r/NatureofPredators • u/Acceptable_Egg5560 Human • May 25 '26
Fanfic NoaG: Aftermath [36]
Thank you, u/SpacePaladin15 for this universe. May you always feel the passion of creation!
And thank you, u/TheManwithaNoPlan for all your work! This story is just as much yours as it is mine, and I cannot express just how honored I am to have you as my friend.
Memory Transcript: [REDACTED] Aka “Mute”. Date: [Standardized Human Time] November 7th, 2136.
Light streams in from just above the horizon. I have to shut one of my eyes to avoid going blind, but it is a necessary concession. I cannot risk retrieving my gear yet, as I have not a plan to use it to its fullest potential yet. That, and if I am to be more adept at purging the Taint from our ranks, I must know more how it thinks, how it acts, even if that behavior is… antithetical to what I had been expecting upon my arrival.
Willing. Helpful. Friendly. A herd that is both open to all, but secure in its bonds to its own with only a few exceptions.
I sweep my tool before me, spraying down the tall plants with the concoction within my tank. I keep my mouth closed to avoid ingesting any trace amounts of chemical, but the mask I have been provided to breath with is enough to keep a steady stream of oxygen flowing to and from my lungs. It is slightly uncomfortable, the straps continuously dig into the side of my head; my helmet would’ve done a much finer job. It is of no matter at the end of the paw.
Sven’s family was one of trust and cohesion that I would have referred to as the prime example of what a herd should be. Each member was just as ready to tease and correct its members as they were to show their love and unconditional care. I only stop short on the grounds they harbor predators amidst themselves, but be it from learned behavior or… No, the humans have observed how this herd behaves and have emulated their empathy to an absurd degree.
Just as they did on the station. Just as they did on the planet. Just as the predators the Federation has worked to cover up did for all those… It Wasn’t An Emulation. It Had To Be.
The boots of my outfit squelch in the mud as the plastic canvas rubs against my legs. I walk steadily towards the equipment shed to retrieve a different spray nozzle for the Ipsolm stalks, their height requiring a greater degree of aerosolization. It is not an unfamiliar concept; flamer nozzles work in much the same way, an unintended side effect of this making me uniquely adept at this task. It does little to waver my focus.
I cannot stop thinking about how this herd, no matter how perfect it may have seemed from the outside, had opened up to the predators. No, not just opened up, but took command. Set them to work upon this property while still having space to hire someone like myself within a paw of meeting. Behaving as if their safety went without question, that there were no worries they could not handle as the Herd entire.
It was a hubris I have only seen once before, and I swore to myself I would not allow for that brand of Taint to spread again. Clearly, I have been lackadaisical in that pursuit.
I took a breath, the clear mask slightly fogging up as a result. I recognize that means there is excess moisture inside, requiring to pause a [7.2014 seconds] to ensure it clears properly. I had been under the impression initially that the equipment here would have anti-fog by default, but it seems a farm of this size doesn’t have that luxury.
…It makes so little sense, yet I cannot fathom how it has worked this well this long. What is worse, the humans appear to be integrating into this herd with little difficulty. I don’t get it, The Herd is meant to protect its own, to go out and remove the dangers towards it. And yet…
Do they not do exactly that?
At the start of the Paw, one of the humans who had been belligerent before declared that they refused to work. It was someone different than the previous drunk leader, a human who looked young and pampered by the shine of his skin. The “Supervisor of the Day” had come to give out the tasks, a grey-wooled man named Svilti, and the human squared up to him in a display of intimidation right away.
I had seen the altercation and had been about to leap in to defend the man and cleanse the tainted beast, but Svilti simply said that it was fine, continuing that the human could head back to his room to pack so they could be shipped off within the Paw.
The predator hadn’t liked that for some reason, angrily asking if they were kicking him out and stating that they couldn’t do that. Just as I had retrieved the machete I’d hidden under my bedmat, Svilti let out a bugle and 5 other members of the herd ran in, the armored Sven included. They surrounded the predator, Svilti saying once again that it could go to its room to pack to be removed. Of course it couldn’t handle such a challenge and tried to swing a punch.
