The Roo Collective Snippet 3

 Snippet 3

Giant Slayer

 

Counter stumped through the new warren, feeling every bit of his advanced age. It was getting there though, one day at a time. He paused to let some younglings pass and then kept moving.

There were vertical movers but one was in use and the other was loading so he elected to take the stairs. It was hard on his old knees but the cane helped.

His free hand touched the polished railing as he took the steps up to the top of the tree.

The new warren was centered around the thunker tree that had offered his people refuge during their moment of crisis. Within the tree the Roo people had found temporary shelter against the weather, predators, and the giants who had attacked their old home with poison fog.

Now, thanks to the surviving diggers it was extending outward. They had gone out under the surface initially, splaying out in tunnels in all directions before going deeper to get below the frost line before the cold snap.

The diggers had achieved it. They had found an old stomper skeleton to help with their efforts. He had just come from touring that area in his rounds.

As he went higher, the air grew colder. He pulled the shawl tighter over his shoulders. His fur had thickened in the cold but he was old. The cold seemed to seep into him more and more as each cold season began.

The climb was good for him, and the view was refreshing. He enjoyed that there were fewer Roo as he climbed; most had moved into the tunnels and were huddled in the cramped quarters underground. Many of the oldsters were trying to hibernate. Some of the very old who had survived had passed away in their sleep. He worried about the additional loss of that precious knowledge.

Perhaps it was for the best though, the old ideas giving way to new fresh ones that might keep them alive, he thought as he saw Tinker in his workshop. He passed the open door and kept going.

When he got to the lookout point, he nodded to the sentries there and then looked out, sniffing his air and feeling his eyes slit from the bitter wind chill. He wouldn’t remain there long; he didn’t want to catch a chill. But he did like it now. Funny, he hadn’t before. He’d hated being exposed to the outside. Now it was nice; the smells were better than the crush of bodies below.

He took his time to look about them, nodding to each of the sentries. They nodded back politely.

At each of the four corners, he stopped. They were marked by the directions. One was to the east and the rising sun, opposite that the west and setting sun. The north was marked with an arrow pointing to the North Star and the northern lights. Therefore, the last point was to the south.

In each of those general directions, a Roo community was located. None had offered to send help. It angered him to be ignored. They hadn’t even offered to take in some of the refugees. Nothing at all.

He sighed. There was supposed to be a convoy of trade goods midway through the cold season if the weather cleared. He was curious if they’d hear about inquiries about it or see it at all. It wasn’t like his people had a lot to trade.

Well, certainly not food items. But a lot was coming out of the old warren these days. He turned and looked down. The heights were dizzying but he still looked. Below there was a path leading to the old warren. Half of it was underground, the other half in a trench of the white water. The ice had been packed over the top in some places. In others it was open, and he saw a steady flow of figures moving between the old warren and the new.

The younger set moved quickly to avoid the cold. He didn’t envy them the task of cleaning out the old warren, but it needed to be done.

He nodded once and then turned to the east and the distant glittering shape. He could just see the top of it over the screen of trees between them and the clearing far away. The white snow had fallen on the giant warren but it was still there.

He glowered at it but then shivered when the winds picked up.

“Better get inside, Elder,” a defender said. He turned to the defender in time to see the other Roo look to the sky. He looked up to see clouds moving slowly in.

“Storm is coming in,” the Roo warned.

Counter nodded and headed back inside. He couldn’t take the lift down until he went one floor down. Once there he waited patiently for his turn to ride it down. He could go upstairs but going back down was troublesome and dangerous. His fear of falling was great, so he exercised his patience and waited.

 ~======~

Lop Ear was also out and about, making the rounds around the warren. His focus was just on his duty though, the defenders for which he had been selected as the new elder and therefore leader.

Unlike Counter he took to the skytop first and then worked his way down. He was quiet though, and his quiet movements sometimes exposed a defender who was not doing their job. He found Fat Hump asleep, dozing in a sunny spot at his post. The old defender clutched at his spear for support. Nearby, Shredded Ear was also fast asleep.

He scowled. One asleep he could overlook. Both though, that was a problem.

He went inside to a healer room and grabbed a listening horn. The healer wasn’t present so would not mind the temporary absence, maybe.

Once he was out, he got in place and then placed it to his lips and did a credible imitation of a screamer. He watched the two defenders jump, eyes wide, clutching their weapons and chests as they looked frantically to the sky. Shredded Ear clutched at his chest.

When their ears twitched to his movement as he hid the horn, they lowered a look on him, wide-eyed, panting, and angry.

“Why did you do that?!” Fat Hump snarled. “We could have stabbed you!”

