A colossal beast, rhino-shaped but far more monstrous, standing over seven meters tall—charged through the lake, its seven legs churning the water into froth. Thick, jagged armor plates covered its back and flanks like a fortress of living stone, and a massive horn jutted proudly from its head. As it roared, its mouth opened wide, revealing curved fangs and serrated teeth fit for a tiger, built to tear through bone.
Several scarabs clung fiercely to its sides, their hooked claws digging in as they tried to drag the giant under. Their jaws bore deep into its flank, but the creature was too big, too heavily armored, too strong. They were powerless against it.
With a violent heave, it pulled itself backward, ripping a crocodile-like lizard out of the water with it. One sweeping kick from its upper legs sent a scarab flying through the air, tumbling end over end. The beast lumbered onto shore, and with a single earth-shaking stomp, another scarab was crushed flat, its shell cracking like brittle pottery under the creature's immense weight.
The scarab, the terror of the children, was powerless before this towering juggernaut.
Lowering its horned head, the beast nudged the broken scarab closer and began to feed. It bit into the carcass with its saw-edged teeth as casually as someone eating a hotdog.
The group was stunned silent as they saw the towering beast feast. Xiaolang snapped to his comrades, nudging them not to make any sound.
"Be quiet. If you attract its attention, we're dead," Xiaolang whispered.
"We should run. Right now! That monster is bad news!" Lexus said. Anna, Bob, and Shingo nodded. Their faces paled at the immediate danger. Xiaolang was about to nod, but he remembered the tree.
Some trees are dangerous. Xiaolang recalled how it could bend its branches like a whip and constrict its prey, bleeding them to death. The fact that they were okay up until now was nothing short of dumb luck.
"No. If we want to run, we have to go back the way we came from. That monster might not be the only one here. Size is not everything." Xiaolang clenched his teeth, desperate to act against his fear. He gazed upon his surroundings. Should they hide, should they fight, or should they flee?
Fighting was out of the question. The only real choice was either to hide or to flee.
"Then let's go!" Lexus said. Fear had taken hold of the group. He didn't care where. He just wanted to get out of here. Lexus wanted to dash, running away from the monstrosity, but he knew he wouldn't survive in the wilderness alone.
"No. That beast is leaving," Xiaolang said. After having its fill of water and meat, the beast left. Not even once did it glance at Xiaolang and the group.
…
The lake went silent as the behemoth left. No one dared to make a sound—not even the animals. All the flipping pigs and cloud striders had vanished, cowering away from the rampaging behemoth. The scarabs, after losing the battle, retreated into the water.
"Let's continue. At least we must finish boiling the water," Bob said.
"Hah? After seeing that beast? Are you crazy? We should return to the lifepod!" Lexus pointed toward the now-empty lake, as if trying to make a point.
"But the beast has already left. If we didn't take as much water as we could, we would need to come here again at night," Bob said.
"Urgh… At the very least, we should go higher."
"No. That area has predatory birds as well. This place is the safest," Xiaolang answered. That's right, there is no safe place on this island.
"Hah? Are you saying a place where those scarabs and gigantic scarab eaters are safer than the mountain?"
"Yes." Xiaolang glared at Lexus. "We can outrun the scarabs and the behemoth would probably ignore us, but we can't outrun the birds. It is the lesser of two evils."
"You don't know that. That thing has seven legs!"
"But I know for sure that we can't outrun the birds. They can fly and attack from the air. They are as big as a tiger," Xiaolang said.
"But!"
"Let's hurry. The faster, the better." Bob went down toward the stove. Despite how he said it, boiling water couldn't be rushed. The group had to stay there for two more hours before they had filled all the bottles. Meanwhile, Xiaolang went back to the tree. He still had a mission. These fruits and berries were potential food sources.
Xiaolang prodded several trees, wary of the living tree. When he prodded the trunk with his spear, the tree didn't react. When he prodded the branches, it didn't react either. But when he nudged the fruit, the branch snapped into his spear, snapping it in half. Xiaolang pulled his arm back, leaping away from the tree.
"Eeek!" Anna yelped when she saw Xiaolang being attacked by a tree. She jogged beside him. "Xiaolang, are you okay?"
"I am fine. I knew that would happen," Xiaolang said.
"Even the trees are dangerous, huh? What if it chased us?" Lexus frowned. He had been engulfed in fear earlier, his arrogance dissipated.
"Pray that didn't happen. I want to at least get a single fruit from it. Then I want to collect some berries near the lake."
"Geez. Praying is that orphan girl's job. You guys are too diligent. We still have tomorrow, right?" Lexus sighed. Hearing him mention Lazarus as an orphan girl rubbed Xiaolang the wrong way. He glared at Lexus.
