Webber's POV
The next morning brought new adventure. Wilson had decided to stay back at where our makeshift base was gradually showing up, and WX had stayed with him. Before we left, we heard them arguing about the book.
"WX! Come on! Just let me look at it!"
The robot had arrogantly turned away, tipping his chin upwards like he always did. "NEVER! YOUR PUNY FLESHLING MIND COULD NEVER COMPREHEND WHAT LAYS INSIDE OF IT!"
"That's why I want to look at it! So I can understand what it mean- come on!"
"YOU'LL NEVER UNDERSTAND IT!" And with those last words, he got up once more- as customary for him nowadays whenever he started an argument- and stalked out of the clearing- at least not the same way as last time. We caught Wilson muttering under his breath. He let out a sigh that hinted that he was trying very hard not to say or do something but his patience was running out.
We said nothing, just calmly stood and brushed the dirt off of our knees. Hunger was beginning to tug at our senses. So far, we had noticed the other two foraging for berries and such, but we craved meat. We hadn't even attempted to get any sort of food ourself. This was not starvation. We had felt starvation before. This was a simple hunger. Still didn't mean that it was starting to gnaw at us. We nodded once to the scientist, then prepared to set off as well, in the direction opposite of the frog ponds. Day three. Had it already been three days since we arrived? The first night was probably the worst for all of us. It had been uncomfortably dark around our campfire, and when we tried once to step out into the night, we could've sworn we heard someone whisper our name in our ear. Ever since then, we had decided to never go into the darkness again.
Shaking away these thoughts, we decided that maybe we could get something productive done and scout a bit. Whether or not we would keep moving or stay at our fire was beyond us. We stopped for a moment and let the smells of the forest smother our senses. Up ahead, the sun was shining cheerfully, bathing the woods in a soft golden glow and speckling the ground with rays of light. After a moment of concentrating, our mind latched onto what we were searching for and run ahead on light feet. The forest began to thin out before we broke out into plain, golden grasses as far as the eye could see. Our eyes caught on the one thing we wanted to see. Large, brown-furred rabbits. Whiskers twitching in excitement, we followed the creatures' movements. Hunting was never our forte, but something like rabbits should not be a problem. They wouldn't know what hit them. We looked around for a moment, looking for something sharp to hunt with. That'll do! There was a thick, sharp rock on the ground a few paces away. We grabbed it and moved slowly over to one of the rabbit burrows, situation ourself between it and the rabbit that nibbled mindless on the grass nearby. Something must have spooked it though, because it paused and rose onto its hind legs, sniffing the air cautiously. With a sudden scream that made us jump, it fled backwards and right into us. We quickly killed the beast with a stab to the throat with the rock, then lifted it to examine it. It was big, but we knew from experience that not much of that was edible meat. At the moment, however, we did not care. We grinned. At least we knew that we had a supply of meat.
When we got back to camp, we saw Wilson's eyes widen at the rabbit in our hands. "Where did you find that?" He asked.
"There's a grassland over there that has a bunch of these," I answered calmly. "They're really not hard to hunt at all. They're pretty dumb. Can't survive off berries forever."
He nodded, a smile spreading across his face. "Do you know how to prepare meat?"
We nodded. "Our father used to keep goats. He taught us how."
He let out a nervous chuckle. "Good, because I don't know how to."
We snickered. "We can teach you how?"
He was silent for a few seconds. "Why do you talk like that...?" He asked tentatively.
We paused for a second. "Like what?"
"Well... you say 'we' instead of 'I'... why?"
We wondered for a moment how to explain without teasing old memories or breaking his mind. "When we were five, we were eaten by a spider. Now, we think together." That was a little too far, because our chest ached for just a second after saying that.
"R-really? You know..." he chuckled again. "It's not scientifically possible for a spider to be of human-eating size..." he clamped his mouth shut as we felt the old feeling stir up again.
With a forced smile, we shrugged. "Nothing around here is scientifically possible. You just haven't seen much of it yet." He seemed to turn a shade paler at the ominous words, but before he could start up the questioning again we turned back to the grassland. "We'll go hunting again, and we can show you how to prepare live animals tonight, 'kay?"
"O-okay."
By the time we got to the grassland again, we were aware that we weren't the only ones to have discovered it, and it just so happened that the other one to have found it was WX, and he was intent on his own hunt. He wasn't fast like us though, he was heavy and clumsy. We grabbed the flint from earlier, grinning madly as it ran right into us. We lunged forward and stabbed it in its throat, feeling it go limp.
The robot stomped his foot. "HEY!" He protested. "THAT WAS MINE!"
"Yours?" I barked a laugh. "Should've gotten it first, then." We noticed a tension in his limbs that suggested he was holding back a lot of anger. Our grin only widened, which apparently he took as further aggression.
"ARE YOU TRYING TO START SOMETHING?" He growled under his breath.
Were we trying to start something? Had we gotten so used to fighting that that was we could do now? "Maaaaaybe?" As we met his glare evenly, realization hit us like a rock. This was not about the rabbit. He hated us. Being stuck with us for even three days was enough to round up enough hatred for him to hate us. This word was enough provocation, because next thing we knew, we were on the ground and our left cheek burned like fire. The pain disappeared in an instant to be replaced with fury. Back on our feet in an instant, we tackled him to the ground. Shock flared in his 'eyes' as though he did not expect us to be able to retaliate so quickly. We weren't used to fighting machines, but he acted so natural it was easier than we expected. He pushed us off as though we were a leaf and instantly took advantage of our surprise to use his weight to pin us down and put what felt like all of his strength to punch all out at our face. The biggest problem with this one that we were not used to...
