I stood in the bush, looking at the crumpled form of the human in front of me and wondering what I had just done. It happened too fast, I thought to myself, I just reacted out of pure habit. I knew from both the amount of force I had put into the throw and the wet sound that the rock had made upon impact that the human must be dead. With a quiet exhale I relaxed myself and checked the area around me for any companions that might have seen my attack. Nobody came running, so I tentatively stepped out of the bush and exposed myself to any onlookers. When no bullets or arrows struck me after a few seconds I knew I was probably safe.

Before looking over the corpse I picked up the fallen spear and examined it. The craftsmanship was decent, the shaft being largely straight but with an almost invisible bend to it. The head of the spear was once single piece of iron, held in place by two other iron bands which squeezed it tight to the shaft. I spun the weapon around in my hand and felt the weight, judging that it was easily throwable in a pinch. My thoughts were interrupted by a sputtering cough coming from the body which prompted me to reflexively jump back and enter a combat-ready stance.

The human twitched and sputtered more, spewing blood out of its mouth and rolling its head around to face me. Full-blooded male, I recognized instantly from its facial hair, but it looks like an adult. Why is it so small? Wait, its irises are red? The man's blood-red eyes struggled to keep a focus on me as blood dripped from his sand-colored hair. I could see the wound on his head, a brutal dent made in the side of his skull, slowly rippling and moving as though it was filled with maggots.

“Sh-shahvn yao...” the man blubbered incoherently, trying and failing to raise an arm in my direction. I responded by bashing his head with the blunt end of the spear, aiming for the temple. No need to risk the spearhead, I thought. The man was still conscious and groaning after one strike, so I hit him until he finally stopped moving.

For a moment I wondered if the man was finally dead, but then heard the soft sound of air being inhaled and exhaled through blood. To my amazement the man was merely unconscious, and the wound from the rock on the side of his head was still rippling but now was also swelling up. Some kind of parasite? I wondered as I watched with interest. For a second my gaze was drawn back to his temple, and I noticed another oddity. There's blood, but the skin has no wound, I observed. Reaching down and wiping off the temple with my hand I saw smooth and unbroken skin.

Looking back at the other wound from the rock, the rippling was slowing down and it appeared as though the man's skull had somehow reshaped itself. Once the motion died down completely I reached out and ran my hand along the site of the wound, still easily identifiable from the spilled blood matting the nearby hair, and felt smooth bone underneath the flesh. That's... that's not even possible, I thought as I ran my hand along it again, not even active nanotechnology can do that, it's like he was never even wounded in the first place. The man's unconscious form was anything but threatening with its gangly limbs and lack of muscle tone, but the sight of it unnerved me.

Thankfully the man stayed unconscious for quite some time. Maybe his brain doesn't heal as fast, I hoped as I pulled off his clothing and compared it to my own body. The shirt was useless, far too small, but the pants were loose fitting on him and I easily cut them into a pair of shorts for myself. The man's cloak and boots also fit me, allowing me to better conceal my body and the gear I was carrying as well as protect my feet. If the man's appearance was average for the region I would stick out badly. His skin tone was very pale, and his hair was just a few grades below the lightest natural shades. Not to mention the eyes, I thought as I spread his eyelids to see the iris again, that color of red has to be artificial. But how can that be when he doesn't appear to be from a technological tribe?

After finding a spot to put the man's knife at my waist so I wouldn't drop it, I hogtied him and pondered what to do. Experimentally I drew the knife and cut a thin line along his exposed arm, watching with fascination as his flesh knit itself back together in seconds. I need to get more information, I judged, even if they're weak these people could be a serious threat if they can all regenerate like this. Using some of the cut-off pieces of the man's clothing I tied a gag in his mouth and a blindfold over his eyes, then hoisted him up and carried him off southward. If he came from the north I need to keep him as far as I can from his people while I conduct my research.

Even hours later the man was still nothing but a limp weight on my shoulders. I had emptied out my bag of rocks, including the deer horns, since the combined weight of them and the man was really tiring me out. It didn’t make a very large difference to speed, but it did stop my legs from continually informing me of new accrued damage. Navigating the wilderness was hard enough without excessive power draw, and I was trying to navigate back to the small cave I had seen with the remnants of a fire inside. When I finally saw the opening my legs practically screamed in relief, and soon I dumped the man inside and sat down to rest myself. Finally able to rest, I chewed on some of the last pieces of the dried venison and lamented that I wasn't able to preserve more of it.

