“I’m going to die!”

A single utterance broke through the general chitter of activity in the dense forest as an otherwise silent, masked gray figure bobbed and weaved through the trees wearing a ruined backpack, trying desperately to evade her pursuers. Her gray shirt ripples and flapped as she dodged under branches and vaulted over bushes. Branches snapped as bodies strike out en masse, her sharp ears telling her what she already knew, they were closing in. A howl sounded from all directions, but she barely broke stride.

This was Bec. She’s an Earthling. She’s an unwitting participant in a novel program to see, amongst other things, how many horrible and traumatic ways a human can die when plopped onto an alien planet with hilariously superpowered animals. Bec ‘saw’ a paw indentation on the soft soil of the forest floor and tried to jump. Her legs hit air and she tumbled down an incline, getting covered in dead leaves and mud. The bag, straps broke, tumbled mere meters out of reach. Bec crawled forward, fingers outstretched for the bag when her hand stopped. Her fingers splayed in the air. She hadn’t done that on purpose. She hadn’t done that on purpose, at all. She leapt back on to her feet. That was a wolf. The wolves had superpowers, remember?

These wolves were worse than invisible. You couldn’t perceive them no matter what. Trip over something? Whoops, that was some awfully chunky air. Sudden bitemarks on your arm. How did that get there? It was like running into the glass in a hall of mirrors, only to find that that was actually the right way to go.

“That’s a terrible metaphor.” Al, Bec’s closest companion, noted. ‘Closest’ meaning he was an AI and firmly implanted inside her head. His status as a companion to Bec was a bit of a contentious one, and it had hurt their closeness, in a more figurative sense.

It’s a simile. Bec thought as she swept her leg out, kicking towards the bag and her invisible foe. Her leg slowed dramatically as she followed through. A patch of dead, brown, and orange leaves crushed and left an obvious outline in the mud under an imperceptible threat. Bec knew she had struck an absolute behemoth of a beast as she dived onto the empty space and began to wrestle damn thing. It was easily thigh high when completely on the ground so, when it started thrashing, Bec felt like she was wrangling a horse.

“I got you!” Bec shouted, as she pitched and struggled against a thing she couldn’t exactly feel. She took a breath and focused. She started to glow, and the thrashing intensified. Bec was a super-powered animal as well, of course. Dustites, humans of this planet Dust, all have an odd quirk of being, a Word. This Word is any old word, but with more capitalizations and bold typography. Each person has a Word, from alcohol to zipper. Any Word is possible, and they become the master of all that Word covers, as long as they understand that Word’s meanings and nuance.

Bec’s word is wave and she’s currently trying to microwave a poor super wolf’s insides. The yowls were telling her that it was working. The struggling weakened, and an atrocious, metallic smell filled the air. Bec released the nothing and grabbed the damaged bag. She whirled and took one step before her breath caught in her throat. She ‘saw’ dozens of imprints all around her in the leaves. Bec was blind due to an unfortunate super-powered accident, but she’s using her influence over light and sound to ‘see’ better than ever. A three hundred sixty-degree view meant no head-turning, desperate to find an opening in the pack. Instead, she just knew in an instant that she was surrounded. “Shit.”

Bec felt the silence fill her. The wolves, surprisingly, were polite enough to let the drama of the moment set in. The trees rustled as she pulled a deep breath in, then let out an eardrum-shattering scream. Her whole body resonated with the sound waves elevated beyond human hearing, but absolutely mind-bogglingly unpleasant for those poor pups. Now, to be clear, just because Bec couldn’t hear the ultrasonic scream, didn’t mean it wouldn’t deafen her. It was only a set of digital earmuffs that allowed Bec to hear things spoken aloud whilst staying safe from a sonic attack.

She could sense sound waves without the aid of her ears at all, but that took focus and effort, and the earmuffs installed in her full head mask compensated to varying sound levels with only Al’s help. It could even amplify quiet sounds giving Bec a total of 2 different ways to have true blue super hearing. Personally, Bec wondered why this wasn’t used by every person on Dust, but, realistically, the muffs looked stupid on anyone without headgear like her sensory deprivation mask, and that was usually enough to let people ignore it entirely.

The scream definitely startled the dogs, but Bec was not interested in waiting to find out how effectively. She started booking it towards the hill she had rolled down. She focused on the force of the impact in the third step of her stride to try to push off and bound over the ring of dogs, leaping up the hill. Unfortunately for Bec, her foot only shot into the mud causing her to faceplant into a pile of leaves. Her reflexes caused her to roll laterally after settling into the mud for a single, solitary, humiliating moment. The rotation gave her foot enough space to pull it out of the muck with a sucking sound. Bec, laid out on her back, let out another scream.

