~Unbound Visions~
~795. M30~
~North-Eastern Ultima Segmentum~
~Nostramo~
~Hungry Vermin~
This was a bad place. An unsafe place.
She had gotten them. All three of the scampering, starved dogs. Wild, bedraggled, and sick with hunger. Their eyes had been wide and desperate as she cut them. That was fine. She needed to eat.
But not there, not in that alley. That place was too close to others, and those others might take her kills, might take her food. She had to move her food to a safer place before eating, and she knew a good place.
It was close to her sleeping-place, close but not too close. If she led her scent back to her sleeping place then it wouldn't be safe to sleep at anymore. The safe-place was tucked away within the cracks of a rubble pile that the bigger humans couldn't reach her in. Their limbs were too thick, too big, and not strong enough. She could crawl into that place, and eat there in the darkness.
Her stomach clenched in pain, growling in demand. Her limbs were weak and sore. Her body was covered in bites and scratches.
She ignored them all. She had to get to the safe eating place first.
She pulled them along by their legs, careful to not move while other people might be watching. Sticking to the sides and shadows, where the others couldn't notice her before she had already moved on. If they noticed her, they would take her food. Then she would have to get other food. She might not be able to.
She moved to pass through a crack in the side of the building, before stopping.
There was an other there. She couldn't see it, couldn't hear it, couldn't smell it, couldn't feel it.
It was there, she knew it was there, she had seen it. She didn't move, staying perfectly still in the pitch-black shadows of the corner she was about to emerge from. Her breath stilled, her limbs stopped, and her hearts slowed.
All that was left was her wide eyes in the darkest shadows of a planet of a dim star.
The other was with two others. One female, two males. The two males were doing something to the female. The female did not want it, she was crying. She was trying to scream. She was muffled, and her limbs broken. They were laughing.
Long minutes passed. Her stomach did not growl, she did not allow it to. It was not safe yet.
She blinked. The sound of a blade dragging through meat. The ambient screams on the other side of the wall had quieted down. She waited until she heard the quiet footsteps move away from the other side.
…It was safe to move. She started forwards again, moving through the shadows along the corners and passing through the alley where there was once three others, but now only one corpse.
She did not like how the corpse smelled. It stank of blood and sweat and dung and something else. She tried her best to ignore it, even as her mind was filled with images of everything that happened to it. They were bad things. She had seen them.
She dragged her kills through the shadows, through the cracks in old walls and ruined structures. There were no plants in this section, those only lived on the upper levels, where there wasn't anything to eat. She did not go there.
She was careful in her return, moving slow and deliberately. She could not be seen by others, else bad things would happen to her. She did not want bad things to happen to her.
She had reached her safe-eating-spot. She moved quickly, clamoring up onto the rubble and down through the cracks. She had to force her kills through the hole, and scrape her limbs on the loose rocks. It hurt her. Her stomach hurt. Everything hurt.
But she was here, and she was in the safe-eating-space.
The three dog corpses pressed up against her in this narrow crack in the rubble. They stank of corpse, and were terribly thin.
She did not bother with the knife, and cutting them up to eat easier. She was too hungry.
Her teeth tore into thin flesh and bit down into weak bones. She tugged at it for a moment, struggling to tear a bite-sized chunk free. Growling in frustration, she finally ripped off her first bite of her first meal in days and quickly chewed. It tasted horrible, it tasted like raw meat and fur, it tasted wonderful, it tasted like food and nourishment.
Her work was methodical, teeth latching onto chunks of muscle and bone and head thrashing until it pulled free from the rest of the body. Then swallowing, and moving onto the next section of corpse.
First the limbs, then the torso, then the organs, and then whatever she could pull from the head. She needed to eat all of it while she could, in case an other comes by and tries to take her kills, or take her. Eat fast and well, and then find something else to kill and keep. She needed to get bigger to stay alive, to stay safe.
The first corpse went down her gullet quickly, she moved onto the second immediately after. She was almost full already, but she would eat until she couldn't anymore. If she fell asleep without being at least that full, the hunger would be almost too strong to move.
It tasted awful. She did not want to eat it.
It was food. She ate it.
She had already done this. She had done this in her dreams last night. She knew about the rat, then the dogs, then the three others on her trip back, then her eating.
She had seen it all before. She had done it all before. She traced the steps. They were safe steps, they were correct steps. She had to follow them, otherwise she might have bad things happen to her. She did not want bad things to happen to her. She did not want bad things to ever happen.
