My stomach growls. I know this is wrong. I am not supposed to be drawing breath. I am not supposed to be eating, but my hand is creeping out and my fingers are taking hold and before I know it my teeth are sinking into the forbidden food. Animal juice runs down my chin as I chew the flesh, feel it slide down my throat. Almost immediately, energy runs through me. A flush of euphoria, which makes a little sound escape me. It is a groan of pleasure so deep and so primal it is better than any erotic charge.
“Good, isn’t it,” he purrs softly. “Never feel ashamed to consume, girl. All the universe is consumption. You have your place in it, and you claim it by making it part of yourself. You have a place in this world. You may have places in other worlds, but you will never see them if you give up when others tell you to. The meek inherit nothing but dirt.”
He is lecturing me and I am only barely listening. He has awoken more than one kind of hunger in me, changed my idea of what is possible. An hour ago, survival itself seemed impossible. Now, with the flesh of the animal inside me, becoming one with me, I feel fresh strength - and fresh hunger. I am ravenous. I demolish the first slice of meat and then the second, eating until I am so full I cannot fit another piece into my mouth and finally I lie back on the cave floor, groaning softly to myself.
“Your stomach will adjust,” Vulcan tells me as I press my hands to my belly. “You must get used to eating. You are too weak. When you are strong, there will not be a tribe on this planet which dares tie you down.”
“Planet?”
Vulcan
It is easy to forget how limited her education is. She knows next to nothing about where she lives. She doesn’t even have the concept of planet in her head. To her, the ground is everything and the sky is nothing.
“This is a world,” I try to explain, without telling her too much. Krave’s warning is echoing in my mind. It’s not just genetic interference that could cause chaos on this planet. Putting too much knowledge into the world could be just as dangerous.
She groans, not really listening. Her belly is noticeably full from the food, largely because she was so undernourished before. Her tribe must have given her only the scraps of their produce, made her tend the fields but not allowed her to eat the grain. It must be her red hair and green eyes which mark her as an outsider. Humans have always enjoyed persecuting the outsider. In a few thousand years, they will turn it into an art form of the most intense kind. For now, it is in its infancy, along with the rest of their cultural cruelty.
“I’m tired,” she says. “I think I’m going to sleep.”
“Move nearer the fire,” I tell her. “It will keep you warm through the night, and I will keep watch.”
Her eyes flicker open, catching the reflection of the flames. “They will come for us if they see the fire. There should be no light up here.”
“If they come for you, they will regret it,” I tell her.
She gives me a smile. “If they so much as see you, they will shit themselves, I think. Trelok is a coward.”
“They’re all cowards,” I say. “Even the women. Trelok did not do this to you alone, did he?”
“They're not allowed to disobey him, or he beats them,” she says. “He has broken limbs, and heads of disobedient women. He leaves a mark every time he says we make him hurt us.”
I let out a snarl. I want to make Trelok eat his own entrails, just for a starter. He has isolated a few females, and the remoteness of this tribe allows him to rule over them without interruption. One day a new band of unrelated humans will chance upon him and his harem. It is only a matter of time before natural justice takes care of him, so I must be patient.
The matter of the fire is still of concern. She is right. The fire will act as a beacon for miles. They will know that she is not dead. They will come to kill her, and then they will find me. And I will do terrible, unspeakable things which will lead to even worse consequences. Krave will be angry if I slaughter an entire tribe of ancient humans, so I must avoid the circumstances which might lead to that.
I quench the flames, take the girl in my arms, and pull her into an embrace. It is not for any carnal reason. It is because the mountain air is cooler than the air below and even the fire of the vents does not prevent a chill from starting to settle in the air.