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16. Unexpected but expected and uninvited guest
🕑 Added 2023-05-02 17:34:42 +0000 UTCClimbing in all of its forms before had been something Liam was never really a fan of, the first time he did rock climbing when he was 13 years old an accident happened and it resulted in his pelvis breaking in 4.
This let him know the joy of being bedridden for weeks in constant pain while not on painkillers and after there was the joy of needing to relearn how to walk normally while otherwise being forced to move around in a wheelchair unable to have any real freedom for the next 6 months. Fun.
Though it was quite different here, being physically able to do feats that he would have never thought he could do such as doing a double backflip on command, one-finger handstand even if he fell a lot at first, or bending metal with ease changed quite a lot about how he saw the world and lived in general.
It gave confidence, a sense of safety to a certain degree but not arrogance, at least that is what he thought, as he knew more than anyone that he is not even remotely close to being unkillable, the long diagonal scar on his back being proof of this fact.
Humans themselves are already capable of extraordinary feats and for him, those possible feats are only amplified and expanded. He could beat all sports world records with ease if he ever wanted, aside from gymnastics or others that needed a stupid amount of flexibility.
Evidently, he was strong but not to the point of him stopping a tractor-trailer truck dead in its tracks but smaller vehicles depending on how fast, how heavy they are, and on what ground he is on that Liam possibly could.
Climbing a dead tree even this tall was not hard physically speaking, it was more on the fact that the tree was more of an extremely smooth pilon of dead organic matter that had nearly all other holds such as branches and holds mostly gone, the possibility of random holes due to mold or rot he couldn't see. And also the tetrapterons flying around.
Planting one climbing pike after another he lifted his body, spiked boot stabilizing him as he carefully climbed all his senses focused on what he was doing and his surroundings.
One of his objectives was 80 meters (~262ft5) above the ground in the form of a blackened branch leading straight to a hole in the dead tree, hearing the distorted eagle screech mixed with crow caws informed him that his presence has been detected and is not welcomed.
One of the tetrapteron that was flying in a circle finally decided to get rid of the strange shining humanoid creature, a creature that felt off, and one that was climbing to their nesting place.
Diving silently its full wingspan of 1,5 meters (~4ft9) wingspans of four wings spread evenly the alien bird rapidly gained in speed and momentum its sharp claws at the end of its talons opened to tear flesh apart. Then it hit, claws slamming against the creature's shining head.
The impact was violent, destabilizing Liam who was in the process of setting his left climbing pike into the dead trunk nearly making him lose his grip and almost causing him to slip on his footing.
It was more out of the surprise than anything, he didn't hear the tetraperon until it hit the back of his helmeted head. They were very silent flyers.
Growling in annoyance Liam moved half consciously half instinctively by slamming his climbing tool against the tetrapteron scratching and clawing at his helmet while it was cawing aggressively.
The short surprised and pained squawk accompanied by the familiar squelching sound of metal hitting flesh followed not forgetting the one of bone cracking was a good indication it didn't take the hit very well.
The weight on his head was gone and with a now bloodied climbing pike he continued on, the dead tetrapteron plummeted ungraciously through the 40 meters (~131ft) of air before it hit the ground and tainting the vibrant green of the grass red.
There was silence in the incessant cawing and screeching which Liam took not of it he didn't stop in his endeavor; climbing the tree at a speed of more or less 2 meters per second (6.6ft/s), time was of the essence.
He was soon interrupted by the metallic clink of stones hitting his bronze shoulder pad; this was followed by more projectiles hitting him as the tetrapterons picked up stones, sticks, and fruits and more as they started pelting him with those.
'They are smart. Good but quite annoying and dangerous here… Normal reaction considering what I have planned. I suppose.', Liam thought, his breathing regulated, he was happy about their show of intelligence even if it was admittedly not the most effective on him.
However, he never stopped progressing as the flock of alien birds got more and more agitated, never stopping pelting him with what was light enough for them to carry and throw.
One like its predecessor seeing the armored creature dangerously approaching their nest dived at him this time at the exact moment he was stabbing his climbing pike higher in the dead hardwood, it attacked his other hand with only a real hold on the bark.
The one that dived first had little success as Liam, even if surprised by this sudden change of behavior, was aware that they could try doing that again, his hold never wavered.
