to the opposite direction of where the emotions flowed from. When their father only stared back in confusion, the dog grabbed his tail and tried to pull him in the direction he wanted them to go.
“See? Barney obviously agrees with me. We need to get out of here, because those emotions are getting closer, and they feel like they just want to tear something apart.”
“It doesn’t even sound like people over there,” the dragon said. “It sounds more like… I don’t know, wood? Like if a tree was able to walk. It’s wood creaking and snapping and coming closer to us, I think.” The dog barked in agreement, and tugged the larger unicorn’s tail again, making him blush and push the animal away with a hoof.
“Look, I’ll go check it out real quick, and–”
“I’ll check it out,” Reece interrupted, as though he and his father’s positions within the family were reversed. “If the people seem bad, we’ll do what you and apparently Barney want to do and go a different direction, okay? And you can stay here and protect everyone else if it seems like something’s going wrong.”
“How is anyone supposed to protect anyone else like this? Even if we were humans, we wouldn’t be able to do anything but run, and without hands, it gets even worse!”
“Which is why we need to find someone who can help us, Thorn.”
“Just trust me when I say that this is–”
Suddenly, the bug was being cut off by the sight, smell, and sound of… something. He didn’t know what he was looking at, other than what could be best described as a pack of four wolves made out of tree bark. They growled fiercely, and smelled awful of rotting mildew. It was even more pervasive than the fearsome, angry, threatening, hungry emotions coming off of them. They stood tall above the five creatures, with even the large dragon that was his mother being dwarfed by the monsters. Thornton felt like he and his family were just ants compared to them. Ants in the presence of anteaters.
And they hungered, their jaws dripping with something slimy and green as they took in their newfound prey. Their hunger felt almost as intense to Thornton as his own. And if anything was a good sign for the family to turn on their heels and run, it was that.