| Fantasy Fiction posted April 2, 2012 | Chapters: |
...24 25 -26- 27... 
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Predator and Prey
A chapter in the book Gima The Beginning
Gima: Cunning and Courage
by barkingdog
Dear Reader: The GLOSSARY is included by request. It's not a required part of the reading. It's merely to assist a new audience. Thank you for reading. :) barking dog
Previously:
Trell and Gima, two Vertants, rescued Hunter, a human, from a forest fire. Trell has been tending Hunter's burns while Gima left to find herbs for treatment. Gima is lost in the northwest forest toward the mountains.
Hunter who rescued Gima from her Vermel parents and raised her with Asmel knew nothing of Trell. Gima kept Trell a secret. Hunter and Trell bond when Hunter wakes up after the rescue and realizes a connection with Gima.
Blathen( a Vermel) and Zee, Trell and Gima's infant sons, are also in this camp.
Asmel, injured by a black bear, lies wounded on the east trail.
Chapter 25 (currently posted)
Trell and Hunter begin bonding. With Gima missing, Zee needs feeding.Trell goes off to milk a doe, leaving Hunter to baby-sit Blathen, a young vermel who loves to munch and throw apples.
A cougar that's been hunting Gima back tracks her scent to the valley. And Chapter 26 begins.
CHAPTER 26
It’s sunrise over the meadow, and the interloping cougar crouches low in the corn field, drooling and licking her paws over thoughts of her tender breakfast that she watches, quietly grazing on red clover and dandelions. She hides between the green stalks, planning her attack. Which one do I take?
At the same time, Trell spots the tame doe that's used to milking.
The two hunters have chosen the same target.
As Trell slowly walks toward his herd, he clucks a call to his favorite whose fawn lies safely tucked away in the flattened grass of a small thicket. The doe looks up from the clover toward the familiar call and stamps in place.
Anxious, the cougar edges forward while her babies bound playfully, behind, attacking stalk monsters and tumbling over each other.
Deer ears turn to the swish of the stalks, and eyes catch sight of swaying tassels.
A four-inch wide paw bats the young cubs down, and the mother growls a reprimand, “Be quiet, stay still. Wait.”
Trell lays a gentle hand on the doe’s sleek tan flank. Her body shivers, telling him something is amiss in the corn. His hand retreats. Its fingers curl around the hilt of his knife.
Positioned to charge, the cougar halts, frozen at the edge of the field. She eyes something she’s never seen before—a rangy, two-legged beast. It touches her prey.
Instinct wins out, and one-hundred and fifty pounds of hungry cat surges forward. Five, ten, fifteen, twenty miles per hour, she powers straight for the easy kill—the small, lean, naked mutant-bear.
Deer scatter.
Trell remains—lean, naked and a mutant, but not a bear. He turns to stand his ground … blade drawn. When the huntress lunges through the air, he falls to one knee. With his knife up, she lands, impaling herself through the heart. With only a scratch to his upper arm and back when she drapes over him in death, Trell pushes her off to the side and stands. It’s over.
The largest female of her kind, a queen too confident, succumbs to the Valley’s new protector. The wolves, she feared, elicited her caution. Trell, she misjudged as a sickly altered bear, and she lost it all. Her cubs wait for no one.
With Zee still in his sling, Trell runs back to the creek to wash off the blood, a doe still needs milking.
Hunter, panicked with concern at the streaks of blood, shouts out, “What happened? Are you okay?"
Trell, in and out of the stream in a flash, chorts in a reassuring manner, “Later, we shall talk. Now, you must guard the young.” He plops Zee in Hunter’s lap, draws a second stone-blade knife from his deerskin boot and hands it to the gaping human before bounding off toward the herd.
Hunter is taken-a-back. He can’t believe any of this is happening. He cuddles and rocks the pale, freckled infant, who reaches up for him in the same way it had under the old oak by the Ox Bow River. “My boy. My little boy.” His pale green eyes flood with joy and relief.
Blathen craves attention. After all, he’s been chosen by his father to fight by his side. Why not be Papa Hunter’s favorite, as well? He crawls over and rubs Hunter’s arm with his fist. “Up. Me, too. Up.” Toothy grin gleaming, he reaches his small arms in the air for the human's hands. Instead it’s Zee’s hand that reaches out for his brother.
Hunter sits Indian style, the two in his lap. He rocks and hums memories of his childhood to the oddest pair of brothers ever conceived. Happily bewildered, he offers them both affection.
