The Neeros Family

Book 1: Dayna

By Dayna Marie Neeros

I’ve never had much use for clocks. I have an impeccable sense of time. My internal alarm clock is never wrong. I only need to tell myself “Dayna Marie, you drag your little tushie out of bed at 7:30 tomorrow morning” and sure enough, I’m up at 7:25, almost to the second. It’s just one of the many freaky things about me.

I rolled out of bed, as planned, at 6 a.m. I needed an early start today. As always I had so much to do, and I sometimes find it hard to focus. My mind moves at a zillion miles per hour, I swear. It’s hard to keep only one train of thought going at a time. First thing you should know, I’m a genius. I know, you’re probably all rolling your eyes and saying I have an ego problem. Well, ok I’ll give you that one. But it IS true that I’m a genius. I’ve never met another being that can outthink me. That’s not ego, it’s a fact.

 From as far back as I could remember, my mind just had this innate ability to understand how things work. I loved machines, from clocks to can openers, if it had gears I was constantly meddling with it. My parents used to get so mad at me when they’d walk in and I’d have the family grandfather clock disassembled in the living room. Mom had really let me have it for that one. I tried to explain to her that a simple reconfiguration of the gear system would keep the clock accurate to a tenth of a second, but she didn’t think a four year old had any business messing with such matters. Dad then laid into me even worse when he got home, because they were his tools I had been using to conduct this early experiment.

“Young lady, those are dangerous tools you have strewn about!” he had roared at me. “What if you had hurt yourself? Or your brother?” He had gestured to little Valentean, only one at the time, laughing at me from his playpen. He had a twisted sense of humor even then, the brat. I kid, I kid. I love my brother. We have an antagonistic relationship because he can’t accept that I’m smart and right, and he’s dumb and wrong. “It’s bad enough everything out there is trying to kill us,” he gestured out the window, “do we really need to invite chaos into our home!?”

He was right of course. I miss him so much, him and mom both. I’m sorry if I don’t elaborate more on that. Their deaths are a difficult subject for me to discuss. They were victims of this wretched world we live in, and the archaic kill or be killed social structure that allows people like us to be the most expendable of them all. You see, we aren’t humans like you. We’re neeras, and we live in a place called Felarya.

Felarya is one of the most mindless, dangerous, cut-throat environments in all of dimensional space. It’s a lawless jungle world where only strength matters. We neeras have a serious lack of physical strength. For starters we’re only two inches tall. We’re some of the smallest beings in all of Felarya, a world where EVERYTHING wants to eat you. The Felaryan name of the game is simply kill or be killed. All around us, massive predators hunt for anything smaller than themselves. At the top of the food chain are creatures as massive as mountains, who traverse the jungle, picking trees like flowers and devouring anything living they happen to find hiding within. They’re like gods, looking almost entirely human save for their incredible size. Descending down the ladder you have plant human hybrids the size of trees that trap prey that is foolish enough to wander near their roots with massive sticky tongues. Then you have Nagas. Their top halves are human, while from the waist down they are nothing but scales, slithering about on massive snake coils. They can be anywhere from human sized, to nearly 200 feet tall. Then we have the Nekos. I hate the Nekos. They look like you humans, except for the cat ears atop their heads and long furry tails that stick out behind them.

There are actually humans in Felarya as well. I don’t know how they arrived. Obviously some form of dimensional rift, allowing crossage into our realm. The poor fools. Humans are nearly defenseless and are relatively ignorant upon arriving as to the nature of this world. They’re picked off fairly quickly.

Then you have the tiny races. The fairies have magic to defend them. It’s rare for a predator to be able to catch a fairy. They’re supposed to be the most delicious tasting creatures in existence. Some humans have actually fallen victim to Felarya’s magic and have actually shrunken in size. They have the unfortunate honor of being able to look a Neera straight in the eye. They never last long. The Nekos go nuts for them, because they’re slow and easy to catch. But we Neeras are their real prize.

