“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.
Wooden wolfies!
Looks like now would be a good time to learn how to create FIRE!
11683506
You forget that there are people that dont know what LoL stands for.
Great, Four incoming but only three have appeared and everyones panicing so much over not being alpha predators in a secured world they cant bring themselves still to believe things can be dangerous?
Flim and Flam are going to Love these guys.
11680921
I mostly agree with your statements but there are two reasons why I disagree.
First there are many times in stories where a character will state abbreviations or words that the reader will not or might not understand.
Usually these things will be explained later but the reader can at least guess at what the purpose was. I don't recall that being done here but still.
Second I have never in my life heard someone not call it 'ROTC' Anyone and everyone I have ever met or walked near who ever mentions it calls it 'ROTC' I didn't know what it was for the first 60 times I heard it. It's now to the point that if I ever heard anyone say "Reserve Officers' Training Corps" I would think they were a spy or something. I'm starting to think anyone in ROTC doesn't even know what it stands for.
I hate abbreviations most of the time. I run into it a lot since I play a bunch of video games and card games and people will be like " I took out EM because SEB was more efficient" and that's BS if you don't know what they are talking about.
11687520
I'm not sure ROTC is universal to every country
11687533
I didn't mean to imply that. I meant that it wouldn't be unreasonable to have some one say 'ROTC' instead of saying the full thing based on my experiences.
( I'm in the middle of reading it right now so I've been under the assumption that it's a character saying it not just the author putting it down or in narration. If it's not a character saying it then, yes it shouldn't have been put in abbreviation at all until it has been established what ROTC is )
They're gonna have to learn to trust each other a lot more. Their bodies are more unique and capable now, so they need to start reacting to 'we should maybe run' a lot more seriously when someone says it. This encounter with timberwolves should be an effective lesson in that regard.
More good
11687520
What you are referring is the intention. Yes, sometimes the authors hide or withhold information from the reader, but this action carries a purpose, an intention. This intention is usually a big reveal at some future point in the story prepared for the reader. Thus, if there is no paid up moment, depriving the reader of mundane information is a detriment to the enjoyment and understanding of the story that must be avoided, because it is meaningless.
If your excuse is "the character wouldn't say it like that because it would sound weird" (which, if you ask me, is a poor excuse to keep the reader in the dark), my answer is, the author has this wonderful tool called Narrator. The Narrator is THE tool whose sole purpose is to transmit the pertinent and necessary information, which for whatever reason cannot be shared by the characters in the story, so that the reader know what the story is about.
11687516
That should have been four total appearing at the same time, that was just a typo. My bad.
11687520
Counterpoint, literally anyone who isn't American. ROTC is a purely American thing and therefor people who are not from the US likely won't know what it is.
11688241
It didn't matter what the subject was or where it was from. It could have been from the mole people from the planet Krumsh and the words could have been Flarg Klupf Sjuchun and abbreviated FKS. I could care less what the abbreviation was or if the subject is only in America.
I was only pointing out that that particular abbreviation, at least from my experience, had always been used.
It was a simple factoid I pointed out. Like if you were eating Ice cream and I pointed out a random fact about Ice cream.
I never said it was better for the reader. I never said it was universally understood.
I only pointed out that if it was only the character saying it, then it made sense from my personal knowledge for the character to not say or think the full name. The fact that it distracts from the story when you have to eventually Google search the abbreviation if you don't already know the answer was never something I was arguing against. In the end, I agree that if you are going to use abbreviations then you should do something to inform the readers without distracting them from the story.
11688241
I'm from the Philippines. We also had ROTC every Friday when i was in High School. So shut up
11688336
The Philippines was an American Colony,
Obligatory timberwolves.
Reece is quickly going to become a danger to everyone around him. I can see the river becoming important in more ways than just drinking water. Although even if he wasn't a Kirin, I think he could stand getting dunked in there.
