Hunger

Charlie continued to lay there in silence. There was far too much on his mind to want to eat. This was the first real moment he had to not only think about what happened but even attempt at dealing with it.

He had died. His wife and child, had died. His friends had died. Did anyone survive the awful attack? Could anyone survive the wilderness in his old world?

There were many questions that Charlie couldn't answer, a lot of them he didn't want an answer for.

What good would it do him knowing how many lived? It would just cause him unnecessary pain and stress.

He thought that, but still couldn't pull himself away from obsessing over them. They were there when they found out about the passing of his mother, and brought him back from the abyss. They were his new family when his father abandoned him. He wasn't sure if he ever really had a father, at least in comparison to Sabrinas father, Franky.

The memory of Sabrina falling to the claws of the Toradh filled his mind again. It hurt so much but Charlie couldn't stop replaying her final moments. He wished he could have done so much more, he wanted to turn back time and save Sabrina. Yet no matter how much he wished, no matter how powerful his emotions were, nothing changed.

He was still underground, in a burrow that once belonged to a creature he had killed. He didn't even know what it looked like, there wasn't enough light to see what his first kill was. He didn't see the children he doomed to death, either.

There was something else bothering Charlie. He had died, yes, but he also didn't.

He didn't know if time passed since his death, or if everything was instantaneous, but there were things he saw that he would never forget.

What even were they? How could anything of that size, of that power, exist in this world? Could he even call it a world? There was so much more to everything than what he knew before.

He knew he was on the planet Earth before, if only barely. He was lucky to have this knowledge anyway, only finding out that word existed when a wanderer passed through their settlement and told them stories of his travels, shared his own limited knowledge.

He was luckier than most to have some semblance of understanding about the world, of the world before everything turned to shit. Yet that knowledge was useless when presented with everything he saw.

He had to remember that everything he knew was either wrong or not entirely applicable to his current situation. He couldn't be sure of anything so it was better to approach everything with the intent to understand.

Yet everything he saw was still too much for him to even attempt to process. He knew nothing of this world and even less about the beings that he came across. Finding himself beginning to spiral he had to focus on what he could understand, but that was no less of a monstrous undertaking.

Even though he had fallen deep into the cold grasp of his emotions, a part of him didn't care - His stomach. It was hungry and was able to pull him, if but for a moment to satisfy itself, out of his self pity. Sighing and putting his thoughts to the side, Charlie turned to the dead creature.

How was he even supposed to eat this? He didn't have teeth to bite through the skin, didn't have hands to butcher it and no knife to prepare it to be eaten. What could he do with just his mouth?

With nothing coming to mind, Charlie decided to just approach the corpse and see if maybe he'll get inspiration that way. He noticed that his body somewhat knew what it wanted when he fought the creature earlier, something from deep inside him taking control.

The musky scent, while still strong, had faded noticeably. Charlie prodded the corpse with the tip of his nose, which was a lot farther out than he expected. His stomach growled in anticipation but he still felt nothing.

In a desperate attempt, Charlie opened his mouth and tried to bite a pair of its feet. Something inside him stirred and urged him to continue. It flooded his mind and Charlie didn't try to fight it, he wanted to understand what his body was telling him.

It wanted more. It wanted to consume the entire corpse. It wanted nothing more than to just swallow it whole.

Charlie followed the feeling, letting it guide him and before he knew it, his jaw had unhinged itself, growing to many times its original size. It stretched and moved in uncomfortable ways, but it was never painful.

He was able to get his mouth around the bottom of the creature and with little left to do from here, he swallowed.

It was tough. It was so large that it wouldn't go down easily. He kept swallowing and dragging the corpse into him deeper, inch by inch. It felt disgusting but at the same time like the most natural thing in the world.

After a few gruesome minutes, Charlies jaw had closed and was beginning to set back into place. If he thought swallowing it earlier was uncomfortable, this was far beyond discomfort. His skin started to shrink back to its original shape but his jaw was still out of place, which provided him with a brand new experience.

He would have preferred to not have any more of these new experiences.

It wouldn't set back no matter how much time passed so Charlie started to do anything that came to mind. Eventually he flicked his head in a downward angle which was enough to set back one side. Elated, he tried doing the same on the other side and was eventually able to get both sides sitting normally.

Now that he had a moment to relax, he felt bloated. At least his stomach was quiet now, but he still wasn't a fan of being this full. The creature might have been a bit too big for him.

