If I were to give a detailed account of my experiences from that point on, it could take a lifetime. In fact, describing a life lived in a monster's body with a human brain in that experimental area could take even longer due to its complexity. That's why I prefer to give a superficial account of what I went through and leave the details to your imagination.
On the first day I was relentlessly abandoned in this realm, I followed a signal that was constantly being sent to me, accompanied by a headache. As I followed this signal through the forest, I encountered a lot of dangers. The nature of this habitat was specifically designed to turn Dermovoxes into weapons, so death was lurking everywhere in the forest. There were huge tiger-like creatures called Cavers, whose saliva was a deadly poison... There were small, dragon-like, acidic creatures called Kurgs that constantly threw sharp rocks from the sky and horribly tore apart their split-headed prey... Yes, they spewed acids from their mouths that could burn a Dermovox's hide. I had witnessed them melting stones in seconds with that acid. You should know what other creatures were there. There were three-headed snakes whose existence I couldn't understand, spiders that split when cut, thorny wild boars, and bulls with sledgehammer tails... There were so many dangerous creatures in this artificial nature that my arrival at the tribe was either pure luck or I was being protected by someone.
However, on that night, I, who hadn't even gotten used to the Dermovox body yet, could have been torn to pieces and killed in seconds by stepping on a dry branch and making a sound at an unfortunate moment in that forest.
The signals were coming from a Dermovox tribe. They had been sent to call the surrounding tribal Dermovoxes before nightfall. The signal from this tribe, which consisted of hundreds of individuals, had come from about a 2-hour walking distance.
I received neither a warm welcome nor any helping hand in the tribe. The tribesmen called me an "untagged" and at first, they wouldn't even let me inside the tribe's boundaries. In their camps, where no fire was lit, they slept safely in their tents surrounded by wooden fences, and it seemed strange to me that they didn't light a fire. A simple fire could keep creatures away instead of all that defense system around the tribe. Then, I remembered what Doctor Lara had said about them. They were afraid of fire.
Not only did the tribesmen not take me in, but they also wanted to use me as a defense mechanism for the tribe. I would be left outside, and when an attack occurred, I would be the first to be eaten and would signal the attack to the tribe. I would work like an alarm, helping the tribe's guardians with their observations. That's why they tied me to a tree with a rope woven from incredibly tough hide. The way they tied me couldn't be simple because a Dermovox could easily uproot a tree. They tied me in such a position that I couldn't use the muscles in my body to move the tree. Because whenever I tried to lift the tree with my back, my hands would pull on my legs, and I would be in pain with my already inflexible body. This warrior race, being incredibly strong, had also had to learn about their own physiology.
I mentioned that I was untagged, didn't I? The tags actually worked in the following way. There were three types of tags. If I were to translate each of them into words a human could understand, I could call the first of these tags "Ega," the second "Buh," and the third "Azt."
Every tribe had to carry this three-tag system. In a way, it was one of the war laws between the tribes. These tags were fatally important for a warrior alien race. The Dermovoxes called themselves "Veg," which means "Warriors," so from now on, I will use the word Veg instead of Dermovox.
A Veg was born near winter, and considering the Vegs' 4-month birth cycle, births were specifically timed so that the baby would be born in winter. If a baby couldn't survive the winter, which was mostly colder and had more famine than expected, it meant that the tribe was not in a state to care for the baby and that the baby was not strong enough to live. This may sound very cruel to you, but if you saw the life they lived, you might be forced to agree. These were a warrior, primitive alien race. It would not be right to judge them with our ethical values. At least for the duration of my stay in that tribe, I had to remind myself of this.
The only thing the Vegs felt and knew was respect. They had respect for the strong, the righteous, and the useful. This race was so bound by respect that even if another Veg they respected came and took them by force, they wouldn't make a sound. Respect was everything.
Dermovoxes had no genders, unlike humans. It was already very difficult for a Veg to give birth. I mentioned that the entire bodies of the Vegs were covered in armor, didn't I? They had no unarmored areas anywhere except for the holes they used to relieve themselves and their eye sockets. Therefore, if a Veg's stomach swelled, the armored skin could begin to tear its flesh, which could easily lead to a Veg's death.
So you'll ask how Vegs gave birth, right? The scaled skin of the Vegs did not harden into armor until a certain age. That's why Vegs gave birth as much as they could while they were below a certain age. This age, old enough to give birth, was determined by the hardness of the skin between the two breasts. Everything was done to ensure a Veg of this age could give birth.
