Year : 771
A little more than 3 years after the Cell Game
Unfortunately for him, 17 had obviously underestimated the difficulty of the task. He had been flying over the savannah for more than two hours now, unsuccessfully. He was having a hard time spotting such small animals from the sky.
He had tried to get closer to the ground, but this savanna was huge, and there were so many places where this mongoose could hide. Bushes, burrows, rocks... He had looked absolutely everywhere.
Of course, he had finally spotted some mongooses. Lots of them. Too many, for sure. These little weasels were so abundant. Ruri had given him several pictures of the one he was supposed to bring back, but he had found himself absolutely unable to recognize the missing female. To him, all these animals were absolutely identical!
"How am I going to do now? "
He hesitated for a long moment. Should he bring back all the animals? But how ? Returning to the camp empty-handed and thus losing to Ruri seemed unthinkable to him. It was both a question of personal pride, but also because he strongly feared the interrogation he would not fail to undergo on his return. Looking at his watch, 17 realized with some anxiety that the 3-hour deadline was now almost reached. He had just spotted a group of about 20 mongooses, the largest he had seen so far.
"Well," he said to himself, "I have no choice. I can't bring all these critters back at once. Hopefully she's in this group. Ruri couldn't have found such a small beast on the savanna by herself. So she'll probably come back empty-handed. Then I'll just have to bring her back here. Either I'm right, and I win, or I'm wrong, and it's a draw. It's always better than losing. "
Satisfied with his idea, 17 memorized the place well in order to be sure to find his way back, and returned to the camp. He reached the camp just before the deadline. He was pleased to see that Ruri had not yet arrived. In order to avoid having to argue with the rangers, he immediately went to the rock he had previously used, and sat down to wait quietly.
Minutes passed, during which the humans in the camp went about their business without paying attention to 17's presence. Some of them made gestures of greeting to him yet, and of course 17 did not respond.
Half an hour went by.
17 was starting to feel like the time was passing slowly. Not that he wasn't patient. With his sister, he had no choice but to learn to wait, especially when she was looking for clothes. But it seemed abnormal to him that Ruri was late. In this particular case, he couldn't help but wonder if the young woman had had a problem. Although the idea did not really enchant him, he finally resolved to go and talk to the forest guards.
He then approached the first one he saw, and grabbed him by the arm to immobilize him before questioning him:
- ... do you know where Ruri is ? he asked.
- Hey, fella ! I'm glad you decided to talk ! You're looking for her ? I have no idea, she went that way, answered the human, indicating the northwest. Are you worried about her?
- No.
- Ah. I thought so. Anyway, don't worry too much, Ruri knows how to handle herself very well, she's a real pro! Are you her boyfriend?
- No.
- Oh, I thought so. It's not often that she brings us a boy, so I thought...
- Do you have a way to ... contact her?
- Oh no, she must be out of battery, her phone's not answering. She said she'd be back in three hours.
- It's been 3 hours and a half.
- Already? Oh yes, it's strange. When she gives a time, she usually respects it. But it's true that she always tends to get herself into impossible situations. Haha to be her boyfriend frankly, it must not be easy, hahaha !
- ...
- You're not her boyfriend, are you sure?
- No.
- But you would like to be, right?
- No.
- Ah, I thought so. She's cute, isn't she?
- ...
- ...
- ...
- I say this because you know, we all love her here. We knew her when she was just born, and then since, you know, what happened three years ago... we all feel a little responsible for her, you know?
- ...
- She looks like a hothead, but she's very careful. Her only real flaw is that when she has an idea in her head, it's impossible to change her mind, but you already know that, right?
- ...
- Well, I have to go back, don't worry, your girlfriend is safe!
- She's not my girlfriend.
- Ah, I thought so. See ya !
17 remained perplexed. Ruri was cautious, of course. He had seen Ruri in action, he knew what she was capable of and trusted her knowledge of animals. However... this human had just told him that she was not normally late.
"I hope you didn't act stupidly, human! ".
3h45. 17 decided to go looking for her. After all, he was accompanying her precisely to ensure her safety. And anyway, he was moving fast, so going back and forth wouldn't take him too long. He moved away from the camp, and as soon as he was out of sight of the humans, he flew to the northwest, where apparently Ruri had gone.
In a few minutes he had managed to cover a great distance in a straight line, but there was no trace of the young woman. With the camera in his eyes he could see many details at ground level while remaining high enough to have a very wide view of his surroundings. If she was in the vicinity, she could not escape him. And yet, she was nowhere to be found. There was only one explanation: Ruri had not continued in a straight line. So he continued his search in the surrounding directions.
After a while, he saw several cars below him. Intrigued, he went down a little to be able to observe them more closely. There were five jeeps with several men in them. 17 did not remember them, obviously they were not present at the camp when he had arrived. On closer inspection, Ruri was not among them. "Maybe they are other rangers? "17 thought, "Anyway, it doesn't matter. But where did she go? ".
It took him more than twenty minutes before he spotted something suspicious. In the distance, he saw a huge gray mass and a much smaller shape moving around it. Small enough to be a human. He accelerated immediately, and once he was positioned right above it, he saw that it was indeed Ruri. She was standing close to a huge animal that he couldn't recognize.
This animal were motionless, while the young woman went around it, remaining at a distance. 17 went down to join her, and landed right behind her.
"Can you explain me what you are doing? "He said to her, quite annoyed.
