《Behemoth - HIATUS》Chapter 3 - The Humans
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As he walked back to the clearing with the bodies, he began to notice some other sensations that he had missed earlier. The temperature had increased since he first emerged from the pyramid and he was starting to feel marginally uncomfortable with a few beads of sweat forming on his brow. His clothes had also started clinging to him and a foul odour was wafting up to his nostrils.
His clothes. Distracted by his unexpected height and size, he hadn't paid attention to his clothes earlier. Now, as he looked down, he saw that his torso was covered by what seemed to be a dirty, bloody rag with two holes from which his arms emerged. He was also wearing what could have once been trousers but they too were ragged and bloody.
As he broke into the clearing, he thought that he should just remove his shift as it wasn't serving any purpose in the heat and the odour was in fact a hindrance. Upon removing the offending garment, he felt a slight shyness which seemed to come from an unknown recess of his mind and was irrational as there was not a soul around. He decided to leave his trousers for when he did finally someone.
He stopped walking when he reached the pile of bodies. Since emerging from the flotsam of viscera, he had consciously avoided looking in it its direction for fear of the old panic rising again. But now, he felt sure enough and curious enough to try and see if he could jog his memories by taking in the macabre sight.
The first thing he noticed was that all the bodies seemed to be of 'normal' height that is to say, almost half his height. It struck him that the pyramid was actually stacked quite high as the top of it, where he had emerged from, was above his eye line.
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Whoever these poor souls were had been brutally cut down. The lower levels of bodies had been decapitated and in some cases intestines and limbs were thrown about. In the upper layers, the bodies were whole but from the visages of the dead it was clear that they had not died pleasant deaths. The bodies were mostly naked from waist up although a few of them seemed to be wearing a sort of leathery chemise. From the few patches of skin that were not covered by grime or blood or gore, it seemed that at least a few of the dead had the same greyish brown skin colour as he did. There did not seem to be any weapons near the pyramid so it was likely that the dead had not been soldiers. Although, he mused, it was possible that the killers had simply carted off the weapons of the fallen for re-use.
His observation on some of the bodies' skin colour had sparked off another line of thinking - when he had seen his own hands and legs he had been surprised by the size but not by the colour. So, it stood to reason, that his skin colour was at least something that his memory-deprived brain recognised as his. He promised himself that even though he couldn't remember anything, he would try to keep an open mind about everything he saw from now on and observe how his brain responded to the stimuli. Maybe, through those observations he could piece together his history.
After a while, a breeze blowing into him brought with it the full force of the smell of rotting flesh and he had to turn away sharply to control his stomach. This act brought on another wave of hunger and nausea...the hunger was more urgent this time. With the rising temperature and passing time, he realised that he would need food and water soon or risk losing all his energy.
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He took a final look around the clearing in case he had missed any tool that would be useful, but there didn't seem to be anything worthwhile. He now had a choice of direction in which to walk. The clearing extended in two opposite directions but it was difficult to determine much more than that. One path however, did seem to be sloping slightly downhill while the other was uphill. He figured that he had a better chance of finding habitation in the plains and so decided to walk downhill. His choice was in no small part also affected by his fast-depleting lack of energy.
The path was fairly straight, rocky and long. At no point did the scenery change perceptibly except that once in a while he would hear a bird or a monkey or some creature screeching in the forest to his sides and then all would be quiet again. The temperature had risen considerably and the sun was no overhead. Its rays were beating down on his head and he was sweating profusely. He knew he was in a bad shape because the edges of his vision had started blurring and he could feel that his body temperature had risen to uncomfortable levels. He needed water, rest and food...urgently.
After what felt like hours, there was finally a change in the path. The gradient in front of him suddenly steepened downwards. He came to a stop and looked around. The forest to his side had also suddenly dipped and that allowed him to peek over the tops of trees due to his height. What he saw to his right was a relatively flat land till the horizon with a lot of forested area but more importantly what looked like farmland and houses and a river! On his left side the flat land seemed to slope upwards gradually and then rapidly until it was crested by massive mountains. The tops of these mountains were covered with clouds although some seemed to be snow-capped.
He almost stumbled down the sloping path in his rush to reach the river. After slipping and sliding his way to the bottom of the gradient he turned right and sprinted in the direction of the river, all his previous exhaustion forgotten. The water of the river had looked impossibly blue and inviting.
Finally, he saw the river in front of him. It was a wide, but gently moving thing making a noticeable gurgling sound. He abandoned caution and leapt into it. The impossibly cool water was the best relief from the heat that had been pervasive earlier. He felt his exhaustion slide off as he floated and swam. He realised later that he didn't need to swim - standing upright, his chest upwards was above the water.
After he had cooled down, slaked his thirst and cleaned himself to the best of his abilities, he waded to the riverbank and sat down with his long legs still half submerged in the water. He closed his eyes and felt the stress and tension of his cruel awakening ease away as the sun warmed his wet body.
All of a sudden he heard loud, shocked voices behind him. Heart thudding, he opened his eyes, whipped around and leapt to his feet. He found himself towering over three 'humans' whose eyes were wide and were making noises of shock, excitement and fear as they took in the sight of the giant before him.
He raised both his hands in a concilliatory way and said, "Hello...I mean you no harm..."
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Out of Foxes to Give
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