Predator Complex: Magic (1/3)

“When I volunteered to be the Ambassador to Earth, I was called mad. Brave. Foolish. I was none of it. I only knew that we had to meet Humanity where they were, on their own soil, if we would want to have an amicable relationship, and I was determined to see it through. Most others were just to panicked to see it.” – Toris Ulah-Liha, Feria ambassador to Earth

Madu shuffled nervously through his small government issued apartment as the afternoon sun bathed it in the warmness of it’s bright yellow light while he was collecting bits and pieces of equipment he thought could be useful for his expedition. A small head-mountable lamp, a few rations, a camera capable of 3D recording, a head-mountable smart lens which would double as recording device and sight assist as well as a few battery packs complete with cables to charge his equipment when needed. The lamp and lens he carefully mounted onto his feathered head, giving them a quick test run while he stowed away the rest in a small bag he strapped on a harness in front of his chest. Last but not least he rechecked the communicator resting on his left secondary wing above his wing claws. Enough battery? Check. Mic Recording? “Test, Test” Check. Connection to the Human communication networks? Check.

When he was satisfied with everything after another dozen or so rechecks and recountings, noting that he still had plenty of time left, he decided to take a breather and walked up to the large rectangular window and gazed over the small city which nestled itself closely into the surrounding river valley that had carved itself through the local mountain range. Conifers and deciduous trees alike decorated the mountains in various shades of green and brown in a rather well kept mixed forest which Madu knew would eventually transition into an almost primeval forest reserve a few kilometres further up the valley. This was his first real expedition on this foreign planet inhabited by the only known space faring predator race in the galaxy. He had come with his colleagues from the newly formed department of Human Studies on Homeworld and had visited so far various Human education facilities but this was his first crack at field research here and he could feel the excitement bubbling up in him.

He had worked tirelessly to get this chance, to get to Earth and to study this fascinating race up close and when Professor Ehro had chosen him to be among the first daring expedition to the cradle of Humanity which had defied all commonly believed notions about predators, he had been ecstatic.

Once he actually had set foot on Earth his excitement had been quickly dampened though. The situation was simply surreal and quickly had to come to terms with how gravely he had underestimated the power of his instincts which had violently revolted against the presence of that many, this daunting predators around him. He had not been the exception either. All of his colleagues had felt the same, despite all of them knowing that Humans were omnivores and hence had so many other choices of food to go for that they even regularly decided to eat no meat at all. They kept even a wide range of prey animals as pets, which included a range of various rather intelligent avian species which had struck the natural interest of the department, seeing in them a very distant comparison to themselves. It had at first seemed odd to him that none of the Earth birds had developed the multi-winged set up of his own species with one of the wings pairs evolving into part grasping appendages part manoeuvring assistance but then again here on Earth higher species seldom developed more than four extremities outside of the insect kingdom which he personally held little love for. If this was a result of Earth’s extreme conditions or just a whim of nature was hard to tell and some of the evolutionary biologists among the research team would probably crack their heads over that question for the foreseeable future. To him it was just another alien feature in an alien ecosystem.

He himself considered himself more of a behavioural biologist with side interests in ethnology, xenosociology and xenopsychology. In particular he was very interested in the hunting patterns and behaviours of the Humans and so he had had no choice but to carefully acclimatise himself to the presence of the Humans and by now he could fairly comfortably spent his time in their presence though walking through the streets under the curious stares of the pedestrians was still quite unnerving. He would have to get used to those eventually too, but for today the task was a much easier one. He was to accompany a Human hunter by the name of Alexander onto one of his hunts in the nearby forests, first among hopefully a number of different excursions he would make over the next few weeks. When he had written his family that he would do so by himself, they had answered with a mix of considerable worry and well wishes. He had to admit that he had been a bit uneasy about being alone with a Human during a hunt as well and so for that reason his first expedition was one in a relatively calm setting. Him and Alexander would drive together into the forests, go upon a hide and he would simply observe what would happen, reserving the more active hunting methods like drive hunts for when he had gotten to know the local hunters and environment a bit better.

Would they even see a hunting success today? The Humans had already tampered his expectations in that regard, preparing him for the eventuality of not even seeing a single prey animal the entire evening and though that would be a shame it was an eventuality Madu was prepared for as this would only be the first of whole chain of excursions he would undertake with Alexander and a few other hunters.

