A world with no giants

by TheSexyMenhir

Angelo aspro

In a world with no giants
Ch.04 “Angelo aspro”

It was the third day after his arrival in this new world. His cantine was filled to the brim with water and he had made good progress with his exploration yesterday, his growling stomach however reminded him that this was the only thing he could check of his list.

The landscape had proven almost unchanging, the only telltale of his progress being the marks he left behind and the slow rise and fall of the hills. The thick brush kept him from seeing more than a few meters, and with the state his arm was in it was impossible to climb a tree to get a bearing of the landscape.

Once again he steeled himself and left his impromptu hideout to continue his search. The pain in his arm had dulled to a constant pulse. It still was distracting but he didn’t find himself screaming whenever he was forced to move his shoulder.

Quickly he passed the thousand steps mark, the distance he had managed to explore yesterday, and once again began circling his “encampment” in straight lines.

---

It was the fourth day after his arrival. His search yesterday had once again had yielded no results, but surely he would find something today.

---

It was the fifth day after his arrival. Surely there had to be some sort of eatable greenery in this world, a complete ecosystem couldn’t survive on grass and leaves alone, could it?

---

He had spent the sixth day writhing in pain, clutching his shoulder.

---

On the seventh day he had restarted his exploration, but once again he found nothing.

---

Some distant part of his brain told him that one week had passed since his arrival, but he couldn’t see any significance in this fact. Near him was a puddle of bile, courtesy of his latest experiment to see if grass was edible. It had been three tries so far, but he was pretty sure that on the fourth he would be able to keep it down.

---

Angelo lay in the dirt hidden underneath a bush. A length of wire led from his hand to a snare a few meters away. His breath was slow and his eyes showed the focus of someone truly obsessed. The trap was crude and simple, but it was all he could manage; and as long as it promised him a meal he was willing to do anything.

The mud was cold and uncomfortable, and something was poking him in the ribs, but he didn’t dare moving in fear of scaring possible prey. His determination, or insane zeal as it was, eventually paid off.

A small white hare hopped onto the clearing where he had lain his trap. It looked around but didn’t seem to notice the veiled predator, that was hiding under the bush. Another few hops, a small nibble here and there. Angelo had to focus all of his remaining willpower to not simply jump out and chase after the small woodland critter.

Only one more jump and it would stand right on the concealed sling. Nervously the hare raised it’s nose and Angelo held his breath hoping that the mud he was covered in would be enough to mask his scent.

Hop. With a victorious cry Angelo pulled on the string and watched as the cable closed around the terrified hare’s leg. With hasty movements he half drew the hare towards himself, half ran towards it, eager to claim the price of his ingenuity.

His hands closed around the hare. He stared down at the immobilized lagomorph, before suddenly breaking out into laughter. With a gleeful smile he danced across the clearing, twirling the hare around in his outstretched arms as if it was his dance partner.

“I’m not gonna starve! I won't starve!” he announced to the world.

With a spring in his step he made for his camp. Such an amazing victory had to be celebrated in the confines of his homes.

Once he had crawled under the protective yellow cover into his burrow, he tied up the hare with what was left of his cable, not an easy task with only one arm. His prisoner properly secured he scurried around for a large stone, not too large, not too small, easy to grip, and heavy enough to smash in skulls. He turned towards his meal and raised the stone.

The hare looked at him.

It wasn’t struggling, it wasn’t trying to escape, it just stared at him with big black eyes.

He lowered the stone, only for the growling of his stomach to remind him of his situation. It was eat or get eaten. Once again he raised the stone.

Two dark desolate orbs focussed on him. Desolate? Yes, desolate was the right word. The mind behind those eyes had without a doubt grasped it’s situation, and it had given up.

Angelo flexed his arms and a loud thud echoed through the caves. Without looking at the hare he undid it’s bindings and pushed it towards the exit. The small woodland critter shot towards the exit. Once it stood on the threshold towards freedom it turned around once more and looked at Angelo, than it dashed out of the small hollow.

Angelo broke down sobbing, his own eyes mimicking the desolace he had witnessed not moments prior.

“I’m going to die here,” was the last thought that rushed through Angelo’s mind as he cried himself to sleep.

---

The instant he opened his eyes he somehow knew that he was dreaming, like some part of his brain had accidentally forgotten to turn off his consciousness for the duration of the night.

He was standing in a star filled void, the black of the sky was comprised of dark serpentine bodies. All of the eldritch creatures had their eyes on him.
The sky shifted, or maybe it was only his perspective that changed, he didn’t know, but a huge figure suddenly blocked out everything else. Before him hovered another serpentine creature, but unlike the others, this creature had three glowing red eyes.
As he looked in the blood like red irises the word “God” flooded into Angelo’s mind without that he could help himself. This age old and hate filled gaze couldn’t belong to any mortal being.

The creature opened its maw and a single word escaped with an earth shattering force that was threatening to rip Angelo’s dreamself apart.

“Ordo.”

---

Angelo shot up from his resting place. His body was sweat drenched without him knowing why. The ever growing pain in his stomach and his shoulder soon dragged his attention away from his fictitious problems and back to the harshness of reality.

He remembered yesterday and would have given up on his life then and there, hadn’t something in the corner of his eyes caught his attention. There on the ground near his resting place, lay a single berry of deep red colour. Normally the lonely fruit would have been easy to miss, but it’s placement made sure that it would be noticed.

Tired he robbed towards the red orb, and picked it up. It was small enough to be held between his thumb and index finger, and gently he rolled it around between them. Nothing showed how puzzled he was by this turn of event, like the fact that he didn’t gulp it down in the instant he reached it, but eventually his stomach overwrote his curiosity and he stuffed the fruit into his mouth.