The sun was going down again, and I considered whether or not I should head out and try to hunt something. Actually, gathering might be better, I thought, I need more fiber for cordage anyway. After making sure I had bound the man's limbs sufficiently tight and checking my heads-up display to ensure that my body had enough energy, I stood up and headed out from the cave. If I can find more of those watery fruits as well that would be ideal, I thought.

Approximately half a kilometer east from the entrance to the cave was another creek, the smallest of the ones I had seen so far. As I cupped my hands and gulped down water to help replenish my reserves I wondered why the man wasn't carrying a water-skin. It’s probably because fresh water is so common in this region that he doesn’t need to carry it with him, I reasoned. I looked around for crabs and found none, so I simply cut my fill of the reed grass that grew near the creek and then moved on to the south in search of a fruit tree.

I found that I wasn't tiring as easily as I had the nights before. My mind raced with thoughts about the man and the tribe that he must have come from. There were so many mysteries already, and I had barely been in contact with him for a quarter of a day. I nearly walked past a fruit tree because I was so wrapped up in my own thoughts about how the man's healing worked, only noticing because some distant animal call caused me to check my surroundings.

I used last of my cordage to construct another net for the fruit, and then did my best to shake down as much as possible. Feeding prisoners was a regrettable waste of resources, but possibly a necessary one in my case. As I tied up the bag and slung it over my shoulder, I glanced up between the trees at the sky for a moment. If only I had normal navigation software, I thought, with this many stars I would have no trouble getting a bearing on where I'm actually located. The patterns of the stars were mostly unknown to me since I never bothered to learn them. Why would I have bothered when I always had a navigation module to do it for me? I asked myself rhetorically.

On the trek back to the cave I noticed just how alive the forest became at night. The normally quiet environment was filled with screeches and warbles, as well as the sounds of animals moving through the bush. Flying insects swarmed around every source of heat including myself, sometimes so thick that it was difficult to breathe. How did I manage to sleep in this? I wondered as I swatted yet another one of a seemingly infinite variety of pests away from my ears. I looked down and saw a mammal-creature get grabbed and hoisted up into the air, and looking up into the trees I saw a very large spider slowly reeling in a line of silk. A shame it's probably not edible, I thought as I walked around the scene.

Some time later I looked around again and tried to find my location. I was used to navigating in the dark, but the dark wasn't usually as dark when you had the ability to see the higher bands of infrared. All at once the audio information from the world around me came into focus and I heard a low growl. My new knife was in my hand before I even managed a thought, and I looked around for the source of the sound. It was like it came from everywhere, I thought. I looked down and wondered if it was my stomach again, but then another growl sounded out from the southeast.

Turning around to face it, I saw a blurry figure in the vegetation behind me, and I cursed my eyes for not being able to brighten the scene enough to make out more than a basic shape. Whatever the animal was, it was covered in dark fur or skin and it appeared to stand like a quadruped. It might also be smart enough to hide from me, I thought, it's not moving now that I'm looking in its direction. I had the choice of whether to fight or run, and I chose the latter option. Bursting through the trees, I broke into the fastest sprint I could manage while carrying my cargo and used my momentum to my advantage to bounce off of and around the trees near me, making my path haphazard.

The animal, whatever it was, kept up easily. I could hear its panting and the thumping of its feet against the ground as I rushed through the foliage with my knife drawn. I really don't want to have to fight a large predator in these conditions, I thought, I can probably win, but I might sustain heavy damage. My surroundings grew more familiar, and even through the dark I could tell that I was under a quarter of a kilometer from the cave. Unfortunately, I snagged my foot on a root which was sticking out of the ground and tumbled forward onto the ground. I used my momentum to turn the fall into a rough diagonal roll and get back on my feet. I felt the handle of my spear dig into my shoulder blades, and I knew from experience how much ground I had lost. Have to keep going, I thought frantically as a thumping pounded in my ears.

I reached the cave and didn't stop running until I passed the still-unconscious man, spinning around as I reached the end of the traversable area and drawing my new spear. I sat in perfect silence, sweating but remaining still, waiting for the animal to follow me inside. It'll go for the prisoner first, I deduced, I'm far enough back that it will think of him as easy food. When it grabs him, I can throw the spear and kill it. The pounding in my ears thumped on for minutes, maybe even an hour, until finally the fatigue began to catch up with me. No, it could be here any minute, I yelled at myself as my eyes grew difficult to keep open, I have to stay on guard, I have to stay on guard, I have to...