We look human enough, as much as any neko does. Our ears are round and are featured on top of our heads, like mice. Our long tails also resemble those of mice. We’re the official bottom of the food chain. I’ve heard tales that we have large scale communities somewhere, and there, Neeras live like the larger races, in houses close together where they have community and electricity. We’ve made marvels as a species in technology, and built machines to help our race overcome the issue of size. My family is not so lucky. You might say we are cursed.

The Neeros family is special. Somewhere down the line of our family tree, somebody mixed it up with a fairy. They had a Neera child, but that Neera held fairy blood within it. What that meant for the predatory races was that there was a Neera out there who tasted like a fairy. I’m sure you could imagine the stir this caused. Every pred in Felarya was immediately interested in finding him. Eventually, later in life, someone got him, but not before he married and had children of his own, who went on to have their own children. Nekos actually used to attack whole villages just to get at a Neeros family member, devouring everyone in their path. Eventually our family was exiled from every Neera colony for life. So we live alone, scrounging for a living. But they find us eventually. We were very young when mom and dad were taken. A Neko got them, of course. They’re bloody relentless.

That left me as head of a household. I was 13 and suddenly I had two mouths to feed. My brother, Val (the idiot I mentioned before) and our younger sister, Samantha.

Determined that they will not meet a typical Neeros fate, I dedicated my time and energy to furthering my knowledge of machinery. There was no magic that was going to protect us from what is out there. But there was science! I’ve spent the last ten years outfitting the hollow tree that we made our home, into a fortress. Any pred foolish enough to get too close to it gets a hurting before ever realizing there’s a Neeros in the vicinity. I’m very proud of what I’ve done to our home. I’ve provided a safe haven for my family, and I’m beyond happy about it.

Damn, where was I? See what I mean about trains of thought? Ah, yes! Waking up! Wow, I really didn’t get too far into this story without a tangent. Sorry!  Anywho, I rolled out of bed (with impeccable timing, sorry I’ll stop harping on that!) and stretched. I looked in the mirror across my bedroom and saw a blurry mess staring back at me. I fumbled about for a moment on my night stand before sliding my square spectacles onto my face. Now able to see my reflection, I sighed. My tangled mess of brown hair looked denser than the deepest Felaryan jungle. I sighed and began the arduous task of trying to untangle the various knots that had formed atop my head, some even covering my ears. Finally I stopped and sighed once more. This was a futile battle. I trudged along into my attached bathroom and disrobed, casting my nightshirt down onto the floor in a heap amongst about four days worth of similarly discarded articles of clothing.

I gingerly stepped into the shower and turned the nozzle. The complex underground pipe system I had installed at age 15 began pumping water through the filtration system from a nearby pond. This was by far my favorite invention. Before it, we had to bathe in the actual pond. Now, the water was pumped right into the tree, and it wasn’t scummy smelly pond water. It was pure and clean. Ah, science, I love you!

Anyway, I showered, fixed my hair as best I could, and donned my work boots and a dark blue, tight jumpsuit covered in various burns and grease stains. I then tied in the most important piece of my ensemble, my deep red gadget belt. On here, I keep everything from my tools to various defensive items that help me maintain my undigested state while out in the jungle. I walked through the hallway. Samantha was asleep in her room. It was still early for the 16 year old to be up and aware. Val’s room is empty. He must have gotten an early start today. He gathers various food items for us. I know I should be worried sending a silly 19 year old boy out into a jungle full of predators, but he’s actually pretty capable as far as combat goes. And the variety of technologically impressive weapons I’ve armed him with should make any Neko think twice before trying anything.

I walked through my vast workshop. It’s by far the largest room in the house. Various half completed machines laid strewn about the vast dome-shaped area. In the center of it all was my workbench, and as usual, it was a mess. Various spare parts and blue prints cluttered the table, making its surface invisible. I found what I was looking for quickly enough. The plans for my cheese-inator. I’m working on a machine that will take the goat’s milk Val barters from a local human farm, and turn it into sweet, wonderful, delicious, blessed, amazing, and phenomenal, awe inspiring CHEESE! (What do you want from me? I’m a mouse! I have one vice, get over it!) The farmers always wanted too much for their sub-par cheese. Val would barter various bits of ore for simple items like corn or milk, but for the cheese they would demand that I make repairs to their giant farm equipment or construct a new component to make various items in their house more efficient. The bastards understood my weakness for the stuff and knew they could get whatever they wanted from me in exchange for it. Well, I’m cutting the legs out from under them.