Lop Ear knew the chances of that happening were remote at best. Neither oldster had been in a fight in many seasons. “Had I been a giant or a predator you would have been the first to die. But then they would have attacked the warren!”

“I earned my rest,” Fat Hump said with dignity as he came to attention.

“Did you rest in your nest?” Lop Ear asked.

“I need more every day,” Fat Hump said with a sniff, eyes to the horizon.

“Then we need to find you other duties,” Lop Ear stated.

He was glowered at but ignored the look. He surveyed Shredded Ear who was looking a bit chagrined. The other Roo flicked the remains of his ears in acknowledgment of the rebuke.

Lop Ear nodded once and went back to his duties, returning the horn on the way.

 ~======~

 

The Roo Collective Snippet 2

 Here is the second snippet:

A Matter of Survival

 

Lop Ear sighed heavily as he checked his zone. Nothing. It was getting near dark; his turn as sentry would end soon.

Most of the warren was hidden in the shelters in the area and in the thocker and thumper trees. Temporary shelters were to be built in the night by the cutters. But they needed to do something about the food and shelter situation. His stomach rumbled.

He had given all of his food to his pregnant mate earlier, claiming he wasn't hungry. He didn't regret it; she had a litter in her belly and had to feed them. If her body did not have enough food, the litter would die. Neither of them wanted that, but it might be for the best.

It was getting cold. He could feel the heat seeping through his clothes as the sun's warming rays fell lower on the horizon. It was bitter to want something that for his entire life he had feared. To be out exposed was a terrifying thing for most of the warren. It was no surprise that many of the elderly and easily frightened had died of heart trouble from the stress and anxiety.

It was their second night out of the warren. The meager supplies in the shelters were about exhausted. Something had to be done.

He looked over to the warren. It was a crater; the giants had been busy digging the main shaft up over the day. He was again bitter, this time in anger at such destruction. So many of his kind had died in the attack.

He felt a touch and looked to see Shredded Paw. The sentry nodded to him. He nodded back and passed over the spear before he went off to relieve himself and then head inside.

Black Speckle found him almost immediately. She gave him water to drink, which he did. Once she was satisfied with that, she led him over to a small cove in the roots and pushed him down.

He had brought her straw and leaves. The leaves had been dry from the cooling air but she'd nibbled on some and used the rest as bedding material for herself and some of the does nearby. Fur lined the improvised nest. She pushed him down and then climbed on top of him.

He wordlessly protested and rolled to cover her with his own body for warmth. She poked him until he ended up on his side with her nuzzled under his arm. He gently stroked her head and flat ears.

She twitched her nose and then closed her eyes and went to sleep. He soon followed.

~======~

Counter noted the shift change and nodded wearily. He was bone tired. He wasn't getting much sleep, and his thoughts were beginning to slow. It was hard to keep up. There was so much sorrow.

They still didn't have a nose count on the losses. They had finally gotten in touch with the far flung shelters. Some of his people had fled to there, others were said to have gone and moved on. They wouldn't know the full death toll for some time.

He was already angry and saddened by it. A lot of his people had ignored the warnings to head up and had instead followed instincts and burrowed deeper to their doom. The poison gas that the giants had unleashed had killed them. Even if they'd found a way to barricade themselves into a tunnel, the fog-like gas seeped through the ground itself.

The day before they had seen the giants excavate the warren core. They had taken many things from it. Some things were disdainfully thrown to the side. Bodies that were found were sent to the clearing and the Giant's Warren thing.

He had watched warily and sadly. It had hurt to see so many snuffed out so callously. Death was not unknown to the Roo and not just in singles. Sometimes fire or flood would take many. Sometimes disease or even fear would. But this was different.

Those other things he could do little about. A predator could be killed. These predators though, they were too dangerous to fight. Roos survived by hiding from such monsters.

He had suppressed the urge to hold a memorial for the dead. He knew it hurt one and all, but the thumping would have attracted the attention of the Giants. They had to be quiet and hope that the enemy stayed occupied with their spoils and did not go looking for the refugees.

He looked at the slowly sinking orb in the sky and then around them. This was the longest he had ever been near the surface, and the tension gnawed at him like many others. That and the cold, he had some clothing due to his advanced age, one never felt completely warm as you grew older, but this was different. They didn't have stout earth around them to keep the warmth in—nor nests, nor food. His stomach gnawed on his insides right on queue.

He gnawed on his well-gnawed stick to ease the hunger pang for a moment.

He had sent out runners to the far-flung communities after Fast Thumper had thunked out the warning in the tree. There had been muted answers from two of their nearest neighbors. Green Painted Rocks had sent a short reply and then went silent.