This time the cry was sincere as only once she freed her leg had she realized that she had twisted her ankle… badly. You would have hoped that the already ankle-killing move would have been just futile due to the mud absorbing her foot, but it was ineffectual and painful. Bec laughed at her stupidity as she pulled a knife from her belt covered in useful things… more like some toilet paper and a radio, but useful, nonetheless. The knife was her one and only weapon. She swung it wildly as she laid on her back, trying to fend off a threat that had no indication that it was attacking. The blade cut through the air as she rapidly alternated between torso, and face coverage. She couldn’t afford to protect her legs when any good chomp to her face or throat would be instant death, as opposed to the much preferred slow and painful kind.

Why me? Doggies, why do you want my bag of all things? Bec sat up and jabbed around. She felt the sickening feeling of her whole knife plunging into something. She gasped in horror as the knife was suddenly reddened with blood, but she wasn’t so stupid as to forget to twist and yank. She grappled with the thing as she plunged the blade in once more, into what seemed like the center of mass. Aiming near her own chest area, Bec hoped the grappling posture could guide her knife well as she dug around with the edge. Blood sprayed her face and the thing very rapidly flopped over, causing her to tumble into the mud, again.

Bec pulled herself up fast and let out another ultrasonic scream, channeling the pain she felt as she put weight on her bad foot for the first time. She could stand, maybe even run, but the pain was unfortunate. She dug her foot into the ground knowing this next move would really, really hurt. Using her good ankle as a pivot, she dug the bad foot’s tip deep into the leaves and kicked a wad of leaves into the air.

A breeze came, and Bec channeled the energy of the rushing air into scattering the leaves to the wind. Bec imagined the air around her to be like a crashing wave, rolling like a can away from her. The spiraling eddies of air pulled a few more leaves with it, and Bec started to chase the gust, knife in one hand, and her bag dragging by the broken strap in the other. Sensing all of the leaves whipping away in a line from her, she felt the leaves bouncing off the air in a few odd spots ahead on her warpath.

She charged and viciously stabbed at the nearest spot while slinging her bag over her head. Feeling the knife strike something, she plowed through the mass and, by using the momentum of the sprint and the bag being lobbed, she gouged the blade deep and pulled it free in one swift movement. She chucked the bag towards the other threats and quickly followed suit. The bag rolled, smashing into something and ripping open, letting out its contents with a sad, slumped look.

Noooo. Bec hadn’t really wanted that. She had hoped to use it as a way to keep the pressure on the wolves, but she had still wanted to keep the contents of the bag fairly, you know, contained. The wolves were hopefully startled by the bag barrage, so Bec lunged at the place where it had stopped moving. She felt the air break.

She had stabbed something thick and tough as she bowled over the hump. As she vaulted over the wolf, the awkward angle held the blade tight. Not wanting to dwell, she let go of the stuck blade and continued forward. Swinging the hand that trailed due to the late release of the knife, Bec gave an empowered haymaker to the air. A thwumping sound filled Bec’s ears as her hand plowed through the air wildly.

She was so damn lucky that the energetic swing struck something, as the crunching of the bone in Bec’s hand was only a small part of the cacophonous crack that sprayed an arc of red mist into the air. Bec added a little bit of light to the strike, in hopes of blinding any other wolf watching her fight.

Bec whirled around, pirouetting on the energy of the swing, amplifying the light even more as she could focus on that portion over the kinetic energy now that the strike was complete. Her fist was like a massive flash bulb. If her luck hadn’t run out just yet, she could blind, deafen, and do all the things in the world to make these wolves decide that Bec Namiko wasn’t worth chomping on.

Bec stopped the whirl and screamed furiously again. Was this enough? Please tell me this was enough. Bec took in the scene. She didn’t sense any movement in any of the leaves. She could tell that she’d incapacitated 4 wolves since the brawl started. She took a heavy breath when she counted the depressions and confirmed three unmoving downed bodies and, something kicking up leaves as it writhed in pain.

The knife floated there at an odd angle. There were more wolves, but Bec had scared them. She couldn’t tell if they were going to flee, or charge. She stood still, soaking in the scene. The damage that Bec had done to the leaves all over the place made it difficult to spot the relatively tiny footprint indentations amongst the mess.

