Of Men and Spiders

As Scott looked over his haul, he sighed. Usually, eating fresh animal meat was much safer than trying plants, but there was always some risk involved. There was only one way to be sure. However, he was unwilling to let Alice take that risk, so he had her eat another one of the survival rations to tide her over.

The first step was to apply some of the still slimy meat to his skin and wait thirty minutes to ensure there was no reaction to the raw meat in any way. With that accomplished, it was time to start a fire and cook the meat. Unfortunately, that was easier said than done.

Scott supposed he could use a hand drill in a pinch, but that was about the longest and most exhausting way to produce the friction needed, and while he had some strings from the fabric he'd unraveled with which he could try and make a bow drill, he didn't want to waste the strings so casually when he didn't know how soon he'd be able to get more for his traps, so the next best bet was the fire plow.

After digging out a small pit with his hands, Scott looked over the half-rotted logs from fallen trees he'd gathered. One seemed just weak enough to pull apart with his hands, which was a mixed blessing, as that level of rotting would mean lots of moisture which would make this take longer, but the good news is the friction would fix that issue as he worked. He also gathered some dried grass from the underbrush and some small twigs and sticks to keep near at hand.

Then, taking a solid stick a little less than a foot long, Scott sharpened one side almost to an edge. Then he removed one of his socks and wrapped them around the other end of the stick to give himself a handhold that wouldn't endanger his palm. That done, he started forcefully rubbing the stick along the flat half of the log until a minor groove formed, then kept going, knowing the friction would push the heated portions to the end of his groove into a small pile. It wasn't long before he saw smoke, but most of it was coming from the groove itself, so he kept working until the smoke was coming from the pile of charred wood fibers at the end of the groove.

With that, he started waving his hands over the smoke, careful not to blow away the wood fibers, until the smoke became thick and distinct, meaning there was a good hot ember in there somewhere. Immediately, he tipped the charred wood fibers into the dried grass, holding it in his hands as he lightly blew on the bundle of grass, and it wasn't long before flames sprouted. Quickly dropping the grass into the center of the pit, Scott added twigs to his young fire, upgrading to small sticks once the flames took hold, and it wasn't long before he had a full-blown campfire.

As he stood up with a grin, Scott couldn't help but be grateful for his time studying to be an explorer. Back then, he thought it was ridiculous that they'd trained in these primitive techniques thinking he'd never be without the kind of tools that made this stuff irrelevant, but in hindsight, someone had probably learned the hard way that situations like this sometimes arose.

From there, it was quick and easy to cook some samples of the meat, but rather than just eating it, he let some pieces cool and applied it to his lips before setting it back down. With the smell of cooked animals in the air, it was borderline torture not to lick his lips and taste the fatty juice still sitting there, but patience was an essential part of the process. After about fifteen minutes, he checked his lips to feel if there was any swelling or rash. When none were apparent, he finally took a small bite of the cooked meat.

After a couple days of survival rations, that bite was pure bliss. It was everything Scott could do not to swallow, but again, patience was key.

He chewed thoroughly, getting fat and juice all over his mouth, waiting to see if he could feel his tongue or any other parts of his mouth react. Finally, after about fifteen minutes, he spit the meat out and rinsed his mouth out before carefully feeling around to test for things like numbness or swelling. When none was apparent, he finally allowed himself another small bite and, this time, swallowed.

To say the meat was delicious was an understatement, and he really wanted to tear off more chunks of meat, but now it was time to wait again, and this time it wouldn't be such a short wait. Dreaming of his feast to come, Scott set the food aside, knowing it would be about six hours before he'd let himself eat or drink anything other than some water as needed. This was going to be the longest six hours of his life...

-

She watched the female perform an odd ceremony of applying the meat to her dermal layer. She wondered what the significance of such an action might be. Could it have some crude religion based on natural phenomena like weather or stars? However, She dropped that line of reasoning. Such considerations were inconsequential and unprovable without additional information.

What did startle her was when the female started rubbing a stick on a log. If the tool user wasn't careful, the heat from that friction could combust! Sure enough, there was smoke before long, and She prepared one of her hands to act in case the fire got out of control. It wouldn't do to lose such a prime specimen to its own ignorance so soon!

