by Joe Darris
Desperate, she whirls around to face her attacker. She stands tall, taller than anyone in the Spire save her brother. She throws her shoulder length hair behind her and bares her teeth. She knows the panthera's mind well. The colossal predator has tired its prey, it waits only for the element of surprise. It will not find it in her.
“Come on!” she screams. But before the girl finishes the panthera is in the air, her black mane blocks out the moon. The Spire still glows, but all the girl can see is the orange of its eyes around slitted pupils. Her black claws glisten like melting ice in the silver light.
The girl turns to face her, she knows her mind, how to bend it to her will, but she falters. She tries to flee and feels herself leap away in huge bounds. It matters not. The panthera is upon her, its bulk crushing her supple body. She flails with cloven feet and a deadly set of antlers that juts from her skull. It matters not.
She's back where she belongs, behind the panthera's eyes. She feels the terror of the elk and also the familiar exhilaration of the kill. She feels her own arm reach back as the panthera draws a long claw and plunges it into the heart of the elk. She taught the panthera this way to kill. She thought the method humane. Now it seems ritualistic and callous. The panthera sinks its teeth into the elk's neck. She tastes still living flesh. She wants to cry but the panthera doesn't let her.
This is all wrong, it’s not supposed to happen like this. It’s too much. The panthera is too powerful. She is trapped, powerless and synchronized with senses that Baucis said were intangible. She's shaking violently inside of its body, screaming. She hears her name.
“Urea, Urea!” The sound comforts her. Its so far away, from the top of the Spire. She summons all of the will she can muster. She forces the panthera to turn and look to the top of Spire. She does slowly, each muscle rebels with resentment, but she does turn. Urea can feel the VRC burn with resistance inside her own skull as it routes her orders through the electromagnetic field in the air and into the panthera's own chip.
The voice is louder, “Urea, wake up! You're having a nightmare!”
Urea's eyes sprung open. Her twin brother Skup was kneeling over her, shaking her. Beneath his long hooked nose, he smiled her own smile back at her when she opened her eyes.
“It was terrible. I was running. I could feel the dirt under my feet, my own feet Skup! I don't even know what that feels like! And then I was an elk, and she was killing me.””
“It’s OK. It was just a nightmare.” Skup said as he brushed her black hair behind her ears. She instinctively grabbed at her VRC, the Virtual Reality Chip embedded at the base of her skull. She moved it back and forth, felt the heat coming off of it. It had been transmitting.
“It’s the third full moon that I've had visions like this.”
“It was just a nightmare.”
“Then why are you here?"
Skup's face dropped, “Baucis has called an assembly. Jacob lost his elk to an unknown predator. It was stabbed in the heart.”
“Just like my dream.”
“No, not just like it,” Skup’s voice was firm, but Urea knew him too well, she could hear trepidation beneath his bravado.
“I should ask Ntelo-“
“So she can tell the whole Spire you’re a dream oracle as well as the Nature's Princess of death?”
Urea glared back at her brother. She looked so much like the panthera she piloted it sent shivers down his spine.
“It’s just a coincidence, that’s what Baucis would say.”
“Since when did you care what Baucis said?”
“Since you’ve been taking Ntelo’s sermons seriously,” Skup retorted. Urea couldn’t help but smile. Skup could never miss an opportunity to make fun of the Naturalists and their high priestess.
“Come on, you’re going to get me in trouble,” Urea said then hopped to her feet, her nightmare forgotten as quickly as it seized her.
“That will be a first,” Skup replied, but Urea didn’t hear him, she was already marching dutifully to the call of the Council.
The Master Ecologist's eyes moved back and forth underneath his closed eyelids. The long slender fingers of his right hand compulsively tumbled two six sided dice, relics of Spire City's past. His left hand jerked involuntarily as he ran with the elk. Fat beads of sweat dripped down his bald head. He was examining the footage, dissecting it for any piece of information he could use. It wasn't necessary to close one's eyes with a Virtual Reality Chip, the embedded computers simply bypassed all sensory input, but reflexes were hard to quell for older patrons. Besides, sometimes a fluctuation in the broadcast signal would cause the brain to receive signals from the eyes and the visual feed from the VRC, a thoroughly nauseating experience to most. Baucis recoiled as the elk's neck snapped; he felt the others do the same. The hunt was over. The master ecologist opened his silver eyes.