The courageous tetrapteron got its body crushed by the shield as Liam slammed his right arm on the dead trunk with the bird in between.
This was but a short interlude as finally, he was at arm's length of the blackened branch, testing with one foot he remarked that compared to the rest it was mushy and covered in a grey moss-mold-like thing that would have smelled fool if there wasn't the wind and his helmet in between.
It was the same color of the bark in a way he couldn't have told from below and now it was the only way up or he needed to go down and climb from an entirely different side, it wobbled, seemed thin, and clearly a hazard to climb through.
Internally cursing as the distance was larger than he would have liked but close enough to not be a problem he took a deep breath calming his beating heart and hammering in his ears. Adrenaline coursed through his veins aplenty.
Internally cursing again for his lack of sanity he swiveled himself to the side and at this exact moment five small screeching bodies decided to slam into his back causing him to half-scream-half-curse.
He was destabilized, but he still managed to jump, leaving a climbing pike behind. The feeling of being airborne when nearly a hundred meters above the ground was one of the most terrifying moments of his life but also one of the most exhilarating.
This feeling, however, was short-lived as he directed his jump toward the rotted area trunk but it came back right after as to his befuddlement he traveled through it as if it was a paper wall.
What he was met with was a spacious hollow cavity with wells of sunlight from holes above and tetrapterons resting on sort of alcoves or flying around.
However at that moment, he could care less twisting his body in the air, he instinctively oriented himself and planted his right climbing pike on the wall of the tree slowing down his short but very dangerous fall to a stop.
Liam stayed like that for half a second, one hand holding his entire body weight while his brain rapidly processed what just happened, he sighed in relief not noticing the grin that had appeared on his face.
He ignored the echoing screech amd took out a new climbing pike from his inventory, he then exchanged the one he used to stop his fall as it was too damaged for the one on his hip. Planting both he finally stabilized himself and observed his surroundings.
Eyes trailing over every nest, old and new he felt his grin widen as he climbed around shoving or killing the occasional tetrapterons that got too close or attacked him.
"Yes, their eggs! I didn't do that for nothing!", he cried out in joy and relief.
This insanely stupid gamble and equally stupid actions of his proved to be worth it, he wasn't even 100% sure if he was going to find something or if they were going to be eggs, or if those birds laid eggs at all for that matter.
Though nothing has hatched yet so no crying for victory as all of what he did might still be pointless. A bit of realistic pessimism here and there keeps you grounded and never hurts.
Storing the 3 bright slightly transparent orange and perfectly round eggs in his inventory, his gauntlet not bothering the action. He noticed that they weighed the same as those of gooses.
He also noted that of the three only one was fertilized, the scan of his implant only confirmed it. He wasn't disappointed by that discovery, far from it, it meant omelet was on the menu.
He would have felt hunger at the idea if the smell down here wasn't so horrendously puke-inducing in a way similar to a hen pen that wasn't cleaner for months but ten times worse as the air was hot and humid. He didn't know how he could live through this smell, the helmet helped but not by much.
The man didn't waste time idling on the smell, he moved around multiple nests, most empty, he slapped the occasional tetrapterons aside as he ransacked three more nests full of eggs, stealing the nests themselves right after.
Nests that sported some similarities to the part he bulldozed through to enter the tree by accident. This led to multiple possibilities as to why this is the case but the most likely was the tetrapterons cultivated or made this substance as a sort of glue or building block.
He also lost one more climbing pike to two tetrapterons, citing down his stock of six from when he decided to two.
And that's when Liam decided that with five fertilized eggs he had enough, he was greedy but not that much. He pondered shortly where he should exit before deciding to climb down from where he was, not wanting to test his luck any further than that.
Once he had climbed down to the very bottom of the hollow tree where the ground was mostly made of guano, bones, and other remains he couldn't and didn't want to distinguish.
This disgusting mixture reaching up to his ankle was the source of the smell that made his stomach retch in disgust but it picked his mind's interest as it potentially could be used as fertilizer considering it might be similar to guano, the white gold, a potent fertilizer.
'But it's neither the time nor the place...', Liam remarked, walking through it carefully to not slip or if there are potential holes at random places or if it was deeper.
His boots sadly were not hermetic enough and some of the mixtures infiltrated within to his great displeasure but he didn't complain, steel pickaxe materialized in his left hand he started to literally dig his way out of this place.