For a moment the possibility of seeing no hunting success at all across all excursions nagged at the back of his mind. It would certainly be a shame but even in that he could make precious observations about Humans and the local ecosystem that nobody before him had ever done. He would be among the first to do them and he had to admit that he was rather proud of this. There certainly were some lofty dreams of going down in the annals of xenology, known as one of the big names that uncovered the mystery of the Human ascension into the galaxy and he had to try hard to temper them whenever they bubbled up in him. Still the potential for it actually happening remained. He truly was among the pioneers here and he recognized that it made him an oddball.

Originally there were meant to be two or three other scientists with him but as it had turned out their ranks were spread rather thin by a low turn out of volunteers and now the professors were happy they had at least enough people around to do most of their intended projects at all. It was maybe not surprising given Humanity’s reputation as fiercely violent and aggressive but for Madu the lure of the unknown had been too strong – and it had paid off so far. Minor setbacks like their instincts going haywire, things had went rather smoothly since the arrival here and they had been treated very cordially by their Human colleagues. The rather peaceful scenery he was looking upon right now did the rest to fully contrast the rather wild rumours surrounding the Humans. There was no doubt about their penchant for violence and wherever their territory or pack were concerned Humans disturbingly quickly shifted into it with sometimes devastating results but it was seldom their first answer to a provocation. One of his colleagues had bet that the second and third waves of expeditions here would probably get swamped by applicants given how things were going and Madu could see the truth in that.

All the more reason to make this stay count he decided and so he peeled himself from the view with it’s relaxing greens, took his equipment and made his way down through the building past a few of his colleagues. Some of them ignored him as they hung in front of their screens, others gave him a court greeting. Only the guard at the entrance, a tall former peacekeeper who always seemed to have a cheerful glint in his eyes, wished him good luck when he checked out of the building. He knew it could only be minutes now and with that knowledge came the unrest. Minutes stretched into awful chasms in the flow of time and as to traverse them he walked up and down the parking area in front the unsuspecting building he and his colleagues were spending their time. A few passers-bys curiously eyed the alien bird and one kid in particular made some loud excited exclamation which seemed to follow him everywhere. The attention had at first felt daunting, then awkward, by now it was just routine. There could be many things said about Humanity, but one thing was abundantly clear: Their kids were just as excitable as everyone else’s.

Finally a fairly small dull black vehicle slid into the parking area right in front of him with Alexander at the helm, his bright brown hair neatly combed back, which only served to highlight his grey-green eyes. Alexander made no big show and simply leaned over the passenger seat to his right and pushed the door open, exclaiming joyfully “Get in!”.

Madu had to overcome a moment of hesitation. He could feel ancient feelings creep up on him as he peered in to the vehicle. There was still unease about getting this close to a predator into such a cramped space and only his professional determination mixed with a pinch of curiosity eventually moved him, prompting him to take his place on the passenger seat which had been equipped with a special seat. It would allow him to easily look out of the windows of the vehicle while also providing him with the safety of some security straps. It was probably a custom build just for this occasion. The Humans really did not spare any expenses.

It took him a moment of fiddling but the system was easy enough to deal with and when he was sure he had done it correctly, he nestled a bit down, turned the audio capture on his wrist mounted communicator on and signalled his OK to Alexander, who had patiently waited for his feathered companion. He gave Madu a nod and manoeuvred the vehicle back onto the road in direction of the mountains, where about thirty minutes from here they would find the hide they would hunt from today.

The houses of the small city quickly fizzled out in favour of a dense forest with trees stemming themselves into the steep slopes of the river valley left and right as they followed the road that wound up through it. It was then that Alexander finally decided to break the somewhat awkward silence between the two.

“Excuse the small delay, Madu, I would have arrived earlier but the eggheads were very adamant to re-instruct me about the does and don’t around you folks, so with some luck I won’t scare the everliving shit out of you today. All a bunch of self explanatory hogwash if you ask me though.”

Madu couldn’t help but give a small happy chirp.

“Curious, my folks did a similar thing when we arrived here, so we don’t accidentally get into fights because we broke some taboo and how to survive if we do. Considering how the weeks since went I am not sure if that was ever necessary either. You folks are more reasonable than I were led to believe.”

“Pff, yeah! I am sure everyone’s on their best behaviour around you. No one wants to scare away the aliens just after we found them. Just don’t get too lulled by it. There are enough idiots around who act before they think or simply feel threatened by your very existence.”