Now you might think that every mature Veg gave birth at some point in their youth. Actually, that's not exactly the case. First, their tribal structure couldn't feed such a population increase. Second, the habitat they lived in was incredibly full of dangers, and they found themselves in a huge struggle almost every day; therefore, they needed warrior Vegs more than Vegs who would stay in tents and caves to give birth. Even if they were children, and Veg children could grow very fast and reach up to 2 meters, everyone who could hold a weapon should fight.
This is where the tags become meaningful. The tags are the biggest foundation that creates the social roles of the Vegs and keeps the entire tribe on its feet.
The tag Ega meant the weak, the deficient, the one who needed to be looked after. The birth period for a Veg lasted about 4 months, and in each birth, they gave birth to about 10 babies, the size of a puppy, a mixture of a shell-less turtle and a human. The problem was that for 2 months of this 4-month birth process, any Veg could not move easily due to the pain they were experiencing. They would be, so to speak, dysfunctional. The Vegs also did not want to lose their warriors, so they chose the Vegs who would give birth very carefully.
If a Veg baby could survive the cold, but had a disability during or after birth, or if it had a major illness; if it would not be of much help to the Veg Tribe in war, it would be marked with the Ega tag.
Ega was actually a tag given to Vegs who were useless in war. If the Egas wanted to continue living after giving birth, their front skin would be shaved off before it hardened, and they could continue to live in the tribe until their fertility passed. If an Ega lost its fertility, it was killed. It may seem very brutal, but a Veg losing its fertility took up 3/4 of a normal Veg's life, and that's why most Egas didn't complain about being killed.
An old and disabled Veg would mostly be left behind and die during migration. They couldn't live very long. You might ask why an Ega wouldn't want to give birth more by getting their skin shaved off and would want to be killed early, which is a very valid question. I've never seen such a thing happen anyway. It's like an unimportant choice left to the Egas...
Buhs were simple Vegs. Warrior, simple Vegs from whom the tribe's leader came... Most of them died while fighting at a young age. Don't think for a second that they were arrogant towards the Egas because they were stronger; Egas respected Buhs, and Buhs respected Egas, but there was one tag that was respected, and that tag was Azt.
You may recall Lara said that the communication of Demovoxes, or Vegs, was established through telepathic signals. There was no mouth movement, no developed vocal cords, only signals sent like a radio.
This was a must for a race created as an army. It was the biggest factor that would provide their communication resources, but there was one problem. These signals could sometimes overlap, cancel each other out, and become even more confusing. The signal of a Veg who was given the command to fire could get mixed up with the signal of a Veg who was given the command to retreat.
There were Vegs who could receive signals and communicate from incredibly long distances, and who could control and direct signals, and these were called the Azt-tagged ones. These Vegs were also born with two horns that extended like signal antennas on their heads. Let me tell you about the distance from which they could receive a signal; when an Azt in our tribe received a signal, it took us about a week to get to the signal. You can imagine...
But it was a very low probability for these tagged ones called Azt to be born, and even if they survived after being born, it was difficult for them to reach a consciousness that could control the signals. That's why if an Ega succeeded in giving birth to and raising an Azt, they would become sacred and untouchable.
I'm aware that you're wondering why all this information was told to me. But without telling all this, how can I briefly tell you my life?
When I first arrived at this tribe, I was asked my name. When I said "Mehmet...", they laughed. They gave me the name "Rotten-armed" in terms you would understand, and they called me "Rotten" for short. The reason for this was that even though I had three arms, I couldn't use my second right arm, and it was constantly hanging down. My human brain couldn't even attempt to lift it.
Since the movements of my human brain were also human, there were even some who called me "The Mad Rotten." The way I sat and stood was different; I tried to make expressions and I was in agony because of the scales on my face. I was careful not to get dirty in a human way, and when I saw violence, I couldn't help but narrow my eyes. For a warrior alien race, it was incredibly surprising to have a Veg that flinched at the sight of violence.
While I should have been tagged with an Ega tag, I wasn't tagged with any tag despite my disability, which scared the tribe, so I was not taken into that tribe. I was left chained to a tree outside in the cold to be torn apart by the wild creatures that came at night. For them, I would be a bait that would signal the attack of the night creatures.
Normally, the creatures that attacked every night did not attack on the nights I was left outside. It was obvious that all this was not a coincidence but the work of a god. And this god could be no one other than Lara, who was watching me from the windows above. She wanted me to play the game she had put me into, not to die. But I was lying there, accepting death, thinking I would wake up from a dream.