Blathen’s collector tastes the emotion and learns what the Vermel race has forgotten—unconditional love. He stores this new knowledge in his rapidly growing remembering place for future use, and closing his eye, lies back against Hunter and listens to pleasing human lullabies.
In the distance, a large shadow approaches. It has two heads, many legs and a three-foot long tail.
Hunter stops singing and strains to see. What's that?
Oh, my god, it's huge. Hunter prepares for the worst. He hovers over the brothers. He clutches the primitive deer bone handle, hoping that the blade is sharp enough and that his courage and strength are up to the challenge. He braces for an attack.
Its speed is steady; its gait is wide. Into the camp it comes. It's Trell. He gallops forward with a lopsided gait, waving many tawny arms and legs above his head and growling playfully, all just for show—for the thrill of it.
Blathen’s keen eye spots Trell under the cougar pelt, and bounces up and down, chorting loudly, “Daddy, funny, funny, Daddy.” He rolls on his back, legs kicking, holding his round belly, contorted with high-pitched laughter.
“What the bloody hell, Telly. You scared the blazes outta me.” Hunter, still shaking from the adrenaline rush, lowers the knife. “Way to not sneak up on a guy,” he finally jokes.
Trell jumps toward Hunter and face to face bursts out with a word he learned from Gima.“Boo!” He jumps again and repeats. “Boo, Papa Hunter. Boo.” Trell laughs, and enjoying his joke, he spins around and around. The four legs and tail reach out as if they’re still alive.
Sweaty and smiling, bloodied again, Trell flings the cougar pelt, gorgeous and warm, along with a large cut of meat to the ground.
The sight and smell of ‘red’ sets the little drool machine to proclaim, “Mine, Daddy, mine.”
Without hesitation, Blathen rolls out of Hunter’s lap and motors over to sit on and gnaw a corner of his, momentary, claim.
His confident face bright, his body streaked with blood, Trell lifts Zee from Hunter’s lap. “Drink,” he chorts as Zee latches on to the filled bladder, hanging from Trell's side.
The protector, the provider beams a smile of fatherly pride at Hunter while slurps of fresh deer milk and coos of contentment replace Zee's whining.
And I thought Asmel was unbelievable. Look at this, guy. Shit! And it’s not even noon.
Hunter’s mouth is open, and his eyes are wide. Trell knows this expression of awe and accepts it as Hunter’s obvious allegiance to the dominant male—Trell, Trolious’ son. He smiles his gratitude. This which is necessary is established.
Gima is ever present on Trell's mind. I killed one large demon, but is there another? Gima always returns but is yet to do so.
Hunter’s concern turns to Asmel. What’s happened to my friend?
Trell slices raw cougar meat; they eat and bond one more time in Trell’s valley.
The little one-eyed prince sits with his wolf bone scepter on the final prize— the six foot long pelt with its three-foot, black-tipped tail. Blathen leans over the miscalculating cougar’s domed forehead. He prods the three-inch incisors and checks his own pointed double rows; then he pokes her two amber eyes, gone dark, and checks his one, forever dark-slate gray. His collector sweeps, and he notes the smell of three others.
******
It’s the second day after the fire, and Asmel is awake. He quenches his hunger and thirst with nature’s blackberries. And to his surprise, he can move his leg. Torn ligament, maybe, but not broken.
He slaps tree moss on his open shoulder wound … I can do this ... and feels more hopeful than yesterday.
With only one working hand and his teeth, he fashions a sling out of his torn hemp shirt. Now, to get hold of this right arm. He reaches the left arm across and brings the right one to his chest. The pain is excruciating, but he manages to press the useless right arm into the sling before he passes out.
*******
Hunter’s up and determined to find Azzy.
“I’m going back. My friend’s in there.” He motions to the east clearing.
Trell points to Hunter’s foot.
“I can walk … I have to go. It’s Azzy.”
“Papa Azzy?”
Hunter nods.
On his feet, packed with two offspring and his knives, Trell stands ready.
“We go.”
Amazed, once more, at Trell’s resilience and support, Hunter takes up his new walking stick, and they’re off.
******
The bear family has crossed the Ox Bow and heads home.
Asmel’s knee is braced, but he still can’t reach the Winchester which lies where it fell on the ants’ doorstep. They still truck over it, using it for a large ramp, with their daily bits and pieces. Their dead from a red ant war are being hauled in today.