Madu gave a small trill in response. Alexander had a point. Him and the other Feria hadn’t been here for very long and had had mainly contact to Humans who actually wanted to have contact with the aliens, but what about the rest of Humanity? Essentially every other race in the galaxy had it’s own fair share of isolationists and xenophobes and Madu figured sooner or later they would rear their heads among Humanity too. He wondered what that meant in Human terms.

“True, we have seen that with other races too, including our own. The fear of the unknown and change seems to be an universal constant among higher civilisations.”

Alexander scoffed and shook his head slightly.

“And here I was hoping this was just Human stupidity or at least sorted itself out eventually. Tough luck it seems.”

“Sadly no”, Madu replied courtly as the awkward silence returned, only supplemented by the slight hum of the engine. Maybe both sides were not quite certain were to go from here. Madu observed how Alexander skilfully weaved the car up the curving road on which only occasionally another vehicle would pass them from the opposite direction. Civilization had mostly retreated here, but not fully. Here and there was a house situated right beside the small river that was flowing down to their right and he was wondering what had brought these houses to be here, a good deal outside of the city.

“These houses have old water rights. Probably were in a profession which needed clean water to work properly. Millers and the like. Nowadays they have turbines that produce electricity”, Alexander explained, who had seemingly noticed his feathered companions interest without ever breaking his gaze unto the street.

Madu gave a thankful chirp and took a note onto the small pad he carried everywhere since he had arrived on Earth. It was a bit of banal explanation, but he reminded himself that reality had no obligation to conform to his preconceived notions. There had been a distinct school of Feria scientists and philosophers who had theorized that a predator society, if possible at all, would not, could not, possibly be built on laws in the same way as any other civilisation would and that this could be a reason why they would never ascend – a foolish misconception, more born out of overconfident egos than reason. Suffice it to say that the discovery of Humanity had utterly destroyed that entire schools theoretical foundation. Humanity had not only proved the ‘anti-predatorists’ among the philosophers wrong simply by existing and ascending to the space age but had also based it’s civilisation around laws like essentially every other single minded species.

Indeed overall Humanity based it’s civilisation around strikingly similar principles as everyone else which in turn had also thrown the ‘predator exceptionalists’ who had proposed predator societies to be radical different into their own conceptional death spiral. Madu had to admit that he had been in the latter camp, anticipating Human society to be so radical different that it would defy common sense and while it certainly was in some aspects, he had by now abandoned much of the theories he had held dear. The evidence to the contrary had been simply overwhelming even without in depth analysis. Indeed he saw it as his duty now to correct these mistakes made out ignorance by collecting first hand data and experience with this civilisation, by finding out where the differences actually lay instead of just theorising about them. Maybe this was why he had taken such an interest in hunting. Of all the things Humanity did, this was probably one of the strangest to a prey animal.

By now the valley had opened up a bit more as they had ascended up the road and the evenings sun flooded the car with all of it’s slowly waning power, giving Madu an opportunity to take a full scan of Alexander. He was fully clad in garments like it was so typical of Humans. A beige shirt with long sleeves sat loosely on his torso though it strained visibly around the broad shoulders. Meanwhile his lower body was adorned by trousers in matte grey. Alexander was on the smaller side for a Human male, giving him a distinctly stubby look, but what was to be seen left no doubt that there was considerable strength to be found within his companion. He seemed fully focused onto the road ahead and if there was any sort of special tension in anticipation of the hunt, it wasn’t showing openly. Madu noted his observations down dutifully. It wasn’t hard to see how these garments would make it harder for any animal to see him. If anything the subdued colours of it would make the Human melt into the background of the green to brown to greyish colours of plant and bark alike.

“If you have any questions, feel free to ask them and better now then later, on the hide we have to be somewhat quite”, Alexander proclaimed, taking Madu by some surprise. He did not know how Humans did it, but despite their fairly bad peripheral vision they still seemingly noticed everything that was happening around them, even if it was directly behind. This sort of six sense would have to be more thoroughly investigated, but for now he realized that Alexander’s invitation to ask questions had also been a warning how questions later would be harder to ask or maybe not even welcome at all and so he took a glance at his notes.

“Right, uhm, so would you say your clothes are typical for a hunter?”

Alexander seemed to ponder this question for a moment, his face muscles contorting his round face around the stub nose in an intricate fashion.

