Rose Blumen ~ Exogignesthai

(Rose)

We were leisurely heading north, along dissolving ruins between jungle and oceanic side.

The city was in ruins that could have been from an older civilisation than modern, judging from their look.

Night was taking a liking to fishing. She sure can hunt well with a simple spear.

I’m unable to craft myself a good bow around here that would be worthy using for hunting.

Blume, my miss who can craft anything, tries to make one for me. To grow its tendon and curved horns.

R – What can’t you do Blume?

B – Why, being less than awesome of course!

I expected something more clever, but we can still laugh over it.

We’re taking our time as the land is nice and easy to live in.

We don’t head deep into the jungle much. We don’t need to. Wild fruits and vegetable are practically everywhere between the sands and the deeper woods. Also we have no reason to hurry.

We go at the rhythm of the giant egg, which Blume makes crawl like a weird beast, and Nightmare still works on.

N – In a month maybe.

R – I’m really eager to see.

I am. With a smile. I keep teasing Night, calling whatever she’s creating inside, her child. Although it carries more of my original flesh than hers.

And Blume helped too on some aspects I overheard one day. What kind of hybrid monstrosity will ris?

R – Come on, tell me.

B – Nothing special. A being made for this world.

R – Come on, I know that.

B – I don’t know anything else.

Hm. I think she’s not lying. Odd respect of privacy coming from her though...

~

We go our merry way for days like that.

Then one day, I smelled that thing again. That perfume of death that makes me shiver and stop in my tracks.

R – Did you?

N – No...

B – It’s not as I thought... But I noticed it now. That’s... interesting...

R – Hm?

B – I think... Maybe it’s a different trend? Or genre?

R – What do you mean?

B – It might be that... Well, as if all the daiûas and dünyanın çiçekleri we’ve met before were mammals, and the ones here were reptilians. This, makes me wonder if we just didn’t notice encountering them around here because they tend to act differently than us with T.I.?

N – You mean they’re too different from us so we couldn’t detect them like we were used to.

R – An evolutionary bias... You’ve developed and honed a specific sight, that doesn’t work just as well in this new environment?

B – Hum! It could be something like that, yes.

Blume smelled the oddity like me. But her T.I. sensors detect nothing. And Nightmare now feels as if she just realised she was colourblind.

Then she grins in a way that is not unlike something I would do sometimes, realising how wide a blind spot was. Her competitive spirit is fired up.

She grabs her spear, with more tension over her frame.

R – Oh... She wants to hunt what smells of death.

B – Ooh. Scary.

Nightmare runs into the jungle abruptly, still barefoot. I’m confident she’ll return, whatever she encounters, so I wait for her return lazily.

~

As night falls, she reappears onto the sands, dragging an enormous game.

It looks like a furry hippopotamus, or a giant bear of some sort. The head is spooky and unlike anything I know.

It does smell of death... Human death.

As Nightmare begins to skin it, I come to help.

And when the guts are removed from the carcass, instead of burying them or throwing them away, I open them first.

Most of the partially digested flesh and bones inside are unrecognisable.

But I pick up in the stench something that shines. A ring. I recognise small bones from the human hand still glued around transparent flesh. I recognise teeth a little further.

This beast is a human eater, and is also a dünyanın çiçek. Which means that some species around here evolved into this. There may not be any daiûa involved.

And more obvious...

Even Nightmare paused as she heard me saying it.

There are humans alive somewhere around.

~

Unless we were unlucky and lucky to find the last humans around just after they were eaten by this monster, there is probably a community living nearby.

A village or city that this kind of beast can regularly prey upon.

Nightmare got scratches from their fight and nothing more. Her spear hit the heart of the beast on the first strike. She is a skilled huntress.

R – You should see Blume with a sword. She’s terrifying. Clearly better than me.

B – I briefly have been.

Blume wriggled some vines as if to nod. I burry meanwhile the remains but keep the ring.

Then I go to sleep while Nightmare is still outside, cleaning the tools we made from that good scrap metal once.

A town... Really?

I fall asleep wondering.

I can feel my sister’s concern, more than mine, as she unwillingly invades my dreams. Her own fears transpire. She has mixed feelings on the prospect. But she has far more fear than hatred toward humans.

By humans I mean... More human than she already is?

She’s...

~

The meat of the beast isn’t very good as its smell lingers. But I’m not too picky.

Nightmare packs the red knives back and we resume our stroll as Blume follows.

Maybe two days later, Nightmare lost her wings.

N – Something happened. They just bled and died.

R – A beast?

The trees hid something. Rustling noises reaching us. We moved.

Me aside, signalling caution to Blume. Night ahead, spear solidly in hand.

What appeared from the bushes wasn’t a beast but a man holding a hunting rifle.

He almost dropped it in surprise as he met with Nightmare and I.

– Holy shit...

Humans. Survivors.

He was so shocked he didn’t notice anything else weird behind, and invited us warmly to follow him.

~