She was almost at her fullest, all she had to do was finish eating the heart on the second kill. She brought up the red organ, before stopping.
She could smell something sweet. Something delicious. Something that she had never smelled before.
She slowly pulled the heart down from her nose, raising her head slightly to sniff the air. Sweet and tasty.
She did not dream of this. Her hearts began to race in fear. There were no sweet things here. Someone had brought something here.
Footsteps at the entrance of the alleyway that led towards her crack. She stayed completely still in the darkness, eyes wide and gleaming. The footsteps were heavy, coming from something very heavy. They were deliberate, unafraid.
Nothing was unafraid here. It was wrong.
The footsteps stopped in the center of the alleyway. She had enough room to scamper up and out of the crack, and away from the sweet-unafraid thing. She could escape. She stayed still.
"Little one?" A voice called out. It was strong and searching. It wanted to find her. It did not sound angry. It did not sound hungry. It was foreign.
"I'm your brother. I've been looking for you." The voice continued. It was gentle, it was soft.
"I have food here, if you want it." The sound of something being unwrapped, the sweet smell intensified. It was food. It was tasty. Her stomach was full, but she wanted to eat it. Her lips moistened and tongue wetted.
She was afraid. This wasn't a thing she had seen.
"I swear I will not harm you." The voice wasn't lying.
Slowly, making sure to not emerge too quickly, she poked her head from the pitch-black shadows of her crack.
There was a giant in the center of the alley. He was sitting down. He was holding a loaf of strange looking bread. None of her dreams had his face.
She stared at him for a long time, waiting for the sights to come. Waiting to see how was going to be hurt, how bad things were going to happen to him.
Nothing came to her. He was sitting there, patiently waiting for her to emerge. He wasn't looking at her, he didn't know where she was. She couldn't see him.
She could run. She was faster than the giant.
The sweet smell filled her nose. She wanted to eat it.
Slowly, she put one limb in front of the other, pulling herself along in the dark. She moved as slowly as possible, careful to make no noises.
She moved as far as the end of the deepest shadows. Her hearts pounded in her chest. She kept staring at the giant that she couldn't see. His chest was slowly rising and falling, he was breathing, he was calm. He was unafraid of this place. He was foreign.
The bread smelled sweet. She couldn't see him being hurt. He was pretty.
She crept forwards more, slowly moving into the less dark shadows and into the dusk light of the alley. She was in the shadow of the giant. Her eyes gleamed in the dark as she stared at him.
He slowly raised his gaze to stare at her. Her hearts thundered.
He smiled at her. It was a smile that wasn't hiding fear. It was a smile that wasn't hiding bad things. It was a good smile.
She had never seen something like that before.
He slowly moved, raising the bread, and breaking off a chunk. He brought this chunk up to his mouth and ate it. She waited a long time for something to happen. He just kept the smile on his face.
The bread wasn't poisoned. He brought up the loaf, offering it to her.
Slowly, she moved forwards. Just as she got close enough, she snatched the loaf from his hand and moved back, waiting for him to do something.
He didn't, simply leaning back and smiling. She stared at him, before slowly bringing the loaf up to her mouth and biting down.
It was tasty.
Tears welled up in her eyes. She couldn't stop them.
She ate the loaf as quickly as she could, even as her stomach hurt from eating too much. She refused to throw up. It tasted too good. It tasted like food and sweet and happy. She forced it into her lips and stomach.
"You've been in a bad place for a while now, haven't you?" The giant spoke. His voice was sad. She looked up to him. He was smiling. His eyes were sad.
He reached out an open palm.
"Would you like to come home with me, little one? I have more than enough food for you."
His face was gentle. His face was kind. She couldn't see him being hurt.
Slowly she reached out a hand, and clutched it around his thumb. He was too big.
His hand was warm. She was very cold, her tatters too thin to keep out the ever-present chill of this place.
She moved forwards, latching onto his clothes and body.
He was warm. Her fingernails dug into his skin, tears streamed down her face. She pressed her face into him, even as he shifted and stood up, and hand beneath her to keep her steady. The chill around her was going away. It couldn't reach her here.
He was warm. She couldn't see him being hurt. He gave her food.
He was a good place. A safe place.
Her tears refused to stop.