*******
As the day drifts into the afternoon, Trell and Hunter pass the burned out clearing where the fire began. Hunter’s stomach surges with guilt at the sight of charred remnants of cooking utensils in the unattended beginning of it all. Carelessness ... just damn, stupid carelessness. He stirs the ashes with his walking stick. I’m such an ass.
Trell proceeds ahead further down the trail. Hunter, sweat dripping from his nose, presses to catch up. “Hurry up human. Did you lie? You must be here.” Trell motions beside him and stands, feet wide apart. His fingers tap his scabbard as he turns on his heel to move on.
Ah, this is the Under Earth attitude that I remember—abrupt and rude, but purposeful.
They travel through the burned out, silent forest for several miles. All they hear are their own footsteps crunching shriveled brush as they pass an occasional small animal's partial cremains and smoldering fallen limbs.
Trell has never seen such a sight. He had no idea that anything could destroy so much so quickly. With only metal and rock down below, he is learning. The cremains, however, a familiar rembrance of his past.
Finally, they see green.
“Look, ahead, the fire line. It ended just there.” Hunter points and his spirits lift.
Trell nods, seeing no need for words when it’s obvious.
The air carries a pungent, musky scent. Blathen is the first to pick it up and clicks rapidly to Trell that the odor is oily, somewhat 'wolfie,' smells of fresh fish and there’s a great deal of it, meaning it’s large.
Trell's eyes narrow at the telling. Bear.
Dear Reader: The GLOSSARY is included by request. It's not a required part of the reading. It's merely to assist a new audience. Thank you for reading. :) barking dog
Previously:
Trell and Gima, two Vertants, rescued Hunter, a human, from a forest fire. Trell has been tending Hunter's burns while Gima left to find herbs for treatment. Gima is lost in the northwest forest toward the mountains.
Hunter who rescued Gima from her Vermel parents and raised her with Asmel knew nothing of Trell. Gima kept Trell a secret. Hunter and Trell bond when Hunter wakes up after the rescue and realizes a connection with Gima.
Blathen( a Vermel) and Zee, Trell and Gima's infant sons, are also in this camp.
Asmel, injured by a black bear, lies wounded on the east trail.
Chapter 25 (currently posted)
Trell and Hunter begin bonding. With Gima missing, Zee needs feeding.Trell goes off to milk a doe, leaving Hunter to baby-sit Blathen, a young vermel who loves to munch and throw apples.
A cougar that's been hunting Gima back tracks her scent to the valley. And Chapter 26 begins.
CHAPTER 26
It’s sunrise over the meadow, and the interloping cougar crouches low in the corn field, drooling and licking her paws over thoughts of her tender breakfast that she watches, quietly grazing on red clover and dandelions. She hides between the green stalks, planning her attack. Which one do I take?
At the same time, Trell spots the tame doe that's used to milking.
The two hunters have chosen the same target.
As Trell slowly walks toward his herd, he clucks a call to his favorite whose fawn lies safely tucked away in the flattened grass of a small thicket. The doe looks up from the clover toward the familiar call and stamps in place.
Anxious, the cougar edges forward while her babies bound playfully, behind, attacking stalk monsters and tumbling over each other.
Deer ears turn to the swish of the stalks, and eyes catch sight of swaying tassels.
A four-inch wide paw bats the young cubs down, and the mother growls a reprimand, “Be quiet, stay still. Wait.”
Trell lays a gentle hand on the doe’s sleek tan flank. Her body shivers, telling him something is amiss in the corn. His hand retreats. Its fingers curl around the hilt of his knife.
Positioned to charge, the cougar halts, frozen at the edge of the field. She eyes something she’s never seen before—a rangy, two-legged beast. It touches her prey.
Instinct wins out, and one-hundred and fifty pounds of hungry cat surges forward. Five, ten, fifteen, twenty miles per hour, she powers straight for the easy kill—the small, lean, naked mutant-bear.
Deer scatter.
Trell remains—lean, naked and a mutant, but not a bear. He turns to stand his ground … blade drawn. When the huntress lunges through the air, he falls to one knee. With his knife up, she lands, impaling herself through the heart. With only a scratch to his upper arm and back when she drapes over him in death, Trell pushes her off to the side and stands. It’s over.
The largest female of her kind, a queen too confident, succumbs to the Valley’s new protector. The wolves, she feared, elicited her caution. Trell, she misjudged as a sickly altered bear, and she lost it all. Her cubs wait for no one.
