Fruits, Bacon and an Egg

Marcus leaned against a tree to let himself rest for a while.

The escape from the leeches and the turtle, albeit brief, had been physically and mentally exhausting, so he needed a pause before continuing his exploration.

Going back through the way he had came was not an option for now, since the turtle seemed to have started patrolling the area, so he had to search for another path, or failing that a temporary hideout, in order not to be out in the open during the night.

His belly rumbled, making him grimace. To make things worse, there was this constant hunger... no matter how much he ate, he was always wanting for more.

"I wonder how that turtle taste." he muttered with a tired voice "I remember that they make turtle soup in some countries. That would be delicious!"

While he was resting, a gentle breeze raised through the tree, dispersing the fetid and damp air of the nearby swamp, and Marcus took a long breath of that fresh air with gratitude.

"Aaaaaah..." he inspired, but then he noticed something.

The wind was carrying some kind of smell with it... an intoxicatingly sweet aroma that made his mouth water.

His stomach rumbled even stronger. The air was full of this sweet scent of food, and he immediately got up, walking towards the source of that smell as if hypnotized.

"Aaaaah... what is this?" he said to himself in a dreamy tone "It... it seems like the smell of a candy shop, a bakery and a grill all mixed together!"

He walked for a few minutes, his mind lost in visions of delicious, succulent foods, and then he finally arrived to the source of it all: it was a large clearing, where the trees and the undergrowth disappeared, leaving the terrain completely barren. In the middle of the clearing there was a small field of vegetables that looked like a mix between melons and pumpkins, only of a pale pink color. Those fruits were incredibly big and plump, surrounded by emerald green leaves and vines, and small, yellow flowers littered the whole field.

The smell of food was almost unbearable now, and Marcus subconsciously took a few steps towards the field.

Those fruits were terribly inviting. They almost screamed that they wanted to be eaten, that they were delicious and succulent. They promised of a delicious nectar, of sweet pulp and...

Marcus stopped, something in the corner of his mind telling him that there was something terribly wrong there.

If he had met that field a few days before, when his hunger was at its peak, he couldn't have resisted that terribly alluring smell, but right now he was fed enough to still be able to think rationally.

"Something is not right here..." he mumbled, staring at the field. First of all, the fruits were just a bit too perfect: they had no visible defect, no signs of being eaten by any insect... and come to think of it, the insects that were infesting the air over the swamp were completely absent here.

Second, that scent of food was weird too. It didn't even resemble any specific scent at all, it was just the smell of delicious food in general.

Then, as he smelled the air more carefully, he could pick up another smell, barely perceptible under the overpowering aroma of food... it was a smell of rotting meat.

Looking more closely, he could see some elongated objects hidden under the foliage. Even from where he was now, he could tell that they were bones.

Yep. These fruits are definitely not a trap. he thought sarcastically I guess everything in this crazy forest is out to kill and eat you. Well, not even I am gonna fall for this one. Nope. Not gonna happen."

He turned to get away, trying his best to ignore the rumbling of his stomach. Despite rationally knowing that those fruits were most likely the bait of a lethal trap, his instincts still wanted him to try and eat them nonetheless.

"Dammit!" he cursed "Maybe this smell has some hypnotic properties!?! Well, whatever it is, I better get away asap!"

He was about to do so, when a sudden noise stopped him in his track. It was a sound of something very big and heavy walking through the forest, and Marcus, not wanting to attract the attention of whatever beast it was, immediately dived for the trees, hiding behind one and remaining perfectly still.

However, he still peeked from behind the trunk. After all, if another monstrosity was gonna show itself, Marcus wanted to know about it.

After a few seconds, a huge shape emerged from the trees. It resembled a wild boar but it was bigger than an ox, with tusks the size of swords.

It had powerful legs, and the man had no doubt that it could easily outrun him if he spotted him, but right now the beast was mesmerized by the fruits.

With arrogant and greedy looking movements, the animals marched right into the field, stepping over the vines and breaking them with ease, and stopped in front of the biggest of the fruits. Then it opened his gigantic mouth and took a huge bite out of the vegetable, chewing off half of it, even though they had the size of a big watermelon.

Uh... maybe I was wrong, and those fruits are not a trap after all. Marcus thought Well, if that's the case, I could go get some when this pig will leave...

Right in the middle of this reflection, something happened. The boar suddenly started wobbling, almost as if it was feeling dizzy, and at the same time the vines, which had remained inert on the ground until then, suddenly started moving, darting towards the faltering beast like snakes.

The beast soon found itself binded by multiple vines, but even when poisoned and wrapped like that, it was still a dangerous, strong being.

With a roar of rage, the boar struggled with all of its strength, breaking several vines while trying to free himself and run away from the field.

But more vined kept moving toward the animal, replacing the ones that got broken and tying it even more tightly.

The fight between beast and plant went on for a minute, while Marcus was looking at it with fascination.