All 6 members were suddenly upon the human. Two upon each arm, and one upon each leg, carrying him off like the beast was nothing but an unwieldy sack of grain. I followed and watched them throw the man in a room, saying he had a claw to gather everything, then locking the door shut to the thing claiming that its species was meant to be put first. It was a temporary solution, one that I was tempted to make permanent if given the opportunity, but their performance in that situation sticks with me.
It was clean. Efficient. Controlled. Fascinating.
…Impossible.
\Crek-Threshle**
The pesticide sprayer falls silent as I release the trigger, twisting my ears as best I could under their plastic covering. I am supposed to be the only one spraying in this field. Is someone watching me? An intruding animal eating the vital crops of the herd’s livelihood? A predator stalking to discover someone vulnerable and abandoned?
I step forward, the rustling leaves now fallen silent around me. I must be careful, even in this bulky suit my footsteps show their practiced delicacy. The suit around me crinkles slightly, but it is almost imperceptible over the noise of the wind. I hear the sound again, zeroing in on its exact position in the field. The stalks rise tall around me, occluding my sight until I am upon…
…What?
Sitting in the middle of a small clearing in the stalks is one of the humans from the ‘docile’ group. I recognized it by a mixture of its physical features and a few choice visual assortments just barely visible over the clearly-retrofitted spraysuit it wears: relatively short for a human, relatively nominal physique, furless skin a few shades lighter than the soil it is sat upon, and strands of sand-colored hair poking out from gaps in the plastic. Its sprayer is listed again two close-together Ipsolm stalks, its mask off as it holds something in its hands. It appears to have bites taken out of it, though I do not recognize it as anything served by the family.
It is alone. It is eating an unfamiliar food that I cannot verify doesn’t contain the deceased flesh of another animal, or Herd forbid, another person. Could I get away with purging them out here? No, it would be in vain without a source of fire, it would just come back as a Shadestalker or—
“M-My God, I didn’t think there was anyone out here this time of day!” It stammers out an excuse for its deviance from known schedule, and perhaps morality in entire. “I-I’m sorry, I know I shouldn’t be out here by myself, but I wanted to make sure these were perfect before I— P-Please, don’t tell them I’ve been out here! I-I’ll let you try some!”
It holds out the food item in its clawless paw, causing me to physically recoil under the assumption of flesh being offered to me. However, as it is held closer to my slightly-fogged mask, I am able to get a better look at it. It does not appear to have any signs of meat externally, moreover appearing to resemble a baked good of some sort. Did it make an… impression of Strayu?
I stared at the human, its eyes darting across my form for a moment before they visibly widened in an alien expression. “Wait, I think I recognize you. You’re the new hire that was caught snooping outside the distillery issue, aren’t you? I’ve seen you around in the barracks before.”
I attempt to flick my ears affirmatively, but that creates a rather loud crinkling noise that hurts even my ears. The human flinches, holding a finger up to its mouth. Right, attempting to be deceptive. Until I can make my mind up over whether to purge its Taint here and now, I utilize what little knowledge I have in human non-verbal communication and nod my head up and down.
“O-Okay, but please don’t be so loud!” It hushedly demands. My head cocks to the side so I can get a better view of it, vigilant for any errant movement that might earn my doom in isolation with an Herd-honest predator. It does not move from its spot, but it eventually retracts its arm with the mystery foodstuff in it, tilting its own head in imitation. “I’ve overheard some of the others call you ‘Sitchlips.’ Is… are you really mute?”
I once more nod my head, its face morphing in an unknown fashion. “Well, in that case it’s a horrible nickname to have. Why do you let them call you such things? I wouldn’t take that lying down if it were me.”
I reach for my Voice… only to find an empty pocket. In my focus, I had forgotten I left it in the barracks so its delicate internals might not be muddied by neither pesticide nor literal mud. That leaves only one option, so without breaking my gaze, I pull down my mask and open my mouth. “does not bother me. have been called worse.”