With Zee still in his sling, Trell runs back to the creek to wash off the blood, a doe still needs milking.
Hunter, panicked with concern at the streaks of blood, shouts out, “What happened? Are you okay?"
Trell, in and out of the stream in a flash, chorts in a reassuring manner, “Later, we shall talk. Now, you must guard the young.” He plops Zee in Hunter’s lap, draws a second stone-blade knife from his deerskin boot and hands it to the gaping human before bounding off toward the herd.
Hunter is taken-a-back. He can’t believe any of this is happening. He cuddles and rocks the pale, freckled infant, who reaches up for him in the same way it had under the old oak by the Ox Bow River. “My boy. My little boy.” His pale green eyes flood with joy and relief.
Blathen craves attention. After all, he’s been chosen by his father to fight by his side. Why not be Papa Hunter’s favorite, as well? He crawls over and rubs Hunter’s arm with his fist. “Up. Me, too. Up.” Toothy grin gleaming, he reaches his small arms in the air for the human's hands. Instead it’s Zee’s hand that reaches out for his brother.
Hunter sits Indian style, the two in his lap. He rocks and hums memories of his childhood to the oddest pair of brothers ever conceived. Happily bewildered, he offers them both affection.
Blathen’s collector tastes the emotion and learns what the Vermel race has forgotten—unconditional love. He stores this new knowledge in his rapidly growing remembering place for future use, and closing his eye, lies back against Hunter and listens to pleasing human lullabies.
In the distance, a large shadow approaches. It has two heads, many legs and a three-foot long tail.
Hunter stops singing and strains to see. What's that?
Oh, my god, it's huge. Hunter prepares for the worst. He hovers over the brothers. He clutches the primitive deer bone handle, hoping that the blade is sharp enough and that his courage and strength are up to the challenge. He braces for an attack.
Its speed is steady; its gait is wide. Into the camp it comes. It's Trell. He gallops forward with a lopsided gait, waving many tawny arms and legs above his head and growling playfully, all just for show—for the thrill of it.
Blathen’s keen eye spots Trell under the cougar pelt, and bounces up and down, chorting loudly, “Daddy, funny, funny, Daddy.” He rolls on his back, legs kicking, holding his round belly, contorted with high-pitched laughter.
“What the bloody hell, Telly. You scared the blazes outta me.” Hunter, still shaking from the adrenaline rush, lowers the knife. “Way to not sneak up on a guy,” he finally jokes.
Trell jumps toward Hunter and face to face bursts out with a word he learned from Gima.“Boo!” He jumps again and repeats. “Boo, Papa Hunter. Boo.” Trell laughs, and enjoying his joke, he spins around and around. The four legs and tail reach out as if they’re still alive.
Sweaty and smiling, bloodied again, Trell flings the cougar pelt, gorgeous and warm, along with a large cut of meat to the ground.
The sight and smell of ‘red’ sets the little drool machine to proclaim, “Mine, Daddy, mine.”
Without hesitation, Blathen rolls out of Hunter’s lap and motors over to sit on and gnaw a corner of his, momentary, claim.
His confident face bright, his body streaked with blood, Trell lifts Zee from Hunter’s lap. “Drink,” he chorts as Zee latches on to the filled bladder, hanging from Trell's side.
The protector, the provider beams a smile of fatherly pride at Hunter while slurps of fresh deer milk and coos of contentment replace Zee's whining.
And I thought Asmel was unbelievable. Look at this, guy. Shit! And it’s not even noon.
Hunter’s mouth is open, and his eyes are wide. Trell knows this expression of awe and accepts it as Hunter’s obvious allegiance to the dominant male—Trell, Trolious’ son. He smiles his gratitude. This which is necessary is established.
Gima is ever present on Trell's mind. I killed one large demon, but is there another? Gima always returns but is yet to do so.
Hunter’s concern turns to Asmel. What’s happened to my friend?
Trell slices raw cougar meat; they eat and bond one more time in Trell’s valley.
The little one-eyed prince sits with his wolf bone scepter on the final prize— the six foot long pelt with its three-foot, black-tipped tail. Blathen leans over the miscalculating cougar’s domed forehead. He prods the three-inch incisors and checks his own pointed double rows; then he pokes her two amber eyes, gone dark, and checks his one, forever dark-slate gray. His collector sweeps, and he notes the smell of three others.
