First and foremost, he hurt everywhere. His spine was a nest of needles, and his legs were agony from the core of his bones to his skin.
Second, the sun was high in the sky. It must, he measured, be nearly noon. Before noon. After? Maybe after. Meh, it doesn't really matter.
Finally, and perhaps most pressingly, was the animal skull perched no more than a foot from his face, attached to a towering black shape with stick-like antlers protruding from behind the skull.
No good, no good.
Quel tried not to move. Maybe it doesn't know I'm still alive. Maybe it only eats living things. Yes.
I am not that lucky, thought Quel.
The creature's hide was jet black, a slick skin covered in light-grey sigils and symbols. It walked on its hind limbs, dragging a thin tail and lumbering with heavy, long forelimbs. Each set of appendages was a long, thin, tapering... flipper? Almost? Quel had never seen anything with a body like this, but... that was not unusual for Quel. He saw a lot of things for the first time.
The thing still had not moved. Quel's eyes settled on the animal skull where the thing's face would be. The skull... a dog's skull, he thought, seemed to be bound on to the creature. It was as though the skull belonged to the creature, it was the right size and in the right spot, but all the flesh was... gone. And the skull was strapped on with ropes made out of the thing's flesh.
And the antlers... were definitely sticks. Not antlers. Sticks. Strapped on. Hmm.
"Are you rested, thing?" The creature asked. Quel jumped, startled by the voice. It was low, a rumbling but kind tone. It was very nearly human. But not quite.
Well, the jig is up anyway. Quel nodded.
"That is good, thing." The creature nodded slowly, and turned its head. At that moment, Quel noticed there were more of them. A half dozen, spread out across the plain. "The thing is rested, brother." it called out to another.
"That is good, brother." Came the reply, with the same low, rumbling humanish voice. That creature turned, and repeated the message to another, and so on until they were all nodding.
The creature turned its head back to look at Quel. There were no eyes in its socket, but you could feel its gaze.
"Tell me, thing..." Quel tensed in his little cobbled together tower. The pain was gone from his body, replaced by fear. "Where did you get your antlers?" It indicated with a fore-flipper his tower.
Quel looked down at his lashed-together tower, a post and two tusks he'd found yesterday. He looked up at the creature, and jerked his thumb over his shoulder in the general direction he'd come from.
"Yes, good." It nodded slowly. "And are there more antlers, thing?"
He shook his head. It turned to the other creatures.
"Sadness. There are no more antlers, brother." It boomed.
"Sadness, brother." Came the reply, and the chain began again until all the creatures were nodding.
It turned its head back to face Quel, no more than a forearm's length away.
And paused.
Quel breathed slowly.
The creature didn't appear to breathe at all.
Quel blinked.
The creatures remained still as statues.
Quel scratched his nose.
"Thing." The voice echoed out, startling Quel again. "Can we have... your antlers?"
Quel thought about it for a moment. This was his only means of sleeping here on the plains. Without it he would either die of exhuastion, or worse. He looked over the shoulder of the creature. He was still many days from the end of the plains. However, they didn't seem to be affected by the plains.
He looked at their legs. For some reason, they were safe. He shrugged, and looked into the eye sockets of the creature.
"Trade, for a lift out of the plains?"
The creature stared at him for a moment, and then craned its neck to its brother again.
"Thing wants to trade for travel out of the plains, yes brother?"
"Very nice antlers, brother. Yes." The first replied, and turned to repeat the question to the next creature. Again, they slowly all wound up nodding at the first creature.
"Yes thing. We trade." And Quel could almost feel the skull-face smiling.
It picked him up with its flipper-hands, and placed him on its back. He reached out, and grabbed its antlers for stability. He looked down, and saw the thing carefully collect his temporary structure, cradling it gently in its arms. Almost reverently.
"Prepared, thing?" It asked
"Yeh." Quel spoke, and as soon as the word was out of his mouth the entire pack began to run.
They were so fast, Quel almost went flying off the back of his ride. Clutching to the antlers, he swiveled his head to see all of the creatures. Some were running on their hind limbs, some had descended to a four-limbed stride. But all of them were travelling with tremendous speed.
And then some of them dissapeared.
And then they re-appeared, the distance of a field ahead. Startled, Quel bent down to ask his ride what had happened when he suddenly felt himself go hollow and pop back to normal. The place that he was was far behind, and still he was moving. He looked back at where he was, and shook his head.
This was how you travel, Quel thought.
