Leaving the Cave

After I retrieved the little girl from the cave, Lohikaarmi and I begin heading out to look for the human village.

From afar, we probably look like two soldiers rescuing a refugee girl. Neither of us is wearing a helmet. I want room for the Exosuit's helmet, as for Lohikaarmi, she can not put a helmet on because of her horns, so if people were to look closely at us, we would appear to be pretty suspicious.

I tread through the thick undergrowth beneath the lush green leaves. There is the sweet smell of wet grass in the air. A soft breeze caresses the vegetation and my hair, and shrub stems crunch under my feet with every step I take.

Rays of sunlight cast through the openings between the trees, getting caught in the thin morning fog and adding a streak of gold to the primarily green palette.

Some of the animals have come back. I can see birds all the way up in the trees. Squirrels jump from one branch to another. Rodents shuffle through the bushes, causing them the shake as we get close.

The only places I would be able to see such liveliness back on Earth were either the zoo or the compute generated replicas of them on TV.

Having these little creatures live among and run along me really reminds me of the fact that I am now in a different world, as if the horned girl beside doesn't already do that enough.

I can now hear the faint trickling of water. It wasn't until now did I notice how thirsty I am. The stew last night didn't do enough to hydrate me. Even though I can hear it, I don't see any water nearby.

We come across a small cliff. It isn't much of a cliff, but more like a wide rock. There is a drop about the height of me. The sound of flowing water is very clear now. On the other side of the drop, I see a small stream cutting through the forest. I jump down the drop and walk up to the stream.

The water is so clear it's almost transparent. I can see every detail on the mossy rocks the water runs on.

There is a water feature that looks just like this in one of my office buildings, as for out in the wild, finding a body of water with such clarity is impossible.

"Lohikaarmi, can you hold on to the girl for a second?" I ask her, and she nods back.

Lohikaarmi walks over and takes the girl out of my arms.

I bend down beside the stream and take out the substance scanner. The table of chemical compounds appears after I dip the spoon into the water.

I know the basics of water pollution, as that was a big concern for the energy division of Kaplan Corp, so I can, to a certain degree of accuracy, tell whether a unit of water is safe to drink or not.

Looking at the list in the corner of my eye, I realize that I have never seen water cleaner than what is currently flowing through the stream in the wild, other than the synthetically purified water Cisca makes for fun to brew her coffee with.

I lean my face close against the stream and let it flow into my mouth. It's cold. I can feel its coolness as it goes down my throat. I don't taste anything, but I don't think one should be able to taste anything from water.

When I am about to stand back up and take the girl from Lohikaarmi, my ears pick up a creature's growl in the distance in front of me.

"What was that?" I ask and hover my hand over the pistol in my belt.

That didn't sound like the little furry friends frolicking around.

"Should I go see, Master?" Lohikaarmi says.

"No, you keep hold of the girl and follow behind me. I will take the lead."

"I understand."

I take out the pistol and stride across the stream toward the origin of the sound, careful as to not make too loud of noise with my footsteps.

A few dozen meters ahead is a tall bush, blocking my view of the other side. I think behind that is where the growl came from.

Another sound is heard from behind the bush, this one more resembling a hiss. Lohikaarmi and I tiptoe up to the edge of the shrub. I reach my hands in to spread the leaves apart.

"What the hell…" I mutter to myself as I see what is on the other side.

There is a little clearing, standing around on it are five unrecognizable animals. They are of varying heights, but all of them have bright green skin and are standing on two feet, more than seven feet tall.

Pieces of armor, the same ones as the one I am wearing right now, lay around the clearing, bloodied and beaten.

A sharp smell of rotten corpses forces its way up my nostrils.

One of the creatures is ripping flesh off a red mass with its sharp fangs, its face covered in blood. I feel the stew coming back up to my throat as I realize it's a severed human torso in its mouth. Another creature is munching on a different body part, this one too disfigured to identify.

"What are those things?" I whisper to Lohikaarmi.

"I believe the humans call them ogres, Master."

Ogres? The ogres I am familiar with from folklores are just big fat people who like to eat babies or something. These ones are more like oversized carnivorous gorillas, green, too.

"Shall I incinerate them, Master?" Lohikaarmi asks.

"No, you will probably end up incinerating this part of the forest. Let me take care of them."

"I understand."

But before that, I have something else to do.

"Cisca?" I whisper.

The comms responds and opens up a square on the top left of my view. Three dots pop in and out, suggesting it's loading something.

A second later, the dots disappear and the video shows up. Cisca is in a different place now. I can't see much, but the wall behind her is blue and covered with certificates framed in polished wood and gold.

Cisca is sitting on a glass desk and eating from a bowl. Her hair is all messed up, but she is still in her white lab coat.

"Mornin' Kris," Cisca says with a wave. Milk falls out from her mouth as speaks.

"Where are you? And what are you doing?" I ask.

Cisca covers her mouth and swallows.

"I am eating breakfast in my apartment," she says. After seeing my surprised face, Cisca continues, "What? Did you expect me to live in the laboratory?"

"Yeah, a little bit."

"You literally picked me up right outside just yester- Ah, whatever. What do you need me for?"

"You might want to stop eating before you take a look at this," I say.