Survivor 3295743

6

Now that I knew how the nightmare eel hunted, using seismic vibrations of large prey, I used the trees to travel only a few dozen feet above the ground. With my new climbing claws it was almost effortless to just grab the trunks of trees and start pulling myself up. Even dropping or hopping from one branch to the next barely even phased me with the strength of my legs.

Because of this body's fractionally delayed fall reaction, I believed that it was designed based on Earth's previous gravity. With that and the softness of the jungle carpet below I had little fears for falling. I was almost freely scuttling from tree to tree like an insect monkey back towards the river.

Roughly half of an hour had passed since I left the eel at the clay bank but it was still there, lying like loosely coiled rope along the bottom of the river leading around the bank. From the fact that it did not take up a proper detection and ambush position like downstream, I suspected that the nightmare expected another of its kind or another predator to return at any time.

This thing was as fast against the current as I was on land, if it sneaked back around at the first sign of another eel in time it could disappear without a trace. However, it had not left yet so I could only wait and study.

My initial plans had either been to find another nightmare level predator to make them fight or retreat from each other and create a no-man's-land for myself as well as even hoping that land predators I could fight would attack my running body and I could feed them to the eel.

Now, though, I could only wait here or by hunting my way back to the eel's bank. Even though I could tell most of its body was smooth skin that probably produced a mucus like an eel, it had some scaling on its face to look like rocks and its ridges were protected by scales. This creature either started out reptile and was becoming reptilian or it was becoming a reptile through defensive adaptations.

Just based on its serpentine body its digestive system would be large and stretched so it would take great lengths of time to process foods. Give it something like a trio of three-tailed rats in one sitting and it should not even be able to see me anymore. Even if the prey was too big to swallow whole, its teeth and head structure promoted some chomping and chewing like an eel.

Big meals like a trio of rats at its embankment would take it long enough to eat for me to at least reach the rubble bank. The nightmare eel's confidence in traversing that area told me that there were no threats to it there. That either meant it already controlled the area or whatever controlled the area was something weak enough for me to test.

For now, I simply stayed here biding my time in relative safety. Even against the trunk of a tree near the river where I could just barely spot the silhouette of the eel's head, there were no signs of life anywhere. During my time of hiding and studying my suit there was usually the background of insects and 'small game' in the lower trees and echoing off root walls from the ground

Even at the bottom of the river there were creatures like birds who knew better and were simply gone. With the disappearance of one species the others knew better than to stick around. Just the presence of this massive animal commanded the silent fear of everything within several hundred feet of the water.

The sun was already nearing the treetops when I came back to the river, so whenever it was finally setting under the trees I decided to retreat back into the jungle. Traveling on the ground back in the direction I came, I hoped to lead the nightmare back toward its own home. If my timing was right, I should have just enough distance on them that I could disappear into the trees around the rubble bank.

If the eel was tricked into heading all the way home, I could wait and watch the rocky bank for any signs of life. If not, I could just secure myself in this tree with my suit for the night. My mouth was barely even dry after going all day without anything to drink, I could make it through the night without any serious trouble form my body.