Seated around the green felt table was his team of most skilled pilots, as well as a few powerful Councilors, masters of their field, colleagues. The group had just replayed the final moments of an elk that was killed by an unidentified predator. Baucis did not believe the young pilot's assessment, but after experiencing the hunt for himself, he didn't know how else to interpret it. He stood up, clasped his delicate hands behind his back, and silenced his dice.
“It appears the elk was indeed killed by an unknown predator,” Baucis said, the words venomous on his soft tongue, “something undoubtedly capable of using tools.”
The table erupted in argument.
“Impossible!”
“I've foreseen it!”
“Snake eyes you did!” The typical response to anything. No matter the regularity or oddity of a report, the same people reacted the same ways. Urea and Skup could hear it from the hall.
“The people cannot find out.”
“The people will find out regardless.”
The twins strode into the meeting room. All rose for them except Baucis Patrisus. He only looked at them coldly, his gray eyes as revealing as a fog bank.
Urea detested the room. It was hidden away in the back of the games level, somewhere Spire Casino didn't have cameras, not that those operated anymore. There were ancient paintings of skyscrapers on the walls—boastful, petulant reminders of the Spire’s inarguable superiority. A garish yet rusted chandelier hung from the ceiling above the ornate card table. Urea hated everything about the room. The chandelier was gaudy and wretched, a memento of a time no longer and a world lost. The paintings were puerile reminders of their place, high above the world in tower of their own. The whole room screamed of the Spire’s past: the most luxurious casino in the world, a city of sin lifted to the heavens. But the card table was the worst. Its soft velvet top was one of the last pieces of genuine cloth left in Spire City. It was made of actual plant fiber, unlike the carbon-silicate garments they all wore, and even it was beginning to unravel into nothingness. Urea hated the fact that something so beautiful had been used for games. It reminded her that there was a time when people did not have to concern themselves with survival every day. She resented her ancestors. They had taken much for granted.
“The meeting has already commenced,” Baucis said, his face devoid of emotion. Only the wrinkles around his narrowed eyes told hints of his fury, that and the frigidity of his voice.
“Sorry sir,” Urea murmured humbly.
“I went as soon you ordered,” Skup replied.
“I believe you have a flock to tend,” Baucis said icily.
Urea glanced around the table, the other pilots were trying hard not to smile. Sometimes she thought her sixteen year old twin was rebelling for both of them.
“It's
my fault, I had this dream-”
“Irrelevant,” Baucis cut her off, “Last night at 0200 hours we lost an elk. One of the new line, no less.”
“It was stabbed in the heart,” Urea said before she realized it.
Baucis tumbled his dice, then grimaced, snake eyes.
“How did you know that my child?” the woman who had spoke, was the High Priestess of the Naturalists, Ntelo dePious. Urea was fairly certain the name was a fake, everything else about Ntelo seemed to be. Like most of the Council, she was bald, but her scalp was painted with a crown of beautiful vines and insects. That her head was painted this early in the day spoke of her power. Her eyes were a lush green, though Urea was too young to recognize them for the contact lenses that they were. Her face, like her scalp, was painted, though more traditionally, red lips and eye shadow. She was as old as Baucis (not that she’d admit it) yet Ntelo was still shapely. Draped in her elaborate flowing gowns, her skin painted with the tropes of nature, she was beautiful. Only her hands bespoke her age. Veins ran the lengths of her fingers, a flaw she hid by gesturing with them generously.
Urea surveyed the assembled group before answering. Baucis stood at the head of the table, of course. To his right was Jacob, the best elk pilot in Spire City. He was almost as tall as Urea but stouter, barrel-chested like the elk he worked with. He had soft, kind eyes. His skin was dark as olives, one of the few with any color at all. He had black hair like Urea, like all the pilots, but he kept it cropped close to his head.
