Fledgling

by Octavia E. Butler

I tried to remember something more about myself—anything that had happened to me before I awoke in the cave. Nothing at all occurred to me.

I knew I should have shoes on. In fact, I knew I should be dressed. But I was bare all over. I was naked.

My skin was scarred, badly scarred over every part of my body that I could see.

I felt my head and discovered that I had almost no hair. I had touched my head, expecting hair. There should have been hair. But I was bald except for a small patch of hair on the back of my head.

On the fourth night curiosity and restlessness got the better of me. I had begun to feel dissatisfied, hungry for something other than deer flesh. I didn’t know what I wanted, but I went exploring. That was how, for the first time in my memory, I met another person.

“All I need is fresh human blood when I’m healthy and everything’s normal. I need fresh meat for healing injuries and illnesses, for sustaining growth spurts, and for carrying a child.”