No doubt they did not want to give away their position. In a way, he couldn't blame them.

They had plenty of water. They had temporary shelter, though the trees and hidden shelters would not last through the long cold. They needed a proper warren. They needed to break the community up and send them in convoys to their neighbors soon or find a new nesting place.

It was already shaping up to be a harsh cold season. All of their supplies were in the warren's chambers. Those that had been stored in the shelters for emergency use had been depleted.

Hunters, Defenders, Breeders, and Gathers had warily gone out to take in what they could. Cutters had brought in wood but it was too dangerous to burn. They had shifted their focus to gathering what nesting material they could to insulate the hollows and roots that were being used as small nesting sites.

It wasn't enough though. His people were packed into the tree and shelters. They had little room to move within. Worse, some of the younglings were beginning to gnaw on the roots out of hunger. The Does were drying up for lack of food to produce nourishing milk. The younglings had to eat or they too would die.

In a way it might be for the best, he thought grimly.

~======~

 

The Roo Collective Snippet 1

 So, it is that time again.

   Instead of kicking the Roo book again I decided to take the plunge and go with it. If you are curious, it is a one off science fiction novel (novella?) that combines 3 stories in Multiverse 5-7 with a final story. I had actually envisioned it as just 1 short story but when it kept growing I ended up splitting up and taking this approach. :)

So, if it feels familiar, you might have read part of it in one of those books.

Rea finished editing the last story. I generated a lot of AI art before I realized Amazon doesn't like it. So, I threw in the 3 pieces I did with minimum AI support and ran with what I've got. I'll post some of the AI art here.

So, first up... the beginning...

Burrow

 

“Stomper!” a voice screamed as the thunder of feet on the ground began to carry the news across the warren. Everyone looked up fearfully to the ceiling as they passed on the message. They began to move, slow at first, but then in the opposite direction of the sighting and of course downward. Always downward, though such instincts could be counterproductive to survival in some cases.

The Roo began to bottleneck at narrow choke points which caused a panic. Stampedes happened as the giant herbivores stomped closer and the dirt began to fall.

“Easy now, calmly, I said calmly,” the counter said, trying to get people to move with care.

Then the first cave-ins were reported.

Lop Ear rushed through the group to the high caverns. He went on all fours at one point, even bouncing off the walls to get around people. A few times he bounced off people too. The ground shook with every footfall. The air was cloudy with dust.

“You are going the wrong way!” a breeder complained. He ignored the complaint. He got to a hatch, stopped to catch his breathing, and then removed the pins holding it in place. He lifted it carefully and looked out. He went back and grabbed a spear, pulled the cover off the tip and then went back to look.

Lop Ear snarled in anger as he poked his head up from the hole to see the Stomper. It was more than one; others were in the distance but working the grove of trees upwind far from the burrow. It had tentacles on the front and long heavy legs. The thing browsed the trees, ripping leaves and fruit off of them.

As tempting as it was to attack, he forced himself to stand firm near the root of the opposing tree. It was too late; if he went to attack the beast now, it could fall and destroy what he sought to protect. No, the warren would just have to cope with the disaster to come.

Each foot stomp shook the caverns. When one foot came down too hard, it went through the top layer and the beast stumbled before it recovered. It moved away, sidling away from the unstable ground.

The tree began to release toxins in the air to defend itself. The beast made a loud trumpeting sound as thorns began to prick its tentacles. The thorns were the tree's second level of defense.

After one more browse of tentacles, the beast moved away and then towards a copse of trees upwind and thus avoiding the smells the tree had released to warn others of its kind.

Lop Ear noted the direction and sighed. It was through hard ground so the tunnels there should be safe. He watched until the beast was beyond the third tree and then ducked down to see what the damage was and if he could help dig some people out if they were still alive.

======

The defender went back down into the warren and to the largest chamber near the collapsed tunnels. Doc was there triaging the wounded.  The brown and white spotted Roo had to listen to plenty of hearts with a hollowed-out horn, reassuring those who had been stressed by the disaster. He used pieces of volcanic glass to magnify small things to see bigger.

Cloud eyes were common ailments of the old as well as stress on their heart. Gas was another; those who ate too much of a certain diet tended to get it and complain constantly.

A check of the stool and an order of medicinal herbs would fix someone up for a time.

None of that applied here though, so as soon as he was certain the patient was in no danger of death, he moved on to check others. Occasionally, he had to bandage a wound or set a broken limb. Those Roo that had been trampled he had to check. There were a few that had died in the crush of bodies, and the diggers were ready to move them on to the next life. Their families cried as they sorted out their belongings.

He shook his head and moved on.

~======~