Chapter 23: Shiny Meat

Anna held a slimy, one-pound, blue organ in her hands, but neither Jimmy or Nechi understood what she meant, or what the organ was.

Noticing their confusion, she then explained, “I’ve dissected bugs before, millipedes included. I did it with eyebrow pluckers. Granted they were much smaller than this big boy, I still know what organs to expect out of bugs. This organ isn’t supposed to be in the millipede.”

“You mean the log bug?” Nechi asked.

“Yes, but I call them millipedes.” Anna said, and she didn’t want to confuse her sister, but she couldn’t hold her excitement in. “Do you know what this means, guys? This organ holds no function in its anatomy, it has to be where its magic came from! This bug had magical powers!”

Jimmy wanted to agree with her, but it was difficult to trust a woman with bug juice on her. He assumed that her ’findings’ were wishful thinking at best.

So he pointed it out, as gently as he could, “Are you sure? The bug is from a different time, technically, so maybe it had some organs that we didn’t know about? Just because we don’t know why it’s there, it doesn’t mean that it’s magical.”

“I thought of that,” She nodded like a parrot, “Watch this.”

Afterwards, she poked the blue organ with the tip of her spear, very gently. The organ reacted.

It flashed a blue light of sorts. At first the light was faint, but when she poked it again, the light shone like a star, blinding the three of them for a short moment.

“Jesus…” Jimmy rubbed his eyelids. “I gotta admit, that does look unusual.”

“Unusual? It’s a new discovery!” She exclaimed. “Organs aren’t supposed to emit light when poked.”

Nechi had been hearing them talk, mostly because she didn’t have anything to add, and the topic flew beyond her head a little bit. But then she started to worry about her sister, because her excitement, in Nechi’s eyes, was leaning towards the manic side.

“What do you mean, sister? That’s Shiny Meat, plenty of animals have it.” She pointed out. “Have you hit your head as well? Don’t you remember throwing Shiny Meat down the mountain? You’ve done it plenty of times, to see how far you can toss them.”

’Shit! Is this common information?!’ She panicked internally. ’Did I just suck Jimmy’s dick for nothing? They’re never gonna let me live this down.’

She was panicking, but she didn’t let that show, and contained herself. Though, she couldn’t hide her change of tone, as her enthusiasm quickly plummeted.

“I remember that, kinda.” She said, lying through her teeth. “But that’s not important right now. Remind me, Nechi, does this Shiny Meat have anything to do with magic?”

“Yes,” Nechi nodded. “The log bugs have magic, but it’s pretty useless. They use it to poison the air with their mouths, but that poison only works on small animals, not us.”

This was when Anna’s smile widened again. She pieced the puzzle together in a flash, and figured out why these giant bugs were here!

“That’s not poison!” She exclaimed, with a twinkle in her eye, and then looked at Jimmy. “I don’t know how it works, but they’re probably sucking air in, purified air, to support their bodies with oxygen! So I was actually wrong, this organ is essential to its anatomy. It explains why they’re so big!”

“Oxygen? Anatomy?” Nechi parroted. “You’re not well, sister. These words sound gibberish. Please tell me, have you hit your head as well?”

Anna then looked at Jimmy, and saw him nod slowly. He wanted to make her life easier.

“Yes, I hit my head, I can’t remember much, but that doesn’t matter right now.” She sighed. “I figured out why the bugs still live here, and why they’re so big.”

Nechi partially understood what her sister was talking about, but not enough to understand the hype. She was just hoping that her sister was okay, but then she got a theory of her own.

For that matter, she started teasing her sister, “Was this some kind of trick to play with Jimmy? You could’ve just asked, you know, and I could’ve helped you get excused from the hunt.”

Jimmy tried to hold his laugh in, so he avoided eye contact, and looked at the bug, as if he was trying to study it. It goes without saying that he didn’t even care to touch the dead bug again, but he didn’t want to get himself in trouble.

Anna knew that she had no way to defend herself at this point. Her curiosity has dug her into a hole that she couldn’t get out of with excuses, or even pure logic. Her sister wouldn’t understand.

For that matter, she swallowed her pride, got closer, and whispered, “Why did you say that? You’re my older sister, and you’re supposed to cover up my shame, and my secrets, not expose them.”

Realistically she hadn’t planned to get intimate with Jimmy for a long time, but she couldn’t think of another excuse that would make her seem less crazy. She didn’t want to be seen as the pitiful, crazy young lady, even in this era, so she improvised.

“Nonsense!” Nechi exclaimed. “We still have time if you want to play with him some more.”

Jimmy was hiding behind the dead millipede at this point. He was fighting the battle of his life, trying to hold his laugh in, and he was losing. He knew why Anna had dissected this bug, he knew she did it out of a scientific standpoint, but when he heard Nechi describe her as a shy pervert, essentially, he had to physically hide in order to hide his amusement.

Anna spent a while convincing Nechi that she wasn’t looking to have any more sex today, which was a funny conversation, but she did eventually convince Nechi to drop the topic. She also tried to explain insect anatomy to her, in cavemen language, which was even funnier.

With half of the explanations going over her head, Nechi then shook her head, and said, “Okay, new rule. A rule between sisters. Shiny Meat is our secret word now. You’re a shy girl, more shy than I remember? Doesn’t matter. But, the next time you wanna have fun with Jimmy, and you’re too embarrassed to talk about it, just say Shiny Meat, and I will do what I can. Without teasing you, of course, just please stop talking about bug guts.”

In the meantime, Jimmy almost passed out because he held so much air in as he tried not to laugh. This got him into further trouble.

Since he had hid behind the bug, he was essentially closer to the river, which in these times was a death wish. The river, or bodies of water in general, were known to house the most dangerous creatures in this era!

At some point, he noticed a pair of eyes in the water, and they were looking right at him. He was being stalked.

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