2: A start and a strange death
The tribe had stopped for the night and set up their tents and campfires by a small oasis in the middle of the desert, but Trishia didn’t want to stay. Even for a nomad she was restless, in fact, she’d never felt at home anywhere and she had a feeling it wasn’t the desert that was the problem. No, she loved the desert, it was as much of a home as anything could ever be to her. It was the tribe that made her feel like running until their fires were long gone behind the horizon. She had this unexplainable need to seek out new places, something that, even though being nomadic, was considered a fault in the tribe’s eyes. But young as she was, nobody really noticed her and she didn’t think anyone would miss her if she left.
And that’s exactly what she did one evening. She packed everything she needed, dressed in warm animal skins to protect herself from the cold night air and began walking towards the western edge of the desert. For years she had wanted to see it again. She had seen it once when she was little and she’d never forgotten the green of the trees or the sound of birds. It was a long way to go and she knew it was dangerous to travel alone; a sandworm or sandray could easily kill her. But she was a fast runner and pretty good with the spear. She could take care of herself. And maybe, once she got to the edge, she would find someplace to belong.
She hadn’t brought a tent when she left the camp site early one morning about three nights ago. It would have been too heavy to carry and she didn’t think she’d miss having one much. She liked sleeping under the stars, even though it sometimes got a bit cold at night. She had actually been very sparse when she packed; she hadn’t wanted anyone to notice that she was about to leave, although she doubted they had noticed she was gone yet. Her being an orphan pretty much her whole life she had been forced to take care of herself most of the time and that had resulted in the fact that the tribe didn’t take much notice of her except for when they needed her to do something.
As she lay under the stars on the still warm sand, thinking about what she’d left behind her decision seemed more right than it ever had. If she’d had parents, she thought, she would have missed them, but since she didn’t the only thing she longed for that she probably wouldn’t be able to get anywhere except with the tribe was some really juicy meat. She had neither the skills or the opportunity to catch anything much larger than a rabbit to eat, and such animals were few and far in between. They were usually eaten by sand worms long before she could get to them. She had caught one on her first day away and it had felt like a great triumph; like a confirmation of the fact that she was able to face the world alone. Now she regretted that she hadn’t saved some of it for later; now that her main source of food was roots and bugs, both of which were quite unsavoury.
Her mouth started to water as she thought up one course after another, each one more delicious than the one before. At several occasions she even thought she could hear rabbits dashing past just out of reach. For a second or two she was so sure they were close enough to catch that she reached for her spear and got up, but it was too dark even in the light of her fire and the almost full moon to see anything but vague shapes and forms. She lay down again and tried to sleep instead of thinking of food. It would serve her no purpose to dwell on things she knew she wouldn’t be able to get for a long time yet, except for getting her hungry that is, and she didn’t want that.
Eventually her eyelids grew heavy, her body relaxed and she felt sleep coming over her like a thick blanket, slowly but effectively blocking out all the impressions from the surrounding landscape. It was a dreamless sleep that engulfed her and she didn’t know for how long she had slept when she woke with a start. It was still dark, but she was wide awake and in less than five seconds she had grabbed her spear and was on her feet. She was sure some creature had been nearby; it was like the air still moved a bit where it had been. She sniffed and searched for footprints, but she didn’t see or smell anything that she could identify as unusual. She thought the whole event strange and a bit confusing, almost eerie.
She could have sworn something had been less than a meter from her face just before she woke up, but now there was no trace of it. Her logic told her to dismiss the incident and move on, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that whatever it was that had been there was still around. She had a feeling that if she just looked hard and long enough into the night she would catch a glimpse of it.
She thought about going back to sleep again, but she found when she sat down on her improvised bed that she had become restless and weary from her sudden awakening. So she packed her things, threw the bag over her left shoulder and started walking towards the north east. She used the stars to navigate at first and when dawn came she used the sun to aid her in finding the right direction. She had learned both methods of navigation early in her life, as all tribe members have to do in case they get lost and need to find their way back to the group.
All the while she couldn’t get rid of the feeling that something was following her. At first she suspected it to be of human nature, but when a couple of hours had gone by she ruled that out. If it was of human size she would have discovered it by now. She was certain that nothing that big could hide in the flat desert landscape for so long, no matter how good a tracker they were. No, it felt like her follower was much too close for that. Whatever it was, it had to be smaller than a man.
It was nearing midday and Trishia was getting hungrier by the minute. He stomach rumbled almost constantly and she noticed that it was getting harder and harder to think clearly. He water bottle, which she had filled in an almost dried up waterhole earlier in the morning, was almost empty. She had been looking for signs of something edible for about an hour now, but so far she had detected none. It was dangerous to travel in the desert and she knew that if she didn’t find something to eat or at least drink soon, she would probably die of dehydration before long.
These were things that she hadn’t had to worry about when she was travelling with the tribe. They were always able to carry large quantities of food and water with them. They had a great advantage in the camels that they kept since the animals were perfectly adapted to the desert and could carry quite a heavy load without getting tired too fast. She regretted not stealing a camel of her own when she left, but that would have put her in a situation where the tribe would definitely notice she was gone. They would probably have missed the camel more than her and they would probably be more than willing to hunt her down to get it back. So she had decided against taking one with her; a smart choice at the time, but a poor one in a long term perspective.
When she finally saw some signs of growth in the dried up landscape she almost thought it was an illusion, but as she got closer she became quite sure that it was real. About a hundred meters ahead of her grew several tall, cactus-like plants and she could see a few birds circling in the air above them. Now, birds was a rare occurrence in this part of the desert, so she was quite surprised to see them there. They usually only appeared where some creature, not too small, had been killed and for all Trishia knew, this part of the desert didn’t house any predators large enough to kill anything that would be of interest to the vultures. It could be the doing of humans, but she highly doubted it.
