Lucky number seven. Having never written before I’m surprised I’ve made it this far this quickly. It’s been one week and seven chapters! Going forward I can’t promise that pace, but you can look forward to at least four per week for the foreseeable future.

So sit back, relax, and prepare for more genetic therapy in the continuing saga of the Original Organic Origami brothers: folding flesh for freedom since 9/3/15.

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Chapter 7: Gluttony and Sloth

Day 40

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We continued throughout the morning, eating the few berries we found and raiding a low tree that grew nuts of some sort. The relief was palpable when we cracked one to find a genuine nut instead of a fetus or eye. My healing was undoubtedly working, I was insatiable. I ate everything we came across, and yet I felt hungrier than I had been in the Cavern. This was dangerous. I should have built in an off switch, but that would mean dealing with the brain, and I wasn’t ready to try that. Whatever the man our memories had done, I had no memories of ever having been a neurosurgeon. Stomach growling and the sun beating down on us through the trees, we continued in the direction of the pass. The thundering water could be heard again, off to our left. It got closer as we walked and I wondered if we might finally get a glimpse of the falls. We saw another two of the squirrel trees, but we gave them a wide berth. As good as a little meat sounded right now, I was in no condition to fight, and I still wasn’t convinced the over-sized animals might not be intelligent. It seemed like quite a few of the animals out here had human DNA somewhere in their makeup, and I wasn’t ready to make that leap if I could help it.

An hour or two before noon we came to the end of the forest. Ahead of us was a rushing river, maybe twenty feet wide. Rocks jutted from the water, and it swirled and crashed with some force. The noise was nowhere near what it had been at the cave entrance, but it still made conversing difficult. We backed up to the woods and discussed our next move.

“We should head right, away from the cave. The falls seem to be there and the river will only rush more the closer we get.” Wolf was the first to speak.

“Plus, the cave might have more like the thing we killed when we came out.” Rabbit agreed with Wolf as usual. Still, they were right. We couldn’t expect a bridge, so we had no choice but to find a place where the river was either thinner or slower. But first I had another thought.

“Wait a minute. Before we head out, let me spend an hour or two on Harper’s eyes. I have an idea to reverse his blindness.” Wolf just nodded. Rabbit looked to him for advice, and Harper himself grinned.

“Finally.”

To be honest I was apprehensive to dive into my friend again, but I was responsible for his current blindness, and I couldn’t leave him alone to be led by the arm every day when I had it in me to fix the situation. My hands were still useless so I had Wolf lightly cut my wrist, and Harper did the same. We pressed them together and I felt myself sinking inward. Just as before, two small suns appeared before me, Harper’s dimmer and further away. It didn’t look like his dust recovered nearly as quickly as mine seemed to. I wondered why? We had been through almost all of the same things, eaten the same foods. Was it just a matter of affinity or knowledge? That didn’t seem right. Everything about dust made sense. If it was magic, it was a magic that followed very specific rules. Everything I knew about it suggested it needed a host life to function. No sentient rocks or mutating dirt. It seemed likely that the difference in recovery had to do with our bodies.

I would leave that little mystery for later. Right now I had to work on Harper. Turning towards him and sending a little dust his way, I took a look at the changes I had made previously. The tapetum lucidum I placed under his retinas was there, somehow more obvious than the existing genetic material. I wondered if my will was pointing it out, or if the dust was somehow helping direct me. Yet another mystery to look into when I had the time. I got to work on the ring of muscles in Harper’s eye. The eye has two types of muscles that control the amount of light that enters. The first is a ring that squeezes and contracts the pupil constrict for bright environments. The second is a group of dilator muscles to dilate it again when it gets darker again. My plan was simple. Increase the strength of both groups to allow the eyes to further constrict, allowing in less light and correcting the balance. The only catch was that I would have to slow down the response, or his eyes would damage themselves by constricting too quickly. What this meant was that every time Harper left a low light environment it would be a few minutes before he could see properly. Still, it was much better than being blind, and it allowed him to keep his night vision intact. I made the change, and was once again thrown out of my trance as Harper clutched at his eyes. Twenty five breathless minutes later he stopped panting and opened his new eyes. At first he looked no different, but slowly his pupils became smaller and smaller until they were a mere pinprick of black. The effect with a little bit unsettling, but he pumped the air and let out a long laugh. He might look a little strange now, but my brother is able to see. We sat around for a few more minutes as he adjusted to his new sight, then headed right down the riverbank.

After another hour of walking, we found an area where the forest continued to the bank and off to the other side. It wasn’t as thick as the forest proper, but it was a lucky break. If we were fortunate we might find a fallen log to use as a bridge. We searched for hours and found a few likely candidates, dragging them to the shore, where Wolf used the one of the knives to chop at errant branches until they were smooth. Rabbit found an area where the river was only around ten feet across some ways further, and the three of us with functional hands moved the makeshift bridge into place. Rabbit volunteered to go first, and swiftly made it across, followed shortly by Wolf. I went next, which was the real challenge. I couldn’t inch across because I couldn’t grip the wood, so balancing was key. I worked slowly, and had made it about three quarters of the way when something hit my face and I tumbled into the water.

