Ancient Instincts

Chapter 7

Dib searched the city, the neighborhood, and eventually found himself at the edge of a forest. If Zim was going to be anywhere, the forest would be it; it was far from civilization, but close enough that it only took the human a few hours to walk there. He adjusted the bag on his shoulder that he had packed before he left his house and said to no one,

"I'll find you, Zim. I'm not going to give up on you."

"So that's his name?"

"What the-" Dib whirled around, to look for the owner of the voice, "who are you?"

"It doesn't matter who I am," the figure stepped out from the shadows of the forest and Dib was nearly entranced by her eerie beauty. Her figure was humanoid, but she was covered in brown and black fur, dressed in a silky green robe with a gold trim. Her feet ended in cloven hooves and her fingers were long and sharp, covered almost entirely in black fur, and her face, Dib couldn't tell if it was actually her face or a mask that she wore, it was a golden deer skull with green markings and strings of silver with crystals hung delicately and gracefully around the antlers. Her voice was kind and soft as she spoke,

"The one you're looking for resides in this forest. He is hurting on the inside. His spirit holds much sorrow and pain. He needs your help."

"Why haven't you helped him then if he's hurting so badly?"

"There is no time to explain right now, child. All I can do right now is point you in the right direction," she raised her clawed hand and pointed deeper into the forest, "continue North and you'll find a small clearing. There you will find the one you hold so dear."

Dib looked into the forest and back at her to say thank you, but she was gone. He didn't have time to wonder where she went, the sun is going to set soon and he was so close. He pushed through the line of trees and bushes that marked the edge of the forest and continued North like the mysterious creature said to.

He didn't know how long he was walking, but he did eventually find the clearing. On the other side, he saw Zim, but he didn't quite look like the Zim he knew anymore. The beastly side was taking over the irken's daytime body; he had a slight muzzle, bigger claws and teeth, and he had a tail. With no control over his own body, Dib ran out, shouting the alien's name, and nearly tackled him to the ground in a tight hug. However, he's greeted with a hiss and growl as the semi-Zim-beast tried to break free from the human's grasp. Being this close, Dib now realized Zim was also much taller now, just about a few inches taller than him.

"Zim, snap out of it! It's me, Dib," the human pleaded, "please Zim calm down, you know me."

Zim's snarl slowly relaxed as he came to his senses. Tears sprung in the irken's eyes as he hugged the human back and he cried,

"Dib..! You... you came for me..."

"Of course I came for you, you dumb ass. I wasn't gonna just let you run away," Dib lightly rubbed Zim's antennae and planted a kiss on his forehead. The alien purred at the gentle touch, but then asked worriedly,

"What about your arm?"

"A bit sore, but dad managed to reattach it without any weird robot stuff. I'm okay Zim, but I'm more concerned about you. Look at yourself, you're filthy and you look so thin too!"

"Well it's not like anything here is made of sugar..."

Dib pulled his bag off his back and dug into it, "That's why I brought some of these!" He pulled out a few large sticks filled with flavored sugar which Zim practically drooled over before snatching one and devouring it and doing the same to the others. Although, as happy Zim was to be reunited with his human lover, he felt he had to push him away,

"Dib, it's not safe to be with me... my primal side is taking over me and the sun is nearly gone. I won't have any control over my actions. I don't want to hurt you again or kill you. That's why I ran, you idiot, I said I didn't want to hurt anyone, but then I hurt you. Really badly too. I don't want to go through that again!"

"No, I'm not leaving you. I said I wouldn't give up on you."

"Stupid human, stop being so stubborn and so selfish! It hurts, Dib, I go through this agonizing transformation every night, I'm slowly starving to death, I feel naked without my PAK. Even if I can control this beast, it still hurts. Agh!"

Zim curled in on himself as the sun started to dip passed the horizon. As Zim shifted, Dib stood up and slung the bag back over his shoulders. He walked over to the edge of the clearing and looked back as his heart ached. He fought back tears before he started running when Zim-beast roared.

Dib couldn't see through his tears and tripped over just about every other root and rock on his path. Zim was right, he was being selfish, but the irken also kept his promise to not kill himself, which only made him suffer even more. Dib didn't know where he was going and soon broke through the tree line to find himself at an abandoned construction site.

The unfinished buildings and broken scaffolding were slowly being reclaimed by the forest Dib had just left. There were also different little crystal shrines hanging about around the site. However, Dib paid no attention to that as he heard Zim-beast getting closer. The human continued running until he fell into a pit with a pained shout. He rolled himself over and held onto his leg, pulling the pant leg up to see he had twisted his ankle. He looked around the pit and dragged himself to one side to attempt to pull himself out. Claw marks covered the entirety of the hole and Dib realized that Zim had dug this pit. It was a trap and he had been caught in it.

Zim-beast was fast approaching and Dib desperately tried to claw his way out, but the pain his arm and the fresh injury in his leg prevented him from doing so. He only managed to pull down some old broken rusty poles. The human turned back around as he saw Zim-beast standing at the edge of the hole and licking his jaws before bolting towards Dib. In his panic, he grabbed the nearest object and held it out in front of himself for protection and heard an ear-piercing shriek.