The next shock I received luckily didn’t come from any vision or monster. Instead, it came from a giant ball of light that rose from a distant dune. The night had been pleasantly cool, with the wind creating refreshing gusts that felt nice across my skin.
It also nicely contrasted the warmth of the sand, a weird fact that I didn’t really think about. How was the sand warm? Well, now I had my answer. Once the light appeared, the world quickly began to heat up, which was delightful at first. At least until the temperature crossed a boundary. I panted as I took another step, having to squint my eyes at the blistering heat. Traveling during the day wasn’t fun, even if it gave me a new perspective on the world around me.
But since there wasn’t anything else I could do, I continued walking. Hopefully, I would soon meet somebody. The possibility that I was the only living being in the world was unlikely and with nothing to distract me, it was getting a bit lonely. Worrying over questions I couldn’t answer wasn’t very fun or productive, so I moved on.
The next change occurred when the light disk was about to set. It had gotten colder again and I was in my running phase, mindlessly plodding along. I almost missed the white spot in the corner of my eye, but the way it interrupted the monotone yellow made me pause. What was that? My excitement for something new almost broke the sense of caution I had developed after the hole-monster. Yes, that was now its official name. But that colour reminded me too much of that creature so I contained my excitement.
I slowly advanced, ready to run at any sign of trouble. My life was too short to end now. When I crested the final dune separating me from my target, I gasped. Before me stood another living being! The creature went up to my knees and sported six short legs with a white carapace that covered its entire body. The antennas on its head twitched as I approached and it turned around to face me.
Soulless black eyes stared up at me. It had two large mandibles that clanged together as I got closer. I crouched down and reached out with my claw. “Hello, it's nice to meet you! Could you tell me where I am?” Instead of answering the creature scuttled over and grabbed my outstretched claw with its mandibles. How nice, it was shaking my hand! From my weird well of knowledge, I knew that that was the equivalent of saying hello. Maybe this creature couldn’t talk and was trying to communicate through gestures.
“Yes, it's also nice to meet you!” I enthusiastically responded to what I thought it was saying. “I am new to this whole living thing and just trying to find interesting stuff. It is a relief to see that I am not the only one around. Can you believe that the first creature I met tried to kill me? Unbelievable! How could anyone try to take someone else’s life? The world is beautiful and so much better compared to the other side, trust me.” I still shuddered at the thought of that darkness. “Anyway, what can I call you?” The only response was a clicking sound, as my conversation partner tried to move their head, with the mandibles still attached to my claw. Having such a firm grip on my other arm would probably hurt, but through the scales, I didn’t feel a thing.
“Click? You want to be called Click? Sure, that works for me! So, do you-“ Suddenly the ground shook and a creature identical to Click surfaced behind my partner. “Oh, is that your friend? Hi, other Click! It's so nice to-” The ground shook again and another Click surfaced. I raised an eyebrow at the fellow who still had its mandibles around my claw. “It's nice to see that you aren’t alone but could you please let go? It feels a bit weird doing this in front of all your-“ Another shake, another Click emerged. Then another. And another. I awkwardly chuckled at the advancing Clicks. “Wow, there are a lot of you.”
Lesson of the day: One Click is cute. Two Clicks are also cute. Three or more Clicks and you run.
I huffed as I finally felt safe. After looking over my shoulder to see if there were any more monsters I breathed a sigh of relief. There were a LOT of Clicks but luckily they weren’t fast and had given up the chase once they realised I wasn’t easy prey. I face-planted into the sand and screamed all my frustration out. The sand muffled the sound but it felt good to let it all out.
Since my arrival in the living world, I had met two creatures, both of which had tried to end me. Why? My mind conjured up images of meat and other weird items that somehow made my mouth water. Sustenance. Food. A vision of somebody stuffing their mouth. A splitting headache followed, making me groan. Another unexplained vision because I thought too hard about something. At least this one explained something. Creatures had to eat. Or did they choose to eat? I hadn’t consumed anything since coming here but was still fine. I got up and started walking again. It sure would be nice if I had answers.
Night settled and I was walking beneath a blanket of stars when I heard something. Tilting my head I looked in the direction of the sounds but a dune was covering my view. Was it another monster that would try to eat me? Another cruel joke by this world? Still, my curiosity drove me forward even when my caution screamed at me to be careful.
But as I got closer I noticed something. Those weren’t just random sounds I was hearing. No, they were voices, speaking real words that I recognised. At first, I thought I had gone insane from the solitude and monsters, but no. The voices were as real as the sand beneath my feet.