—
Petra stared at the thin scamp that brother had brought back from the planet they were sail-flying over. It was freshly washed and bandaged, wrapped up in Eldar clothes and a large blanket. It was bundled up and tucked into the side of her brother, who was writing at the desk in the window-room of the ship. Its face was buried in his side.
It had long and coarse black hair, sickly-pale skin, and gleaming purple-black eyes. It was better than how it looked when it came in a few hours ago, when it smelled of dead things and was covered in filth.
This thing was supposed to be her sister. It was supposed to be her brother's sister. A thin little ugly thing and smelled bad.
Petra did not like this thing currently curled up into her brother like an undignified animal.
Its weakest point was its neck. She could hurt it bad.
Brother wouldn't like that. Petra grunted and looked down at the space-map again. It was very big, almost too big to think about. Olympia was right there, and it would take many days for her to walk all the way around it. It was just a tiny spec on the big map, and they were currently very far away from it. She wanted to know how, she told them to teach her about the Webway her brother mentioned.
They told her she needed to understand other things before it would make sense to her. She insisted.
They started explaining. She didn't understand. She almost tore up her pretty-feathers over it.
It made her mad. She wanted to know right now. But she couldn't. She had to learn other things first.
She told brother about it. He just smiled and told her that she was learning much faster than he did. She didn't believe him, but he insisted, so she would allow him to lie. He had special powers that let him plan things. It was a boring power, but it was good at getting chores done.
Chores like getting the new sister. Petra had been excited at first. That excitement turned into disappointment as she saw what he carried back. It was this thing, currently tucked into his side. It didn't even know how to talk right yet. It talked in some language that wasn't High Gothic or the prettytalk.
"Is something wrong, Petra?" Her brother asked, blinking at her and pausing to sip at the honey-drink. She had asked the servants for a taste, they told her that she had to ask her brother, her brother told her that she had to grow up more. It was frustrating.
"She's boring, and ugly, and was stinky." She explained, listing off the flaws that were present in the creature at her brother's side. She looked at brother. His weakest point was one of his hearts and neck. He had two weak points, that meant she needed to be extra careful around him.
"Petra." He said sternly. His gaze turned towards her as if she had said something wrong. She scowled and turned her gaze to the floor. She wasn't wrong. The weakest point in the floor was at the places where the rivets attached the storage panels to its underlying structure.
"Petra, I would like for you to get along with your sister."
"I am." She reasonably argued.
"Saying mean things isn't getting along with her. How would you like it if someone called you boring or ugly?"
"But I'm not."
"But would you like it?"
She shifted in her chair, tucking her chin into her knees.
"...no." She muttered. She didn't want to look at his face right now. It was going to be disappointed in her. She didn't want to see that.
"...Your sister has a special power too."
…She wanted to know what it was. "...What?" She demanded.
"She can see things before they happen, but she was in a very bad place."
Petra's face scrunched together as she thought about that. If she could see things before they happened, but was in a bad place, that meant that she could see bad things. Petra could see bad things too.
…Bad things like the demon-eye…
"...oh…"
"Petra, can you promise me that you'll try to be kind to your sister? Try to help her? Try to be patient with her?" Her brother asked. She glanced up to see his eyes staring at her. She quickly looked away again, she didn't want to see those looking at her like that.
Be kind, try to help, try to be patient. She scowled. She was doing that. She was pointing out her bad places so the sister could get rid of them.
…Her brother would be upset with her if she said that. So instead she muttered out something else.
"...okay."
She glanced over. Brother was smiling at her. That was a good thing, she basked in it for a moment. Her sister shifted slightly in her sleep. Petra turned her gaze to consider her again.
She frowned. Her sister needed pretty feather-ears. But not from the biggest lizard, that belonged to her. Her sister could have feathers from the next-biggest lizard. Those were smaller and less impressive, which was matching.
Then she would teach sister how to talk properly. That was also required to make her better.
Then some more things, she wasn't sure yet. She turned her gaze back to the map, and stared at all the dots. The weakest point in the table was the intersection of the legs and the flat board on top. Each one was a planet, suspended by Gravity in a void. The void was not actually empty, filled with absolutely miniscule amounts of atmosphere spread throughout. She knew all these things immediately. She wanted to know more.
She turned her gaze to the drink on her brother's side.
She turned her gaze up to glare at him. "I'm old enough now."
"No you aren't." He immediately refused. She grumbled and stared longingly at the mystery drink. She wanted to know how it tasted. The weakest point in the glass was the handle. It probably tasted good.[