The Forgotten Realms: Primal Instincts

by Raven Willow-Wood

  “Not before Andromedie sets, but there should be sufficient light left from Lorimea to guide your way.”

  “You better not be wrong, Eve. No way in fuck do I want to be wandering around a strange planet in the dark, especially not this one with frigging bears and wolves and other shifters to consider!”

  “With your portable device that connects you to the ship, I will be able to locate any nearby wildlife.”

  “That's true.” Goldie pondered whether or not it was wise to be heading off into only God knew where at this time when it was so close to dark.

  “If we had the material for the repairs, how long would it be before the nanobots could get to work?”

  “Seven hours and twenty-eight minutes.”

  “Right. How long would repairs take?”

  “Twelve hours, forty three minutes, and six seconds.”

  That meant they could be out of there by the end of tomorrow night and on their way again. That decided her fate more than anything. She had a time limit in which to deliver her payload, but if she managed to deliver it before that time then she received a forty-eight percent bonus on top of her fee.

  Very few haulers actually delivered before their due date. With the huge distances they had to travel, it wasn't always possible. But Goldie had had some breaks this trip. Eve, unusually helpful for once, had spotted a black hole halfway through their journey and it had flung them a quarter of the way there in a day. It meant that she was ahead of schedule, and she wanted to stay that way. Lunar dollars, the currency in which she was paid, lit up her eyes as she strapped on the wristband device that connected her to the ship.

  She ducked her head and barely managed to miss a broken piece of piping that was sticking out awkwardly from the roof of the cabin and twisted and turned her body to finally maneuver herself out of the mess that had once been her shuttle.

  Jumping and landing on the ground with a solid thump, she fell ass over head as the distance between the shuttle and the dirt was a lot further away than she'd calculated. Groaning, she climbed on to her feet once more and turned to look at her ship.

  There was a lot of damage, and she was surprised that the nanos would even be able to handle something as extensive as this. Nanobots were good for small and finicky repairs but regular bots were ordinarily used for damage of this size and nature. But, if Eve said it was possible, then it was indeed possible.

  Eve could be a pain in the ass, but she was almost always correct in her estimations. And, while Goldie would have no hesitation in upgrading her for another hub, she knew that Eve had saved her ass many a time.

  She tilted her head to the side and took in her ship and winced a little at the state of it. Her father would've killed her if he was still alive. The ship had always been his baby, well, his second baby after her, and that was why, even though she'd saved up enough to purchase another freight ship, she was reconditioning this one. She couldn't just scrap her father's ship.

  And, really, it was more than that.

  She had a lot of memories stored within those metal walls. When her mom had taken off for parts unknown, leaving her and her father to manage, her dad had persuaded his boss to let her ride shotgun with him on his jobs. It had been her home for so long that it was all she really knew. She couldn't just get rid of all that simply because it was outdated.

  Reconditioning the shuttle meant she could have the memories and the technology. And, in this day and age, with new shuttles being designed all the time, it was vital she improve the ship before other freighters took over her contracts and stole the jobs that paid her way.

  Looking up, Goldie noted the purple sky with a grimace. Although the suns were setting, they were still bright in the sky which was like thick and dense beet soup. Squinting into their dual lights, she nodded resolutely and then set off in an easterly direction, the direction Eve indicated via her wristband the source of the metal lay.

  Sirius A was very similar to Earth but how Goldie would imagine Earth had looked far in its past and with skewed colors. Trees were rare now, but she had seen pictures of tree lined streets and knew that they were all green and brown. On this planet the trunks were a dark blue hue and the leaves were such a dark green that they looked basically black. The grass on the ground was also a dark green black color. It made for an almost surreal experience to be walking through such a strangely colored world.

  She had landed in a forest, and, even though the colors were spooky, it was an experience. She realized that this was the first forest she had ever seen and was ever likely to see. There was only one forest remaining on Earth, and it was secluded now from everyday folk. Only the richest people could enter it and only after they'd shelled out a cool couple of million to actually experience the beauty of a haven of trees and animals all living together in harmony.

  There were environment simulators on all ships which were easily programmable to whatever setting desired. So, if she wanted to experience a forest with animals, then she could easily do so. But she knew that it wouldn't be the same as this since it would be on ship and not have the same atmosphere as this, which was pretty damned magical. Computer generated images were good, but they weren't as good as the real thing, at least not in her opinion.

  Her father had always found her love of nostalgia rather comical and had always said that she should have been born nine hundred years earlier, when life was much simpler.

  It was true.

  She would have been happier in a less technologically based world. Perhaps it would have been harder and more difficult to live, but, to her way of thinking, it wasn't healthy to spend eight months with a robot and to possibly lose all sense of her humanity.

