Trying not to pant, Nick cautiously parted the foliage in front of him with his sharpened stone-tipped spear. He hoped he could somehow will his pulse to go back to normal. Sniffing at the air, he tried to catch the scent of his pack, but it was no use; the damp environment around him intensified the smells of everything in the vicinity. That, and the fact that he was terrified didn't help.
Nick had managed to misplace everyone, both friend and foe. His tribe was attacked by a small pack of Racer Reptavians. Nick had often wondered if the Reptavians had been placed on the Earth by the gods to test the faith and strength of mammal-kind. Bound together in groups of their own species, mammals quickly had to learn, over several generations, how to work together to combine their strategies and survive against the terrible creatures, which had features of both avians and reptiles.
This particular branch of the link between birds and reptiles had extremely malleable DNA, for better or worse. For the mammals, it was mostly for the worse. Even the smallest fully grown Reptavians posed a huge threat with terrifying speed, sharp claws and toothed beaks, and the ability to travel in packs. Larger Reptavians had horrible abilities like the capacity to store water in a sac and expel it at pressures high enough to cause serious harm, and one species, when threatened, would start to salivate intensely, and this saliva was corrosive.
Nick didn't actually know how many Reptavian species there were, or even if all the stories about them were all true. Each species of mammal had awakened to sapience separately, some over hundreds of years difference, and they all had their own languages as well, though some words tended to be shared among them. Some of the stories about Reptavians had to be rumors, hadn't they? Nick shuffled through the foliage, and he was broken from his thoughts quickly. He gasped tersely and saw a small trail of blood. He sniffed at it; it was mammal, but definitely not of his tribe.
Carefully, he followed the red trail forwards into a clearing where he saw a gray rabbit slowly collapse. She rolled onto her back and grabbed at her wounded leg. Nick wondered if he should help her. The rabbit noticed Nick and shouted a warning at him, pulling out one of her two bone daggers from her sash and waving it at him.
"Away!" The rabbit shouted. "Go!"
"Easy, I'm not going to hurt you," Nick said, holding his spear vertically and showing a cautious gesture. "Huh, I guess rabbits are awakened, then. Where'd you learn foxish?"
The gray rabbit groaned in annoyance, then said some more things and waved her dagger. "Go." She said it softer this time. Nick tried to read her; she looked a combination of angered and scared.
"Did a Racer do that to you, rabbit?" Nick drew a bit closer and he saw her foot twitch as if she involuntarily was reacting to try to kick him, but she just groaned. "Hm, maybe I should introduce myself." He pointed to his chest. "Nick."
The rabbit shot him a disparaging look. "Judy". She pointed to her own chest, then went off on a long rant in the rabbit language, gesturing with her dagger holding hand to the greenery around them. "Danger, Nick!" She repeated a word several times, and Nick grit his teeth at not being able to understand it. "Danger!"
"I sure wish I knew exactly what you were trying to... say..." Nick looked off in the distance and saw the beaked, toothed face of a Racer part the foliage. "Oh, uh, hello." The Racer slowly crept into view, staring at Nick with intense slit eyes. The body of the creature was covered in bright green, yellow, and red feathers, and it had small arms tucked in close to its chest, each with a clawed hand, and clawed feet, as well. It was about six feet tall. "So, listen, Judy. We've just met and all, but I think we should be going." Judy yelped in surprise as Nick scooped her up over his shoulder with his free hand and started to run directly away from the Racer. The Racer bellowed out a screeching roar and gave chase.
Judy's eyes were wide as she got a view of the Racer following them; the same one that had hurt her. She felt her adrenaline start to dull her pain. "Fast! Fast!"
"I'm trying, dear one!" Nick grumbled. He made sharp swerves as the Racer gained on them; someone had told him that Racers couldn't turn so well. Despite that, Racers had their name for a reason, and the distance between Nick and the Racer was quickly vanishing. Nick looked ahead and saw a medium-height tree branch. He grabbed Judy and tossed her up into it. "Save yourself, Judy! Racers can't climb trees!"
"Euh!?" Judy yelped as she saw the branch rapidly approaching. An instant of clarity that she could be safe from the attacking Reptavian briefly crossed her mind. She furrowed her brow, drew her other bone dagger with her other hand, and screamed, instead letting gravity take her. The Racer was almost upon Nick and opened its mouth to lunge for a bite.