However I needed A LOT of ore and minerals to create the stabilizing center which would allow the pasteurization to accurately and efficiently….sorry, I’m boring you with tech. I needed stuff, ok? And to get it, I’d have to go out into the jungle. After a quick recount of the quantity I needed, I walked down the winding staircase to ground level, and walked out the door at the base. I made sure the massive heavy door swung shut behind me. I then made one final preparation. The same one I make every time I leave the safety of the tree, and I proceed out into the jungle.

Over the years I had gathered a lot of ore and minerals from the surrounding area. It was getting so that I had to venture further and further out into the dangerous areas away from the safety of the tree’s defenses.

I was about four miles (my scale) away from the tree when I began digging. It was a tedious affair, and my mind began to wander. While inside the tree everything was built to scale. It’s easy to feel safe in there when you have a bed and a dresser and chair that are your size. Out there, I was painfully reminded just how godforsaken TINY I am in this world. Blades of grass and simple flowers tower over me, while the trees seem to extend so far up they must touch the highest reaches of Felarya’s atmosphere. I was so busy musing about the philosophical complexities of my size compared to the vastness of the universe that I didn’t hear the attack until it was on me.

She was so stealthy, so quiet. I didn’t hear her until her massive bare feet impacted the soft ground on either side of me. Clearly she had sprung from the upper branches of some tree. Her landing shook the very ground I stood on and I faltered for only a minute. That minute was all my attacker needed to pinch my tail between two long delicate feminine fingers, which ended in dagger like claws. I was lifted high, high up into the air, my senses accosted by extreme vertigo at the rate of my rise. Then I came face to face with a creature I would remember forever.

She was….beautiful. I’m allowed to think that about a predator, right? Her skin was so pale it was almost a dazzling pure white. Along her arms and the side of her face were straight back stripes, like that of a tiger. Her hair was albino white, and cascaded down to her shoulder blades. Her pointed cat ears poked out from it, equally white. She wore a simple brown dress which came down to her mid thighs. Obviously this was used as some form of camouflage. She smirked at me playfully, and wagged her white tail when she spoke. Her voice was casual, conversational even.

“Well, what do we have here?” she asked. “A little Neera all alone?” I’d like to say I kept my composure. I had been in this situation a few times before. I had always handled myself and escaped, but it was this part that I hated, the part where they grab you. Some taunt, some don’t. Some just see you as a piece of food and shove you right into their mouths and start enjoying the taste. Others however enjoyed the power and fear they inspired in us. And in those first helpless moments, before I can regain my composure and remind myself that I am far from defenseless, there is nothing but blind, heart thumping PANIC. I flailed around in her grip, trying desperately to break the grip these digits of iron had on my tail. They were unmovable. My breathing came in shallow frantic gasps.

“No!” I yelled out in my frantic fright. “Leave me alone! Let me go!”

“Now why would I do that?” she cooed softly down to me. “I mean, a girl has got to eat doesn’t she? And you made it so easy for me.” She wasn’t wrong. In fact she was dead right. I had grown overconfident. It had been nearly two years ago that a predator had gotten this close. I ceased my frantic struggling and tried to calm my mind. Panic wasn’t going to help this phenomenal brain work its sweet science. She seemed to take my lack of struggling as a show of surrender.

“There we go,” she said, as if congratulating a small child. “You’re a smart one. You realize there’s no way for you to get away, and it’s better to just accept a quick death rather than draw this out.” She sat down against the tree, lounging as she dangled me in front of her face. “Now little Neera, what’s your name? I like to get to know my food before digging in, so to speak.” My mind was already working on about 30 different ways to get out of this. I needed a little more time to concentrate though, and thankfully she was giving me that opportunity. I would play along.