The tribe's chief was a 3-meter tall Buh with a claw mark on his face, two gigantic swords on his shoulder, and two short daggers on his waist, and he had only one eye. They called him Grigöz. One day, when I was about to die of hunger, Grigöz came to the tree where they had chained me and brought me food. He said that I was protected by the Fire God Fuag because I had not been eaten in the forest for three days. While all this was entering my mind through signals, I was also thinking about Lara. And how she had instilled the fear of fire in them... Their god was the fire god, and his name was Fuag. Its meaning was "waiting for his prophet."
Grigöz had an offer. If I accepted to be tagged as an Ega and gave birth to children for them, the tribe could accept me.
"It will be very difficult for you..." Grigöz had said. "...you're an adult now. The hardened skin will have to be peeled off. You might die... Then you'll have to wait for it to heal in the spring. Spring is the season of sickness. You might die... Then you'll get pregnant. You might die... Maybe you won't be able to get pregnant... You could be killed... Even if you do get pregnant, your offspring might die... Because of this, you could be killed..."
Grigöz had spoken very sincerely, hadn't he? I couldn't help but laugh at that moment. I didn't know if I should have told him to his face that I was once a human who traveled in a spaceship with an assistant and spit on him. I had turned from a human who hung out with robots in space to a tribal creature. A journey from the peak of technology to the bottom... A journey to the bottom of civilization... I couldn't make sense of life being so chaotic.
I was hungry... I hadn't eaten anything for days. The tribe would migrate in a few days, and I didn't know where they were migrating. An untagged Veg meant nothing. I couldn't see any other option but to accept. I would either not accept and die, which couldn't be called a bad choice, or I would play the game Lara had put on me. I looked at the sky, and Grigöz looked with me. I opened my mouth and screamed, "I'll play your game! And then I'll come and find you!" At least I tried to scream. I had managed to make a strange sound that a race with no developed vocal cords could make. Grigöz had also looked at me strangely.
I don't want to talk in detail about how the hardened skin on my stomach was peeled off with a special knife technique, the blood I shed, and the state I fell into. Or how I followed them with these wounds while the tribe migrated towards the caves to escape the cold, or how I survived the sickly spring, how I was saved from my deathbed... The total of all the pain I had suffered since my existence was multiplied infinitely in just two months. My skin was peeled off, and I had to make a journey full of suffering with an illness that made me spit blood. When we arrived at the cave, Grigöz and his warriors had cleared the caves of pests and creatures that had made it their home. Now, it was time for pregnancy and birth.
My body hadn't fully healed. I was still in the clutches of a deadly illness, but it was clear that the tribe didn't want to take care of a disabled, useless Veg, an Ega who had not yet fulfilled her duty. One day, Grigöz, with his warriors, came to my cave and said, "The time has come for you to choose." and put his weapon on the ground. "Death or a child?"
I didn't know if Grigöz coming for a child himself should honor me or frighten me, but Grigöz had not hesitated to help me during the journey. The mating ceremony of the Vegs was very strange. There was a strange gland above their excretory organs. Like a sponge gland... This gland seemed to be connected to an organ inside my body.
With the gland that would give birth, it would take the fluid flowing from the other Vegs' bodies; it would collect it in its womb. When the fluid reached a certain level, the gland would go inside; it would carry the fluids to the womb, and the things inside that fluid would begin to be fertilized. Then... Then what? What's next? What am I even talking about here! I've gone completely crazy! Now that I think about it, as a male human trapped in a Veg body, I don't want to give too many details. Maybe I'll tell you in detail another time, but I don't think anyone would want that. I won't tell you how I got pregnant either. Anyway, those who are curious can guess. You can also guess by looking at humans in primitive times.
Anyway... we are at the point where we need to move the story forward. Well... what were we saying? Right... as a Veg, I had managed to get pregnant, but pregnancy was not the most important thing; it was giving birth. I had managed to give birth around the time winter was approaching. I had worried, thinking that as a human in a Veg body, I wouldn't be able to give birth. Then I realized two things. First, the body was giving birth on its own, and there was nothing for me to do, and second, the other Egas who had given birth were also helping psychologically.
The first baby was stillborn. The second baby was stillborn. The third baby was stillborn. Four dead. Five dead. As the babies came out dead one by one, the people in the tribe couldn't hide their sadness. The reason for their sadness was not that the babies were stillborn; it was that the fluid in the glands of the Vegs in the tribe had been wasted, and food had been given to an outsider Ega like me for nothing. Sixth baby dead... Grigöz returned to his tribe and began to speak.
"Yes... Rotten is an Ega that must be killed. Before we kill him..."
As the seventh baby came out of my stomach, everyone was frozen in astonishment. While the eyes of all the Vegs widened, Grigöz followed the surprised eyes and looked at the baby being held in the arms. This baby would be the one to save my life. It was an Azt. It had saved my life with its small horns.