  Shrugging off her glum thoughts, Goldie paused in front of a large navy blue tree which was very different from the other trees that surrounded it. There was something about it that called to her. What that was exactly, she didn't know, but it did. Pressing a hand against the trunk of the tree, she jumped almost a foot into the air as a fine vibration passed from the bark of the tree and through her skin and to her heart. It was almost like an electric shock that went straight to the very center of her being!

  Pulling her hand away from the bark, she spun around and ran away from that particular area of the woods until finally she walked past some really thick trees that had almost bulbous trunks and into a clearing. Well, she'd thought that it was a clearing, but, as she peered through the trees and checked her wireless device, she realized that she'd stumbled across her destination without even realizing it.

  That was what nature did to her, always did and always would. She so rarely had the chance to see anything of the kind that, whenever she did, it was always a marvel to her and time always seemed to run free from her grasp.

  There was a house in the center of the small clearing, and Goldie reasoned that whoever lived there must be the owners of the metal she was seeking. Looking around for anything that could be of danger to her in this wide open space, and any more of the navy blue trees that had caused her pain, she eventually stepped out of the protection of the trees and began to walk to what she could only think of as a house. It certainly didn't look like any metal dealer she'd ever seen!

  The place in front of her looked almost like a cottage. She could remember reading about thatch cottages in what had once been the United Kingdom before it had become a part of Tuaisceart territory. Trained workers had crafted pieces of hay together and made roofs from them. The properties underneath were homely and rugged. Just like this one, which was as bulbous and as bizarrely colored as the forest. There were beams made from the bright blue trees and then a distinctly yellow material that was obviously cladding.

  Shaking her head, for despite the strange aesthetics it was actually rather an attractive property and much more homey than the awful metal cages humans lived in on Earth, Goldie took another step towards the building.

  In the center of the house was a door. Noticing the small bright bushes on either side of it, Goldie admired
the flowering plants as she knocked on the door. When there was no response, she frowned but knocked again, a little harder this time.

  When there was still no answer, she called out again. “Hello! I need some materials to repair my ship. Is anyone there?”

  Noticing that suddenly it appeared a little darker outside than it had five minutes before, she buzzed Eve via her wrist communicator. “Eve, why does it suddenly look so much darker outside? I know an hour hasn't passed yet.”

  “Sirius A's Andromedie set earlier than I previously approximated.”

  “And, let me guess, Lorimea is going to set earlier than you calculated as well.”

  “That is correct.”

  Goldie glared upwards, condemning all of Eve's circuits to hell.

  “For fuck's sake, Eve. As soon as we get back to Earth, I'm completely re-hauling your ass. There's no doubt about it now. I could have merely upgraded you, but now I'm throwing you on the shit heap! Approximately how long do I have until there's no light whatsoever?”

  “Approximately six minutes.”

  Inside Goldie fumed because while she knew that an hour hadn't passed, it certainly hadn't been six minutes between her leaving the ship and finding the house. In the dark, the forest would be much darker than it had been when she'd passed through it the first time. She'd already noticed that the thick canopy of nearly black leaves had blocked out the sun until visibility was difficult throughout the day. So while she didn't know what it would be like at night, she didn't particularly want to find out!

  Out of nowhere, she heard a scuffling sound. It was loud enough to have her spinning a full revolution on her heels to find the source of it.

  “Eve? What was that?”

  “My scanners detect an animal in your vicinity. It is has four legs.”

  “Fuck!” Goldie hissed. “Is it a bear?” she asked. “Is it a wolf? What is it, Eve?”

  “I am unable to precisely analyze whether it is a bear or a wolf due to the damage my system has sustained.”

  Goldie gulped. “Is it large?”

  “Scanning.” There was a pause. “It is approximately eight hundred and forty pounds.”

  “Fuck. It's a bear. It has to be.” Slamming her hand repeatedly against the door, she called out again, desperate for someone to answer the door. “Please? Is anyone there?” she hollered in a strained voice.

  She held back a scream as she heard the sound grow louder and louder, and she felt as though she could spin around and whatever the fuck it was would jump on her, so noisy was the rustling and echoing racket that found its source somewhere in the surrounding forest.

  She beat her fists against the blue wood of the door. She'd thought earlier that she'd feel bruised up from the crash, but she knew she'd have sore and bruised hands the next day from all the pounding she was doing, but she didn't care at the moment. Her heart began to flutter in the cavity of her chest, almost as though a small animal were trapped in there and desperate to escape. She was, in all actuality, very much the smaller animal here, especially with only God knew what chasing after her and weighing over eight times her weight!

  Her throat began to choke as fear overcame her, forcing her to tug desperately at the door and continue to slam her hands against its surface. The sound of the animal approaching grew ever louder until she was gripping and twisting the door handle and praying to God that it would open.

  When it finally did, she felt almost faint with relief. In fact, she felt worse than that, she felt as though her limbs had turned glutinous, and that, within any given minute, they would simply dissolve into a puddle on her unknowing host's floor!

