Artavus Quill

It took a few attempts to pull the bag from the fallen hollow limb. Moss had grown around the fabric surface, locking it into place. Felix tried whacking the outside with his severed ant-limb hook-club thing, but it simply rebounded with a dull thud. Finally, he decided to sit bare-assed on the dirt, hook the ropes that bound the package with his grappler, brace his feet against either side of the hollow opening, and pull with all his might. Things tore, legs cramped, but it moved. He tried again, and with a wet scraping noise, it dislodged—close enough for him to reach by hand.

A little wiggling did the trick, and the bundle crowned from the opening. Felix wrestled it free and penguin-walked the care package back to the assumed safety of the tree, rolling it through the opening. Once inside, he frayed the bindings, unfurling the wax-coated cloth.

It was a jackpot of supplies! Large sections of linen fabric, obsidian blade pieces, long cords of leather, tufts of a cotton-like fiber, chunks of flint. And there, wrapped in yet more waxed paper, was a fistful of meat jerky! Felix tore off a strip and chewed, falling backward, eyes watering in delight.

He didn’t like Z. Actually, he kind of loathed her. But, in this moment, he could kiss her.

OMG, this is fucking good! his limbic system exclaimed as the savory combination of salt and fat saturated his taste buds.

Reluctantly, he wrapped the remaining rations back in their packaging and surveyed the rest of the gear.

The large pieces of fabric didn’t seem useful for much besides clothing, with the leather cords serving as fasteners. Felix wrestled with the ungainly squares, trying to find a way to make them resemble an outfit. Unsuccessful, he picked up one of the obsidian wedges, cut a long slash through the center, and lifted it over his head.

“Hah… poncho.”

He secured it around his waist with some of the leather cord.

Several feet of cord remained. He looked at the sharp obsidian spike in his hand, then at the insectile limb.

“Ehh… not yet.”

This is a win. Let’s not get carried away.

Felix tossed his supplies back into the waxed cloth, poked holes through the corners, and threaded the remaining cord through to create a sling. With most of the fabric now serving as a makeshift toga, the bundle became far less bulky.

His stomach growled.

By now, one of the shafts of sunlight filtering through the woven tree had reached the ground. Felix hurried to where the beam was most concentrated and used his hook to etch a shallow groove in the sod.

Immediately, he noticed a white filament-like substance in the soil. It wasn’t moving… but it wasn’t exactly still, either. It seemed to reach, as though trying to close the wound.

He looked up at the other streams of light. Their angles were climbing higher as the sun crested overhead, though it was still morning.

The note, he thought. Z wants me to go somewhere. Presumably far away, and somewhat clandestinely. And this is all I have? Not exactly a success story.

Felix tried the monitor again.

Still dead.

He looked at the shafts of light.

Will they even hit the panels? Maybe I can map the solar path?

He glanced back at the gouge in the soil. The light had barely moved.

His stomach growled again, and he thought of the jerky.

Bad idea. I might need that later.

There was time before the sunlight moved enough to reveal anything useful.

He needed sustenance.

Fuck it. Ants.

Felix shouldered his sling, grabbed the grappling hook, and made his way back to the eastern opening. He stepped out onto the trunk, standing over the cliff with the ants below.

He looked out across the strange-colored sky, the lush forest filling the valley beneath him, a thin wisp of smoke still rising in the distance.

That has to be man-made.

Using his hook, Felix began making his way back down the cliff toward the cave entrance. Again, what should have been an arduous climb seemed strangely effortless.

He crouched in the entrance, readying his weapon in case his hosts had changed their minds about him.

The familiar scene persisted.

A few worker ants tended a row of cocoons, the previously opened one now gone.

Felix surveyed the ground for additional tools, but the floor was clean. Other ants meandered past him, carrying scavenged items into the hive.

He lowered his bag to the ground and opened it.

One worker ant wandered over, curious about his finds.

Felix froze.

The ant approached his gear. Instinctively, Felix poked it with his hook, expecting resistance.

The ant clacked irritably, turned, and scurried away.

