Danielle acknowledge this truth, and followed the scent behind Brandon, unlike the urge to mate, Danielle knew she shouldn’t fight this urge, this instinct, she couldn’t, she mustn’t, not if she wanted to ever see her family again.
She saw Brandon make a fist and pull back, she acknowledge the semi- universal message for ‘stop.’ They sat silently for a few seconds, then for a few minutes, but Brandon refused to let her move on ahead, he was waiting for something, and Danielle felt the need to acknowledge his decision to keep waiting, even if she was beginning to think he was lost.
That was when Danielle saw it.
She realized, she was happy, just so happy, that they weren’t humanoid like she subconsciously feared they were going to be. Two white rabbits, they looked around with large, black, empty eyes, their ears shifting this way and that, trying to picking if Brandon and Danielle were really there. Finally, their stake out paid off, and the rabbit moved right in front of their hiding place. Brandon attacked first, Danielle followed right behind, she didn’t have time to question her actions right now.
It felt like the kill had happened instantly, but Danielle couldn’t say that it wasn’t her. She helped block any path of escape the rabbits had, with Brandon closing in on them in an instant, his claws and fangs dug into the rabbit’s neck, breaking it, the other rabbit raced past its partner desperate to escape and live another day, Danielle realized, she could sympathize, but she couldn’t stop now, and caught the second rabbit in her own claws and jaws, and tasted the blood as her teeth closed in on the back of the rabbit’s neck, and heard the crunching sound inside her own head as the bones broke.
Danielle just hunched there with her kill, as she waited to see what Brandon would do next, it seemed he too, was getting over exactly what he had done. Was it guilt? Or surprise? She had read somewhere that normally a hunt failed, leaving the predator the odd one out. It wasn’t like the cartoon where the hunter was easily feed and had no actually need to devour its innocent prey.
That was when –they- came out of hiding, they were wondering where the two rabbits were. Why shouldn’t they? What children wouldn’t wonder where their parents were? Brandon saw them first, and Danielle followed his gaze, she mentally groaned.
This Cliché was far too painful, and sadly, far too real for her to just accept, maybe this was just a trick of Kat’s to torture her. But trick or not, cliché or not, Danielle knew she could not just leave a parent less cluster of rabbits to slowly die of starvation.
She and Brandon returned to the riverbank the falls emptied into with blood on their claws and muzzles, plus two large dead rabbit and six small ones. Danielle wondered if they could have done something different, risen above nature, she looked at Brandon however and she knew: he had no regrets. Thus, she decided, if he wasn’t going to have them, she wouldn’t torture herself either. It was them or the rabbits. And she had to worry about her own family waiting for her back home first. Even if Kat did trap them here for lifetimes, Kat had made a mistake by telling them that time would have barely moved when they returned. That gave Danielle hope, something Kat would never be able to take away.
While they had been stripped of all technology, that didn’t mean they were animals, and that didn’t mean they had to eat meat raw and risk catching parasites, possibly sentencing the other one to be alone if Kat proved a true sadist.
However, making a fire proved a lot harder than in the movies. Rubbing two sticks together didn’t work out so hot with just two random sticks. The logical thing to do was find two hard rocks to act as flint was logical, but these proved harder to find than you think.
That was when Danielle had her idea, it was strange, she had only had it for about two days, but already her vanity didn’t want to see it go, but she had to do it all the same. She found the sharpest rock she could find, and cut her hair.
This at least provided them with the tinder they needed. Next came the hard part of trying to create a spark, a single spark needed to make a fire. Danielle turned to Brandon but he was stumped too, they had both been city kids, camping hadn’t been their strong point.
Ironically, NOW Brandon regretted leaving their clothes behind, -not- because they had to worry about modesty with no one else around or because they had to worry about freezing to death in a temperate zone with a pelt of fur, but because they could have used them possibly as friction to get a fire going.
With Brandon guarding their kill, and both finding the idea of risking disease more and more tempting than starving to death, Danielle searched and gathered… and finally found a piece of hard wood then soft wood that could work… she didn’t remember much about the method but knew you didn’t just rub sticks together, you kept one stationary and worked the other harder than a butter churn.
Returning with her own prize, Brandon kissed her, and using the upper body strength he now had, got to work, and in a short time later, they proved they were still civilized and not just animals… they could still make fire and control fire.
Of course they didn’t have an oven timer or knew any cook books about rabbits… they were stuck guessing, this lead to some raw pieces and some burnt ones… but hey, give them credit… it was their first real meal since coming to a deserted planet in another reality.
Looking at this fire, and feeling the comfort and safety from it, knowing that it would keep away unwanted visitors as they slept, Danielle looked at Brandon, and she saw he knew that they were going to have to keep this fire going for quite a well.
Brandon in addition, was thinking of what else they would need to survive. But whatever it was, at least they were together.