Log #29-1:
It was a necessity for us to intervene. Any longer and it would have died. We just barely managed to stabilize its condition when the fourth general managed to bring it in. It is a pity. We were hoping to be able to continue our observation for at least a few more months. Unfortunately, its idiocy forced our hands. How it managed to get so severely injured by such a weak, tired, and low-ranked creature surprised us. We thought that it would have managed to survive longer than that.
Three lacerations across the left side of various depths, a fractured jaw bone, and a minor concussion. Significant blood loss along with loss of consciousness. Currently in a deep coma; it does not seem to be waking up anytime soon.
Its vitals are still critically low, twenty-four hours after managing to stabilize it. The current heart rate is twenty bpm, respiratory rate is six bpm, and a body temperature of twenty-five degrees. All are significantly below the standard measured values of its species.
Other than being on the verge of death, it is relatively healthy. No signs of malnourishment, previous permanent injuries, or birth defects. A perfectly healthy specimen. Besides the immediate life-threatening injuries, of course.
We ran some preliminary tests on the subject. We still have no idea why its mind is overwhelmingly complex compared to others of its rank. We can rule out the possibility that it was a man-made experiment by the Directory. Its mind and body are too well merged together, and I would highly doubt that they would have technology that surpasses ours by that significantly.
But that does not really change anything.
We had always assumed that it was not man-made so that just leaves us with our original hypothesis. Either it was created through evolution or by the divine. Each method is highly unlikely, but we have been leaning toward the evolution explanation. After all, the divines have been dead for millennia. There have not been any signs that they have been back either.
Bringing it into the lab brought more questions than answers. Releasing it back into the wild would allow us to examine its natural behavior, however, it would not be able to provide as many research opportunities. If we were to keep it in the lab, then the opposite would happen. It is still unknown to us how it would act when in human presence. It may panic and go berserk, which could lead to unintended consequences. How would you like us to proceed with it?
Our blood, for glory, to the Eternal Empire!
~END Log #29-1~
He should be dead. Again. And yet, he was not. He was absolutely sure that he was bleeding out in the middle of the forest. All alone by himself without any way to survive. But here he was. Alive, or at least with the ability to think.
His various senses started to come to him as he slowly woke up. He wiggled his paws. The blood started to flow. Then he wiggled his paws some more. And his blood really began to flow. Then he started to hear a bunch of muffled stumbling and running. Basically, if a bunch of people was just told to randomly run around in a soundproofed room.
Finally, his nose began to work. One of his most reliable means in determining where he is. A whiff of an unknown smell entered his nose. He sniffed, but it was still weak. He sniffed harder, and harder. He took his largest sniff yet and smelled the most repulsive thing he had ever smelled. Which was impressive, since he had lived in the wild with some wolves that had not washed in months.
It was putrid. An underlying base of the mold, rotting food, metal, and sweat. Then a layer of flowers and various sweet scents with a hint of sourness. And to top it all off, a myriad of bitter and just bad-smelling scents. It smelled like someone took a fully stocked fridge, turned it off for a week, poured everything into a pot, cooked it, added all of the soap and cleaners in the house, and finally added some perfume, cologne, and air fresheners to make it smell better.
A wave of adrenaline coursed through his body, jump-starting all of his bodily processes. He leaped up from his lying position, trying to forcibly tear his nose off of his snout. When that inevitably did not work, he proceeded to forcibly upheave out his entire digestive system. Luckily for the people around him, there was nothing in there, and he only managed to dry gag.
He stumbled around in circles, dimly aware of the people surrounding him, and continued to try and purge the horrific scent from his body. This continued for an unknown time until he unwillingly became accustomed enough to the smell for him to not attempt to remove his internal organs from his body. The smell was still there and still incredibly unpleasant, but it had become bearable.
He looked up, and quickly scanned the room that he was currently in. During his little craze, all of the other people had scrambled to escape. Leaving him alone in an…examination room? It was a fairly large area, a little dim, but what surprised him was that everything was covered in metal plates. Save for a large glass window along one side of the wall.
It was definitely a containment chamber. He was not that scary, right? If the humans were that terrified of him, how could they have survived this long? The deer that had nearly killed him seemed to be pretty common in the woods. After all, the adults did bring back some venison quite frequently. If he was that much of a threat, then humanity would have never been able to thrive to the point where they could make massive metal containment chambers.
Suddenly, he remembered to check his side that he was heavily wounded on. There was so much to take in that he had kind of forgotten about it. He quickly glanced at his side and did a double-take. Where there should have been three long gashes across his side, there were now three pale scars. Almost as if they had healed years ago. He could not have been unconscious for that long, right? He did not believe that the humans would be able to feed him while he was unconscious, so how had it already healed?
A loud screeching noise shook him out of his thoughts. The door was opening, and it was a big door too. About two times as tall as the person walking in and four times as wide. A painfully loud noise of metal screeching on metal. As they opened, Lucas was able to see just how incredibly thick they were. One meter of stone, with at least half a meter of metal on each side. Then he saw the people pushing the doors open. Just two guys in some armor pushing some stupidly heavy doors for this short chubby person in a white coat.
Lucas was now beyond confused. The two people in metal armor made it seem like the Middle Ages, but he highly doubted that they would have the technology and resources to spare to build the room. There was no way that they could have opened the door either unless it was hollow. That had to be the actual reason. Unless they were also biogenetically altered androids with superhuman strength, but he did not think that that was the case.
Then the same putrid scent hit him again. It was not the room that smelled bad, it was the people that were in the room. The humans. He scampered into one of the furthest corners of the room. Trying to do anything to escape the smell. The men halted in their tracks and backed away, closing the door behind them and leaving.
For the second time in his life, Lucas found himself in a situation that he had no idea how he got there, what he was doing there, and what was going to happen to him. The lights were always on and always dim, making it permanently look like twilight. He would be fed a large serving of raw meat every day and a constant supply of water. But what was most unsettling was that there was always somebody watching him.
Around the clock, at least three people were observing what he did. If he walked around, they would count how many steps he took. If he slept, they would document how long he slept. And when he ate, they would document how many bites it took for him to finish his food. It was very unnerving.
Slowly, he acknowledged that they would not leave, and became a little bit used to their presence. Or at least as used to one could get when they could literally see them documenting everything that he did, which was not much. He got bored quickly. Very bored. There was nothing to do in a completely nondescript chamber. At least in the forest he could run around and enjoy the scenery, occasionally hunting something. Here, he could run around and enjoy the people watching him, occasionally sleeping.
Every so often, the short guy in the white coat would enter the chamber, Lucas would retreat into the farthest corner to avoid the smell, and he would leave again. This pattern repeated an unknown number of times. Until one day, someone else entered the chamber with the short man. Someone that he recognized, but not someone that he had seen.
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