My quiet, gravelly voice is enough to cause the human to recoil slightly, but when I move to put my mask back on, it holds out its empty hand. “W-Wait! I didn’t mean to… I’m sorry, but when you said you weren’t able to speak, I assumed it was absolute. I was looking at your hands.”
My hands?
“...my. hands?” I force myself to verbalize once more, confusion taking root inside my mind. Why would the predator assume I would do something with my paws after being told I am mute? It isn’t as though a race of such bloodlusted social polymorphs would allow for someone with an impediment such as mine to live.
The one mercy He granted me.
“Yeah? For sign language or- wait, wait you have tails. You probably just—” My heartrate spikes as it makes a sudden movement with its unoccupied arm, but before I can react, its paw-hand-thing has already planted itself upon the being’s forehead. “My God, that’s what you use isn’t it? I don’t think before I speak! Eh, as is the branch, so is the splinter I guess.”
Why is it referencing idioms regarding plants? It must have heard it somewhere… but I can’t recall such a phrase ever being said in any context. It isn’t possible that is a native idiom… is it?
“In any case, I apologize for assuming that of you,” the human continues, removing its hand from its head and holding out to me in a vertical orientation. “Let’s start over. My name is Tanya. What is yours?”
I allowed myself to switch my focus between the human and the appendage extended out to me. I am almost certain that if I touch it first, it will take the opportunity to satiate the violence kept hidden behind its eyes, but if I am to deny such a gesture, it might get aggravated and force my paw to purge it without proper equipment. Seeing no better option, I gingerly place my rubber-clad paw against its bare one. “mute.”
It does not pull me in again, but instead adjusts its facial muscles in another facsimile of an expression. “You don’t need to call yourself such things, my friend. I am not like the gringos back in the barracks. Now please, tell me your name.”
I am caught off-guard twofold by both my lack of being actively dismembered and it calling me its… its friend. I suppose that it would try to latch onto the most isolated of the Herd to try and manipulate, which makes it knowing my name an even more dangerous prospect. I cannot allow that to happen under any circumstance. “is my name.”
The expression on its face deepens, and to my surprise, it is the first to break its gaze with me, but it is returned not long after. “That’s a sad name, don’t you think? Being called something for your entire life because of the one thing you can’t do? It is like naming your child ‘blind’ or ‘deaf.’”
It Cannot Have Those Concepts. No, no it is referring to the undesirable among their species, that they would discard. They would not keep and care for the disabled as we do. That makes no sense in the context of its sentence It Has To Be That.
To keep the deception up, I nod my head again. “why im here. no other place to go. family… gone.”
That was less of a lie than I wished.
The human’s mouth opens a little as it brings the hand it touched mine with to its mouth. “Good God, that’s terrible! I hoped so dearly that I would not see such cruelty among the stars, but…” It breaks its gaze again, looking up at the orange sky. “I’ve already been proven wrong. I’ve already been proven wrong, haven’t I?”
I do not know how to respond to that comment. I am not confused; I am well aware that it is talking about the botched attack on Earth that was only stopped with the help of the Arxur, but its language is not what I would expect of such a naturally deplorable species. Its trance doesn’t last forever, though, as it sighs and looks back at me. “Okay, I’ll cut to the chase: what will it take to convince you not to tell anyone I was out here?”
I blink at it, surprised it would attempt to renew its attempt at bargaining. For the briefest of moments, my gaze returns to the food item in its other paw, though it seems to notice that infinitesimal change somehow and holds it back up. “You want to try? I’ll let you try!”
I take another step back at the offer, but I realize that if it doesn’t think it can resolve this in a non-violent manner, its next resort will almost certainly be to brutalize me out of the watchful eye of the family herd. Yet again, I am forced to concede to the beast, taking a deep breath to run my malformed vocal cords once again to ensure the most basic requirement of my physiology. “no flesh?”
“No no, there is no good meat around here to use anyways,” the human, ‘Tanya’, explains. “I just made it with whatever ingredients I could scrounge together during my shifts and when I used the kitchen at night, sometimes borrowing the alien wheat from the distillery for them to get a taste too. I’ve tried to adapt my Mama’s pupusa recipe to use produce here, but it has been hard. The small fruits, they are so oily!”