After a while, it seemed that the confrontation had reached its conclusion. The boar was moving very weakly and was almost completely covered by vines, which were slowly dragging it towards the center of the field. But then, with a sudden explosion of strength, the animal freed itself, jumping outside of the field with a desperate rush. Even more vines tried to bind the animal and drag it back, but it had gained too much momentum to be stopped, and the vines were easily broken.

The boar had finally broken free, thanks to its enormous strength and determination, but all of his energies had been expended in the escape, not to mention it had been poisoned by the fruit it had eaten. It wobbling a lot, and as soon as it was out of the reach of the predatory field, it collapsed on the ground, gasping and wheezing for air.

Marcus stood still for about a minute, but the boar didn't show any sign of getting better. Actually, it was getting worse now: it was trembling wildly, and its legs were spasming.

Uhm... if the boar's so weak, I could use this opportunity to escape! The man thought No reason to stick so close to this dangerous field! I'm so hungry that even after seeing that I'm still tempted to eat some of the fruits!

He turned, about to go away, when a sudden realization came to his mind.

"Wait... if the boar IS that weak, doesn't that mean that I could eat it!?!" he murmured "After all, that is a prey that I'd never have the chance to catch by myself... and it has a lot of meat on it... a lot of delicious, succulent meat..."

Marcus's stomach rumbled just at the thought, but he struggled to keep himself rational. After all, if the boar still had some energies to fight, it could very well kill him.

But looking at the beast, it seemed very clear that it couldn't fight a baby in that state. And the man was very, very hungry.

All considered, it was worth the risk.

With caution, and keeping a long distance between himself and the carnivore field, Marcus approached the boar.

Now he could see that the animal was in pain. Its entire body was convulsing slightly, and its breath was short. It didn't even react to his presence.

Killing it seemed like an act of mercy at this point. Marcus grabbed his wooden spear with both hands, ready to strike the killing blow... but he hesitated.

Although he had killed other animals in the previous days, he couldn't help but pity this one. Watching how much it had struggled to stay alive against all odds, escaping from the killer field... Marcus sympathized with that. Since he had come to this world, all of his life had been like that.

But then, he steeled his decision. This world was merciless, and the boar's death could very well mean his survival. Not to mention that in its state the animal was gonna die anyway. It was better to give it a clear death right now, instead of letting it suffer.

With this determination in mind, he pointed his spear to the neck of the animal, right were the jugular should have been, and stabbed with all of his strength.

Blood sprayed from the wound, getting on Marcus's body. The boar trembled even more for a few seconds, but then it stopped completely.

The big beast was dead.

But Marcus couldn't process all this. As soon as he had smelled the blood, the rational part of his brain had shut down. He raised his hands, watching the blood drip from them, and then his tongue dashed out of his mouth, licking it.

Delicious.

With a ravenous hunger, he threw himself on the boar, starting to devour it like a wild animal. His large mouth and sharp teeth tore through the beast's hide and muscles without problem, letting him take huge bites that he swallowed whole.

Soon, he had disemboweled his prey, and was eating his raw guts. Rationally this should have sickened him beyond reason, but right now, in the middle of his wild hunger, he didn't care. All he cared about was getting these succulent, bloody nutrients in his body. He needed them. He needed them so much that the rational part of his mind had been overwhelmed by that primal necessity.

While he was eating, he experienced the usual flux of information about what he was eating. He knew about the powerful muscles of the boar, about its thick skin and tusks... and he got even some information about the poison that was slowly paralyzing its heart.

The feeding went on for a long time, but Marcus had completely lost any sense of time. He couldn't stop eating, he couldn't even think about stopping... and he only did so when his stomach felt so full it hurt.

"Owww..." he moaned, slowly regaining his rationality "What the hell happened!?!"

He was crouched near the remains of the animal, sitting in a pool of blood. He looked at his stomach. It was incredibly bloated... to the point that it almost made him look pregnant. And on top of this, he was covered head to toe in blood.

"Ugh!" he whined "I don't feel so good..."

He looked at the dead boar. To his absolute astonishment, more than half of it had been devoured.

"What the hell!?! Did... did I do this!?!"

If he really had done so, it meant that he had eaten more than his own weight. Any human would have likely died after eating that much.

But even now, all the discomfort Marcus felt was just a slight pain in his belly and a bit of nausea.

"What the hell happened here!?!" he cried, trying to get on his feet... but then he felt dizzy and fell again "Ugh! Dammit! What is this... why did I eat so much!?!"

He waited for a bit, breathing wildly. Then he grabbed his spear and used it as a crutch to get himself on his feet. He was wobbling and he felt dizzy, but at least he could stand... more or less.

"Ngh!" he groaned "I need some water."

Slowly, he walked towards the nearest pond, limping and stumbling on his feet until he finally reached it.

Then he let himself fall on his knees on the bank, and took a sip of water. It was muddy, but at this point he had stopped caring about that. Then he started splashing his body, cleaning himself of the blood. It took a few minutes, but then he felt both refreshed and a bit more clean.

"Ugh!" he moaned again "What is wrong with me? What is wrong with this body? Why did I eat so much? I get it that I was hungry but... isn't this a bit too fucking much!?!"