“I’d say yes for most intents and purposes. It’s reliable, light and doesn’t draw attention, but I also use brown, green and darker grey clothes for this purpose. For press hunts I have some orange bands to put on though. Last thing you want is to get accidentally shot.”

“Why orange?”

“Hmmm, because it stands out a lot and makes you easily identifiable. Also apparently deer and such are pretty bad at seeing bright orange, but I don’t think anyone really cares for that.”

“Fascinating. Makes sense I suppose. Bright orange is not a prevalent colour in these parts of Earth as far as I am aware and certainly not among species that could prey on a deer…Say how do you feel right now?”

This time Alexander’s face contorted itself into a deep frown.

“I mean, what am I supposed to feel? I am a bit nervous since you are along, but otherwise? It’s just another day I am driving out to the hide.”
Madu readjusted his pose.

“Let me maybe rephrase a bit: Do you feel any different when going for a hunt compared to let’s say going to work or going out with friends?”

“Good question…maybe an anticipation of calmness? For lack of better words. I am really not good at describing it. Just me, my thoughts and the forest around me. It’s a few hours of just sitting in nature. No one to bother you and a lot of time to think about anything or nothing at all. Maybe I see something, maybe I don’t. It doesn’t matter. I would still be there just for that.”

Madu noted this down furiously, fascinated by the described need and embrace of isolation.

“So you do this to isolate yourself? Would you say this applies to other hunters?”

“Erm, no, I mean, yes? A bit of both maybe? I don’t think isolation is ever why I set out to do this. Certainly not when I was younger. It seemed…cool, thrilling and it was a way to hang out with friends and family. Sitting there for hours used to be the boring part to me, I just learned to appreciate it over time. Maybe it’s similar for the others?”

Madu set a reminder to further probe this line of inquiry with the other hunters he would meet as the Alexander steered the car into a dirt road that lead off the paved main road and would undoubtedly bring them deeper into the forest. Madu observed a small black bird scurry out of the way, following it’s trajectory into one of the bushes at the side of the road. He wondered if Humans had ever hunted something as small as this and how it’s species evolution had been affected by Humanity. This thought led him to his next inquiry.

“What do you expect to see today, if anything at all?”

“If we are lucky we will come across some roe deer yearlings from last year with their mother. Maybe a herd of wild boars will show up too, if so shooting them is not out of question, but they haven’t been in the area of the hide for little bit. Otherwise we will probably see some hares, a few birds and maybe some of the squirrels will rear their heads. I doubt we see any of the red deer. They are probably all in the reserve as of now.”

Madu wrote down in fascination that there was apparently a pattern of animals sightings common to the hide’s location which Alexander was fully aware of and planning his hunt around. Was this pattern something Humans had established through clever design or simply the reason for the location for the hide?

“How do you know these animals will show up?”

“When you sit out there for months year on year, you eventually notice the pattern or do you think I just nap there?”, Alexander chuckled and elicited a small hint of panic in Madu. Had he unwittingly insulted the Human? He scanned the Human for any of the signs of aggression or anger he had learned to recognize – and couldn’t find any. If anything Alexander seemed amused. Madu decided to play it safe as they took a right at a junction leading up a steep road towards the top of the mountain.

“Excuse me if I insulted you. I was merely curious.”

Alexander broke out in loud laughter now, reached out with his right arm and gave Madu small clap on his back which made him nearly drop his tablet.

“Do not you worry buddy, no insult perceived! I was just pulling your leg a bit!”, he exclaimed with vigour and put his hand back on the wheel while the now somewhat rattled Madu tried to get his heart beat under control again. He knew that this had been by all accounts a friendly gesture, even one that indicated genuine sympathy, and it had been tampered in it’s strength quite sensibly to something that couldn’t possibly had hurt him, but Madu senses still were all reeling in panic mode. Many manuals and colleagues had prepared him for the often physical nature of Human interaction on a rational level but if anything the real experience of it showed that it would still take some time for him to get used to it all.

Alexander meanwhile seemed blissfully unaware of the small panic he had unwittingly induced and so Madu decided to not disturb Alexander’s joyous mood. There was no need to illicit guilt in the predator for something he had done unthinkingly. Still the next last few minutes of the ride the two spent in silence, only broken when Alexander stirred the car into a small bight of the side of the dirt road, proclaiming that they had arrived.

©Eno Khan
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