It’s the second day after the fire, and Asmel is awake. He quenches his hunger and thirst with nature’s blackberries. And to his surprise, he can move his leg. Torn ligament, maybe, but not broken.
He slaps tree moss on his open shoulder wound … I can do this ... and feels more hopeful than yesterday.
With only one working hand and his teeth, he fashions a sling out of his torn hemp shirt. Now, to get hold of this right arm. He reaches the left arm across and brings the right one to his chest. The pain is excruciating, but he manages to press the useless right arm into the sling before he passes out.
*******
Hunter’s up and determined to find Azzy.
“I’m going back. My friend’s in there.” He motions to the east clearing.
Trell points to Hunter’s foot.
“I can walk … I have to go. It’s Azzy.”
“Papa Azzy?”
Hunter nods.
On his feet, packed with two offspring and his knives, Trell stands ready.
“We go.”
Amazed, once more, at Trell’s resilience and support, Hunter takes up his new walking stick, and they’re off.
******
The bear family has crossed the Ox Bow and heads home.
Asmel’s knee is braced, but he still can’t reach the Winchester which lies where it fell on the ants’ doorstep. They still truck over it, using it for a large ramp, with their daily bits and pieces. Their dead from a red ant war are being hauled in today.
*******
As the day drifts into the afternoon, Trell and Hunter pass the burned out clearing where the fire began. Hunter’s stomach surges with guilt at the sight of charred remnants of cooking utensils in the unattended beginning of it all. Carelessness ... just damn, stupid carelessness. He stirs the ashes with his walking stick. I’m such an ass.
Trell proceeds ahead further down the trail. Hunter, sweat dripping from his nose, presses to catch up. “Hurry up human. Did you lie? You must be here.” Trell motions beside him and stands, feet wide apart. His fingers tap his scabbard as he turns on his heel to move on.
Ah, this is the Under Earth attitude that I remember—abrupt and rude, but purposeful.
They travel through the burned out, silent forest for several miles. All they hear are their own footsteps crunching shriveled brush as they pass an occasional small animal's partial cremains and smoldering fallen limbs.
Trell has never seen such a sight. He had no idea that anything could destroy so much so quickly. With only metal and rock down below, he is learning. The cremains, however, a familiar rembrance of his past.
Finally, they see green.
“Look, ahead, the fire line. It ended just there.” Hunter points and his spirits lift.
Trell nods, seeing no need for words when it’s obvious.
The air carries a pungent, musky scent. Blathen is the first to pick it up and clicks rapidly to Trell that the odor is oily, somewhat 'wolfie,' smells of fresh fish and there’s a great deal of it, meaning it’s large.
Trell's eyes narrow at the telling. Bear.
 Recognized |
I would like to thank chickadee for her lovely art 'Ambush!'
UNDER EARTH SPECIES:
Vertant-the off-spring of two Vermel; looks human.
Vermel-mutated humans who live in Under Earth; communicate via sign language and various sounds; noted by their single, particulate-collector naris; one eye; dark or red, coarse body hair; flat or twisted feet with three to six long toes; three fingered hands with long curving claw-like nails; pointed teeth in irregular, double rows; intelligent, but with strong base instincts.
Particulate collector - a Vermel adaptation to living in a polluted underground; mutation ; porous tubular filaments; can extend from the naris in a searching fashion; they both taste and smell; alert to emotions of other species; Vertants may or may not have remnant nodes in nasal pharynx tissue(back of throat).
dissident-rebel, nonconformist, protester;
somebody who publicly disagrees with an established political or religious system or organization.
DRINKS & SMOKING
Elixirs:
Euphoric-Blue - arouses passion without arousing anger or fear
Green - calms aggression and base tendencies to mutilate, kill, cannibalize
Caramel-clarity(female enhancement)
Ruby-rigidity (male enhancement)
Fitzel- a carbonated alcoholic beverage; a light intoxication; makes one funny, silly, uninhibited, kind
Smoking- usually a mix of madine and sedderthal Hallucinogenic fungi grown in Bellow City
Fazil- a smoking or chewing compound that stains the teeth
Arnag-a fungus grown as food; a favorite rubber-chew flavor
LOCATIONS:
Under Earth- a civilization that exists totally under ground; Vermel territory.
Bellow City- located in Under Earth.
Jacknel's Arena- where Hunter and Trell were trained and exploited as 'Man' and 'Man #2'.
