Siblings of Sol: Destruction of a Planet

Chapter 16

Tar pulls Adam deeper into the water, as the Shril moves out onto the sand, but backs up to the darkness of the trees again as they move farther out into the water. The Shril sits down to wait for the males to make a move, as if she has all day.

Tar watches her for a moment, then turns to Adam. "She will wait for one of us to give in. We have nowhere to go because it is an island, and we cannot stay in the water for ever."

"So, what do we do?"

Tar takes a deep breath. "One of us will have to go to her, and the sooner we do that the easier she will be on that person. The longer we wait, the more painful she will make it before she takes our life and drinks our blood. Then, she will drag the drained body back to the clearing and her box, so she can take it home and show her elders that she is now a fully grown Shril ready to enter society. Then, she will eat the remains over the next seven periods to give her the ceremonial strength to compete with the rest of the grown up Shrils."

Adam looks to the Shril who has not taken her bright red eyes from them, but sits perfectly still, waiting for them to make a move. He turns to Tar. "So, do we fight for the right to walk away from this with our lives?"

Tar reaches down and pulls the bandage from where his small pinky finger should be. The skin is perfectly healed over the spot where the finger would have been. Adam stares at it before looking up to see Tar smiling at him. "You are already an Elder. You have survived the Island before, but why are you here now?"

Tar sits down in the warm water and motions for him to do the same. He sits and leans his arm on his knees that are just out of the water. "All the elders who have survived the Island are given a choice. They can live out their lives till they die of natural causes, or they can re-enter the challenge of the Island to help the one whom they have chosen to succeed them."

Adam puts it all together in his mind. "You are here to help me survive the Island. That is why you told the others back at the cell that it was best to leave me alone so the Shrils would go after me first?"

"Yes. The Elders of all the villages know who you are, and it was decided that we needed to help you survive."

Adam stares at him. "But how do you know who I am, and why would you want to help me?"

Tar leans in close and lowers his voice till he can just barely hear him. "There is a clear majority of the Shrils that wish to do away with the controls of the villages and hunt the Moles as they once did thousands of cycles ago. The only problem is that there are too many Shrils and we would be hunted to extinction very quickly. One of the leaders of the Shrils has been sympathetic to our plight and has been in contact with the elders for the last twenty Cycles. They need you to answer some questions for them, which you apparently raised when you showed up here."

Adam needs some proof of his knowledge. "Do you know where I am from, and how I got here?"

"Yes. You are from the planet Ter and you arrived through a device deep inside the mountain that the fortress was originally built around."

Adam nods his head. "Yes, you are right, but what do they need to ask me?"

Tar looks to the line of trees and the Shril still waiting impatiently for them to decide which one it will be. "I don't know. All I know is that the Naturalists as they call themselves are close to overthrowing the leadership of the Shrils. When that happens, we are lost as a people. We will be forced to leave our villages and hide in the dense forests and live as animals."

Adam shakes his head. "But how could I be so important to the leaders now? Why would they even care if I lived or died?"

"You are different, and I don't think you are supposed to be," admits Tar, as he reaches over and places his hand on Adam's knee. "That is all I know, and now it is time for me to go meet my fate. It seems that I have a date with destiny, and she does not look to happy."

Adam places his hand over top on his. "Thank you for everything you have done for me. I don't know what to say."

Tar stands up. "Say hello to Jarl for me and keep my village strong and healthy."

"I will," assures Adam, as he stands.

Tar turns towards the Shril. "It is time."

Adam watches as Tar runs from the water at a forty-five-degree angle to the shore as if he has decided to make a run for it. The Shril watches till Tar is far enough away from the water that she can close the gap between them before he can get to the trees or back to the water, before bounding across the sand to tackle Tar with a whip of her tail as she gets beside him.

He goes down on his back with his arms flung out to the side. The Shril jumps on top of him with her backside and tail covering his head. She reaches down and grabs his legs, pulling them out to the side. Her powerful hind legs pin his outstretched arms to the sand. He struggles under the full weight of the Shril and the fact that he can't get any air into his lungs.

The Shril turns to Adam and shows her full mouth of sharp teeth in what he takes to be a Shril smile. She rises slightly so Tar can get some air, before dropping back down again to cover his face. She then quickly drops her head and bites off Tars hand that is closest to Adam. He tries to scream but only gets out a weak noise into the backside of the Shril.

Adam is horrified by the savagery of the Shril, because the screams of Tar would end the days event. This way the other Shrils would not know that she has captured her prize, and she can take her revenge on him for making her wait.

The Shril chews on the hand with her lips curled back so Adam can see the bones being broken in her powerful jaws as she chews slowly. Then, when she is done chewing, she moves her head forward so Tar can take another breath to fill his lungs again, as she bites off his right foot at the ankle. She turns back to Adam and does the same as before, enjoying the thicker bone to grind between her jaws.

Adam can only watch as she does the same to the other side of Tar. When she is done, and Tar is close to being dead from the lack of blood, she leans forward slightly putting her head between his legs and bites into his exposed body as he screams his last breath into her uplifted back side. The scream is horrible to hear and marks his last activity as his body goes limp.

The Shril keeps her head buried in Tar's middle, obviously getting all the blood she can till she is satisfied she has all she is going to get. She then stands and grabs the stumps of his legs and heads for the plane down the beach and the box she will deposit her prize into.

Adam loses the contents of his stomach as he sees the condition of Tar's body and the trail of blood and gore that is stretched down the beach behind her as she drags him steadily towards the plane.

He washes his mouth out with some of the salty water, before he leaves the water and walks as far away from the red trail as possible, as he also makes his way back to the craft that brought him here to this horrible place.

The other Shrils see him coming and move up beside him guiding him to the back of the plane and the large opening. The Shrils that had already arrived with their boxes full of their catch, which lay side by side down the center of the hold, are lined up to each side of the ship, getting ready to sit in the very seats that their trophies sat in just a few turns before.

Adam goes to the right side where there are two seats left right at the end. One of the guards pushes him to sit down close to the Shril that is already waiting for the ride home, after the last Shril arrives. He quickly realizes that it will be the female that took so much enjoyment from tormenting Tar only moments before.

He just gets sat down when she pulls her box up the ramp at the back of the plane and sets it beside the others, before moving to sit beside him on the end chair against the wall. The guards use a webbing like material to secure the boxes to the deck, as the female turns to Adam and shows her teeth again. "Did you enjoy that, little Mole? That is the way it should be done, not drinking the blood from fancy cups and chewing the prepared meat like weak little lizards."

He wants to run away, but there is nowhere for him to go, as the ramp lifts to close off his only avenue of escape. The ride back to the Fortress is not a pleasant one as the sight of the Shril eating Tar right before his eyes keeps playing over and over in his mind. Made even worse by the fact that the very same Shril is now sitting beside him. It is almost too much for him to handle, as the plane lifts off.