Ebony's Fable

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The baby was raised into the air, unaware of its surroundings or itself.

Raised by a couple, they roamed the harsh desert scrounging all they could to feed themselves, and her.

Lillith grew up fast as her survival depended on it.

By the age of 2, she was fully grown and as tall as her mother. Malnourished, sure.

But fully grown and were helping with their continued survival instead of being a burden. They searched for burrows, hid and waited to catch the critters making the sand dunes their home, unaware.

She mastered the food-gathering skills her parents taught her quickly. It wasn't very hard when the little creatures were dumb and even weaker than they are. They just didn't fill her up, nor did crushing those soft critters satisfy her tongue and belly.

"Tracks! Lillith, look! Dad didn't lie to you. These are tracks of our people." Lillith's father exclaimed. Ever since she learned how to speak, her father had constantly told her that they were part of a larger community but got separated by a large sandstorm. Her mother had Liltih in her belly and they were too slow, losing sight of their community.

Lilith had assumed she was eaten by her mother and spit out, but apparently not. She didn't know how or why else she would be in her mother's belly, but her parents never explained clearly.

Anyway, she didn't feel any hatred or fear of her mother for keeping her inside her belly. For a full month!

How was that possible?

Her disbelief that she was alive for a full month inside her mother's belly aside, they've fed her and brought her up while she was useless and weak. Unknowingly, she thought that this was a debt that needed to be repaid.

For over a year, half her life. Lilith slowly lost faith in her father's belief, but the tracks on the sand do resemble their own. He spoke of a great livelihood. They didn't have to endure thirst or gather food constantly to keep hunger away.

Lilith didn't know what thirst was, but her parents said the pain in her throat was thirst. It was hard to imagine what it would be like without this constant pain she had had since birth.

The next few days was one of the most torturous journeys of her short life as her parents kept pushing and pushing to keep up and chase the disappearing tracks. Apparently, their community had a few large animals that pulled these weird contraptions that allowed them to move faster. She also couldn't imagine what the thing called wood, or a tree, was. Her parents scratched an image on the sand, but she had never seen one of these structures herself.

The nightly lessons whenever there was a brighter night were what she looked forward to the most. Her parents told her many stories and taught her about many things she couldn't even imagine.

To catch up, they had to move more frequently as these animals get tired easily.

However, Lillith thought her parents to be too blinded. They couldn't hunt properly in their hasty travels. Their stock of bugs didn't last a day. She'd never been this hungry, and the pain in her throat already caused some internal bleeding. Yet her parents' eyes showed more hope than ever, despite them eating half the amount she did.

They kept telling her that keeping a personal stash of food and 'wealth?' was key, but she knew that even if that were true, they didn't have any secret personal stash of food. She was very clear about how much food they could gather a day.

Instead of telling them to give up, she didn't ask for their permission and split up to find food on her own. She didn't know why or where she got the courage to split apart from them, but she just couldn't sit still with the aching in her belly.

She didn't have a shred of doubt that she could find and chase them after she got some flesh food. A specific bug that had more wet substance in its body which reduced the pain in her throat. It was only troublesome that it had sharp and crunchy legs and a shell that hurt to eat. But that was okay, her parents had a hard grey thing they called a rock that could crush it. Doing so would lose some of its wet substance so she might have to endure the pain and eat it raw.

Lilith had recently been having dreams that she never told her parents about.

It was so weird.

She dreamed of being twice her height with bright hair, the colour similar to that of the wet substance found in the fleshier food.

She was strong. Wielded two weird shiny sticks resembling the legs of the flesh food.

The most intense image was that of another person similar in size. Like her father, the person had a broader frame. And the images she kept having dreams off was how the man moved, fought and hunted unimaginable creatures. Not even in her parents' stories are there creatures that big or vivid.

Lillith never told her parents that her success in her hunts had been using these dreams. She unnaturally knew how to hide from a creature's perception better, and unknowingly knew how to read where a creature was going to move. Allowing her to fall flat where a bug was going to run instead of chasing its tail.

She had knowledge that her parents never taught her in her mind all of a sudden. It helped almost immediately. Even made walking in the sand less tiring.

The more she dreamed, the easier her time during the day.

Her body learned how to move, unlike how she naturally did. But there were a lot of things she couldn't copy because she did not have the same body her dream had. She was a lot weaker, and she didn't have the muscles that she had in her dreams.