However, that seemed to be the goal of the tool user. The female carefully tented the ember, placing it in a relatively isolated zone it appeared to have set aside for just that reason and turned the tiny ember into a contained fire. She still had her hands close by but chose to wait and watch a little longer. Even as intelligent as She was beginning to suspect these tool users to be, to contain and control something as unstable and unpredictable as the fire was bordering on the insane, but her thirst for knowledge won out over her desire for safety. Besides, if fire use was common among these tool users, that could prove a hazard. She needed to know if it was used as a part of their rituals or if it was used as a weapon of some sort. If the latter, that might be cause for concern, even from such a primitive species.

However, what the tool user did next completely stunned She. It took flesh from one of the animal carcasses, placed it on a stick, then thrust it into the fire! Why would it spoil perfectly good nutrients by charring them? She suddenly regretted chasing so many animals into the tool user's traps. Such a waste of nutrition was unthinkable!

When the tool user finally withdrew the meat from the fire, it was visibly damaged. Not only was the surface area charred, but even the musculature underneath was changed in color and texture. It was apparent the heat had destroyed many of the nutrients. However, after repeating the female's earlier action of applying the carcass's flesh to its skin, this time closer to the orifice the tool user used for consumption, it finally took a bite and began eating. Though She noticed something appeared to be wrong. For some reason, the tool user seemed unable to swallow her food. She assumed that was likely due to the damage caused by the fire.

Eventually, the tool user spit out the remnants of the charred meat, then seemed to perform a careful and deliberate inspection of its face. She didn't know what the tool user was searching for, but evidently, it was satisfied because it took another bite of the carcass and swallowed the flesh relatively quickly. But rather than consume the whole animal, as She had assumed it would, the tool user placed the carcass down onto a leaf it had set aside on a raised stone to keep the flesh from coming into contact with the ground and walked away.

She pondered this action. Was it done eating? That hardly seemed likely. Based on its size and exertion as well as past consumption habits, the female would need far more nutrition than that to sustain itself. More likely, the fire had rendered the flesh inedible. But what the tool user had done seemed deliberate and thought out step by step. There must be some facet that She was yet missing.

After the female had disappeared into its nest of sticks and leaves, She used one of her hands to retrieve the carcass to study it more directly.

It only took a little while for her to bring the meat to her primary body, after which She began an analysis of the carcass. It seemed like the heat from the fire had broken down some of the bonds of the flesh, making it easier to tear apart. She ate a small portion of the flesh with a small body designed chiefly for testing new foreign plants and animals to learn how She'd need to change her body chemistry to get the most nutrients and avoid any risk for her primary body at the same time. Her findings surprised her.

As She's surmised, the fire had broken apart the chemical bonds of the flesh, which made it much easier to digest. In fact, it was so much easier that a portion of the nutritional loss was compensated for by the reduced energy requirements of consumption. In this way, it behaved similarly to some of the processing methods She used to tenderize some flesh before consumption. Not only that but the foreign microbial activity was significantly reduced. This process was designed to render the flesh safer for consumption by a less efficient digestive anatomy!

Thinking back to the female's actions, it was clear that the female was checking itself for reactions to the flesh as her repeated deliberate actions slowly exposed herself to more and more of the flesh. Unlike She, the tool user didn't have a separate body it could use solely to test the safety of its food. This process was likely created by the survivors of its species passing these methods on to the next generation to test new food for safety. Since She had accidentally chased the tool users away from their original nest, they were likely testing all their food to determine edibility and safety. That meant not only could these tool users think abstractly, but it increased the probability that they might also have methods to communicate complex ideas beyond the simple repetition of action.

Thinking back, She remembered all the times the tool users had projected vibrations toward one another. Those vibrations may have served a more specialized purpose than most animal vibrations. There might even be communication patterns similar to She's own between her various selves and other Shes. She decided to create a new small self with greater sensitivity to these vibrations, so She could attempt to determine if there were subtle and/or complex patterns to discern.

-

After a few hours, Scott decided he'd waited long enough with no ill side effects and got up, intending to finish his meal. However, thoughts of tasty meat faded when he saw the spot he'd placed his meal empty. He noticed many small depressions around it, as though something relatively heavy with many small legs had taken the food. It was like ice water flowed down his back, and Scott ran back to grab one of his spears.

After looking around the perimeter, it seemed like whatever had been at their camp had left, but he could see several tracks similar to the first, meaning either the same one was coming back repeatedly or multiple spider monsters were watching them. They'd have to move again, further this time just to be safe...