”Dayna,” I simply said, inviting another question to buy some more time.

“Dayna? That’s pretty. As pretty as you, my little treat. What’s your last name?” That wasn’t information I was going to give freely. The second she heard me say Neeros, she was likely to shove me in her mouth immediately. I shook my head.

“That’s all you’re getting from me,” I said, oozing with defiance. This one liked to talk. Let’s have a conversation.

“Oh? Is that so?” She seemed amused as she raised one white eyebrow and took in my defiance with those massive green eyes. “I’m not used to food being so mouthy with me.” She gripped my left leg with her free hand and let go of her other’s grip on me. I was violently flung upside down, and cried out involuntarily as I swung back and forth like a pendulum. “Do your final moments really need to be so difficult for you?” That’s it, keep talking, girl. “This could have been fun.”

“Oh yes,” I said sarcastically. “We could have become the best of friends! I could braid your hair and play jump rope with it. Or I could paint your giant toenails and talk about boys! OR YOU COULD JUST EAT ME!” She looked surprised at my outburst.

“Such anger,” she replied. “Sounds like you’re going to upset my stomach. But that’s a chance I’ll have to take. I’m Kat by the way. Kat Ambrose.” I froze, and went wide eyed. I had heard that name before. Val had heard of it from the various other Neeras and tiny humans he encountered. Kat Ambrose was the most feared predator in all of Felarya. So renowned was her hunting ability that it was said she could vanish into thin air at a moment’s notice and the next time you saw her, you’d be inside her mouth, on the way down. Suddenly I wasn’t so angry at myself for falling victim to a foe like this.

“Kat, huh?” I said, keeping this charade conversation going. The blood was rushing to my head and I felt dizzy. “Creative name. If only my parents had named me mouse.” She kept the amused look in her eye but I was sensing a little annoyance. She dropped me into the palm of her free hand where, before I could reorient myself she pinned me under a massive thumb.

“Maybe your parents should have named you Snack,” she snapped back. “Then you could’ve grown up accepting that this was how your life was always destined to end.” I was beginning to get an idea of how to take her down, but I couldn’t do it from here. I needed to put myself right in a vulnerable area. I stopped talking. “All done with the quips?” she asked. “Ready to get started?” I shook a little as the hand moved toward her lips. I held in the gasp that wanted to escape when she opened up her enormous mouth to reveal the cavern that lay within. Beyond the pinpoint fangs before me was a slithering pink tongue that danced about, seemingly desperate for my arrival. I could see she was salivating at the idea of placing me inside. She moved me tantalizingly slow toward the great mouth and poked her tongue out through her lips, starting at my legs and traveling way up my entire body, coating me in a hot sticky slew of thick goopy saliva. I winced in disgust. Then, the inevitable happened when her taste buds picked up on my unmistakable flavor. I heard her gasp, and suddenly the hand jerked away from her face. She stared at me wide eyed, breathing in ragged gasps.

“You’re….oh my….I…I’ve never…delicious!” With the zeal of a starving being she came back in for another taste, dragging the tongue over me again, fiercely pressing my into the soft flesh of her palm. I heard her grunt in delight as she licked again and again. She pulled me away again and I gasped in gulping breaths of fresh air. I had held my breath through the entire ordeal. “What…..ARE you!?”

“My name is Dayna NEEROS!” I yelled up at her. Realization crossed her face, followed immediately by unbridled joy. And when I say joy I mean pure frigging RAPTURE! I’ve never seen a smile that big before, or since.

“Neeros!? Really!? All my life I’ve dreamed of finding a Neeros! Oh, this is incredible! How can anything taste as amazingly wonderful as you?”

“You have no idea how happy I am for you,” I said, dryly, still gasping for my lost breath. In her zeal she was pressing down on me harder with her thumb, pushing the air out of my lungs.

