"DUNG!" Sleestak shouted, scrambling away from the edge. What was one even doing away from the village this late in the day? He'd been so careful all this time, too. He took the slate and threw it at the ground, shattering it ob the plateau top. Would they be able to get in? He hidden the door, but humans where remarkably persistent when it came to something encroaching on their territory.
Nothing to do about it, he would have to take everything important and bug out for a bit, at least until he was sure they'd lost interest in this mountain. He ran over to the elevator and stamped on it. It quickly dropped out of sight, the doors closing behind it. The plateau looked for all the worlds like an ordinary mountaintop.
The elevator landed hard, like it always did, with a mighty crash. The good doctor didn't even give a moments thought to it. He picked himself up and ran to and fro about the lab. He would need to take only the essentials. He ran past the gallery of failed inventions (a flying machine in the shape of a pterodactyl, his autonomous wooden defense machine/assistant, his "ghost army" of straw dolls done up to look like humans) he found his large safari back and threw it on. He ran to his work table, throwing a hodgepodge of tools and crystals into it. He then went over to the food storage, close to where he'd built his little bed of grasses and leaves. He wouldn't be able to take much from his revolutionary icebox, it would spoil before he got the chance to eat it. But the dried emergency meat in the cabinet above it would keep him fed for a while. Into the pack it went, along with a nice dinosaur shank wrapped in leaves for a good supper his first night.
He'd of course need to defend himself out there, and so opened up the meager armory. The dung bombs were secured in a bandoleer he wrapped around himself, though he mentally kicked himself for slacking off on their creation. He only had about half as many as he needed.
Then there was his pride and joy.
He reached out and delicately picked up the wooden frame of his Crystal Rifle Version 6.8. The crystal was secured at the back end of the barrel, and he could see the shine of the beam it gave off even in the dim torchlight. The only thing stopping it from shooting was an obsidian disk secured at the end, which had four holes bored through it around its circumference. He brought the rifle around, aiming through the sights at one of the torches in the back of the room. He pulled the trigger and the obsidian dick spun so the hole aligned with the beam. Instantly the beam was free, burning through the torch and causing it to fall to the stone floor. The obsidian spun again as he removed his finger from the trigger, cutting the beam off once more as Sleestak nodded in satisfaction. That had been with the poor quality of crystal you got around here. He shuttered to think what it could be capable of with a truly high quality stone.
He looked back at the previous versions hanging in the armory. If the humans did find a way in they could certainly cause some damage with those. Probably to themselves, mind, but that didn't stop him from pulling the crystal from each of them and slipping them into his other bandoleer.
He looked forlornly at the slates he had set up neatly on a series of shelves in the back of the room. They would probably be safe. There was no way the humans would understand their significance. Besides, the research was all in his head. He could set that back in stone whenever he wanted. Satisfied, or as satisfied as he was going to be, he walked to one of the exterior walls and pushed. The wall, a clever facade wade of wood and dried mud, went up.
He found Darwin there, staring at him.
"Well this is a real pickle you've gotten us into Darwin." He said to his assistant. "Yes, you've really Darwined the situation up this time." The Nu gave no response, so Sleestak pushed him into the cave. "If the humans get in pretend only you live here. They might just thing that other guy is an idiot. I'm going to the bug out shelter on Mystic Mountain. Do not keep the torches lit all night or we're going to have to get more peat and you know how much I hate that. You may have anything in the icebox except the ribs. Those are mine. Don't stay up too late. Do not play with the defense machine."
The Nu continued to stare blackly forward. Sleestak looked all around to make sure absolutely no one was watching, then patted the creature on the head a few times. Then he jumped up and slammed the wall shut. After making sure it was good and closed and there were no suspicions seems he turned around and set off toward Mystic Mountain.