As she got closer she could identify the huge cadaver of a sand ray lying not even fifty meters in front of her. At first she didn’t believe her eyes, but she was now certain that it couldn’t be anything else. But what could have killed something so large and dangerous as a sand ray? And more importantly; was it still around and should she be afraid of it? Apart for the birds in the sky, there were several more of them sitting on the dead animal, eating and occasionally screeching and clawing at each other. The vultures usually didn’t start eating until the original predator had left the pray, so Trshia concluded that it was safe to take a closer look at what had happened. She would just have to be careful not to anger the ugly birds, they could be quite fierce when agitated, especially if there was food involved.
If she hadn’t been surprised enough already, she certainly was so now. The sight that met her eyes as she got closer to the dead sand ray was not a pretty one. The way in which it had been killed was gory and grotesque enough to make even the hardest warrior queasy; it certainly made Trishia want to turn away and run, or at least lean over throw up. The creature’s intestines had been ripped out of its body and they lay spread out on the ground, almost as if arranged in a pattern of some sort. Its eyes had been torn out of their sockets and were hanging from their nerves, occasionally dripping a little blood down on the ground.
Even so, Trishia was determined to get closer. This was a perfect opportunity to get something to eat. Sand rays were a rare delicacy in the desert, mainly because they were fast and so very hard to catch. It made Trishia wonder once again what had done this to the animal. Whatever it was, it hadn’t been done for food, she noticed when she went up to it to check if there was anything edible left for her to take. The vultures had eaten some, but otherwise it was intact and she could easily remove some quite nice pieces of meat.
When she had taken what she needed she took a few steps back to once again try to figure out what had happened. The sand ray was gigantic and she knew that it would take at least a dozen grown men to take one of ordinary size down, but this one was so big that she figured at least sixteen would be needed. No, it couldn’t be the doings of humans. And besides, no person in their right mind living in the desert would kill a creature that would feed a whole tribe for weeks and then leave it without taking any meat from it. She took a few more steps back and noticed the perfect symmetry in which the intestines were spread out. It could not be a coincidence, but it seemed so illogical. No human had done this, but no animal had the intelligence to achieve something like it. It was weird and eerie and it had started to scare her more than just a little bit.
She began walking back to the cactuses when she felt that presence from before following her again. She looked around very carefully not to scare it away, but she couldn’t see anything. She was keeping watch with all her senses as she started to tap one of the cactuses for water. What if it was the thing that was following her that had killed the sand ray? It was a scary thought, but she shrugged it off almost immediately. She was probably just imagining.
As her flask filled up she gathered material for a fire. She figured that now that she had meat and water she might as well set up camp for the night. She needed to think about what she’d seen and try to figure out what exactly it meant. This would be as good a place to do that as any, even if she was being watched.
She filled a second water skin as she carved the meat into smaller, quite thin pieces that she then hung to dry in the sun on a rack made of sticks and twigs. The meat would last longer when dried, and it would also be lighter and easier to carry. She went back to the dead sand ray and cut a juicy piece of meat from its back. That would be her dinner for the evening. She almost thought she was going to pass out with hunger while she waited for the meat to cook, but the vultures wouldn’t let her. Even though there was a huge dead sand ray lying on the ground only a few meters away, they were determined to try to steal the meat she’d hung up to dry.
Finally the sun started setting and the vultures retreated. Soon they were only dots on the horizon and Trishia sat down with a heavy sigh. Finally some peace to eat and then rest. Her tanned limbs were tired and her eyes were heavy, but the smell of the ready cooked meat was more than enough to keep her awake. She’d only had sand ray once before in her life, and her memory didn’t do the rich meat justice by far. Her mouth exploded with flavours when she bit into it and she let out a little noise of pleasure. It occurred to her that this was probably the first time she’d used her voice since she left the others, but the thought disappeared as quickly as it had risen when she took another bite of the sand ray.
When she felt like she couldn’t eat even one more bite, she lay back and just breathed, staring at the darkening sky. Stars had begun to appear and the air was cooling off a little. There was still a little of the cooked meat left, but she decided to eat it the next time she got hungry. There really was no point in eating any more of it now. So she just lay there and thought about everything and nothing, about what to do next. Se decided that it was probably best to focus on getting to the edge of the desert before anything else. Yes, once she had survived that she could think about what to do next. So far she’d only ever seen it from a distance, buildings and trees, real trees, not the twiggy little things that grew in the desert. She sighed and closed her eyes.
Then she heard it. There was definitely something there, something that wasn’t the fire or vultures or the wind. And it was sniffing. There hadn’t been any footsteps, or at least none she had heard. The creature must be quite small, and quite smart as well, to have been able to avoid being eaten. Slowly she sat up and opened her eyes. The sniffing stopped. She was completely still, not even breathing. She thought maybe the smell of the food would lure the creature closer, so she would get a look at it. The sniffing started again, closer this time, but she still couldn’t see the source. What was it? Where was it hiding? The cactus where she’d gotten her water, she decided. She stared intensely towards it, trying to make out if there was anything different about its shape in the dark. And then something moved! It had a tail and it couldn’t be taller than the height of her knee, but where did it go? It was gone again.
Trishia was more curious than scared now, so she decided to try to lure the creature closer, maybe even catch it. She took a piece of the meat she had left and threw it in the direction she thought the creature was hiding, just close enough to the fire to be able to see it on the ground.
And then she waited.
She nodded off for only a second, or what felt like a second, but when she opened her eyes again the meat was gone. Damn it! She tried again with another piece. Determined not to fall asleep this time, she waited, but of course she did, she was so tired and when she woke up again it was morning and time to move on again.
[...] A start and a strange death [...]