The dreams weren't all good. There were always scenes of a table full of food, nothing like what she was eating now. And it made the originally normal sensation of pang absolutely unbearable.

Lillith found what she thought would be an abundant burrow. She bit her lip and took out her last stingy bug and gently placed the bait down before hiding herself a distance away.

The instant she heard the way the sand moved, her body locked up.

A long one!

She was repeatedly taught to abandon their bait whenever these long ones are out. The slithering, the tongue flick. One bite from them would be fatal. They were not worth the risk.

'Snake.' Her dream memories started to surface. It was weird how she knew another language in her dream but couldn't speak it.

Endless confidence flooded her mind and body, overriding the puny fear that her parents instilled in her for her self-preservation. They should be panicking and looking for her just about now, as she has been separated from them for quite a while now. She hesitated to erase her tracks like the male in her dream does in the sand so they should find her rather easily.

Yet the lessons she learned from her parents didn't fade. She looked down at herself. She had no sharp weapons. No claws. No fancy fire and those unimaginable….magic?

One moment would be all it took for her to fail and get bitten.

'I just have to avoid getting bitten,' The snake here shouldn't be venomous all over, just its bite. If she was careful, the risk wasn't that high.

Lillith shook her head from the noisy thoughts, it was muddying her external senses and she can't let any signs of movement go unperceived to take advantage of her position.

Thinking she checked the boxes required, hiding from sight, baiting, having high ground on sloped sand to catch the snake once it rushes out for the bait she set. Lillith was quite confident she could squash the head or catch the head and tail before she got bitten.

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The snake must have been hungry, as all creatures in this forsaken place were, as it didn't take long for it to slither out of its hole. Lillith gulped. This thing looked like it had sharp skin. Or the thing called 'scales' in her dream memories.

That moment of hesitation where her head peeked out was immediately sensed. She didn't understand how the snake turned alert and around all of a sudden.

'The sun is behind us. We leave shadows.' Lillith got spooked by the voice in her head but her body didn't share that sentiment and actually dived forward despite having alerted the snake.

The tattered pouch that her mother gave her was wrapped around her arm. Using all her imagination and every fibre of strength she had left, she thought she would grab the smaller creature with ease and pin it down.

The pouch worked; the snake actually hit where she wrapped it around. Except its fangs pass through it as if it wasn't there.

Lillith panicked and was about to fling it as hard as possible by reflex, but the voice stopped her, "Don't let it go, we have to kill it now before the venom kicks in."

She felt a jolt across her very being. The voice seemed so strong that it overrode her reflexive shock to fling the attacking snake as hard and fast as she could.

The snake head was unable to free itself immediately, thanks to the tattered pouch and Lillith quickly used her free arm to grab the thing. The rattled scales indeed hurt to grab so hard, but she knew the moment she grabbed that it hurt the snake more than it hurt her soft, spongy hands.

'Ah?' Lillith was surprised at how fragile the snake was as her grip strangled and choked the thing out relatively easily.

"Good. We can finally eat some meat." The voice in her head sounded excited.

"….how? What now?"

"This is some kind of rattlesnake. Now we see if we're lucky and test its venom against your body. Brace."

Lillith felt the sinking numbness take over her weak adrenaline and collapsed. She was still awake but her muscles cramped and her body shook like a willow tree.

"It's not a strong venom, but our body is too weak and malnourished. The effects should fade soon. Calm yourself and don't bite our tongue."

"Our?" Lillith didn't have the energy to talk to the second voice inside her head.

The second voice lied. 'Soon' didn't come.

Her parents did.

Scooped up in her father's arms and covered in their tears and snot, she felt a little guilty yet more accomplished when she could raise the arm that held the snake.

She was expecting shock, surprise or pride but only scolding for her recklessness came.

Anyway, her parents were rather fluent with preparing this snake for consumption. It didn't look like their first time eating a snake, but they clearly never caught one, nor do they dare to.

"Teach me." She muttered while lying on the side.

Her mother's shoulders drooped in resignation. The reckless act was in the past, fixed. It was more practical to teach her how to process this food instead of continuing to reprimand her.

Lilith listened attentively whenever they taught her anything. She wanted to…she really did.

But her ears shut all the noise out and her eyes were drawn to the red fluid pouring out into the concave rock.

Her heart raced.

Her throat gripped at her.

So much fluid.

That will reduce her throats pain by a lot. Maybe even take it away.

And she has to share this?

But she killed it, alone.

She took the danger.

She hunted it.

