Rise of The Fallen(excerpt)

Chapter 5

Kora-

Stirring awake the smell of something burning filled my nose. Strangely enough This wasn't just the scent of wood burning from the fire. No this was something else and there was some kind of sweet undertone to it?

Opening my eyes, my vision was met with that of the cave I had fallen asleep in the night before. That was both measuring and annoying. Reassuring because it means I'm still alive and have shelter but annoying because it means I'm still stuck on this dumb planet. 

Groaning, I reached up to rub my eyes to try and get the sleep out of them. Breathing in again the scent of something sweet burning drew my attention to the fire. What the fuck is that smell? Removing my hands from my eyes I looked over to the firepit that was little more than embers. With a big rock in the middle?

Squinting I sat up to look closer at the fire confused. No that's not a rock that's the nut from last night…wait why is it deformed? Realization washed over me and my eyes widened as I quickly kicked the old furs off me and grabbed my fire poking stick.

Nudging the nut it easily came apart and started oozing some kind of gelatin-like substance with little black seeds inside. Holy shit it cracked oven! I quickly tried to get the pieces out of the coals and cursed a few times as I burned my fingers a bit. Most of it was destroyed by the fire but I did manage to scavenge a little bit before it was completely burned to a crisp.

Blowing on the strange fruity substance I carefully picked up a piece and inspected it. It started oozing down my hand seemingly having lost most of its shape from the heat. So I just said fuck it and took a bite without a second thought. 

I think I moaned. Strawberry fucking jello. This shit tastes like warm strawberry jello!! Fuck I don't even care if it's poisonous anymore! I ate every bit I could and licked the juices off my fingers. I never thought I'd be so desperate for gelatin. It wasn't much but if eat just about anything at this point.

Once I finished off the scraps I sat back and looked at the fire, licking clean my fingers. How did it crack open? I couldn't even put a scratch in that damn shell last night?... I stared at the coals and burned remains of the fruit. Did the heat from the fire maybe cause it? 

Is it possible the shells react like earth's pinecones? They only open up when exposed to heat? I mean it makes sense… The shell would protect the seeds inside until a heatwave or something hits in spring then they crack open and animals would eat the insides and spread out the seeds. 

I gotta test this theory… Grabbing my canteen I took a big gulp of water, grabbed my bag and went outside. The damn tree lizards were at it again with their constant chirping as the planet's suns lit up the forest. Going over to the marked trees I followed them back to the area I had been in the day before where I had found the purple coconuts. Once I got there I gathered three good looking ones off the ground and made my way back to the cave, gathering sticks as I went.

Arriving back at my cave I brought the fire inside back to life and set one of the fruits by the edge and waited.  At first nothing was happening and I impatiently poked at it with my stick to see if it would miraculously crack open at any second.

After a few minutes nothing was happening and my previous excitement over the prospect of food was dwindling away. Maybe it was the heat and I just randomly got lucky to have grabbed one that was just waiting to pop open at any minute… it might have just been perfectly ripe and these ones weren't. 

This planet is just teasing me at this point. I signed looking at the other two in my bag hopelessly. Had the fruit been poisonous I'd probably be dead already… I didn't even think twice before starting down earlier scraps, regardless of the consequences. I just wanted to eat.