The warm burrow felt comfortable now. There was enough room for him to wiggle around in and he wouldn't freeze at night. It seemed somewhat safe from predators, but he knew that he was able to get in and kill the previous owners. If he can do it, so can others.

Still this was the safest spot he had found and there was no way he wasn't going to stay here. Even if he wasn't bloated, it was too dark to go outside and look for another spot to sleep in. He'd buckle down here for the night and have another attempt at understanding the world tomorrow.

Not wanting to be disturbed in the middle of his sleep, Charlie used some of the nearby dirt and debris to mostly block off the entrance. This proved to be a challenge, only being able to use his tail to do the heavy lifting. He left a small gap near the top to let in air, not big enough to easily notice.

Another benefit of the burrow became incredibly obvious to Charlie now that he's had a moment to relax and think about sleep. He had no way to close his eyes, so how was he going to fall asleep?

The burrow was pitch black which, thankfully, allowing him to even consider falling asleep with his eyes open. If he pretended, he could almost convince himself that his eyes were closed. It was enough to trick his mind as his eyes started to feel... different. Like they were actually closed.

Happy with this new revelation, Charlie tried to fall asleep. Unfortunately, sleep didn't come easy.

He was once again brought back to the horrific memories of his wife falling.

Charlie didn't know what sort of creature he had become, but even though he so desperately wanted to cry, no tear was shed.

It was frustrating to not be allowed the relief that only crying can bring. He was frustrated at his powerlessness in saving his wife and in being unable to change his situation.

Charlies first night on this new world was eventually concluded with a dreamless sleep. Nothing broke through the small barricade he had constructed and there were no disturbances to wake him.

When he came to, Charlie was overcome with a sense of confusion. He couldn't see anything even when he opened his eyes. Then it dawned on him that he was still in a burrow, and he didn't even have eyelids anymore.

He could feel that there were some changes though. He felt stronger, much stronger than before. Taking in how his body felt at this moment, he noticed that the majority of his bloating had went away. He felt thinner, but still inflated.

It was difficult to move forward but there was no other option than to slither on. Staying in the burrow wasn't going to give him answers, it wasn't going to help him get out of his current situation.

What sort of situation was he even in? Well he could reason that there was always the problem of food, could reason that he'd need water too. Outside of that, he had no idea what situation he was in.

With that realisation, Charlie decided on todays plan. He'd leave the burrow, explore the surrounding area and figure out where he is. He's still bloated so he shouldn't go far, but it wouldn't do him any good to not do anything.

He'll then come back to the burrow and make this his base of operations for the moment. He'd need a place to come back to for the night, and for the moment there was nowhere safer.

Charlie tore apart the barricade that he constructed with a bit of annoyance. He felt that it's going to become very tiresome to have to do this every time. It was a problem for the future, right now he just needed to get out of here.

The loud sounds and bright lights of the forest filled his senses as he crawled out of the burrow. The sight was still as stunning as it was the first time and filled Charlie with a much needed warm sensation. His heart and mind had been in dark places, so all of this light was needed more than he realised.

His movements were slow and cautious at the beginning, partly due to how full he still was and partly due to having his mind preoccupied, but he quickly made progress on both ends.

His stomach lessened in size thus giving him a bit more comfort and allowing to move a bit faster.

His heart had quieted down a bit after spending some time in the wild. It was still a dark pit, but at least he had distracted himself for now.

Whatever he was thinking about at the moment was quickly pushed to the side as he came across a peculiar scene. There was a large corpse of a fallen creature with the lower half of its body missing.

There were two grey bird-like things standing on its corpse, pecking away at the flesh of the creature. They had rounder bodies than birds he'd seen before, with wings that looked like they were made of leather. He couldn't see their fronts but could see some sort of beak every time they bent down.

Additionally, those things were much, much larger than he was. The creature that was on the ground was easily twenty to thirty times larger than Charlie, and yet just two of these bird creatures covered just under half of its body.

These two were silent. Even though they were flapping their wings at each other when they were fighting over the meat, there was no sound. Charlie couldn't tell if it was the distance or maybe that his hearing wasn't as sharp, just like his vision. They were blurry from this distance, but Charlie didn't want to get any closer.

He watched these two pick away at the corpse for a while longer before deciding to move on. Whatever they were, was not his problem at the moment.

Charlie continued on his way and scouted out a few more clearings near his burrow. Some were empty but the majority of them had similar scenes, a corpse with one half of it missing surrounded by a flock of birds or various other creatures.

