Torn apart by a decade old conflict that resulted in the near destruction
of every living thing on the planet. After The End, the planet had become a
desert full of rocks and sand. Rakh was lucky, it’s desert climate made it
unsuitable for colonization and thus largely ignored. They few remaining
inhabitants were quite lucky for this for they sat, unknowingly, on a Blood
Eagle caravan trail. On Rakh, was a small tribe/family of humans that had
survived The End and the terrible radiation that followed for many years.
When they returned to their world they found that many of the things they
knew and loved had been changed to things that they did not understand.
Meals a creature that at one time served as a domestic pet to the people of
the Old World, now could easily kill a man and do it often…
Shmoe-
He’s lived his entire life on the small world of Rakh, living with in his
village in near-primitive conditions. The remnants of the Old World still
remain cars, houses, and roads all desiccated by time and The End. It was
still quite clear to the now primitive inhabitants that these things were
beyond their means of understanding. Shmoe spent all his free time among the
ruins; he was most interested in the books he found there, stories centuries
old that told tales he could barely understand. Still they amazed him; he
particularly enjoyed the stories of space venturers that hopped from star to
star in search of adventure…
Present-
The hunt finished early today, they had found the meal herd fast and made
camp waiting for the herd to move on. When they finally did, they left
behind several of the weak and elderly animals, leaving them for the human
hunters. An adult meal could kill several men; even a sick or dying meal
could hurt a man. It took every free man and several women to take down the
whole stock of meals that had been left behind.
As the gatherers of his tribe prepared the meals for consumption, Shmoe was
given the time to explore. He stayed long into the night watching the sky,
reading his books and generally being lazy. He stood in his library
(actually a packaging company who’s sole purpose was to put little plastic
monkeys on to little plastic barrels) when he heard a clap of thunder.
“What the-“ he said, the sky outside brightened up appreciably.
Running to a window he saw nothing but the normal night sky. He left the
library and carefully examined the sky, no sign of any light source
anywhere. After giving up hope of finding the light source, he began the
long walk home…
Walking-
A few kilometers away from the ‘city’, Shmoe heard the low guttural roar of
a meal, testing the air for wind, he got behind a wind block. His scent had
excited a meal into waking, he must have been hungry. Thinking quickly he
pulled a sizable boulder towards a slope, throwing it down would cause a
seismic rumbling, hopefully allowing him to escape without exciting the meal
further. Before he was able move the boulder, he felt a sudden thud of
further meals awakening. Testing the wind again, he noticed that it had
changed, he was downwind now, what could possibly have awakened them? He
tried to decipher, by using his own sense of smell, not as keen as a meals,
but still very sensitive. He could smell the meals’ b.o. and another
stronger scent resembling that of the cars in the ‘city’. He was way too
far away for that scent to catch up with him.
Slowly approaching the scent, Shmoe ran across the meals, they were moving
not attacking. Why? He shadowed them for many kilometers ignoring his
hunger and fatigue. They continued on until daybreak, when they stopped
suddenly and rested, this was in direct opposition to their normal behavior.
Shmoe wondered what could possibly have spooked them into changing
patterns so violently. He pondered this for a long time, not noticing that
the wind had changed yet again. He did notice the earth-shaking rumble of
an approaching alpha male.
“SHIT” Shmoe leapt up from his position just as the strong jaw hit the rock
he’d been hiding behind, looking back Shmoe watched as the alpha crushed the
rock in his powerful jaws turning into dust right in front of him.
The meal began waving its nose in the air trying t pickup Shmoe’s scattered
scent again. He stood there not wanting to cause any kind of vibration for
the meal to sense. Holding his crude spear at the ready, Shmoe tensed
waiting for the wind to pick up and remove the nearby scent and allow the
meal to pick him up again. Without warning the meal struck missing Shmoe by
one meter. The creature’s side was exposed now, Shmoe readied the spear and
hoped that the meal wouldn’t strike again. Shmoe knew a lot about meals,
but this behavior was most erratic, he seemed tense unsure and definitely
afraid of Shmoe. Somehow the meal was unable to differentiate Shmoe’s scent
from the threat that changed their patterns. Standing there Shmoe watched
in horror as the meal turned to him, and looked at where he was, with those
cloudy eyes. Shmoe was unsure of what the creature saw, but it must not
have been pretty. He turned suddenly away and struck the ground directly
opposite from Shmoe.
Not understanding, Shmoe blinked in amazement as the meal came back up with
a human in its mouth. The human was beyond anything he had even see before,
he wore sparkling metal clothes and held weapons of varieties he’d never
seen before. Further behind him sat a small metal object glistening in the
early morning sunlight, the scout beckoned to Shmoe like a new toy to a
five-year-old. He ducked the waving arms of the feeding meal, ignored the
man’s cries for help and leapt on the scout, without clue one how do operate
it.
Shmoe allowed the vehicle to raise slightly off the ground, to a hovering
position. Then pushed forward with the handle bar. ZOOOOOOOOOOOOM! He shot
forward at break neck speeds hit a rock and began to spin uncontrollably.
He watched as the scout regained control and began to close at dramatic
speeds with the alpha male. Leaping out at the last possible second Shmoe
watched as the scout exploded shredding the meal and his prey.
Immediately the herd began to spread out, leaving their resting-place and
attacking anything that moved as a result of the explosion. One adult female
rushed Shmoe pitching and diving at the absolutely wrong time. Shmoe ducked
the inexperienced creature easily. Vacating the area Shmoe thought he was
safe, when another adult, this time a male, popped up above a large rock out
cropping. This time the creature pitched and dove at the exact right time.
Shmoe prepared to die…
Discovery-
Shmoe watched the meal pitch and dive at him curling its elongated body in
a strike position. Shmoe held up his forgotten spear in a futile defense as
the beast swiftly approached Shmoe’s death. He was caught by surprise as a
blue frisbee hit the creature square in the head cause the ugly skull to
explode smearing the slimy substance that made up a meal’s head all over
Shmoe.
Turning around, Shmoe saw another man with one of those weapons and the odd
suit of metal, he was waving at Shmoe happily. Before Shmoe could respond
or shout a warning another male leapt on him from above, tearing into the
man’s armor and making a big mess. Shmoe charged the creature yelling at
the top of his lungs and making a huge ruckus. His spear buried itself deep
in the meal’s eye, passing through the thinnest part of its skull and into
its brain. The creature, because of its instinctual nature continued to
ravage the man under him, until it’s last gasp.
As Shmoe attempted to dislodge his spear, more men and women wearing the
odd armor rushed into battle, soon explosions and the cries of men and meals
were clearly heard over many kilometers. The sounds were like thunder to
the people of the village, they were afraid of a new End and huddled
together forgetting Shmoe and the hunt.
The battle lasted only a few hours. The time it encompassed melted
together into one great amalgamation of memories that were too foggy to
relate, but impossible to forget.
After the battle the warriors left, Shmoe was with them…
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