Next to Jacob was Aurelius, the Council's Media Baron. He was younger than Baucis. He was very handsome, with a strong jaw, keen eyes and a winning smile. Urea though he’d be much more handsome if he’d shave the small mustache he kept closely trimmed and dyed black. Urea knew if it grew out it'd be spindly and gray. But this way Aurelius looked younger, more like the famous pilots. He normally had painted skin, though typically it was subtler than Ntelo’s, but this morning only dabs of almost washed off eye liner besmirched his face. He didn’t even have on a custom habiliment. He wore the standard, loose fitting, silver one, like everyone else in the Spire. Urea had never seen him so under dressed. She had scoffed at Ntelo’s appearance, but seeing Rufus Aurelius so unkempt set her on edge.
Beside him was Tennay, the engineer who managed the electromagnetic transformers that kept Spire City running and safe from the Scourge. His head was hairless as the rest, though darker, olive colored like Jacob’s, and more wrinkled. His back was stooped and his gnarled knuckles clasped a cane, an ornate artifact from the surface. It was made of ivory he claimed, elephant tusks. It would look less fine in hands paler than his. He was the oldest citizen in Spire City. He claimed to have seen the Scourge released. Urea rarely saw him at these meetings, an odd sign he was here. Losing this elk was more important to Baucis than she had realized.
At the far end of the table sat young Phoebe. She was barely ten, (and proud of it), a beautiful skinny little girl. She had a smile too big for her face, a nose too small and big doughy eyes. Most striking was her sparkling hair. It was as black and thick as Urea's, but it shone like biselk antlers when the light struck it. Under the ancient chandelier it sparkled a thousand shades of dark purples, greens and navy blues. Not a soul in the Spire had hair like Phoebe's. She risked Baucis’s wrath and waived at Urea.
Seeing Phoebe gave Urea the confidence she didn’t realize she’d been looking for.
“I told you, I dreamt it.”
“Do you mind if we delay the dream interpretation for your next congregation Councilor Ntelo? There are more pressing matters at hand,” Rufus interjected.
“Indeed. Something down there's using tools! Just think of it!” Tennay said, his voice was a low purr, like a very old, well cared for engine.
“What are you talking about?” Urea asked.
Baucis snapped his finger and just like that, Urea was the elk, running through thick woods she had never seen. She didn't like how the Master Ecologist could override her own VRC so easily, but the footage commanded her attention. Something was chasing her, as the elk. It was not like her dream. It was not a panthera, the patterns it moved in were different. The predator stayed completely hidden. Jacob swore he had seen it at the beginning of the chase, but had not been storing the data.
He had been infiltrating a wild herd of elk and was working to introduce fresh genetics, loaded with the bio-metals. Interbreeding in the garden caused occasional birth defects to arise, a simple solution was to incorporate the wild animals that lived in the nearby plains. Jacob had impregnated wild elk dozens of times, it was a routine procedure. There Jacob was, or rather, there was the biselk he had been controlling, when he claimed to see it. A beast that ran on two legs and threw weapons attacked the herd. He maimed Jacob's elk, and in a moment of abject terror, Jacob lost control and the elk ran. He regained control late in the race, after hours of feeling the elk's terror in his own mind. Urea wouldn't have believed it if not for the last few minutes of footage. Fortunately Jacob was able to synchronize and record the final pursuit.
It-- he in Jacob's words-- threw a blade from the dark of the woods. All that could be seen was a pair of red glowing eyes, floating well over two yards off of the ground, and the hand that threw the blade. The hand changed everything Urea thought she knew. It had five fingers, an opposable thumb, was huge, hairy, and deadly. It should not exist.
Jacob managed to parry the flying blade, then charged at the predator, whatever it was, but it had vanished from sight. The elk stumbled and Urea guessed that the predator had landed on its back. Then, barely a minute later, the elk careened into a tree, and the feed went dead. Urea opened her eyes. The entire room was silent. All eyes were on her. Baucis spoke first: “Do you understand the significance?”
