The Hooman Saga - XI - Serial Fiction

So far: Sue and Tig visited her escape pod to get her bag and medical kit. She says good-bye to a cyborg pilot. Meanwhile, ferals are hot on their trail as the head for that secure sentient valley...

Jan 04, 2025

THEY TRAVELED FAST and hard. They had about a day and a half of travel. To cover in less than a day. There would be no stopping if night fell before they arrived. Neither for the ferals, who were now howling behind them. The small band of sentient hunters kept an even pace rather than a fast one. Soo-she's breath came in ragged gulps, but they were the same ragged gulps.

She learned to understand how to run and how to breathe. It wasn't like anything she'd been told. The training she had had on the ship, the constant use of the treadmill, made her understand that her legs would not go out and her lungs would keep up. Still the wolves kept up their inner-chant to keep the rhythm. It wasn't even ground, but it wasn't rocky like the slopes they'd come down. She was listening to the wolves and they learned to trust her sending. They had to act as a team. The approach was the same. Three in front. Sue and Tig in the middle. Three behind.

What Sue marveled at was their efficiency. They learned to think, to broad-send as one. Those in front were scouting the trail and sending the vision of what was coming. Nooks and crannies of the trails. The twists, the turns, the holes. Things to watch out for. Things to jump over. Those behind were sending from hearing backwards. Their focus was backwards. They were getting their sight from the forward wolves.

And all below this with a steady pace of their beat. Their paws on the ground and the beat in their heads from the song they sang to themselves. They kept the pace going.

There wasn't time to eat. There was barely time to drink. They had to keep running. But always, even when stopping to drink everyone else was on alert. Hearing and sending everything they sensed to the rest of the group. Only a few drank at a time. Barely enough to wet their tongues. Then they were off again.

When they first started, this seemed overwhelming to Sue.

Getting this massive information in a single moment. All these messages at once.

But soon it became second nature. She felt more aligned with this group, more part of its team than ever before. And they were listening for her footfalls which were louder than their paws. Tig encouraged her with positive thoughts, but knew she had to decide for herself what she would do.

So Sue kept up. After a while her ragged breaths became deeper, but more uniform, more regular. Not as painful. She had hardly time to think or decide. The focus was on running, not stumbling, and keeping up. The secret was being that moment itself. Each moment as it occurred. Time itself became one moment. The world changed around them. But the moment never did.

It was a unique experience for one who was taught on clocks and times and biorhythms. Logged charts and production goals. Comparing yesterday's last cycle with this cycle, interrupted by sleep periods.

But that wasn't here. Day and night were the same moment. The path changed, but the running was constant. The wind and clouds would move, but the air they breathed was endless. It was all one moment.

They were running. She was seeing through others' eyes. Hearing through their ears. The path was laid out in front to avoid trips, stumbles. There was only running in that moment. The breaths were regular. Her feet were regular. And a song sang in her head. The steady beat, all punctuated by the howls of the ferals.

Ferals were running as an arc behind them. Their howling told where they were. What they were about to do next.

Their fastest feral hunters were running on each end of that arc, trying to decrease the range between them and the sentients.

All running, all ragged aligned, no regular formation or rhythm. Just blind lust and fury. All built up over the last few hundred years. Sentients were their enemy. The feral goal was to wipe them out. The arc contained 20 or 30 ferals.

While the sentients seemed to remain the same in number, ferals had increased their breed. Living off the scraps of the hooman settlements had allowed their increase. The hooman garbage dumps had enabled other small animals to thrive near the humans. So the ferals lived more like coyotes, which also shared their territory. Feral dogs also fought for those scraps, and also the mix-breeds, like coy-dogs.

The feral wolves could recruit from their numbers and bring a large force against sentients whenever they appeared.

There were more ferals when they started. Not many were hardened for a run this hard. This was their true test. Their one chance to hunt their oppressors.

As the sentients could keep up this pace for days, the ferals could not. They had to catch up and attack soon.

Howling was the ferals’ main way to communicate in packs. And they had to stop to howl. This slowed them down and caused them to use extra energy to catch up. Meanwhile the sentients ran silent.

Still, as they approached the valley, the ferals were gaining. This was rougher ground and the sentients weren't running as fast as they could. The reason for this was running at their center.