I was under before I knew what happened, and I realized I had no memories of swimming. I felt a rock hit my naked torso, sucking the air out of me. With my blood I’d be able to survive much longer than most, but I certainly didn’t feel lucky as another rock left a bruise on my upper arm. I tumbled through the river for an unknown amount of time, accumulating scrapes and bruises. I focused on protecting my hands and face, and took a breath during the brief moments my mouth found air. Just when I thought I might finally go unconscious from the damage to my body, I came to a stop on rough black sand.

I pulled myself from the water after a few minutes to catch my breath, and looked around. I found myself in a sort of natural cove on the far side of the river. I saw looking behind me that I had gone over a small falls, maybe a ten foot drop. My brothers were nowhere to be seen. I was truly alone for the first time in my life. I sighed, feeling every cut and scrape on my body as mist from the falls beat down on me. After a moment of self pity, I looked further inland. Within the cover there was a sea of small scraggly bushes, all of the same type. It almost looked like they’d been planted that way. I approached them, and my sadness turned to surprise when I saw the large red berries growing from them. I picked one and gave it a squeeze. It was a normal berry! Well, it might have been poisonous, but nothing ventured, nothing gained. I was starving and injured and alone, and if I couldn’t have company I would at least die with a full stomach.

Taking a taste, I groaned involuntary. These red berries tasted better than anything I’d ever eaten. Fresh, plump and sweet, I had run through three bushes before I noticed. Gathering them was tough with my fingers in such a state, and soon I was bent over pulling them from the branch with my teeth like an animal. When I noticed this I made a sound like the squirrels had, then giggled. I had gone through ten bushes before I allowed myself to slump down sated on the black sand bank. I needed to find my brothers, but happily it seemed the best solution to the problem was to stay by the berries. They undoubtedly knew I had been sent downriver, and would follow the bank until they found me. I had no idea how far I’d traveled, but it had seemed quite a ways. The only way to ensure that we found each other was to hug the bank and wait for them. And have a few more berries. Were my arms always this long? They seemed miles away.

Night fell after another round of ravenous berry picking. What my body really needed was protein, but strangely no animals seemed to be coming for these berries. The trees were dancing on the far bank, and I waved at them for the fifth time in an hour. Why had I been worried about my hands? Sure two of them were purple, but I had so many spares! The world spun into a bush, and I decided it was an excellent time for more berries. Midnight came and went, and still I ate. At this point I was fairly sure I was eating as many leaves as berries, but then I needed fiber didn’t I? Mouthful of leaves, berries and at least one worm, I looked up at the moon and watched it as it flew towards me. This had been the best day ever. I only wished my friends were here. Harper would have loved the dancing trees. He was always the social one. Leaves fell from my open mouth as my eyes closed, and one lucky worm wiggled free from between my teeth.

Day 41 (Doc)

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I was awoken by a sharp pain in my side. I spit out some foul tasting leaves and opened my eyes. Immediately the brightness of the sun caused me to go blind. My head flashed in pain and there was another jab to my side. I got on my knees and struggled to stand, but was forced back down by something dull and hard. Slowly my eyes cleared and I was able to make out shadows in front of me.

“Brothers?” My guess must have been off the mark, because I felt another sharp pain and then there was a clawed hand around my mouth. Leaves were pushed against my lips. I now knew the danger of these bushes, and I closed my mouth and refused to breathe in. There was deep laughter from one of the steadily focusing shadows. They thought to simply wait until I took a breathe. I fought to keep from giggling. Two minutes in and I heard impatient growls. Two minutes later and the group was in a fervor.

My vision had cleared enough to make out basic human forms, but the proportions were all off. They were tall, with long, thin arms and short legs. Big black eyes looked at me with uncertainty and intelligence. The mouths were too wide.

“Tooo wide.” I point. What am I doing? Must still be the berries. Those in front of me backed away when I spoke, then hunched a bit closer.

I think I raided their pharmacy, or their drug stash. I tried to feel some remorse, or at least fear. I just felt dizzy.

The one behind me finally got tired of waiting for me to breath, and made a high pitched whining sound. It was clearly some sort of speech rather than the sounds of an animal. Maybe I could communicate?

“I-”

Bang. The one in front of me lashed out, and I breathed in deep as the air left my lungs. The world went hazy, and I was once again asleep. My final view was of the big one that had hit me looking down with impossibly round, empathetic eyes.

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By the way, I hope you all caught the hint as to what the new guys are genetically mixed with. I really like the way they look in my mind. I will be working on some artwork for this story as it continues. No promise when or how much, but please look forward to it.

And as always, keep the conversation going in the comments!

See you tomorrow,

your humble zookeeper.