Thread: Marooned [Kosmik_Khaos and Sigr]

The wet hair was sticking to her face and back, the length uneven and cut with a knife every time it got too long to handle. Even if the rain poured over the figure hunched on the branch of the tree, she didn't move an inch, she couldn't. After being there for hours it was her best bet to fill her oh so empty stomach, its growling muted by the falling rain. It was getting dark, the prey must be close, returning to its nest now or never. Down by the trunk, buried on the ground were three eggs in waiting, their presence making her mouth wet, as it would be so easy to take them and empty their sweet contents into her mouth, but she needed more than those three eggs if she wanted to eat for a few days. It was a risk, but one that would secure food for a week. A ruffling of brush leaves and wet feathers sounded just under the rumble of the rain. She was still immobile on the branch when the animal approached the nest, a feathered thing with six clawed legs and plenty of meat in its round body. The head at the end of a short, thick neck craned around, the beak pointing down as the two bulging eyes looked for any menace. If she had ever been on Earth, she would compare it with a pig with feathers, a beak and too many legs, but the girl had never set her feet on the once blue planet, the cradle of humanity. As the beast accommodated its body over the nest, she dropped herself from the brach, landing her bony body over the animal, grasping the neck with her left arm, then rising the crude stone knife on the right to stab at it. The beast shook around, trying to toss her from above it, cawing desperate and managing not much at all. Even then, the rain made it slippery, and when her armed hand hit the tree trunk, she lost her weapon into the mud. Having nothing resembling a weapon to resort to, the girl didn't have much of a chance there, as the beast was better fed than her and would take longer for it to tire of that struggle. Desperate and hungry she lowered her head, the beak of the beast grazing her forehead and making her blood in a strike that was moments away from costing her an eye. The girls chipped tooth found tender meat between the feathers, biting there without mercy nor hesitation. The beast doubled its cawing, its efforts to get rid of her while her mouth and face filled with the warm blood of the creature, clouding the girl's vision. She couldn't see, she couldn't fight, but she wasn't ready to let go, so she struggled. Gasped for air. Kept biting what her mouth found. Slowly the beast was drained of strength, then of blood, and eventually they both plopped into the mud, the rain washing away the blood. The girl panted and gasped, her thin body looked pitiful on the mud, her naked form covered with scars. Resting there was tempting, but it wouldn't take long of other predators to smell the blood, even on the rain, so she had to hurry. Finding her knife on the mud, she teared apart the best cuts she could take of that meat, and taking the eggs out of the ground, she carried it all on her arms away from there. Her home, even if it could be generous to call it that, was no other that the remains of the ship she crashed in, its metallic structure offering refuge from elements and predators, even if nothing worked any longer. It was a light cruiser, not much bigger than a normal home, but it sufficed for the girl to have her trinkets and tools, her food and bed. She entered the place, covering herself from rain, even if the ship had a few holes punched in, there were still corners that were dry. Those holes served to let the smoke out when she made fire, but given how wet the day was, she'd have to save the meat and depend on slurping the eggs raw. She would rest well fed that night, or so she thought when a light broke the dark sky.