"I would be more polite if I were you, Lexus."
"Yeah, Lexus. We are not inside a colony anymore. Your father's money means nothing here," Shingo nodded.
"What? It's true, right? She is an orphan. You are just too sensitive!" Lexus shrugged.
Xiaolang went to a nearby tree and cut its branches, making another spear with them. His eyes fixed on a fruit, and he swung his spear like a hammer. The fruit broke free from the branches. The branches whipped themselves toward Xiaolang's spear, but they were not fast enough.
"I got a fruit. Let's test it," Xiaolang smirked.
"Alright! If we are doing it like this, I am going to pick some berries as well!"
"Don't forget to photograph them with your smartbox," Xiaolang said. "We need to separate which fruit is edible and which one is not."
"Just send him the whole video. Mistral will compile the data later," Lexus said.
Lexus imitated Xiaolang's attempt, nudging a shrub with an orange-like fruit. "Hey, record me, Anna! This will be a proof that I am working too."
*pop
"Whaa!" Lexus rolled back and stumbled, his foot catching on the ground. His heart leaped out of his chest when the orange tree burst with a single poke from his spear. The orange fruit burst out, splattering its juice everywhere.
"Damn it! We really are on an alien planet. First, we have a snapping tree, now we have an exploding orange!"
"Whoa! The spear is smoking!" Shingo nudged Anna to point her smartbox at the spear. The wooden spear that had been doused with the fruit's juice let out white smoke. Its bark darkened, and soon it let out a rotten smell. When Xiaolang picked it back up, half of it crumbled before their very eyes.
"This fruit is not edible. Let's move on to the next," Xiaolang said. He then threw Lexus a new spear. "Here. Let's pick other fruits. Keep your distance. We don't know what other surprises they have."
Two hours later, apart from the apple-like fruit from that snapping tree Xiaolang had gathered, they had gathered a black berry, a yellow berry, a red berry, and a peach-like fruit.
"What do we do next? Um… Mistral said we need to grind the fruit into paste and mix it with lots of water," Shingo said as he picked up a stone and crushed the peach-like fruit in the pan. The seed in the middle was incredibly hard. Shingo couldn't crush it even when he hammered it with a stone, so he threw it away. After mixing it with water and stirring it on an open flame, Anna brought out the spectrometer. The spectrometer flashed a blue light upon the concoction Shingo had made.
[Water analysis complete: TDS level: <340,000 ppm. Dissolved solids primarily consist of sugar. Vitamins and minerals detected. No harmful toxins detected. CFU level: 0 cfu/ml. No contamination; it is safe to use.]
"Does it mean it is safe?" Anna read the data.
"Let's continue with the others. We will ask Mistral later," Xiaolang said.
They tested it with the others. Except for the red berry, all other fruits and berries gave similar results with a variety of TDS levels.
Shingo had asked Mistral about these parameters. TDS is an acronym for Total Dissolved Solids. It measures how much solid was dissolved in the water, while CFU, an acronym for Colony Forming Unit, is the amount of bacteria inside the water. To make sure water is safe, its CFU should be zero. Or at least, it shouldn't contain harmful bacteria.
[Water analysis complete: TDS level: <115,000 ppm. Dissolved solids primarily consist of sugar. Warning: a fatal amount of hemotoxins detected. CFU level: 0 cfu/ml. Caution: This water is toxic. Please throw it into an appropriate container and rinse the container thoroughly with water.]
"It is poisonous," Xiaolang said as he read the report from the red berry.
"It says a fatal amount, even though it was only one berry," Anna muttered as she looked at the pearl-like red berry. Shingo didn't know how much water he should use, so he used roughly the same amount every time, but it still came out dangerous.
"Let's go back. We are done here," Xiaolang said. The group nodded.
"Poisonous berries. It was next to the edible black berry too. This world is crazy!" Lexus muttered as they waded through the forest. The group then hauled the water bottles back with them. As planned, they left the pan and wok near the river. Bob had put some rocks above them to prevent birds from taking them.
They felt fear creeping into their hearts. The forest looked familiar, but every step they took reminded them of hidden danger from the snapping tree and the exploding fruit.
"Laurel, Lazarus! We are back! Have you recovered?" Shingo hopped into the lifepod, but no one answered. His greeting was met with silence.
Then a ping came from Mistral.
———
Mistral, you are an AI, so you couldn't get sick like Papa, right? Help me get through life, now and forever. You exist for me; I will definitely repay you. I will stay with you all my life. ~Shingo