Meanwhile, it's incredible how the discussion around the ROTC acronym is still flaring after at least a week. It's such a trite little matter, honestly. I'd tell people to stop, but I don't think it would get anywhere. Although since I'm piping in on that now, I guess I should state for the record that I did have to look up what that means.
Story good, would like to read more thank for chap
ROTC Stands for Reserve Officer Training Corp and in this context means that he's had a little military training, move on
How'd you come up with the names? Any significance or was it random?
11689233
It was mostly random, names that were rare but not too rare.
Although if I would've thought about it more, I would've named Reece "Denver" and Denver "Aurora" to make them all after cities in Colorado.
Alright, so we've found an exceptionally wide river, learnt that changelings don't eat grass, declined to test out fire breath, complained about wanting to go home multiple times, gotten angry that basically no one is humoring trying to run a family unit like a miltary squad, and been found by some timberwolves.
Also, I may as well put in my info on the ROTC conversation: didn't know what it meant, and if you want to do an acronym that's supposed to convey information then tell us what it stands for so I can actually have the information.
11687550
Even allowing for its use by a character, it is quite possible to phrase things to take advantage of context.
In this case, not phrasing things in a way that places ROTC as something on its own but rather saying something like "...background in the ROTC program in both highschool and college in preparation for his expected future military career." That links ROTC to the military and creates context to generate a logical conclusion of "it must be some sort of cadet program."
11689549
I'm bad at explaining things so let me try this.
1. ROTC was used and had nothing to let the reader know what it was.
2. Everyone agrees that the above is wrong. This includes you. This includes me.
3. We all agree that there should have been a sentence or something to let the reader know the military-ROTC connection.
4. I already knew, basically, what ROTC was. I knew this based on a certain amount of people I know who were part of it.
5. I noticed that everyone I had ever seen that was associated with ROTC had only ever used the abbreviation and never the full phrase.
6. With my experience from #4 in mind, I commented how it would make sense for a character who was in ROTC to just call it ROTC and not the
full phrase.
7. Now reread #1-3 above.
8. I feel that you think I am arguing that there was nothing wrong with using just the abbreviation by saying that "its what the character would
do"
9. This is not the case. Separate #'s 1-3 from 4-6. They are two different things. Two different sets of comments.
To sum up, I have not ever disagreed that ROTC needed some form of explanation for the reader's sake, I only pointed out that it made sense why the character didn't.
I was not justifying what was done in any way. I only pointed out a small detail.
I am not arguing in defense of ROTC not being explained. Did not. Am not. Will not.
11689576
And I was pointing out that 4-6 does not preclude fixing the issue in 1-3 and as such is not the mitigating factor you very much did present it as. (Especially given how minor of a change would be involved, replacing one word with three.)
11689881
If that's how I presented it, that was not my intention.
Well since things were basically cleared up I'll throw something else in here.
Most of the people I knew who said ROTC didn't say R O T C, pronouncing every letter like you would think.
They said it as if it was a word. I remember going " What the hell is a 'rot sea' and why were you in it? "
They stood tall above the five creatures, with even the large dragon that was his mother dwarfing the monsters.
Is the mom bigger than the Timberwolves or not? "With even" makes it sound like they should be bigger, but "mother dwarfing the monsters." Means she is the larger one by a large margin. Did you mean to use "dwarfed"?
11691827
That's a typo, should be "being dwarfed by", thank you.
I’m loving the fact that so many people are arguing about the ROTC thing, it’s just so funny.
At this point, his instincts/self-preservation should take over automatically and force his hoof. Or rather, his teeth, you might say.
Can't live with them, can't live without them, am I right?
Perhaps it would have been better for Thornton to onform others about his new senses earlier.
Also, Reece really needs to get that stick out of his behind.
11688802
Yeah, I was reading over that... difference of opinion. I think one compromise position is turning anything (not just acronyms) that might be confusing into hyperlinks. Goes along with the spirit of "stealth education" that the show had, and breaks the flow less for those who DO know the item in question already.