Feral – A SciFi web series – Chapter 2
Agumbe emerged from the thorny bushes into the clearing that he called home along with Mani. He and Mani had ventured into it a long time ago and immediately fell in love with the place. A place like no other that they had inhabited, it was set in the interior of a series of caves that they had discovered on one of their usual hunts. He still remembered the feeling he had when Mani had ventured into it alone and little later had come out all beaming and declared their new home. Mani had always figured out a way for them to survive.
Agumbe rushed to the cave entrance and into the clearing that appeared just inside. He looked around petrified imagining the worst for his brother but the home was empty. Then he heard the scream again and realized that it was not coming from inside. He rushed back outside and circumvented the cave. His small yet strong feet found the perfect spots to land as his thin frail body cut through the air and navigated the landscape using his arms. His loyal limbs were at their best. He reached the back of the cave and found Mani still screaming his lungs out.
Agumbe had all his concentration on his brother and looked for signs of injury but strange as it may sound, Mani was perfectly fine. He screamed at something that took Agumbe’s breathe away. Just a few feet away from Mani were a strange creature.
This creature looked nothing like what Agumbe had seen or hunted before. It had no head, body or tail and everything seemed to be merging and separating at the same time. As a hunter, they had learned to concentrate on their prey’s eyes to understand its next move but this one did not have one.
Mani slowly moved his arm around distracting the creature. The creature seemed to be following his movements as it danced around reacting to Mani’s gestures. He still had not noticed his brother arrival.
“Mani,” called out Agumbe slowly crouching forward making sure that the creature is not surprised.
Mani did not react and just signaled using his hand. Agumbe reacted to this with a louder call, “Mani”.
Mani turned his head around, glared at Agumbe, and signaled again to remain quiet. There was water pouring from all over his body, his face, shoulder and his back. There was strange sensation that Agumbe felt around the creature as his throat parched and his eyes burnt. Just when he did that a gush of wind flowed from behind the creature. The creature grew in size and Mani stepped back frightened, Agumbe let out a quiet shrill.
The creature now had turned red in color, stood higher than Mani and came closer. The grey cloud rose from the creature’s head and touched the sky. He stepped back, tripped on a stone, and fell on his back. Mani shouted at Agumbe and he knew his brother wanted him gone from here.
Agumbe stood his ground and the creature approached Mani spreading its width on all directions. Mani got up and ran toward Agumbe, the creature moved forward menacingly and Agumbe followed his brother. As they ran, they watched the sky turning dark and heard a loud bang. Agumbe knew this from before. The water falling from the sky would soon consume them. Will it be able to fight the creature? They ran for shelter. They did not stop to witness the battle.
As the brothers sped away from the gruesome battle that raged behind them, the sky darkened and the sun shied away to safety.
Back safely in their home they crouched under the protruding rock as the water pouring through the hole above them filled up their home. Agumbe shivered as his body fought hard to stand the weather. Mani on the other hand stared hard at the sky and tried to communicate with the creature that was doing this to them, high above in the sky.
Agumbe pulled hard on his brother and signaled him to lower his head. Mani disobeyed him and pushed him even further back into the hiding. As Agumbe watched, his brother crawled out of the hiding, stood under the pouring rain, and let himself be consumed by the water. Agumbe screamed and cried fearing for his brother but did not go out.
Mani raised his hand and held it above his shoulder accepting the challenge. As Agumbe watched the rain cover his brother, he felt the same feeling in his stomach. He felt as if his inside wanted to come out. He covered his mouth and stared at his brother losing as the rain lashed out. He could not hold it anymore as his body lurched and his inside came out.
As he recovered from the pain in his body, he noticed his brother standing in front of the hiding with his arms on his hips and smiling. The water had stopped pouring and his brother was still there standing. Mani nodded his head continuously indicating his victory over the rain and held out his hand.
Agumbe and Mani couched around the caves and slowly moved to see the fate of the creature. As they reached the clearing where Mani had faced it, they saw it missing. The place was awash and only a small mound of black mud spread across the terrain. Before Agumbe could stop, Mani came out and walked up to where the creature had been before. The black deposit slowly cleared away as the water took it along to the bottom of the valley. Mani bent over, picked up the wet mud in his hand, turned, and looked at his brother. Agumbe still careful watch him as he held up his closed fist toward the sky and then rubbed it all over his body. Then Mani let out a blood-curdling scream.
