ReBirth Of The Primordial

Io watched the blinding orb of light, sun, she corrected herself, drift down until it disappeared completely under the horizon while they traveled. Just earlier, the sky had been so bright, but as the orb descended, it had darkened to purple and blue hues before the darkness eventually encompassed them. It felt familiar, as her previous world had always been dark, but familiarity was where it had ended.

From what Io could remember, it looked like this world had three moons. While it was darker now, no, that wasn't the word. Ah, night, it was night. Io corrected herself. She could see a star-filled nebula. The curling blues, radiant pinks, flourishing purples, peek-a-boo whites? This differed from what she had read, but it was magnificent. Io doubted she would ever be able to count them all, and while yes, the sun had set between the moons and stars, the forest took on an ethereal appearance. This place was just strange. Beautiful, but so strange.

Io stopped and crouched reflexively. Her ears swiveled, trying to catch more of whatever had moved in the bush. The twins had squeaked at Io's sudden halt but otherwise remained silent, their experience being on the run and keeping out of sight proving its value.

Dagan leaned over to Io's ear, "Trouble?" he asked as his yellow gaze automatically searched the murk for any potential threats.

'Nope, just something yummy,' Io responded internally as she shook her head.

"Black or white Io?" Sorcha asked as she scooted slowly up Io's back towards Dagan.

'Hmm... Probably black, but we'll treat it as white,' Io thought, growling just loud enough for the twins to hear.

The twins stiffened, but quickly relaxed. The only change was the slight adjustments in their posture, and how they were prepared to move at a moment's notice. Unbeknownst to the Dagan and Sorcha, their ears twitched minutely in various directions as they strained to hear any potential danger.

Io gently rolled her shoulders to alert the twins that she was going to move again. When Dagan patted her shoulder in confirmation, Io stalked silently through the bushes, her padded paws lending themselves to cushion her weight against the leaves and twigs on the ground. Her passage through plants was silent, as the flora gently glided off her scales and fur like a soft breeze.

Movement caught her right eye, and Io crouched. She rolled a shoulder, and the twins slid stealthily off, staying close to the ground. Io nuzzled the two and pushed them under a rather thorny brush. Satisfied, Io face the potential threat and waited, blending seamlessly in the shadows. A tantalizing scent grew closer and Io salivated. The beast tensed in confusion over this reaction, unfamiliar with what new thing her body was doing.

Io's eyes narrowed as it filled her head. This was not good. She had no clue why her body was acting like this when something behind Dagan and Sorcha caught her eye. Not good! Io leaped over the kids hidden in the bush, her ċhėst rumbling as she let out a vicious snarl.

A small fluffy animal, probably sixteen kilograms at most, hopped into view.

…

It was sooo cute! She squealed internally as she looked at her first living animal. Then she breathed in. As soon as she exhaled, Io was airborne. Whaaaa! Io screamed inside. She tried to stop but to no avail. Twenty minutes later, a blood-covered Io was once again alone. Only a pile of bones lay by her side to accompany Io in her stricken state. She stared catatonically at the pile of broken bones.

Why had she? Io let out a whimper. Why did she kill it? It wasn't as if it had done anything. No longer did she have to worry about other humans revealing her or Dagan and Sorcha's existence to society. So then why? Don't get her wrong, the little creature was practically dead on contact but she'd ripped it apart piece by piece and eaten it. Io could almost feel her stomach sour, or rather, her mind felt sour over this unwanted experience.

While Io had lived at the facility, she received one vita bar daily. It wasn't particularly filling, but it contained all of her body's daily nutritional requirements. Then Io escaped, and she had survived on bugs in the tunnels, and later on, after she made it in the ruins, a combination of bugs and moldy rotten foods.

No blood, no live animal, just minding its own business eating grass and whatnot and being killed to feed another. Even after she had escaped S.E.L.F. and murdered her way through The Tunnels, she had not seen another animal. Even the richest of the rich may have seen a rat or two, and this was only after they had been an exorbitant amount just to flaunt their wealth and prestige.

Killing an animal and ripping it apart was a horrific experience, even though she had slaughtered thousands. The people that she had killed? They tried to kill her for payment, torture her for thrills, or worse, break her until she was only a mindless vegetable. What's worse is that for every person who she came into contact with, they were a direct threat to her family. If she let them go, the bounty for turning in 'wild children' or 'rebels' was just too much of a temptation for people to say no. The only way to make sure that her family stayed safe was to eliminate the threat, but this? This was an animal. A harmless innocent little animal and she had murdered it.

Io heard muffled sniffles coming from the brush behind her and trembled before swearing to herself. 'Shit, the kids, must have seen this. Oh, effing bells, how am I going to explain this?' She trembled harder. 'I can't explain to them I couldn't control myself. That I didn't know that this would happen.' Io's trembling grew as her mind whirled at an astounding rate over any of the possibilities of how she would give the two explain her current state. Nothing.

Io inhaled deeply, wanting to calm down but the lingering scent of blood simultaneously made her stomach rumble while in her mind she wanted to gag because apparently, her body was incapable of such actions. Her inhalations grew deeper, as she tried figuring out how to calm most likely traumatized siblings. The sound of plants swaying gently in the breeze broke the cold silence. Io heard it but was distracted by this jumbled mess of communication issues.. She didn't make the connection that there wasn't even a breeze, to begin with.