He. Was. Heavy. When we finally managed to push him off, we were sure our jaw had been broken and maybe some of our ribs just from his weight. The second we were back on our feet again, we launched ourself at him, causing both of us to tumble down back towards the forest, which was located down a slope. The breath was suddenly knocked out of our chest as we were rammed into the trunk of a thick pine tree. WX jumped back in an instant even though we were temporarily paralyzed in shock and our stomach and throat were wide open.
The ground was shaking, or at least, it felt like it was shaking. We didn't realize that we had landed on a half-buried root until it was yanked out from under us. Reality crashed over us like a wave as soon as we saw the trees branches morph into limbs.
The tree was alive.
Without the breath in our lungs, we could not run until we could get it back, and the paralysis lasted until, without warning, WX grabbed our arm and started to run, apparently trying to get us away from the beast even though this very same robot was trying to kill us just seconds before. He looked over his shoulder at us, and we noticed pure terror dancing in his gaze. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING? ARE YOU TRYING TO GET US BOTH KILLED? RUN!"
"What is that thing!?"
"SOMETHING YOU DON'T WANT TO MESS WITH! SPLIT UP!" The shouted direction took a second for us to process, but by the time we figured out what he said he had taken off in a separate direction. Hoping his plan would work, we quickly changed direction to run in the opposite direction he had. A frustrated roar followed by heavy stomping in our direction told us it was giving chase, and we had to scrabble over thick roots and push away trailing branches just to keep somewhat of a lead on it. Before we even knew what was happening, the beast had gained on us and the breath was driven once more from our lungs as it swiped at us, not quite impaling us but sending us crashing into a tree painfully. Luckily, this one did not turn to attack as well. It wasn't much for keeping our spirits up. We lay still, unsure if we even could get up again, and the beast stayed put for a good hour, before aiming one last blow at where we stood, forcing out a silent wail of agony as white hot pain ripped through our legs, then stomped off again with grunts of satisfaction. It must've thought we were dead... Or are we dead? Wow, we've been here a grand total of three days and already dead. Good job, Webber. Great surviving skills!
Something must have happened after that. We must have passed out or something, because next thing we were conscious of was being on some sort of grass bed. Our jaw stung like fury, and the pain in our legs was almost unbearable. But what mattered was that we were alive, and once again, at camp. We wondered for just a few moments who brought us back, but the train of thought was completely derailed as we attempted to say something to the figure by the fire- most likely Wilson- and the pain in our jaw struck back with a renewed strength. We must have been able to do something to alert Wilson of being awake once more, because he turned around and his steady expression melted into relief. "You're awake!" he breathed. "You're actually awake! I would've thought that you would've been out out for much longer than that..." he tapped his chin thoughtfully. "I might have to look into that, but thank goodness you're alright. No- don't try to talk," he sputtered as we braced ourself against the torture of moving our jaw to speak. "It might make it worse."
Being unable to speak, we raised an eyebrow, flinching.
"Your jaw is severely bruised. I can't tell if it's broken until the swelling's gone down. Your legs, however, appear to have been shattered." He blinked, then narrowed his eyes. "Don't tell me you two fought. Ah, I can tell by the look on your face you're still confused. You see, after WX told me what happened, I asked about you. He said he didn't know nor care- as to be expected- but at least had the decency to show me where you two had been attacked. The-uh- broken tree limbs and felled trees told me the rest."
"What was that thing?" I forced, causing Wilson to flinch and look even more worried.
"The tree guard?" He asked, and we nodded. "It's-well-a tree guard. Pretty nasty creature, I can't tell you anything about it you didn't learn from being chased by it like that."
"How...?"
"How... how do I know what it's called?" He guessed, and grinned madly as he revealed the black book, the very book WX had been trying to keep him from getting to, under his arm. "It has all the mysteries of this place... all the creatures, all the fauna, all the... victims..."
"Victims?"
"Stop that," he demanded. "You're making it worse on both of us. But yes, the victims. Everyone that... he... has tricked."
Maxwell. The name flared in our mind, burning the searing picture into our thoughts. Was that his name? The man who talked to us...?
"Some of them... some of them have these red 'M's over them... I don't know what they mean... I'm not sure I want to know what they mean. And yes, we have the honor of being one of those. That would've been your next question, wouldn't it have been?"
Most likely.
The next one after that, though, would have been there's MORE!? We're not alone!?
"And... you still look like you have questions..."
How is anyone that good at reading body language?
"Let me guess, where's WX?"
...No...
He shrugged. "He's off doing... robot things. I don't really know what he does when he's not trying to start something other than indirectly starting something, so I can't really answer that question." His eyes softened. "You must still be exhausted from that experience. I can't say I blame you. Tell you what," he added with a hint of adventurous excitement in his voice. "I found a little plain just full of bees not too far from here, and from what I've learned of survival, honey would be very useful for you. Not to mention we might be able to get that arm wound fixed up." Arm wound? We hadn't noticed until now, but a gash had been ripped open in between our wrist and elbow. "Just noticing it now? Good, I was worried that you were having problems with that as well as the jaw and leg thing. I guess what they say about your body focusing on the worst wound is true," he concluded. "You get some rest. I think I can handle WX for just a few days. You need to sleep to heal yourself."
We almost protested about being useless but we cut ourself off as we remembered his earlier reaction to speaking at all. And besides... we were feeling awfully sleepy...