  Quickly assembling herself, she slammed the door shut and sighed with relief as the sounds of whatever monster had been in the woods around her were instantly drowned out.

  Her relief, however, was mixed with discomfort. She felt intensely intrusive, having entered someone else's home without their permission. But, at the same time, she knew that she hadn't had a choice. It had been either run in to safety or perhaps be devoured on the spot! Being eaten alive at thirty-two, alone on some strange planet, without ever having accomplished having a family of her own, was not exactly the way she'd envisioned dying. She grimaced at the thought before continuing to yell for someone.

  “Hello! Is anyone here?”

  Almost as soon as the words rushed out of her mouth, Goldie felt nausea from her earlier brush with death suddenly gang up on her. She'd been in far too many life and death situations today, and it wasn't doing her stomach any good!

  “Hello! Please? Can I get some water?”

  Raising a hand to her throat, she swallowed against the bile that was steadily surging up her gullet and realized that if she didn't have something to drink, she would puke and very soon. Massaging her throat a little, she looked around the neat hallway and knew instantly that this place was not abandoned. It was far too manicured for that and the outside of the house and the clearing had looked far too natural for it to not have been cared for.

  Goldie didn't need to be an expert gardener to know that perfecting the natural look in a garden took a lot of work and planning. No, this place was definitely inhabited!

  Taking a step from the doorway, she moved down the hall and into a circular room which had eight doors arranged around its circumference. There was no light, but then, it had been basically dark outside when she'd finally managed to enter. Around each door frame were tiny lights that lit up the door jambs and enabled her to count them and realize that she was in another hallway.

  “Illuminate,” she instructed the central house computer.

  “Lights?” she called out again, but nothing happened.

  It didn't overly surprise Goldie. The exterior of the building was ancient so why shouldn't the inner workings be? She remembered reading about places where you actually had to press a button to turn on the lights. If she remembered correctly, they were referred to as switches and could be found on the walls.

  Going with her instincts, she moved straight ahead to the first illuminated door and walked into its environs. Her intuition proved correct for it was some kind of food preparation area. This room had windows on all of its exterior facing walls and so the little light that was remaining from the two suns enabled her to see a small box on a wall. She walked over to it and fumbled with it. Pushing it in and then flicking it with her fingers. When she actually managed to turn the lights on, she jumped as it happened, surprised that she'd been able to make it work, unused to the strange method of illumination.

  Blinking away the night blindness, she peered around the room and spotted a sink. She walked over to it and noticed there were three glasses beside it. Picking one up, Goldie attempted to fill up the glass by pressing the sink buttons, but nothing happened. Again, she played with the handles and when she had almost conceded defeat, water sprayed out from every angle.

  With childish glee, she began to laugh, for never had she seen such an abundant amount of water. On Earth, they drank and cleaned and washed themselves with water particles. It was far too precious to be wasted in such glorious amounts.

  She held her hand under the spouting faucet in complete awe as her fingers were soon drenched with the delightful substance. It was almost as clear as glass and extremely cool.

  Quickly, she grabbed one of the glasses and filled it to the brim before knocking it back. She did that four more times until her stomach was far too full of the liquid to even contemplate doing it again.

  It created a wonderful sloshing sensation in her stomach, and, rather than leave her feeling simply rehydrated, she felt totally refreshed. Her entire mouth felt cool and wet and her tongue was moist. It was wonderful!

  As she put the glass down, she noticed there was a strange engraving on the beaker. “Solden,” she murmured the word aloud and could only imagine that it was someone's name. Peering down at the other two, she read the words engraved on those out loud too. “Turin. Faeron.”

  She huffed to herself at the
strange names, but then shrugged it off and took in the room at large.

  The room had four walls. One wall consisted of cupboards and something she could only assume was a machine that produced fire with which to cook meats and vegetables. There did not seem to be an automated robot here that processed foods with a high nutritional basis.

  In fact, there was no metal in here at all. It all appeared to all be constructed out of that eye-popping blue wood.

  Another wall had a table pressed up against it, another a door, and the final wall just one solitary picture of three men. Stepping closer to it, she found that it was a low quality image. She couldn't even make out their features, but she could tell from the joviality of the scene that they'd been having a great time.

  Deciding to see where the door led, she walked towards it and pulled it open. This time, the door handle was a lot easier to manage and it swung open with no difficulty. The door gave way and she was faced with what felt like a wall of darkness.

  She blinked, then coughed, and suddenly noticed that there was a funny odor coming from it. She looked about the door frame and saw another strange light box. She turned on the light and was greeted with a small chamber that contained food.

  She sniffed again. There was a strange odor coming from the room. It reminded her of something, but she couldn't remember what it was. She moved further into the closet and looked around. It definitely contained foods and only then did she notice the decrease in temperature from the food preparation area to this small chamber. It hadn't been overly warm in there, but there was a definite difference.