LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 4, Day 23: Bait
Pryce was awoken early in the morning by the ding of the radio, causing him to stumble around in the darkness until he lit the lantern. He had connected it to the battery before going to sleep so it could ring out, but he was surprised that it actually worked. Pryce checked the chronometer, and saw it was indeed 6:29:15 AM.
That measurement resulted in a longitude of 82.6875 ± 0.002° West, which translated to an uncertainty of 3.6 kilometers – great, but not particularly helpful at the moment. It might prove to be useful at some point in the distant future, though Pryce knew his odds of living to see that day were far from stellar.
He tried going back to sleep for another hour, but forced himself up when he realized he wasn’t going to fall back asleep. At least he felt a bit better than he had yesterday, having a day to mostly recover had done him well.
He cleaned up the pens and noticed one chicken was more lethargic than the others, so he selected that one as his bait.
He’d have to be careful about this, if he went about this plan the wrong way then he’d lose one of his valuable chickens for nothing. What he wanted to learn about were the creatures that posed a threat to him, so he moved the sickly bird to a small but sturdy cage usually meant for trapping small animals. Hopefully it would protect the bird from any of the weaker predators or scavengers, giving him a chance to observe the true threats.
As Pryce walked out to the beach, he saw the dead chickens were no longer on the ground and sighed. Of course something had come along in the night. It was a pity there was no one to establish a night watch…it was a pity there was no one around to do anything, really. He wasn’t too bothered by the loss as there wasn’t much he could have done with the dead fowl, and he could try and shoot down a bird if he wanted to get some dead bait.
He had thought about using crabs in a cage to lure in predators, but he wasn’t sure if the predators would prey on crabs either; if they did then he should have seen their tracks on the beach.
Having staked a metal rod into the ground, he tied the chicken coop to it, securing it in place.
Then he retreated to the ship, and waited with a camera at the ready.
A few hours later, Pryce had been more successful than he had been the day before. A few birds of prey had perched on trees to observe the chicken as it clucked nervously, though all had left without attacking it.
It was thanks to these observations that he noticed the birds had six limbs. Two pairs of wings, and one pair of talons.
Modern theories stated that all of life came from one common ancestor, and all currently existing life forms could be drawn as descendants of this common ancestor in a great tree of life. Certain traits could be used to identify which creatures shared a more recent common ancestor than others, for example creatures who have four limbs were known as tetrapods, and having five fingers was known as pentadactylism. Creatures who had these traits could be grouped together as they had probably descended from a common ancestor who was the first to have those traits. This was of course assuming the trait hadn’t developed independently more than once, but there was never a way to be certain when looking at the distant past.
If this assumption was correct, then he might be more closely related to any tetrapodal creature than these six-limbed bird-like creatures. It was for this reason that he wasn’t even sure if he should classify these as birds.
For the case of convenience, he decided on calling them birds or avians for the time being.
It was around noon when Pryce saw something move in the forest. He quickly zoomed in on the camera, zeroing in on the chicken in a second. Then Pryce saw something move.
It wasn’t moving fast, quite the opposite in fact, but it was as if a patch of the forest itself was shifting. Pryce clicked the shutter button several times as the thing moved, he could take his time to make sense of what he was seeing later.
He took a picture every few seconds as he watched the animal through the lens, it was close to the chicken now, very close, and then Pryce saw it extend a limb as it began to experimentally tap the cage.
Rat-tap-tap
Pryce knew better than to anthropomorphize actions, but the way the creature moved simply screamed curiosity, maybe even intelligence. It poked and prodded at the trap while the chicken clucked in fear, until it reached the metal flap that opened inwards – Pryce’s eyes widened – and pushed the flap open. It seemed surprised for a moment, poking at the spring-loaded flap a few times before snatching the now screeching chicken, quickly silencing it.
Then the creature moved, and Pryce instantly lost track of the creature as it completely disappeared into the forest.
His heart hammered in his chest as he looked at the remains of his bait, steel cage unharmed as a few white feathers drifted to the ground.
Pryce didn’t want to waste any film, so before he developed the roll he took photos of the ship, the area around the ship, the wrecked chicken coop, and (very cautiously) took pictures of the tracks he saw yesterday – with a ruler for scale, of course.
He remembered an argument some of the crew had over whether to use instant or film photography. The former was nice and convenient, while the other was able to take better pictures more rapidly, as well as having a known shelf life of a few decades in the right conditions. The argument ended when someone pointed out that they could just bring equipment for both, especially with how little space instant photography needed. Pryce fondly remembered joining in on the laughter as the participants flushed red with embarrassment.
Despite having access to both, Pryce had decided to use a film camera today. He had thought the ability to take multiple pictures in rapid succession would be important, and he was right. If he had used an instant camera, he would only have one or two pictures of the raptor as opposed to the eight he’d gotten on film.
Preparation took some time, as he had to wait for the film to develop. Pryce paced back and forth as he waited for the final stabilization process to complete, then quickly pulled out the film the moment the chronometer hit the minute mark.
He forced himself to slow down as he delicately dried the film off with a cloth, and carefully inserted the film into the viewer.
[JOURNAL ENTRY]
Day 23: I have had success in viewing the bipedal predator, capturing many images of it – though none of them show much detail.
Please refer to the roll of film I have labeled D24, in the event that the film is not available, I will summarize what I could confirm here:
The closest analogue to this predator I can provide is a prehistoric raptor, approximately the height of a man with what appears to be bare skin or fine scales. Visual tracking was difficult due to its exceptional camouflage.
The predator appears to have three toes, two for locomotion, and a third held up above the ground – this is why their footprints only show two toes.
Very surprisingly the predator has six limbs; two legs, two arms, and two wings, though they appear to be too small to achieve flight.
Another surprising discovery is how intelligent this predator seems to be, it examined and prodded at the trapper’s cage until it accidentally found the opening flap, whereupon it quickly extracted and devoured the chicken.
In short, the accidental ‘puzzle’ posed by the trap was solved in less than 10 seconds.
I will refer to these predators as Raptors, given their similarities. I will give them a more suitable name once I have learned more about their species, it would be unfortunate to name them something like “Great Raptor” only to find out they are the smallest variety on the island.
It may be only a coincidence, but with my sighting of several six-limbed birds I think it is likely that on this island, six-limbed creatures are common for reasons yet unknown to me.
The only reason why we humans – along with other more familiar creatures – fall under the classification of tetrapods is that we are all descended from a common ancestor who had four limbs. A rare few have six limbs, and are aptly referred to as ‘hexapeds’ – not to be confused with the ‘hexapod’ subphylum, which includes insects and crustaceans.
What I don’t understand is why do there seem to be so many hexapedal creatures on this island, and why aren’t there more on the mainland?
On the subject of terminology, I believe I have decided on a name for this island. As its creatures are so different from those we know, I will refer to it as Alternis. Should any future-readers have a problem with that name, just be glad I don’t name everything I discover after myself.
Among personal matters, I seem to have developed a slight fever. I’ve taken a dose of antibiotics just in case, hopefully that will stop the illness before it becomes a problem.
Speaking of problems, I have made a difficult decision; I’m going to give my crew a burial at sea. I’m sorry I regret that I am unable to give them a proper burial on land, but that is beyond my ability.
I will do it tomorrow.