2 Chapter 2 Why must everything try to kill him?? (2/2)

Sighing, Dustin hoped he could survive that long.While it was integrating, he wouldn't be able to use it to evolve.

Spying a small creature stalking along the edge of the water, he stepped back, further into the shadows, and watched it as it hunted.The fish had barbs that were poisonous.The creature stabbed them with a bone tail, and wiped the barbs off on the closest tree, before eating them whole.

Swallowing, he realized he hadn't eaten in days.They hadn't bothered during the long trip to feed him, because they figured he would be able to get something to eat here, or would just die.The water was probably drinkable, but he needed to make sure he evolved to survive any parasites.He didn't want to survive the large predators, only to succumb to the ones he couldn't see.

A tickle near his ear made him jump away from the tree. The trunk was swarming with small black beetles.Reaching up, he could feel a few crawling on him, and he hurriedly brushed them off.He was breathing a bit too hard, but he hated bugs.Looking closer, he could see that they had long fluffy antennae.Shaking his head, he didn't care.Everything on this planet wanted to kill him as far as he was concerned.

He made his way to another tree, and made sure it had no bugs on it, before he looked over towards the creature that had been hunting.It was gone, probably spooked when he jumped away from the tree.He felt a tickle along his hairline, and he brushed it, thinking it was just another bug, but his hand came back covered in blood, and he jumped again.

What now??

Running both hands over his head, he got away from the tree.There was a creature, camouflaged among the leaves, dangling near where he had been.It retracted its tongue, that looked strangely like a long straw, and climbed up higher into the branches.There was a cut, just at his hairline.Cursing, he applied pressure to it, trying to get it to stop bleeding.Who knew how many creatures here could smell blood on the wind?

Keeping a close eye all around him, he started to move.It would be too dangerous to stay in one place.He avoided every tree, not trusting himself to be attacked again, but stayed near the water.His skin would need to stay moist, and he couldn't guarantee that he would find water again.

A loud call in the air behind him, chilled him to the bone.Whatever felt comfortable calling out like that, wasn't afraid of predators.Which meant there was a very strong possibility it was a predator, and was probably interested in the fresh smell of blood on the air.

Breaking into a run, he heard something big give chase.Branches blocked his vision, and he knew that if he stopped, it would get him.A huge tree, with an incredibly crazy root system appeared through a gap in some branches, and he darted that way.As he crawled into the middle of the mess, he hoped that it wasn't some type of giant venus flytrap.

Unfortunately, as soon as he stopped moving, he noticed vines creeping through the roots, coming towards him.He prepared to climb back out, when the biggest monster he had ever seen crashed out of the bushes and started trying to reach him.It had four eyes, all of which were focused on him.

The fur on the beast was stiff along the spine, and the color changed as it moved.Snarling, it fought the roots to get to him.Dustin tried to think of what to do, then noticed that the vines had swapped their target to the creature.Finally, something was going right!