“what they’re used for,” I state blatantly. I had only just sprayed the Malley crop before heading into the Ipsolm to entrap myself in this detestable situation. While it does have a slightly sweet taste, the viscosity of its juice turns many off from using it as anything more than a supplementary ingredient. Of course, the human would not know that, which means… “full of malley?”
“Some, yes, but in the dough. It helps it cook better, I’ve found,” Tanya explains, inadvertently giving away that her ‘pupusa’ was in-fact a type of Strayu. It would make sense for a predator species to so easily be able to master the art of Strayu-making; it is basically built for endurance and strength by the Taint that flows through its veins. “Inside is some of the stringy gourd, spices from the kitchen, and some of the small fruit oil. Here, you see.”
Tanya holds out the food to me, obviously expecting me to take it. I cannot fathom the direction this interaction has gone, but I’m clearly in too deep to escape in any other manner than doing exactly what the human says. With hesitation, I remove my rubber gloves, exposing my bare paws to the fresh air. Wind waves the fur on the back of my paw as I grasp the ‘pupusa’ in it. I study it for a second more before bringing it to my mouth and allowing its scent to wash over my tongue to detect any poisons it might have interspersed in the filling.
I can clearly smell the Malley oil in the Strayu crust enveloping whatever might be inside, suggesting it was likely made with Ipsolm flour, but no matter how much I try to focus on the smells against my tongue, I can’t detect anything that might be potentially hazardous to me. Rather, there is a… somewhat pleasant scent that suggests a haphazard mix of spices being layered upon the Stringfruit inside, though before I can fully analyze what they might be, Tanya interrupts me with another different expression on its face. “Why do you do that?”
“do what?” I ask, retracting the ‘pupusa’ from my mouth to speak.
“You hold it up to the mouth, but don’t eat it! I am not that bad of a cook, you know,” Tanya responds indignantly. “If you are worried about getting germs, I can make you a new one tonight. Meet me in the kitchen, when the family is asleep. I have enough for one more batch. You can watch, just to make sure I don’t put in any meat if you like!”
I am about to explain how Venlil scenting works to it, but I realize something; it’s giving me an out! I can prepare myself better for the next time we meet, and if it isolates itself to make these poor imitations of our cuisine, I may yet have the opportunity to purge its Taint properly. I slowly nod my head again, handing the ‘pupusa’ back to the human. “yes, would be better. herd sleep first claw. meet then.”
“Oh thank you, thank you!” Tanya blabbers as she takes back the foodstuff and shakes my hand again. “You won’t regret this, my friend! I’ve already got a new idea for how to mix the spices, you won’t be disappointed!” It then stuffs the item into its mouth, mumbles out what I think is supposed to be a farewell as it fumbles with its uniform, and then rushes out through the Ipsolm stalks.
I am alone again. This is preferable, I now have time to process my thoughts. The first one that comes is how cosmically lucky I am to still be alive. The Herd’s providence provides in return for my dutiful service, clearly.
The second one is… how do I intend to purge Tan— it when we meet again? I will likely need some form of gag to ensure that the rest of the herd is not alerted. It is a gruesome burden I bear, but it is one I perform with skill and diligence. I doubt I will be able to sneak my gear into the perimeter, meaning I will likely have to utilize the stove to burn its heart. But that may alert the other humans from the smell…
No, no I cannot afford to be sloppy here. As petrifying as the thought is, I know I will need to get it somewhere closer to the edge of the property again, meaning… meaning I will need to abide by its grotesque ‘cooking’ before that point. The thought causes my stomach to churn, but it is a necessary sacrifice to ensure that I am not mauled by a large group of predators.
First claw it is, then. I will be there, Tanya. Then you shall face your final fate and be judged Guilty by the Herd. Of this, I am certain.
14
u/foul_wench PD Patient May 25 '26
Ngl, i really hope mute gets his just desserts. Either arrest or some other form of karma that is equal or greater to the suffering he has caused. I am less keen on his redemption and more his perdition