“Listen…Dayna…I would LOVE to draw this out more but…I’m sorry I just….I can’t!” And with that she tossed me inside her mouth. I landed with a splat on her tongue, the saliva pooling about as my taste filled her. She began to swish me around in a terrifying swirling dance of helplessness on my part. She pressed me into the roof of her mouth and I felt her draw upon my body succulently, desperate to taste me for as long as possible. Then she released me and I crashed back down onto her tongue. There was room to move again. Finally.

I reached into my gadget belt and pulled out a small foot long (to me) blade with a wooden handle. The blade was super thin and more resembled a needle. But the best part about it unveiled itself when I pressed a small button on the side and it sparked with blue electricity. With the shock stick sparkling like a mini sun I was able to view the terrifying interior of Kat’s mouth. The saliva stretched from the tongue to the roof like melting stalactites. I took the shock stick and jammed it roughly into the roof of her mouth. The reaction was instant. Her entire body jerked around me as she spit me out onto the jungle ground. I landed with a wet splat as she flailed about on her stomach.

“DAMMIT!” I heard her yell. I was impressed. A shot from my shock stick usually rendered a Neko nearly unconscious. She seemed hurt but not nearly enough. “What in the world!?” She clutched at her mouth, which was still smoking. I had suffered only minor scraped and burns. Luckily her saliva cooled any sparks that came in contact with me. I picked myself up and tried to run. My progress was halted when I felt something heavy smack me from above. She had slammed her hand down on me. “Oh no you don’t! I don’t know how you did that, but you ARE going to be my dinner, Dayna.” I struggled as she dug her fingers into the ground. I couldn’t reach my belt and she began dragging me back toward her face.

“How rude of you, Kat,” I replied, my voice rough with struggle. “You’ve tasted me. Now it’s my turn.” I sank my teeth into her finger and I heard her yelp in pain. The hand lifted for an instant and I scrambled up and ran. I felt the displacement of air as she slammed her palm back down a second later in the space where I had been. I ran for all I was worth. Neeras are especially fast and hard to catch once in motion. Ordinarily this would be over, but I was dealing with the most proficient Neera hunter in the entire world. I heard the loud thundering of her footsteps as she chased after me. She caught up to my location easily enough. One of her steps was equal to about one hundred of mine. But she couldn’t get her hands on me as I scrambled to and fro. Eventually she stopped trying to grab at me with her hands and resorted to using her feet. She stomped down roughly, trying to trap me under a massive bare sole, but I was not making it easy for her.

It was the chase of my life. If I stayed in one space for more than half a second, her foot would crash down on me, so I had to keep constant movements going. After nearly ten full minutes of this I saw my tree approaching in the distance. She was on my turf now and I knew just the path we were going to take.

I ran full speed in a straight line at the tree. I knew she would chase right behind me. I jumped up over a nearly invisible trip wire I had planted. Kat of course could not see it at all, and the powerful rope caught her toes and she tumbled forward onto her face. I heard her scream in frustration as her massive form impacting like a meteorite threw me forward. I landed at the base of my tree. Exactly where I needed to be. I reached behind one thick root and found a small lever. As Kat began to rise onto her hands and knees, I pulled it. I shank of wood flew forward from the tree bark, just as her face came level with it. The wood plank smashed her directly in the face and sent my would-be executioner sprawling backwards in a spray of blood from what I could only assume was a broken nose.

I bolted for the door, thinking that the encounter was over and hoping Samantha was still asleep. She wouldn’t be stupid enough to come out here. I hoped Val had returned home already. If he showed up it would have been a disaster. I was astounded however when Kat’s giant foot rushed forward and pressed itself against the door at the base of the tree, sealing it behind the delicate foot flesh. He massive toes pressed into the bark of the tree so hard, it was as if she was trying to push the whole tree over. Her other foot barreled down on me, slamming me into the ground. I was sure something in my right leg had snapped as she pressed me into the dirt. I could see Kat as she stood back up, through a gap between her toes. Her nose was absolutely gushing blood. She glared down at me with hatred and desire. Her toes gripped me and roughly lifted me up to her waiting hand. She looked triumphant. With one massive claw she cut my gadget belt off my waist. I stared down at it as it slowly floated away. I was disarmed.