The Racer screeched as the rabbit landed on its feathered back. Judy yelled again in defiance and began to wildly stab at its back and neck. Nick dove forward as his last chance to avoid harm, but was surprised as the Racer was making an awful lot of noise and he couldn't feel himself being bitten.
"Judy!?" Nick turned over and scrambled to his feet. Judy was trying to hang on using the daggers as improvised handles as the Racer thrashed about, trying to dislodge her. Nick watched in amazement at the tenacious, injured rabbit, looking for an opening to strike with his spear. In desperation, the Racer dashed itself to the ground, landing on its side, causing Judy to roll across the ground with a pained yelp. Her daggers were left sunk into the creature.
"Nick! Attack!" She screamed in defiance, jerking her head toward the creature, who was already trying to struggle to its feet, but its odd shape was giving it some trouble.
Nick bared his teeth and growled out, carefully aiming a decisive strike with his spear through its neck and up into its head. The attack landed true as a deathblow, and the creature stopped thrashing. Nick sighed in relief, sniffing the air.
"If its call didn't carry to its pack, we might be safe for the moment," Nick said. "I don't smell any more of them..." He exhaled in an impressed huff, looking over the bunny. "You are one crazy mammal."
"Nick, warrior!" Judy had a proud half-smile as she breathed quickly.
"I do what I can," Nick shrugged, smirking.
Pain from Judy's leg crept back in and she cringed. "Hurts..."
"Here, I think I can take care of that," Nick said. "There's a stream nearby, we should wash that." He scooped her up again.
"Nnh...!" Judy flailed a bit in protest, but looking back, Nick saw she was flailing her paws at her daggers that were still lodged in the dead creature's back. She expressed her disapproval in rabbitish.
"No offense, Judy, but I'd prefer you not have your weapons when I go to clean your wound, especially because it's probably going to hurt some."
Judy thrashed a bit more, but when it was clear Nick wasn't going to go back, she just growled in resentment and went limp.
Carefully laying the rabbit down by stream, Judy began to wash her leg, looking up at Nick curiously. Nick was tearing apart one of the bits of his upper garment and went over to a tree and cut a short length of vine from it using his spear. He opened a pouch on his waist and produced some crushed medicinal herbs.
"What?" Judy looked cautious as Nick approached her with the plant matter, laying his spear down. She gave a small howl of pain as he rubbed the herbs on her wound, instinctively kicking at him with her good leg and catching him in the muzzle.
"Ow!" Nick flinched, shaking his head and sniffing, and gave her a stern look. Judy returned the look. "Look, I'm trying to help you, you dumb rabbit. That leg could get infected." Nick carefully wrapped the leg with the material he'd retrieved from his own outfit, and tied in in place with the vine. "There. I'm no doctor, but that should help."
"Nick..." Judy began a somewhat cautious smile. "Help?"
"Hopefully, dear one," Nick nodded, giving a small grin back. Judy began crawling around on the ground, keeping weight off of her leg. She found a sturdy stick and got up, leaning on it. She waved and started to head off, hobbling with the stick to keep weight off her wounded leg.
"Judy go," Judy nodded in determination. "Must..." She looked for the words, but couldn't find them. She made stabbing motions with her hand.
"Where are you going? To get your daggers back, you crazy animal? You should rest!" Nick shrugged, but seeing as it looked like she made up her mind, he waved back. "Ah well, night's falling. The Reptavians aren't very active during the night."
"Safe, warrior Nick!" Judy called to him, trying her hardest to remember foxish words. "Rabbit goddess blessings! Judy see Nick again!"
If he was honest, Nick was kind of hoping she'd stay with him for the evening. He'd never actually slain a Reptavian before, and to have a completely different kind of animal back him up for the battle filled him with some sort of strange, primal thrill.
"Oh well, she is of a completely different tribe, after all," Nick sighed. "She's probably trying to head back to them right now. I should get moving, too, before this adrenaline rush completely wears off and I collapse." Nick lapped up some water from the stream and got up, wiping his muzzle and heading back towards where he thought his tribe might be.
He wondered if he'd ever would see that gray rabbit again.