The ferals had never seen sentients protect a hooman before. In the full sunset they saw the long yellow hair. The sun would sometimes reflect off whatever she wore on her. That would soon be their prize.

Soo-she was seeing more and more boulders show up in their path. And they were having to take many turns and curves to stay on the path to the wolves’ valley.

The valley had been a sentient refuge for many lifetimes. Though many long teacher's lives. It was even unknown how they found the valley. Or that story was not remembered.

And still: the twists, turns, jumps. Gradually the trail grew smaller. It forced the sentient pack to hold a single line. That led them open to attack and was the exact reason for this trail. As it thinned, the path was much like the old castles with their moats and twisting turns up the hill. All exposing enemies to attack.

The ferals were also on that single trail. As the ferals came closer they also could not pick out attack trails on the flanks any longer. It was a sheer race to catch up.

Suddenly, the path in front of the sentients widened up to well-beaten place. The wolves or her ahead dive into a V-notch and disappear into darkness.

At the point where Snarl as lead entered that notch, the three wolves running behind stopped and spun, growling. The ferals now entered the broader area. First five, then ten. Soon there were many who filled that opening and beyond.

Sue didn't look back. She was seeing through the guards' eyes.

She also plunged through that notch, following Tig and the rest. As she did, sentient female hunters pushed past her from the opposite direction. Back though the notch, they formed a second line of defense against the ferals.

The ferals were catching their breath. They were all gasping and weren't in any shape to attack. They growled at they could. All the sentients shared the sight of how mangy, unkempt and scrawny they were. Their ribs showing as the ferals jammed together in that space. The run had left them in no condition to fight or attack. The ferals and sentients both knew this.

Tig had stopped just after the opening and was again mumbling his chant, focusing on a pile of dried wood left at that opening. And as before, the pile smoldered. This time, a crackling flame started up. That distracted the ferals as it popped and sparked.

The female sentients and the rear guards, backed a step at a time. The lead ferals thought now was time to attack. As they crouched to spring, the sentients facing them wheeled and plunged through the notch.

On cue, the flame roared in the notch, covering their exit. The front ferals felt the heat, backed up, and stopped. Many sat back on their haunches. Some leapt up vertically, twisting to turn in mid-air and landing to run away. All the ferals then took off, making their escape from the fire. Or at least getting to a safer distance.

A few of the huntresses climbed to the ridge and watched, on guard as the ferals left, broadcasting their vision to all sentients.

The hunters and Soo-she traveled the trail down into the valley at a much slower pace now. The road into the valley turned and twisted as the one they had just left. There was no real reason to hurry now.

As they made their way down the path into the valley, Sue had an odd feeling a peace come over her.

Her breath wasn't coming any easier and she knew when she stopped her legs would start to their healing process. And pain that would come with that. But she couldn't keep running forever.

As they past an tall boulder, Soo-she saw an owl sitting, watching at its top.

The sun had come over one edge of the valley, lighting up the opposite top edge. She could see the oranges and blues of the rocks. Also the browns and greens of evergreens, oaks and hardwoods climbing high on that side. It was light enough now to see the valley floor as a plain. Tall Grasses, smaller shrubs.

Soo-she expected to see buildings but none were present. Tig had caught up next to her, and sent his amusement at that . This wasn't a human settlement. This is how the sentients lived.

She even thought she'd heard Snarl chuckle.

As they kept running, the owl took off and was circling overhead. Sue wondered if she'd even seen an owl at first, or wasn't it a hawk? Something was flying in slow even beats, coasting in the higher wind drafts.

The peaceful feeling soon overwhelmed her other ideas. She also got a feeling that this would be home for her. A safe spot.

She sensed the other wolves relax once they got into the valley. At the distant end, she saw there was another flame. Every bit as high as the one they left behind. That would keep any ferals from trying a end-around flank attack.

Even now, Soo-she's focus was only on preventing any stumble. It took all she had to will her near-exhausted body to continue running. The pace was closer to a trot now across the grassy plains.

Following a faint trail toward the new and unknown life ahead.

We’re now well into a new serial.

A near escape from the ferals. Sue is now in the valley, still under Tig’s protection, as she faces to undergo a mysterious “probe” in the secure wolf valley…

Of course there are some 24 more chapters after this. But you’ll have to stay tuned until next week to see how they get out of this…

For now, set your calendar to keep track of these new adventures. Every Saturday.