“I’ve never had to work this hard….for a meal,” she said, spitting some blood from her mouth. “But I have you now, little Dayna. I always get my meal. ALWAYS.”

“Not today,” I spat back. “You’ll never have me.”

“I already have you!” she spat back at me before popping me back in the now familiar confines of her mouth. She was wasting no time, obviously afraid I had something else up my sleeve. She maneuvered me to the back of her throat, and started to tilt her head back. I gritted my teeth and reached to my waist, where I put into motion my final preparation. The one I always take before leaving the tree. I unclipped a small rope, like the trip wire it was nearly invisible to one Kat’s size. It had been connected to me the entire time. My life line. And if it was unhooked, then the final failsafe would begin. And I had lured her right into its path.

It happened in an instant. Without being attached to me, the rope snapped back, flying out of Kat’s mouth like a strand of spaghetti moving in reverse. I could tell she felt it because her head suddenly straightened. I could hear the sound of gears turning in the tree. And while I couldn’t see it, I knew a secret compartment just above Kat’s head was opening, and a massive wooden mallet was swinging down on a hinge right at her.

The mallet must have hit her right atop the head, because I felt the impact all around me. She immediately crashed to the ground and lay still. I weakly crawled my way out of her mouth and onto the ground. I saw the tree door swing open and Val ran out to me. He must have been watching the entire ordeal. Without a word he came to me, and picked me up in his strong arms, cradling me like a baby as he sprinted with me back to our home. I looked behind me and saw Kat lying prone. The blow was meant to kill her but I could see she was beginning to stir. I was shocked. This was no ordinary Neko. This was an apex predator, a machine of death. This was pure insanity.

She was not fast enough however as Val rushed me inside, the door swinging shut behind us. No words were needed as he carried me up the winding staircase to my workshop.

“Put me over by the window,” I said weakly.

“I’m taking you to bed, you psychopath,” he replied.

“Valentean!” I snapped, trying to sound like mom.

“Ok, Ok,” he replied. I saw Samantha run into the room, blonde hair all askew in her hurry. She had obviously been crying. Of the three of us, she was the only one who had never encountered a predator. Val had actually killed a Neko once! But that’s a story I’ll let him tell. He placed me down in my chair and I looked out the window. Kat was back on her feet and was desperately pressing against the tree, trying to find a way in. I reached over to a large amplification tube and spoke into it. The various tubes would send my voice out, amplified one hundred times, through various knots in the tree’s surface.

“Leave, Kat,” I said. “It’s over!”

“No!” she shouted back, obviously so desperate for my taste. I guess I should’ve felt honored.

“You’re beaten. You should be grateful to be alive!”

“You’re my dinner!” She screamed out in fury, banging a fist on the tree which made the three of us rock back a bit. “You’re destined to be my dinner, Dayna!”

“You have one last chance,” I said. “You’ve experienced two traps out here. I have 73 more. 25 of them WILL kill you.” She hesitated, obviously trying to see if I was bluffing. I wasn’t, and she knew it. She glared at the tree, not knowing where my workshop window was. It was not visible from outside.

She pressed one claw into the bark of the tree and dragged it slowly in a deliberate diagonal slash.

“Take a good look at that, tasty!” she cried up into the air. “That slash is my promise to you! You WILL be mine! You will be in my stomach and I will enjoy a meal that only a handful of Nekos before me have ever sampled. I’m going to eat you. Whole, and alive. You’re going to fight in my stomach until you dissolve. Then your yummy goodness will be a part of me forever. I promise you that!”

With that, the apex predator of Felarya turned on her dainty heel and vanished back into the jungle. I collapsed back into my chair. I had done it. I survived. But this thing between Kat Ambrose and myself was far from over, I could tell. The slash in my tree screamed out to me that this was only the first battle in a much larger war for my very existence. I looked up at my little brother and sister. War always had casualties. I promised myself they would not get swept up in this. But, as Val will explain to you, that was a promise I just couldn’t keep.

*End of Book 1*