When she heard him, Ruri jumped and shouted, before turning around and exclaiming:
"AAAAAAAH! Are you crazy ? It's not okay to scare people like that, I almost had a heart attack ! ".
17 was about to answer her, but in less than a second, Ruri rushed to meet him, put her arms around his neck and cuddled up to him. "Oh I'm so glad you're here, I've been waiting for you for hours, thank you, thank you for finding me, I didn't know what to do! ".
Her reaction was so fast that 17 had absolutely no time to anticipate it. For 5 seconds he remained perfectly silent and motionless, disconcerted, with his arms flailing along his body.
He had no idea what to do. He was not very comfortable with physical contact in general, but more importantly, he did not expect her to act like this at all. He sensed that she was very upset. He could hear the concern in her voice. Fe felt her heart beat, very close to his, and more and more strongly. She was trembling, with all her body. Obviously, she was not well at all. But if he had well identified her distress, he had no idea on how a human was supposed to act in this kind of situation.
- Um," he said hesitantly, "why are you... like that? It's because I scared you ?
He felt Ruri's body tremble again, this time shorter and faster. In fact, she was laughing softly.
- No, you idiot, not at all. Not at all. It's just that ... I've been thinking so hard about you, hoping you'd find me.
- Idiot ?
Ruri then sat up very slowly, looking into 17's eyes. Ruri smiled at him, with the mischievous smile that amused him so much.
- I've said it twice now, and I'm still alive. It looks like I'm getting special treatment!
- Indeed," 17 replied.
- I appreciate it. I like the idea of not being treated like everyone else. Especially since this time I'm the one who deserves to be called stupid.
- Why?
- Because I left without thinking for a second that we'd have a way to get in touch.
- Did you have a problem?
- No. Her.
Saying this, Ruri turned around and pointed to the animal that 17 had seen earlier. The shape looked familiar, but he couldn't identify it clearly. This happened to him frequently. Because of the loss of his memory, there were many objects and things in the world that he could not name, even though he was sure he had seen them before.
This gray mass, with big ears and horns, he had the name on the tip of his tongue.
- It's an elephant," said Ruri, who definitely had a gift for guessing what he was thinking. A young female. And she's in bad shape.
- What's wrong with her?
- She got her paw stuck in a hole. I don't know why but she can't get out. When I found her, she was already as you see, motionless. She must have been stuck for hours, maybe even longer. She is probably starving, dehydrated and exhausted. I tried to approach her, she's so weak she can't really defend herself, but it's impossible to see what's going on. I tried to call the rangers, but my cell phone ran out of batteries. I left without checking, like an idiot. So I thought about you.
- About me?
- Yes, I thought that if I didn't come back, you'd end up looking for me.
- And not the park rangers?
- ... not really, they know me too well. They weren't going to worry about a little delay. You were my only ... hope.
- I was?
- Yeah, because you are ... the way you are. You can get her out of there. You have to get her out of that hole and get her to drink quickly. Even if the rangers had come, they couldn't get this heavy animal out quickly. But you lifting an elephant shouldn't be too difficult, right?
- No.
- ...Hahaha really, I love this side of you.
- What side?
- Lifting an elephant? No problem. Stopping that giant deer with your bare hands? Okay. Hahaha, you're so sincere when you say that, don't you even see that it's ... surprising?
- Yes, I do.
- Hahaha you're doing it again! You're good at making me laugh, you know ? Will you help me get her out of there?
- Yes.
- Thank you. She shouldn't struggle. Just take it easy, okay?
- Okay.
17 then moved towards the elephant. She opened one eye, so she was still conscious. However, as Ruri had said, she was no longer able to move, so 17 was able to get close enough to touch her. He examined the hole. It wasn't very wide, but it seemed deep. He placed his hands under the belly of the animal and tried to lift her up. But he soon realized that something was holding her paw down. If he continued to push, he would undoubtedly hurt her. He returned to the hole to examine it.
Not detecting anything in particular at first sight, he decided to plunge his hand in. He felt a strange, sticky substance under his fingers. This was what was holding the animal back and preventing her from getting out. Delicately, 17 took hold of the elephant's leg with his left hand and lifted it off the ground, just a little. At once filaments of the substance formed, and with a sharp blow 17 cut them off with his right hand. Then he returned to his position near the elephant's belly. And this time he was able to lift her without any difficulty. Carrying the animal on his back, he took off slightly from the ground, and turned to Ruri.
"So," he said, "what do I do now? "
From where she were, Ruri couldn't really see what he had done to manage to free the elephant. But she was amazed. There he was, in front of her, carrying an animal weighing several tons on his back as if it was the easiest thing to do. He didn't even look like he was making an effort, and he looked at her with such a detached and natural air that he was able to make « normal » a situation that clearly wasn't normal.
However, she quickly came to her senses.
- The priority," she replied, "is to get her to drink. There is a water point not far away, on the left. You have to take her there. Fly slowly and not too high. Once there, drop her off near the water, and make her drink. You may have to force her a little bit but that's okay.
- Okay. What about you?
- I'll meet you there.
- How?
- Don't worry, I know what I'm doing. Come on, go quickly!
17 complied and took the animal to the nearest water hole. Once alone, Ruri went to the hole to examine it. It was well dug and regular. She patted the earth at the bottom of the hole, and felt the sticky substance that covered the bottom.
No doubt about it.
"A trap ... " she muttered, before setting off to join 17.