It somewhat unnerved Charlie that there was something this dangerous close-by. He didn't know what could have caused it but it must have been massive, definitely bigger than anything he'd seen before.

The day was quickly spent doing basic reconnaissance and Charlies stomach had shrunk substantially. It was almost easy to move again.

After making his way back to the river to get a drink of water, Charlie saw a few creatures doing the same. They were of all shapes and sizes but miraculously none of them were fighting. They all seemed to just want a drink before leaving.

Charlie was surprised but could rationalise it as a sort of truce between the local creatures.

"I don't eat you and you don't eat me."

At least that's what it looked like.

Cautiously Charlie approached the river bank, his small frame allowed him to sneak into the reeds without being seen, and waited in hiding once more. He wasn't going to trust what he saw until nothing happened for a while longer.

Since he was a bit closer, he was able to make out the details of some of these creatures. There were some that resembled the Toradh from his past life, some that looked like dogs and even formed small packs. There were bird-like creatures that actually looked normal sized, even smaller than himself.

Charlie lay in waiting for an hour, observing, and nothing happened. At least nothing major. One of the birds got a little too close to the dogs which set them off in a mad barking fit. The sudden barks set every nearby creature off and there was some tension for a while. It looked like the dogs understood they were drawing attention and stopped their barking.

Drinking his fill, Charlie decided that it was enough for one day. He had made great progress on figuring out where he was, had studied some of the creatures and even targeted some that he figured he could take in a fight.

He made his way through the underbrush once again and slithered back into the forest. His first day might have been chaotic, and in comparison, this day felt like a breeze.

Charlie had made his way back to the burrow, re-created the barricade in the entrance and laid down in the comfortable darkness. His stomach had almost receded back to its original shape.

He was content for now and was about to start thinking about tomorrow when there was a change.

There was something going on in his stomach and Charlie decided to focus on that instead for a moment.

He knew nothing about how this creature behaved or what happened to its body, so there was no other option but to try and learn what he'll be going through in the future.

His stomach rolled and loudly expressed itself. It was hard to describe the sensation, it felt like his stomach was being pressed on from multiple sides and at the same time the contents were being swished around.

Charlies attention was quickly taken away by a scratching noise somewhere outside. It stopped.

He listened more closely this time, drowning out the noises his stomach was making. There was more scratching, this time it was closer. It stopped.

This time the scratching was just outside the entry of the burrow. There was something trying to get in and Charlie panicked. He could hear sniffing and the earth shifting quickly as this creature clawed at the entrance. There was more light peeking through the hole Charlie left at the top now.

The hole! The fresh air Charlie wanted down here let his scent leak out. He'd have to figure that out in the future, if there was one.

Charlies stomach made another loud noise, but this time it came with a familiar sensation.

Something was once again changing inside of him and he couldn't understand why. He wasn't hungry, he shouldn't be! Yet inside of him there was an ember that threatened to ignite, a primal need to consume, to devour.

Devour what? The creatures that threatened to break in any moment? The creature he had consumed last night? He had no direction but his stomach begged him for food. Was it his stomach? It didn't feel quite right.

It felt like he was back at that moment he... took a bite of that golden entity. The ember ignited and a furious flame of hunger spread through his body. It was uncontrollable and seized Charlies mind.

That flame, that power, it had something it wanted and it was right in front of it. It stretched out, it reached out and Charlie couldn't stop himself even if he wanted to. The power grasped something inside of Charlie, a remnant of his first meal was still inside of him and this power wanted it.

Fully giving up control, he let the power do what it wanted and it responded in kind. It felt like the rush of a tidal wave crashed into his stomach. It hit something and it hit it hard.

Whatever was left in his stomach was quickly consumed and the power that filled him disappeared just as fast. Though, something changed. He felt more powerful, if just slightly. The room also seemed a touch smaller now and his skin felt much tighter on him.

He didn't have time to take in the new changes any further as a claw had torn through his barricade and was followed by a large snout. It sniffed in quick successions and when it smelled Charlie, it stopped for a brief moment before pulling out. Now there were multiple claws tearing into the burrow with the light bleeding through.

Charlie had nowhere to turn to, nowhere to run so he did the only thing he knew how to. He got up real close and sunk his fangs into one of the clawed limbs that poked its way through.

He let that same feeling pour out from his fangs in the fraction of a moment that he made contact. There was a loud yelp followed by whining.