"Here," Her mother didn't let her mind wander any further before her head was propped up and the fluid already moving towards her mouth. "Don't forget, there are usually risks to drinking blood raw. We're relying on chance every time we drink a random creature's blood. You can check for parasites on the creature, sickness or other features that may indicate poisoned blood but that only reduces the risk, not remove it completely."

Yet, they risked it.

There wasn't much else to drink around these parts. Those green stuff with spiky needles with bland fluid weren't abundant nor did they contain that much fluid. It was also bitter.

She last carried a few bulky pieces to munch on a few weeks ago and hasn't seen another of these unmoving objects. Even its flesh had some juice, so it was better than nothing.

After the very last drop entered her body, she started to feel bad. Her sudden greed aside, she initially wanted to feed her parents too and not just herself, but she drank everything.

Compared to the thirst, the hunger wasn't nearly as painful. She vowed to herself to push back the flesh to her parents since she drank, they should eat more.

Her mother processed the snake weirdly.

She didn't think why it was weird. The inner voice in her thought it was weird, but also accepted that they couldn't do much.

After tearing its body into smaller sections, including peeling the skin off, her mother dropped it into the sand. After scooping a portion up so that no vermin took it of course.

'Cooking with residual heat in the sand?'

'What is cooking?' Lillith tried to ask, not hoping for her dream to talk back.

'Making ingredients into more palatable food. Ugh, we're gonna be eating so much sand.'

Despite her great conviction, when her mother said that the snake was ready to be eaten, it was like a bug was crawling within her stomach and she still ate half while her parents shared the other half.

'Why can't I control myself?' Liliith tried to slap some sense into herself.

'Eat more, contribute more. Don't overthink it. I'm not as familiar with pushing my hunger down.'

'urgh…what is this feeling in my belly. I can't move.'

"Full, satiated. Your stomach is very small. It stretches but it might be a good idea to keep it small until the surroundings are more plentiful. We'll have to curb our gluttony.'

In a few more hours, Lillith was standing and moving around again.

She never felt more energetic or powerful.

'Still malnourished, we can get a lot stronger even Unclassed.'

'What is that?'

'Not important. We're a little over 2 standard years old, and there is no guarantee there is Classing if you managed to override the—even if you turn 15.'

Lillith only got more confused.

'If I keep filling my stomach, I feel even more of this?' Lillith clenched her fist. Her parched throat no longer hurts as much.

'Feel more powerful? I suppose.'

'What's that supposed to mean?'

'I see it as getting healthy rather than getting powerful. Our current body is just shy of dying from hunger.'

'So we're originally supposed to feel like this at all times?'

'Healthier than this.'

Lilith felt that the dream voice got clearer over time and now it was like a second voice inside her head alongside her.

They weren't able to converse in peace before her father started shouting and ran ahead of them with his skinny legs.

'He's even more starved than both of you combined. He's a good man, but also not very smart.'

'My father's not dumb!' She yelled out.

'You people seem human enough. Males are generally stronger. He should eat more, maintain fitness and use it to hunt. This dessert isn't that void of creatures since they know the dangers, which means there is food to hunt. That would be a more efficient way of being a provider for the family.'

'?' Lillith didn't get to understand the long sentence before she was dizzy by the shouts, noises and array of moving objects. So many adults like her parents.

'Basic language, some lousy carts and camel usages. Not as primitive as I was prepared for. I guess I was supposed to live through 756 lifetimes of desires but skipped them. Anyway, those fibres can barely be considered clothing, I suppose there aren't any such materials for better clothing.'

"Lillith? Wonderful name." Someone that had rougher features not unlike her father looked down at her.

"Lillith, say hello." Lillith was passed around, and her parents went to say hello and greet every single person in this group while also introducing her.

Nomadic group of almost 20 people. Or so the second voice in her head noted.

Unlike her cheerful father, she could tell that not everyone was as excited about reuniting with 2, now 3 lost members of their community. She couldn't hear their whispers when they were a distance from her.

'Curious about the mixed reception?' The second voice asked.

'What is reception?' Lillith was still trying to wrap her head around all the new experience. The people, the giant animal tied to those wood structures she heard about.

'How they're receiving your family's reintroduction into the community.' To be honest, this explanation wasn't clear to her either.

'Yes, they do not look…excited.' These people had the opposite reactions from her parents.

'One woman, one child, one frail man. Just more mouths to feed, less food for themselves.'

'It's all about food?'

'All about survival.'