The Hooman Saga: Episode 03 — Rescued and Hunted
Serial Fiction: A human arrives back on Earth in an escape pod — to discover wolves have become sentient and humans are almost extinct…
(This book is available almost everywhere online — if you can’t wait to see how this turns out, see https://books2read.com/u/3yD7Yp for more information and links.
WHEN SUE OPENED HER eyes she saw a wolf looking back at her.
Propping herself up on her elbows, she looked it over. She’d never seen a wolf before, especially not close up. She recalled pictures in her schoolbooks of all the life forms they were going to introduce into the new worlds. They were all sorts of canine breed of dogs.
She almost wish she had studied more, as she never thought she’d have to use it. As the books would always be there.
This wolf was here, though. Looking at her with piercing eyes. And the books were not.
Then she remembered: Wild. Carnivore.
She pushed herself back with her elbows and tried to get her feet under her without looking away. She needed to know if it was going to attack her.
Then its voice spoke up in her mind.
“I’m not going to eat you. Besides I’ve heard hoomans don’t taste good, anyway.”
Sue was curious about this and wondered how she could hear his thoughts.
So Tig answered the question. “Well, why wouldn’t you? Or are you feral or something?
She said out loud, “Feral?”
Tig chuckled and sent, “Yeah.”
His response didn’t startle the hooman this time. When she saw him smile she smiled back, as a feeling of security washed over her.
“Can you travel?” came the thought.
“I dunno.” Sue said, “We can try.”
“We must. The fire is still too close.” And he loped off.
She struggled to her feet started walking after him. He stopped 50 yards away and frowned.
“Is that all the faster you hoomans travel? No wonder you’re almost extinct.”
She called back, “No, I can run.” And started as fast as she could even though she was stiff and sore from the landing. As she got closer to Tig, he took off again. He started running, but not as fast this time, so she was able to keep up and they headed up into the mountains.
After a piece of steep climbing, Tig stopped for a moment. He waited for her at the top of a cliff. She was soon close by.
She saw him as a tawny creature with browns and silvers and reds in his fur, admired him for his strength and beauty.
At the same time he only saw she was dressed in some sort of one-piece covering, dully reflective where it wasn’t covered with soot. Golden hair fell over her shoulders and soot smudged her light, hairless face. He wondered if she was fur or bare underneath that silvery cover.
At that she blushed. “Oh that’s right. You don’t wear clothes.” She thought back at him.
“At last you quit shouting. All the other People can hear us.”
“People?” she sent.
“Yes.” He followed up with the idea of being taught by teachers in the verbal tradition. Tens of thousands of years of history as the cubs would sit around and drink all this knowledge in. “All living creatures are People. It’s not just hoomans.”
They reveled in each other’s thoughts, which flew as fast as lightning among the peaks.
They each had much to learn and looked deep into the other’s eyes to drink it in as fast as they could.
At last she broke off and looked away. The data was just too much. She found a large outcrop she could lean against and partially sit on, until she could digest the years of knowledge she had just learned in a fraction of a second. It seemed like that.
Tig’s thought came to her, concerned. “Are you okay?”
“Sure…” She started to speak and then stopped herself mid- sentence to send, “it’s just so much to take in.”
“Well, I’m not exactly having an easy time of myself. You have so much strangeness in how you were raised. Your patterns are clumsy to me, anyway. I don’t mean to be critical. You’re hooman. Hoomans aren’t supposed to be able to send.”
“No, we don’t.” Sue replied in thought this time. “We’re usually closed off, which gives us problems. Our words don’t often communicate truths.” She thought for a minute of the Royalty elites she had escaped. “They can be used to lie.”
“Yes,” he sent, “Thoughts are harder to lie through, but that can still be done.” He looked out. “We must travel. We’ve rested enough.”
With that, he was off again. Loping down the side of the ridge at an easy pace, seeing a path that she couldn’t have known was there.
And he stopped to look back at her.
Sue sent, “Caring for this human, you didn’t have to.”
Tig sent in reply “It was my choice. Now hurry, the ferals will be on us soon.”
With that she understood. Ferals were closed-minded wolves, and other animals. “Unlike people…” She had to stop and correct herself.
He stopped and smiled and chuckled at her. “You’re learning. Now, catch up. Let’s go.” Then he was off again.
She scrambled to try and follow his trail somehow.
Her boots were not set for this environment. They were more designed for climbing walls of ships than rocks and fallen branches. Nothing magnetic or smooth enough for suction here.
She concentrated on her steps, picking each one to make her way back down to the lowlands.
They continued on for a while going down hill now, as fast as they could climb down it. He was patient enough for her. She had thousands of questions to ask, but concentrated on watching her step, keeping up.
They learned to work together to get her down that mountain. When he would disappear, she would soon be uncertain about the path. She would only need to sense where he was. Often he would then show up again in her mental vision and then into her sight. He would then send her the path he took, so she could see through his eyes what he understood to be a trail.
Bit by bit, the two made their way down that mountain toward the lowlands.
(This book is available almost everywhere online — if you can’t wait to see how this turns out, see https://books2read.com/u/3yD7Yp for more information and links.