The dogs.

This was awful news. The last time he saw them they were in a pack but his vision was too blurry to really tell how many of them there were. Aggravated, the dogs dug into the burrow with renewed vigor, quickly breaking through.

Charlie saw them, the angry muzzles of these dogs that bared sharp fangs. He saw them real close as one of them tried lashing out but got a quick bite on its snout in return. He didn't know if the liquid that he injected them with was going to do much, but he wasn't about to not use every tool in his repertoire.

The dogs nipped at him, too scared to get really close but too hungry to not try. He didn't always make contact with them, but every bite that did injected everything he had inside of him.

The dogs grew restless and bolder, this time with one of them biting down the middle of Charlies body and yanking him out of the burrow. The teeth broke through his scales with ease and for the first time he saw his own blood gush out of his strange body. At least it was still red.

The wind rushed past Charlie as he was being tossed around, still clenched tightly between the dogs teeth. The pressure was strong and it was hard to fight back, but it was the only option he had. Charlie coiled his body around its snout and sunk his fangs in many times, injecting that liquid whenever they made contact.

It was slow at first but the pressure lessened. The teeth that sunk in had lost their sting and it wasn't swinging its head around wildly anymore. Charlie didn't stop yet. He latched on and was not planning on letting go.

The dog let out a whimper before collapsing with Charlie still in its teeth. Using that moment Charlie pried himself out of its grasp and retreated. He looked at the dogs and they all looked worse for wear. They were all whimpering and shivering on the ground. The dog that had Charlie in its clutches had stopped moving and he couldn't see it breathing anymore.

It was dead.

Now that he had a moment, he could see that there were four dogs total and the rest were trying to crawl away. They crawled until they too, stopped breathing.

They had all died and the only thing that made sense to Charlie was that whatever he was injecting into them was the culprit. It must have been something deadly to living creatures. His puny fangs couldn't do this amount of damage no matter how hard he tried to rationalise it.

He'd have time to figure it out later though, he was beyond exhausted and injured. The wound was still bleeding profusely and didn't seem like it was going to stop any time soon. He'd need to wash it and cover it somehow.

If these dogs could sniff him out from inside a burrow, moving around with an open wound was going to get even more creatures after him. He had to cover it now and heal. Giving it a quick thought he knew he had no chance to reach the river and wash it out in his condition.

What was he supposed to do here? He had no limbs to grab leaves, or even create some sort of tourniquet to stop the bleeding. He was at a loss but had to do something.

He dove into the underbrush to look for any sort of fallen leaves, or anything that remotely resembled a bandage. He was leaving a bloody trail everywhere he went but right now that was of little importance.

After desperately searching for the better half of ten minutes, Charlie had found a large flat leaf that still had a look of sturdiness to it. It was laying beside a large leafy plant that sprouted from the ground. It didn't look dangerous but there was no confidence in his assessment.

With little choice, Charlie plopped his body on the leaf and tried turning it on himself. It was still too fresh to easily turn it so he bit down and tried to flip it over, to create some sort of crease.

Leaving bloody trails on the leaf didn't help either. It would dry out and attract critters of all sizes.

Finally, Charlie succeeded and had the leaf wrapped around him tightly. A new problem arose, he couldn't move without being able to grip the floor with his underside.

It was infuriating. He was losing strength quickly and he needed to rest. He had to recover now and try to slow the bleeding, but nothing was going his way. Unwrapping himself with some difficulty, Charlie moved the leaf with him in an attempt to get back to the burrow. There was nowhere else he could go in this state, and if bigger creatures were attracted to the dead bodies, at least they wouldn't be looking at him.

With great effort, Charlie made his way back and was able to slither deep into the burrow. His strength faded right as he wrapped himself back up in the leaf. There was still a small trickle of blood that soaked through the leaf, the creases Charlie made had left some small gaps.

Now all he had left was to hope it would be enough. Enough to at least survive until tomorrow so he can wash himself and maybe not die to an infection.

After some rest, Charlie gained enough strength to put some dents into the dirt walls of the burrow and get a little deeper, a bit closer to the roots of the tree. He had made just enough room for his body to squeeze in and he slowly, very slowly, was able to close it up. This time he didn't leave any hole for air to get in, suffocation was only a secondary worry. If anything found him this time, there was no chance at survival.

With everything taken care of, Charlie had no strength left. No energy to think with let alone worry about anything. Sleep came quickly and another dreamless night whisked him away.