One hour later he was looking down at the 30 meters (~98ft5) of void separating from the ground from his new point dug straight from the hollow of the dead tree.
This made him realize why he didn't feel the tree was that hollow and that he couldn't have really dug his way into it from the outside at this height in the first as he would have been constantly harassed by the tetrapterons and a plethora of other problems.
Climbing down was easy as all tetrapterons were too preoccupied with looking at what was stolen and covering the damage in the 'paper wall' covered hole of the trunk he traveled through.
Nothing attacked him on his way back likely due to the smell which he was both thankful and annoyed by, he was a bit weary from his little climbing experience so him not needing to uselessly kill anything that suicidally threw itself at him was always a bonus.
As soon as he arrived he verified his traps and took a two-hour shower where he rubbed himself off the grim, a full body wash to get rid of the smell and he succeeded but he knew he would need several more to be really rid of it.
He didn't want to go into one such tree where those creatures nested ever again but the differences between wanting and needing are vast.
This was followed by him cleaning and checking his armor and equipment, they needed to be taken care of if he didn't want an unforeseen event of them breaking at crucial moments. Even more so with how he brutalized them daily.
The following week passed without anything extraordinary happening, he worked more on the bastardized fabricator, the usual hunting and what came with it, and resource collecting each day to achieve a set objective.
The most important task was finishing his incubator for the tetrapterons' eggs, it was dug into the ground in a way it stayed hermetic and no water infiltrated, an area impenetrable by sunlight too.
Far from the tree and any of its roots, same as other aspects of his base. It was a natural and dangerous lightning rod might as well not let everything close to it like the first time, so he moved most of his stuff away this also led to an increase in his wall range and the need to build abodes, wood and stone structures to protect everything that could be protected.
The parameters of this primitive incubator were controlled to a certain extent, them being degree temperature, humidity, and aeration. If they ever weren't right he simply stored them in his inventory.
It was easy to monitor the fetus's development with their eggshells, the opposite of Gladius' egg which was so opaque and dense that even with the bright light trick he couldn't see anything inside it.
And all seemingly developed well with their kidnapper's meticulous care aside of course from his first blunter where he killed one by overexposure to the suns, reducing their number from five to four, a blunter he was pissed at himself for but admittedly this was why he took more than one to begin with.
In the morning, the closest sun was shining upon the great plain, and Liam was currently underground following his new routine.
A routine that consisted of checking the few traps within the tunnels of his bases which was followed by him checking for footprints or the like all around his base and if the wall held well as well.
Footprints and the tracks they made suffered from the fact that they didn't survive long in the kind of environment he lived in and he wasn't the utmost expert in them either.
But he didn't find anything related to them however at various other places he found unnaturally placed bones close to what looked like buried campfires, he found two of such places and they were quite far from his base and one another. The most notable find in them was close to one of the rivers where he hunted.
A bone of an unknown animal showed the carving of a big six-legged creature, a thanator, one that almost looked life-like, there was depth, shadow, and a sense of motion. Changing your angle of vision also changed what was shown to a degree giving it life.
The almost because of the long cut straight in the middle. One he could recognize as a mistake of inattention. One that pissed off the carver greatly, a feeling he could understand. Investing time and energy into something to 'fuck up' at the last second was very, very aggravating.
Clearly, nothing you would think people with around Neolithic level of technology capable of, then again art and technology are not forcibly mutually inclusive and it was an alien world.
It was exceptionally good carving nonetheless, better than what he could do from an aesthetic standpoint which was logic. And he preferred function over form but he wouldn't say no if both are met if possible.
And that made him curious about who made it and the technique used.
Anyways.
He was currently staring at the snapped string, broken ceramic container until his gaze traveled to the tall blue dangerously skinny narcotically induced unconscious body barely fitting in the tunnel, the body was splayed in a way that would suggest panic and dread before ultimately falling unconscious.
Liam's facial expression rapidly shifted from anger to disappointment, to pity before ultimately shifting to a unique mix of the three but with cold shimmering anger at the forefront.
"Far from home it seems and you surely don't seem the type to make art.", he said all emotion muted after having turned the unconscious body around and recognized the face even if the cheeks were sunken, lips busted, various scars that weren't there before, and his left ear cut from the base.