Urea shook her head. She understood that everything she thought she knew had changed. He wasn't supposed to exist, not really. He was a fable, a story to frighten children and pass the time. He couldn't exist, he shouldn't.
“Imagine The Garden with tools at our disposal. Everything will accelerate. The elk will have to adapt to an infinitely adaptable predator. Their antlers can’t even begin to defend against it. We’ll need a whole new set of mutation! All from a new player for my symphony!”
Urea's mouth hung open in shock. Just like Baucis to focus on his symphony. He saw himself as a maestro, the forms of the Evanimals his instruments, the hunts between life and death his orchestral movements. “The Naturalists would love to see a new predator I'm sure,” Rufus added. Baucis nodded in agreement, his eyes seeing five fingered stars.
Tennay cleared his throat. “Small goals, gentlemen. Those hands can build. We can build machines again, exploit resources! Industry can return! If we find a sufficient population we can reclaim the surface.”
“You do realize you speak Blasphemy? We survive the Scourge because of our Spire. You seek to leave it and damn us all!”
“Not all of us believe your silly superstitions, priestess,” Tennay said, his voice laden with sarcasm.
“Still, she has prophesied him. At the very least we'll have to address it.” Rufus was always thinking of the patrons of the Spire.
“Nonsense! No one really believes in him! It's just a way to explain to our children why we're stuck up here,” Tennay said.
Ntelo scowled.
“We must find and capture it, immediately. Any hesitation and we risk losing the animal. It is clearly nocturnal, and probably lives past the mountain range. The Field’s not strong there, so we'll have to capture it before he gets too far. Urea, that will be your responsibility. Once we have it, then we can decide how to best introduce him. Any questions?” Baucis looked around the circle.
Urea had only one: “Who is he?”
Tennay looked to Rufus who only shrugged. Baucis grinned devilishly, but the High Priestess spoke first.
“He is the Wild Man, sent by Nature to scour the blight of humanity from this planet.” Phoebe gasped. Fat tears rolled down Urea's cheeks. Jacob hid his e
yes, but she knew that he too wept.
The Wild Man, Nature’s Warrior, the force of Nature that represented all that was good about mankind had killed one of their cursed biselk. Long had the stories been told of the Wild Man: he waited out there, in the wild, proof positive that man could survive on the surface without the help of anything but his own wits, but that one day, if you weren’t careful, he’d come for you, so be good and he’ll stay down there! The boogeyman they had all worked so hard to keep away had reared his ugly head.
Skup closed the connection as soon as his sister started crying. Skup did not like being excluded from meetings, especially one as important as this. Why did Baucis think he shouldn’t know about the Wild Man? Unlike everything else, he actually agreed with Baucis on this one. They should capture the thing, clearly it was powerful.
No one wanted to hear from Skup. Ever since Urea's panthera was introduced to the Garden, his vultus flock had been forgotten, and him along with them. Now Baucis ignored him too, it was an affront. He knew Baucis was intimidated by him and his sister and sought to drive them apart. They were only sixteen but already the most gifted Evanimal Pilots in all of Spire City. But in light of his sister's panthera the patrons were quickly forgetting about Skup. His flock received none of the respect it deserved.
Before Skup no one could pilot a vultus with any success, much less an alpha male that presided over an entire flock. Without Skup, the flock would have long ago turned on the biselk, and the Garden would be doomed. If the scavengers simply left, disease from rotting corpses would have burned through the herd like the Scourge burned through civilization.
Each bird had a wing span of at least 12 feet. Bio-metals had allowed them to grow perceptibly even in the short time he had been piloting them. They were scavengers originally, but their size made everything prey. They could kill monkeys, the big cats that prowled the jungles near the garden, even an adult biselk, given a pilot with sufficient skills.
Skup was sufficiently skilled. He worked miracles with the flock. He had pioneered ways to use the bird's body that the vultus hadn't figured out for themselves. The flock had taken to adapting his deadly innovations. Skup was quite certain that without him, Spire City would be doomed. And they rewarded him by withholding information about the Wild Man? Who exactly did they expect to pilot the animal if they could actually catch it? Who did they expect to catch it?