Michael Siemsen - Exigency

Fitchsher pointed a thumb toward the thawing hunk. “Food.”

Minnie gestured to the riverbear skin on his nearest shoulder. “Call this?”

Fitchsher crooked his neck to it, then pinched the edge of the fur. “Possyr.”

It was a word one of them had earlier spoken, Minnie had thought in reference to her. Did it mean fur? Protection? Their term for riverbear? The DB had no similar entries.

Onjr leaned forward and slid the smoking meat away from the heater.

Minnie pointed at the slab again. “Possyr?”

Fitchsher looked at the hunk as it steamed atop the frost, cooling. “Yes possyr. Onjr kill. No possyr. Food.”

Minnie felt the same warm rush of adrenalin that always hit her when working linguistics. Each new word was a mystery to be solved, and each word defined was a clue toward the next, and all the pieces together would solve the puzzle entire. This meat was a possyr before it was killed, but no longer. The fur was still a possyr , so it couldn’t mean living or alive . Perhaps a generic noun.

Process of elimination. She touched her own chest. “Minnie possyr ?”

After a pause and glance to Onjr, who was again trying to feed Leeg, Fitchsher confirmed. “Yes.”

And with that, Minnie decided to ask her most pressing question. “Kill Minnie?”

Even Leeg went quiet.

Fitchsher stared at Minnie with eyes that appeared to have a million more thoughts than his limited vocabulary could express.

With still no answer, she persisted. “Kill Minnie? Minnie food?”

Fitchsher opened his mouth to speak, then closed it as if to rethink.

Onjr’s head appeared from behind Leeg’s back. “Nnn-neee scent food taste.”

He talking about the half-cooked meat or saying that I smell delicious?

Fitchsher spun round, flinging an arm toward Onjr, snarling, “No!” followed by a string of unknown words. Onjr returned, popping to his feet, and stepped toward Fitchsher, throwing an open hand to Fitchsher’s face. Onjr’s foot accidentally nudged the metal lid and the heater toppled onto its side. Minnie grabbed the MW from her lap and scurried to her feet, backing away from the commotion. The two wrestled around, arguing and slapping each other over the quietly moaning Leeg. Onjr had the size advantage, but Fitchsher appeared faster.

Standing beyond the bulbs, Minnie’s legs remained primed to bolt. What seemed apparent was that Onjr considered her food, and Fitchsher was defending her. In the bustle, the heater was kicked again, rolling and skidding away with steaming footprints. When it came to rest, it hissed and whistled, slowly sinking into the frost. Water at its perimeter began boiling and Minnie wondered if it would soon submerge itself and short out.

Onjr was on top of Fitchsher, one leg pinning his face to the ground, a knee on a thigh, fingers clutching and twisting the loose skin beneath Fitchsher’s arm. Fitchsher screeched and yapped.

Minnie darted to the heater, grabbed the handle, and set it upright away from the shallow new rectangle pool. Keeping an eye on the brawl, she shut it off and dashed back to a safe distance.

“Stop!” Fitchsher cried from under Onjr. “Onjr win!”

That can’t be good.

Onjr stood up, gave Fitchsher a little kick to the head, and peered round the area. His eyes found Minnie. She gripped the MW, raising it higher. Onjr took a step toward her, then looked around at the ground.

“Cold,” Leeg whimpered.

Onjr stomped forward and Minnie prepared to fire, but he was heading to the heater. He huddled over it, crushed two nubby claws into each side, and took it back to Leeg. He plopped down and set two fingers in front of the heater as Fitchsher strained to sit up, rubbing his side and head.

“Hot no,” Onjr snarled to no one in particular. “Fire leave.”

Leeg emitted a terrible, shrill scream, arching backward before rolling onto her stomach. Minnie switched optics and observed the female’s massively swollen lower back. Similar to marsupials, Hynka birthed an under-developed fetus to then carry in a pouch for several months. However, a face-attached umbilical remained bonded, and the birth canal squeezed the fetus directly into the bottom of the pouch. From the lumpy look of Leeg’s pouch, her baby had either already arrived, or was making solid progress.

Onjr turned his back to Minnie, tending to Leeg.

Fitchsher poked a thumb at the heater and searched for Minnie. “Nnn-neee,” he called.

Minnie took a few steps toward the clearing.

“Fire in?” he said.

“Fire no,” Minnie replied. “Onjr kill fire. Onjr kill Minnie.”

“No kill,” Fitchsher said, standing and facing her. Minnie stepped back again. “Onjr no.”

Right, she thought. Like I didn’t just witness that fight.

Fitchsher persisted. “Onjr no kill. Onjr…” he seemed to search for the words. “… speak smell. Nnn-nee food smell. Food no. Smell yes.” He turned and slapped Onjr’s back. Onjr grumbled, pushed him away, returning his focus to Leeg. Fitchsher barked at him in mostly uncatalogued words. “Speak… Nnn-neee… smell… kill.”

Onjr reared up, shoved Fitchsher, and faced Minnie. “No kill! Nnn-nee Onjr no kill!” He kicked the heater. “Fire in!” He returned to Leeg’s side, where she now breathed slower, almost purring with each exhalation.

Fitchsher took a tentative step toward Minnie, disarmingly human in his pleading. “Yes? Fire in?”

Resigned to her own weakness, Minnie walked to the heater and picked it up, reactivating it. She kicked the metal disc back into the icy depression it had earlier formed, setting the heater down facing the backs of Onjr’s ankles, and beyond them, Leeg. Onjr moved an arm and peeked at Minnie through the gap. She kept her eyes fixed on his, and the MW primed.

“Move,” Minnie said to him as she withdrew backward. “Leeg fire.”

Onjr snorted and leaned right onto a knee, shuffling from between the heater and Leeg. Leeg murmured something to him and he continued around to her other side. Thick fingers wedged under her, and Onjr lifted Leeg’s far side, rolling her until she ordered him to stop. Now, her back—and the fetus in the pouch—faced the heater.

Minnie gazed through the wall of flesh to the writhing being inside, already the size of a human preteen. She could see the membrane gluing its toothless gums to a thick umbilical tube. There was a bit of a kink between baby and the quivering sphincter from which it’d come, and Leeg seemed to be aware of the danger. She’d reached behind her and was smushing sections of pouch next to the baby, trying to spin it around to face downward.

“Turn,” she said, and Onjr obeyed, using both hands to reorient the fetus.

Minnie heard the crackling of joints and glanced Fitchsher’s way, observing him sitting down. She hadn’t been paying attention to him all this time, subconsciously trusting that she had nothing to fear from him, but this was foolish of her. She moved back a few more steps and also sat.

“Baby turn,” Fitchsher said. “Baby hot.” Perhaps it was a thank you.

Onjr rolled around beside Leeg’s head, took a riverbear skin from one of his shoulders, and lay it over Leeg’s exposed face. With her baby and back to the fire, her front would be feeling the bite of midnight cold. Onjr settled onto his rump and faced the heater, peering over it to Minnie, his eyes unreadable and disconcerting.

After a few moments of silence, with everyone’s focus on the heater—like any classic, late-night campfire scene, orange glow casting shadows—Fitchsher broke the silence.

“Baby kill all.”