He looked at the sky. The sun was about to set now, and he wasn't in any condition to get back to his cave right now.

Right now, he didn't have the time to ask idle questions. He needed to find some shelter, otherwise he'd be out in the dark again.

With a groan, he got himself on his feet again, and stumbled around, searching for a suitable place.

In the end, Marcus had decided to simply sleep near the field of killer fruits. It was a questionable decision, but he simply didn't find any other shelter: in that valley all the holes in the ground were filled with water, and he felt too weighed down to climb a tree. So, he had simply decided to rest near the field: the smell of the fruits should hide his own, and the presence of that predatory plants should take care or repel most potential dangers.

Moreover, after binge eating the boar like that, Marcus wasn't hungry at all, and the mesmerizing smell of the field had almost no effect on him right now.

So, for his bed, he simply digged the ground a bit, covered himself in leaves and hid there, trying to get some sleep.

But somehow, he couldn't fall asleep. At first, he had thought he had the symptoms of an indigestion, but strangely by the time he laid to sleep he felt as if he had almost completed his digestion. No, what was keeping him awake were weird thoughts about some undefined creature.

The creature in his mind were a weird mix between a reptile and an insect, whose colors were similar to his own, but the specific features were missing. This somehow irked him to no end, and soon he was forced to think about how to fill the missing features of that being.

Uhmmm... let's see... I could make it similar to a snake or a millipede?

The image in his mind changed, and the creature took some serpentine features.

Nah, it's looks disgusting. Let's try to think about something else... like, what kind of animal would be useful to me right now? I'd say some sort of dog would be the best... a hound to defend me and hunt for me... but how to make this creature more similar to a dog?

In response to this question, the recollections of the informations he got from eating the animals of this world appeared in his mind. None of those animals were even remotely similar to a dog... but maybe he could get something close enough by mixing them.

Let's see... a quadruped creature... wait, it must have 6 limbs? Well, six limbs it is then... I'll just shrink the anterior ones. So I take the legs of the boar and I mix them with those of the rat and the lizard... too bad the features of the lizard are very vague though... and there I have it. As for the head... well, a big head filled with teeth is good enough. Let's mix that of the boar with that of the snake. Horns? No. Wait... it must have at least one horn? Ok then, but let's make it little too... as for the senses, the sense of smell of the boar is very good. But that of the snake isn't bad either... as for the hearing, the rat is by far the best...

Marcus thought about the features of the creature for quite a long time, and in his head the image of that being gradually changed to fit his decisions.

Then he finally finished thinking about all the details: he had thought about a creature similar to a dog in shape, with a back protected by a chitin armor covered in small spikes. The creature had a big, triangular head with a small horn in front of its forehead, and a big mouth filled with sharp teeth. The creature was very fast and had very sharp sense of smell and hearing: it was a natural hunter, ready to catch all prey. As for the size, it was quite big, at least the size of a wolf.

The man thought a bit about this image, before nodding. This was the companion that he'd like to have in this god forsaken world.

Then, immediately after he had finished thinking about it, he felt a sudden pain in his bowels.

"Fuck!" he cried, trying to emerge from his hiding place as fast as he could "I knew it that eating all that meat was gonna have some repercussions!"

As soon as he managed to get out of the small hole in the ground, he stumbled a few meters away and squatted, the pain in his belly getting stronger.

"Fuck! This is gonna be a big one!" he snarled, gritting his teeth and trying to push... but then he realized something that something was wrong.: he did indeed feel as if something big was getting out, only not from his butt.

"What!?! What the heck!?!" he cried in pain and surprise "What is this!?! Am I... UGH!"

The pain intensified... but it wasn't just pain anymore. There was another sensation, not necessarily unpleasant but that somehow made him feel really, really uncomfortable.

"Oh shit! Oh fuck! Oh shit! Oh fuck! Fuck! Fuck! FUUUUUUU...!!!" Marcus cried, pushing with all of his strength.

And then something got out of... "him"... and fell on the ground.

Marcus too fell, panting and shaking. He was strained now, and he felt weirdly hungry too.

"W-what... what the hell was t-that?" he mumbled, looking down to see what he had produced.

Then he completely freezed in surprise, his mind unable to process what his eyes were seeing.

He remained in that condition for a few seconds, before closing his eyes.

"Ok Marcus... maybe you didn't see it right. Maybe this is just a nightmare. Just open your eyes now and maybe that thing won't be there anymore."

He opened his eyes, and the "thing" was still there.

It was an egg.

Or at least, it seemed like an egg, but it was more similar to the egg of a fish or a frog than that of a reptile or a bird. It was oval in shape, the size of an ostrich egg, but it was transparent and you could see a weird shape inside, a weird creature similar to a tadpole, only that it had six limbs and was covered in a soft-looking chitin armor.

"What... what... what the fuck!?!" Marcus cried "What the unholy alien fuck dancing on a nuclear shit is that!?!"

He didn't have an answer for that question, of course, nor he did have one for the hundreds of other questions that were popping in his mind. He only had one one certainty at that point: that night he wouldn't be able to sleep well, that was for sure.