It tasted sweet and a bit sour at the same time, not entirely unlike blueberries. It was however only a single fruit and the small bite had only agitated his hunger stricken stomach more. His gaze darted across the floor in search for more fruit, and indeed closer to the exit lay another red berry.

He didn’t question where it came from, it was food and that was the only important thing right now. As soon as he had swallowed the second berry, a third berry came into view right outside his burrow. Like the starving men he was, he jumped at it. He noticed another berry, and another, and another, and finally the fact that they laid out a trail penetrated the thick veil of hunger and insanity that had clouded his judgement so far.

A trail could mean a trap. On the other hand a trap would mean intelligent beings. Quickly he considered his options: Either follow the trail and perhaps walk into a trap, or staying here and starving...

Sometimes decisions just made themselves.

He followed the track for several hours, nearly throwing up sometimes, when his mistreated stomach protested the sudden increase of activity. With worry he looked at the sun that had already wandered over a good part of the sky, however curiosity and hunger drove him forward still. However the time wasn’t the only thing worrying him; slowly but surely the fatigue was getting to him and it already had to be considered a miracle that he was able to walk for hours after being starved for several days straight. Before he could finish this line of thought however he stepped over the ridge of a small hill, and his eyes fell on a small piece of shrubbery.

The lush green bush was laden heavily with the red fruits that had lead him here, enough even to last him for weeks if he rationed them accordingly. Of his mysterious benefactor there was no sign however.

Angelo decided to take every favor that he was granted and began to gather up as many fruits as he could carry. When his arms were full of fruit he turned around and stopped dead in his tracks. Had he really just spent several hours walking, without leaving any marks, and eating his only way to find the way back.

For a moment he just stood there, berry juice smeared around his face, and with a dumbstruck expression. Slowly he glance from side to side, but there really was no way of telling where he was.

A soft smacking noise made him turn his head. There half hidden beneath a bush sat a white hare, his paw firmly planted on it’s face in a abnormally human like gesture. A little apprehensive it jumped out from under it’s shrub and towards the still dumbstruck Angelo. With a paw it tugged on the hair on Angelo’s legs and gestured towards a certain direction, before hopping ahead.

Angelo remained on the hill, mouth agape.

The hare reappeared from the underbrush and waved at the still staring human impatiently.

Purely on impulse Angelo trotted after the white hare.

“Sapient rabbits, huh?”

---

The white hare ate a berry.

Angelo stared at it slack jawed.

The white hare ate a berry.

Angelo still stared at it slack jawed.

Angelo and his animalistic saviour had found their way back to Angelo’s burrow, a title that had suddenly become all the more fitting.

“So you can understand me?” Angelo asked when he finally broke out of its reverie.

The white hare looked at him, with an expression that could be interpreted as confusion just as much as as agreement, then he continued to eat the berries. Angelo took a berry as well, sapient hares or not, he was still hungry like a horse, but while he was eating his brain was bustling with activity.

Okay, assuming that you haven’t just gone crazy, which may very well be the case, then the hare has shown clear signs of sapience. Does this mean that all hares are intelligent in this world? Heck, if the hares are intelligent then the other animals could be as well, you did notice a clearly enlarged cranium on most of these critters.
Wait, brain mass has no relation with intelligence, does it? I really should have studied neurology instead of physics, what is physics good for anyway? Well, except for building portals into new unexplored worlds that is....

He felt a slight tug on his leg. The white hare was staring up at him with slight concern on it’s face. Apparently his thoughts hadn’t been as well concealed as he had thought.

“What should I call you anyway? It’s not like I can keep referring to you as ‘hare’ in my head,” he addressed the white woodland creature. It only stared at him with apparent obliviousness.

“Hmmm, I probably should find out if you’re a girl or boy first.” Angelo continued his musings. He was answered with a very rude gesture that a rabbit shouldn’t actually be able of making.

“Of course, that you do understand,” he sighed.

“Look, I’ll just throw some names at you, and you nod when you hear one that you like.”

The rabbits expectant stance seemed to indicate that it agreed.

“Snowball? Daisy? Nibbles? Oreo, Bunbun, Fluffy?”

All of his suggestions were met with very definitive denial.

“Urgh, Flopsy, Pepper, Gizmo?”

No reaction.

Another few dozens of names followed, but none seemed to meet the rabbits approval.

“Come on, there’s gotta be some name you like, or do you expect me to call you ‘my liege’ from now on?” Angelo finally gave in. The hare's eyes gleamed with approval and he nodded furiously.

Angelo shot it a deadpan look.

“No, absolutely not! It’s enough that I’m sitting around naked in a cave, talking to a hare, but I’m not gonna start giving out regal titles to the local wildlife,” he insisted.

The hare looked at him with big pleading eyes, even some tears collected in their corners.

“Tough luck buddy, I’ve got two nieces and you don’t survive that without knowing how to fend of puppy eyes,” Angelo said, remaining vigilant.

The hare's eyes narrowed. Quickly it gathered up the remaining berries and made for the exit of the burrow.

“Hey! wait!” Angelo shouted. Sure, it was a hare, but so far this had been the only intelligent creature he had met since coming here, or at least the only one that was willing to ‘talk’ to him.

The hare turned around and looked at him expectantly.

“Erm, King?”

The bunny shook it’s head.

“Emperor?” Angelo forced himself to ask.

Once again the bunny began to shake his head, but then it made a vague paw gesture instead. Angelo stared at it for a moment trying to decipher the pantomimic message.

“Empress?” he finally asked, earning an approving nod from the hare lady.

Comments

[_Z_]

Oh boy, is this an original villain? Hit me with more of that world building, woo.

Haha, empress hare.