Club ErrOw- a dance club downstairs; Chambers for coupling are upstairs.
Sadie's Palace - a night spot where Vertant males are displayed for Vermel viewing and pleasure; masterbation columns are very popular in the Mural Room as is the free elixir bar.
Alitian - Sir Alitus was the atrium's designer
CHARACTERS:
Gima-a Vertant; rescued and raised by Hunter and Asmel
Trell- a Vertant; raised by Vermel, escaped to Upper Earth; has not yet learned to speak but has learned to understand it from Gima, his mate.
Blathen- Gima and Trell's Vermel son; single, particulate-collector naris, one eye; on the hierarchy of Vermel his appearance labels him a Prime-One.
Zee-Gima's second son who looks human
Hunter- Nigel once a business man in the city; was captured and tortured by Ticum to become 'Man' in Jacknel's Arena in Bellow City; 'Papa' to Gima; suffers from PTSD.
Asmal- a survivalist; built a cabin in the mountains; rescued Hunter; raised Gima with Hunter; 'Papa-Azzy' to Gima
Ticum-Vermel;Jacknel's Circus trainer; beat and tortured Hunter; deceased
Trum- Vermel; Ticum's brother; Trell's trainer at Jacknel's Arena
Sadie- runs a display and pleasure house featuring male Vertants.
Milim - Sadie's assistant a Vermel
Picar-Vertant at Sadie's
Jami-Picar's Vertant lover; Sadie's favorite.
Mr. Arnst- Trell's abusive uncle; now a caznu(neutered)and no longer abusive
Rom- Arnst's younger companion, lover
Disposal Officer- Designated by numbers e.g. DO-45, DO-50; executioners; but they sell their prisoners, usually Vertants, on the black-market to various shady characters like Jacknel and Sadie for use in sport, entertainment, pleasure and artificial insemination collection and sales.
Trolious- Head of Ministerial Affairs; Trell's father; Sadie's first cousin
Lida - Trolious' wife; Trell's mother
Betta - Lida's sister in Cindel City; raised Trell
Larue- Assistant of Ministerial Affairs; canzu(involuntarilly castrated by Dyrel) Vermel
Brackus- Larue's Vertant charge and lover
Lem- the youngest Vertant to escape with Larue's help
Rolak- Chief Enforcement Officer
Vermel speech/sounds:
twortle-a sound pattern distinctive to the Vermel; a combination of glottal stops, tongue click-clucks and snorts; an assertive pattern.
chort- throaty sounds varying in tonal inflection and duration; normal speech; he chorts=he says.
toning- saying; using a series of sounds other than speech
thrumping songs-songs Trell learned growing up in Bellow City, Under Earth; melodic, throaty, glottal.
Vocabulary:
particulate collector - a Vermel adaptation, mutation; porous tubular filaments; can extend from the naris in a searching fashion; they both taste and smell; alert to emotions of other species; Vertants may or may not have remnants; nodes in nasal pharynx tissue may be all that remain in Vertant.
Arnag-a fungus grown as food; a favorite rubber-chew flavor
Caznu-neutered male Vermel; usually gay and neutered by choice for the good of the gene pool by decree of Trolious ; castration is a common punishment regardless of sexual orientation.
And-End - Amen
Pernard- a Vermel curse
Dangle- a Vermel penis; they have two dangles.
Mintrinet - minute
alum- short for aluminium; usually recycled cans; a valued metal.
mold-blossom - a fungi; small, dark brown and caramel colored flowerettes cluster to form a large crysantehmum-type flower; its heavy, sweet decaying scent is used in perfumed oil
Pays
one point
and 2 member cents. UNDER EARTH SPECIES:
Vertant-the off-spring of two Vermel; looks human.
Vermel-mutated humans who live in Under Earth; communicate via sign language and various sounds; noted by their single, particulate-collector naris; one eye; dark or red, coarse body hair; flat or twisted feet with three to six long toes; three fingered hands with long curving claw-like nails; pointed teeth in irregular, double rows; intelligent, but with strong base instincts.
Particulate collector - a Vermel adaptation to living in a polluted underground; mutation ; porous tubular filaments; can extend from the naris in a searching fashion; they both taste and smell; alert to emotions of other species; Vertants may or may not have remnant nodes in nasal pharynx tissue(back of throat).
dissident-rebel, nonconformist, protester;
somebody who publicly disagrees with an established political or religious system or organization.
