The Conductor

I was lost in a swirling stream of bright lights and moving darkness. I feel like I'm being torn apart, atom by atom. I'm in the threshold of matter and energy. I do not know when or where I'm going. I am frightened and alone. Oh! How I yearn the open plains, the crisp forests, and the moist, warm air. My mother and father, and sister! They'll hunt without me, but mourn my departure. I'm surrounded by flashing twilight. I cry out, but hear no voice. I'm feeling like I'm falling, and yet I am still. I want to move! I want to feel! But, I cannot!

Finally, relief. Oh sweet relief. I'm on the cold ground. It is hard and I cannot grip it with my feet. Something is wrong. I sense that my surroundings are a lie. I sniff the air. It is cold and filled with the scent of vermin. Vermin that run beneath our feet. I...I look with fear, but also with morbid curiosity. It is dark, but my eyes are akin to this. My family hunts the great thunder beasts at night. My ears tell me there are outside calls. They are not my own. As my eyes focus, I see I'm in a cave. It surrounds me.

I'm able to move now. I'm still hearing the calls outside. I seek to know where I am. I feel around with my hands and snout. As I moved around, I found some cracks in the cave wall. The smell of vermin is strong here. HISS! I jump back to my prior spot. From the cracks, light shines. The cracks are connected to one another at sharp angles. Angles are something I learned about from school, along with the numbers and other shapes. This knowledge won't help me now.

The calls are getting louder. The smell of vermin sweat is stronger. The air is still cold. I must press onward. I must find out where I am. Why? Why am I here? I walk back to the other side of the cave. I put myself at the ready. My heart is pounding, but my breathing is still. I remind myself of what my mother and father taught me. These lessons came before I went to school. There are three lessons about to hunt for the thunder beasts. Always hide in the shadows. Always lower yourself to the ground. Once the thunder beast is close, leap and kick! KICK! Kick with all of your might!

The cave wall in front of me collapses. In its place, a tall creature, as tall as me, walks in. It stank of the vermin smell. Staying in the shadow, I watched it. It had a strange snout, large and bulbous. The eyes were round, large, and black. The top of the vermin's head was rounded with a frill going down the back. This frill wasn't like that of the horn heads which stand tall and high. No, this creature's frill went behind its head. It's fur was flat and black. It was strange how loose the fur clung to the vermin's body. There was a strip of red on its right arm. It made angry calls, but his screams won't fool me. I stay hidden in the back waiting to strike it down.

The vermin drew closer to me. I took my chance and I lunged forward with a furious kick. I do not know what kind of vermin it is, but its blood spills on the ground like any other. Its cry of pain is the same like those of the vermin we would always kill. Its louder and deeper in pitch, but still the same. The light coming from outside beacons me to run. Run to freedom, I must!

I am free! Free from the cave. I turn to my left and see more of the vermin looking at me. Their snouts are different. They have small snouts and small eyes. Their faces are bare of fur. One of them points a shiny stick at me. A loud sound rings out. It was like thunder. Almost immediately, I feel a sharp pain in my left side. I feel blood pouring out. My blood! I fall, limp, on the cold ground. The vermin cry out, like how my family would sound after a successful kill. I see two of them carry the one I wounded out of the cave.

I feel coldness moving slowly across my body. Even my feather and scales are not able to keep me warm. I'm losing strength...I'm alone...there's no more hunting...

[Excerpt from the journal of Dr. Johann Heinz, 1935]

''We gathered around the body of the animal. It wounded one of the soldiers, Deiter I think his name was. Luckily, he was taken to the infirmary. That's one nasty cut across his torso. The animal looks almost like an overgrown bird with claws and teeth. Upon closer inspection my colleague, Dr. Stromer, looks like a larger version of the ancient bird Archaeopteryx. We'll examine it more in Berlin. Perhaps the party will let us dissect it. For now, I must make my report to Lieutenant-General Sporrenberg. It would seem the Bell is successful at extracting living organisms, but after this incident I think we will need to make the targeting system more practical. ''