Bec roared, making herself seem bigger than normal. She growled and gnashed at deafening levels while she approached the suspended blade and ripped it out of its invisible pedestal. Bec held up the blade and let it flash bright. Shadows of trees cast wild, black streaks across the forest floor.

She wanted to do a stunning display of power to assert dominance over the wolves, but, as an added bonus, noticed that the wolves’ invisibility was not 100% absolute. They weren’t perfectly rerouting all light that would touch them. Weak, hazy shadows were cast onto the ground where several wolves stood, making Bec realize that they were could only create their illusion so well, and the small imperfections in their trickery would be highlighted by an abnormally bright light like hers. Perhaps the sun would look odd if she looked at it through a wolf body. She didn’t care about that minor curiosity, for she had managed to sense the wolves, just slightly. She pointed at the largest mass and shouted, “I see you now!”

The wolves’ posture definitely changed. The shadows they cast sort of flattened like they were making their profile smaller. Bec clenched her teeth in grim satisfaction. She had effectively routed the enemy. Or so she thought before having her already hurt leg pulled out from under her. The low wolves sprung towards her in her moment of weakness.

Bec flailed, arms rising as her body was cantilevered into the forest floor. This feeling she was feeling? The tugging of muscle and tendon? It was not the first time that she’d felt the painless sensation of flesh ripping under the pressure of imperceptible teeth. She’d fought fish, wolf, even man in her unbearably long 12-month stint on this planet, and they all offered unique challenges for Bec’s already tenuous survival chances. It felt like she’d only ever had a chance to catch her breath on the tortuous double marathons she participated in to enhance her cardio.

The slam into the ground knocked the air out of her, and her brain rocked in her skull like a screensaver. With a wild series of half-conscious, all-reflexive stabs and slices, she covered her throat from attack. In her fog, she felt the knife strike something, but the blade was wrenched from her hand. She knew that something had gotten a lock on her wrist and disarmed her.

“Doggy,” she asked in a haze. Her arm got pulled away and pressed to the ground. She saw her knife ripped from her hand and tossed aside. She covered her face with her other arm, but it was quickly punctured and driven jnto the ground. Her kicking legs were gripped by sharp, yet painless teeth marks and a weight that her brain said wasn’t there.

A behemoth wolf, solid black like it was a rip cut in space, manifested a few steps from her. It had green and blue eyes… sharp like a friend she knew and full of intelligence. Bec only now realized how smart her foes were. They tracked her, they tripped her, they ambushed her, they disarmed her. She was outplayed at every step. Her only solace was that she managed to take some down with her.

It stepped forward, slowly, each step made with confidence and deliberation. It stepped on her chest; her breathing arrested by the weight of something weighing easily 90kg. Its claws dug into her shoulders as it pinned her. It howled, the sound echoing in Bec’s head from all directions. The pack followed suit. It was… sad. It was a howl of mourning, Bec felt this in her chest with certainty.

The wolf lowered its head and locked eyes with her blank, masked visage with an almost disappointed look. It seemed dissatisfied that it wasn’t looking its prey in the eyes. Its huffing and lolling tongue filled Bec’s nose with the smell of meat, blood, and an eye watering musk. The massive wolf flexed its jaws and opened wide for her neck. Bec did the same. With her jaw agape, she decided to meet the dog’s maw faster than it had expected.

With as much force as she could muster, she headbutted the big bad wolf in the face. The force would have shattered her teeth had she forgotten to unclench her jaw; she felt the crunch of bone meet with her forehead. The entire impact was focused on the top part of her forehead, the spot footballers use for a header and where pistol shots have been known to bounce off of. She really needed that strength now as she crushed the entire muzzle of that damn dog with a crack.

There was a pause, and then the whole weight of the wolf slumped onto Bec. The bones must have been forced into its brain from the impact, which was good news for Bec as it was a quick kill. She felt her arms come free of their toothy chains, but the weight of the dead wolf on her chest impeded her movement. Her mind was a fog from all the light brain damage she’d given herself, but she still saw when all the wolves appeared out of thin air.

They all had their ears pressed back, and they had all taken a step or more away. Bec, taking as big of a breath as she could, howled. She howled a howl of defiance, of instinct, of desperation. She wasn’t that imposing being a smallish girl sandwiched between carcass and ground, yet she howled with all her heart. She dared the wolves to attack her, her heart racing as her body was pumped with adrenaline and fury. Her vocal cords stopped vibrating, but her head still hummed. The breeze felt cool against her lips wetted by the wail of a feral maniac. They stood, in silence, letting the drama sink in. And then they ran.