DRINKS & SMOKING
Elixirs:
Euphoric-Blue - arouses passion without arousing anger or fear
Green - calms aggression and base tendencies to mutilate, kill, cannibalize
Caramel-clarity(female enhancement)
Ruby-rigidity (male enhancement)
Fitzel- a carbonated alcoholic beverage; a light intoxication; makes one funny, silly, uninhibited, kind
Smoking- usually a mix of madine and sedderthal Hallucinogenic fungi grown in Bellow City
Fazil- a smoking or chewing compound that stains the teeth
Arnag-a fungus grown as food; a favorite rubber-chew flavor
LOCATIONS:
Under Earth- a civilization that exists totally under ground; Vermel territory.
Bellow City- located in Under Earth.
Jacknel's Arena- where Hunter and Trell were trained and exploited as 'Man' and 'Man #2'.
Club ErrOw- a dance club downstairs; Chambers for coupling are upstairs.
Sadie's Palace - a night spot where Vertant males are displayed for Vermel viewing and pleasure; masterbation columns are very popular in the Mural Room as is the free elixir bar.
Alitian - Sir Alitus was the atrium's designer
CHARACTERS:
Gima-a Vertant; rescued and raised by Hunter and Asmel
Trell- a Vertant; raised by Vermel, escaped to Upper Earth; has not yet learned to speak but has learned to understand it from Gima, his mate.
Blathen- Gima and Trell's Vermel son; single, particulate-collector naris, one eye; on the hierarchy of Vermel his appearance labels him a Prime-One.
Zee-Gima's second son who looks human
Hunter- Nigel once a business man in the city; was captured and tortured by Ticum to become 'Man' in Jacknel's Arena in Bellow City; 'Papa' to Gima; suffers from PTSD.
Asmal- a survivalist; built a cabin in the mountains; rescued Hunter; raised Gima with Hunter; 'Papa-Azzy' to Gima
Ticum-Vermel;Jacknel's Circus trainer; beat and tortured Hunter; deceased
Trum- Vermel; Ticum's brother; Trell's trainer at Jacknel's Arena
Sadie- runs a display and pleasure house featuring male Vertants.
Milim - Sadie's assistant a Vermel
Picar-Vertant at Sadie's
Jami-Picar's Vertant lover; Sadie's favorite.
Mr. Arnst- Trell's abusive uncle; now a caznu(neutered)and no longer abusive
Rom- Arnst's younger companion, lover
Disposal Officer- Designated by numbers e.g. DO-45, DO-50; executioners; but they sell their prisoners, usually Vertants, on the black-market to various shady characters like Jacknel and Sadie for use in sport, entertainment, pleasure and artificial insemination collection and sales.
Trolious- Head of Ministerial Affairs; Trell's father; Sadie's first cousin
Lida - Trolious' wife; Trell's mother
Betta - Lida's sister in Cindel City; raised Trell
Larue- Assistant of Ministerial Affairs; canzu(involuntarilly castrated by Dyrel) Vermel
Brackus- Larue's Vertant charge and lover
Lem- the youngest Vertant to escape with Larue's help
Rolak- Chief Enforcement Officer
Vermel speech/sounds:
twortle-a sound pattern distinctive to the Vermel; a combination of glottal stops, tongue click-clucks and snorts; an assertive pattern.
chort- throaty sounds varying in tonal inflection and duration; normal speech; he chorts=he says.
toning- saying; using a series of sounds other than speech
thrumping songs-songs Trell learned growing up in Bellow City, Under Earth; melodic, throaty, glottal.
Vocabulary:
particulate collector - a Vermel adaptation, mutation; porous tubular filaments; can extend from the naris in a searching fashion; they both taste and smell; alert to emotions of other species; Vertants may or may not have remnants; nodes in nasal pharynx tissue may be all that remain in Vertant.
Arnag-a fungus grown as food; a favorite rubber-chew flavor
Caznu-neutered male Vermel; usually gay and neutered by choice for the good of the gene pool by decree of Trolious ; castration is a common punishment regardless of sexual orientation.
And-End - Amen
Pernard- a Vermel curse
Dangle- a Vermel penis; they have two dangles.
Mintrinet - minute
alum- short for aluminium; usually recycled cans; a valued metal.
mold-blossom - a fungi; small, dark brown and caramel colored flowerettes cluster to form a large crysantehmum-type flower; its heavy, sweet decaying scent is used in perfumed oil
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