He retrieved the waxed paper that had contained the jerky and, using one of the leather cords, fashioned it into a crude canteen. After repacking his supplies, he crept toward the writhing cocoons, eyeing the worker ants for any reaction.

The one closest to him stopped mid-sip of its cocoon juice and approached.

Felix froze again.

The ant brought its mandibles to Felix’s face, dripping with the liquid.

Felix almost laughed at the absurdity of the situation, but hunger and self-preservation won out.

He leaned forward and licked the syrup, feeling the hard surface of the ant’s carapace against the tip of his tongue as the sweet liquid coated his mouth and nose.

“Mmmm.”

He hummed approvingly, nodding in exaggerated appreciation.

The worker, apparently satisfied, returned to tending the cocoons.

Felix used the opportunity to collect a bead of secretion from another pupal casing in his makeshift canteen. The body inside the cocoon squirmed lazily.

Looking about the space, even though it had only been a few hours since his terrible emergence, he couldn’t help but notice a purposeful efficiency to the operation. His mind flashed back to the woman he’d seen dismembered. A well of sadness pushed into his mind, though it was quickly replaced by pity, then acceptance.

Felix looked up, again seeing the plated aft section of some giant insect.

“How big are you?”

Felix spoke out loud on impulse, catching himself and looking around anxiously, but the ants didn’t seem to mind.

It occurred to him that if the cave continued upward far enough that an animal of that size could stay mostly out of sight, then when he was at the tree above, he may have only been ten feet or so above it.

“Why?”

Felix looked at his hands, assessing his condition, but nothing came to mind. In all, he felt somewhat unencumbered by the situation. If anything, the feeling of exploration seemed foremost.

That seemed odd to him, and he tried to recount the events. As he recalled each, the oppressive feelings weighed on him, but returning to the present, those feelings simply vanished.

His stomach growled.

Gathering his things, Felix moved back to the entrance of the ant cave, looking out toward the wispy smoke. The sun now stood high in the east. The sky was a strange iridescence of greens and purples, the canopy a blend of various trees, birds soaring in the distance of the mountain valley.

He looked down the rocky, root-covered cliff face. Slinging his hook and pack, Felix began to descend.

Moving root to root, and fissure to fissure, Felix made easy work of the descent. Ants passed him intermittently, returning with some find to the brood.

He passed below the treetops of the surrounding forest, and the world became shadow-covered. The sounds of insects, frogs, and other moving things overtook the emptiness of windy echoes.

At last, Felix’s feet touched the cold, damp, sod-covered earth.

He looked about his surroundings, anticipating some threat, but there was nothing. It was like any other mature forest, with broad trunks and sparse undergrowth. The ground was covered in moss and tree litter, the cliff wall lining the border between two worlds.

An ant scurried off through the trees.

A gurgling sound caught Felix’s attention from the right, southeast of him. He drew his hook, readying the mace-like tool.

There it was again—a spurting sound.

Felix chanced closer.

Coughing. Choking.

Felix began to recognize the sound of someone in distress.

“Is someone there?” he called out.

The sounds stopped for a moment, then returned: coughing and wet noises.

Felix moved toward the source of the noise.

After only a few paces, he rounded a small rocky crag, seeing the shape of a naked man twisted at unnatural angles. Bones protruded from flesh. His mouth was covered in blood. His body was coated in a thick layer of clear slime, with leaf litter stuck to the surface.

Felix rushed to him.

The man was trying to speak.

“Spreerfffll.”

Coughing.

Felix could see that the man’s legs were destroyed. His back was twisted, and his neck lay at an unnatural angle. His eyes stared blankly at the sky.

An ant scurried by.

Felix knelt close.

“Can you hear me?”

The man’s motions barely changed, but they did change.

Felix performed a mental assessment of his equipment, then assessed the man’s physical condition.

It was bleak at best.

Felix stood and looked toward the forest.

“Sir, if you can hear me, I’m going to try to help you. I know that you are in pain. Are you able to close your eyes so I can clean your face?”

The man’s eyes fluttered briefly, then closed.

Felix brought his hook hard down on the man’s skull.