It took a lot of effort to not immediately rush towards the sound. Real thinking beings that I could speak with! Maybe they could answer all my questions, about my visions, the world, and how I had gotten here! If you go out there, they will kill you. I agreed with my inner voice. Two out of two creatures I had met had tried to kill me and I didn’t want to make it three out of three. Caution was necessary.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
I crouched down and slowly crawled on top of the dune. The darkness would make it more difficult to spot me, but the glowing lights in the sky ensured that that was always a possibility. The voices were getting louder and I managed to pick out at least six different speakers. The sense of danger increased.
Finally, I reached the top of the dune and peaked over it. Below me was some sort of camp. Small structures were arrayed in a circle around some kind of device that bathed the clearing in a warm light. But what caught my attention were the creatures. I counted twelve of them sitting or standing around the device doing various activities. Most of them talked or ate but some held various armaments and were walking around the outside of the camp.
To me, it looked like they were patrolling and looking for threats. Luckily, I was well hidden and I doubted anyone would see me in the darkness. When I examined one of them, I noted their similarity to me. We had the same build, with two arms, two legs, a torso, and a head. Although, from what I could see none of them sported a claw.
Another difference was that their bodies were covered in some sort of material, hiding most of it. From my distance, I couldn’t make out what they were saying and I definitely wouldn’t risk coming closer. The discovery of creatures who looked like me and could talk like me was exciting, but not enough to risk my life. Although… I eagerly crawled forward to get a better look. This was a new development and I was very eager to discover more.
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Eleura Panzinho leaned back in her leather chair and let out a sigh. Being an Administrator was taxing. Naturally, it came with a lot of benefits and power, but the paperwork was astonishing, way more so than her previous jobs as Main Knowledge Seeker or Facility Lord. It also didn't help that she was stationed in the middle of the desert.
Looking out the window made her frown. Seran was such a boring city. It was decently sized but comparing it to other cities made it seem small. Everything in the desert was smaller than in the rest of the kingdom.
The Scorching Barrens was an overlooked spot in the Kingdom of Sanktrum that almost felt like it was forgotten by the rest of the world. Few people here had aspirations for something greater, but those who had were perfect targets for the institution. Eleura’s thoughts wandered to the City Lord.
He was a weak old man, who sought power to take revenge on the rest of his house for banishing him to this remote place. A perfect tool, yet one she disliked. But a place of banishment was the perfect breeding ground for resentment. She scratched the scales on her arm in irritation. A place of banishment. Those bastards had put her here, thinking it would keep her down. A non-human couldn’t be an Administrator, they thought and laughed behind her back. Always behind her back. But Eleura’s achievements spoke for themselves and this project would be the final steppingstone of her road to victory.
Just thinking about Project: Daemonium Renatus put a smile on her face. If the project worked then all of this hiding would finally stop. She had personally overseen all the experiments in her time as Main Knowledge Seeker and even after her ascension to Facility Lord hadn't stopped focusing on it. Only after her ascension to Administrator had she delegated the project to Milgram, a Facility Lord who had shown himself capable enough to watch over the last few steps.
It had made her immensely happy when the Second Overseer had given her control of this project. Before that, her career had felt like a slog through an endless march as she battled the stigma of being someone without a notable background and a non-human that was trying to reach over her station. But that ended when she had been assigned a task by one of the Overseers and her accomplishments were suddenly recognised by others. Her rapid rise through the ranks had shown them how wrong they had been to treat her like dirt. But it wasn't enough. Even now the other Administrators didn't see her as one of their own and thought of her as beneath them for not being human. But she would show them. She would show all of them.
A knock on the door interrupted her inner power-hungry musings. She straightened up and put on a neutral expression. "Come in." The door opened and in stepped her assistant holding a stack of papers. 'Good, those should be the reports of the other facilities around the desert. Maybe this time there will be-' She stopped her thought process as she saw his scared expression. "What is it?" she demanded. He was a good assistant, but if he had somehow screwed up then she would have no problem feeding him to the test subjects.
He gulped as he saw her expression and made a quick salute. “Administrator Panzinho, Facility X didn’t activate their communication orb at the usual meeting times. We have lost communication with them,” he quickly stated, glad to get the news off of his chest. Now he just had to wait for how his superior would react.
Eleura didn't show any outward reaction as her mind began to race. 'Shit, this is bad. What is Facility Lord Milgram doing? He was given strict orders to exercise great caution while testing and immediately inform me if something went wrong. Did the Creator’s Church attack the facility? Did they go rogue? It doesn't matter what happens, I will be given all the blame if this project fails! The Overseers will skin me alive, if they ever find out about this.' Her thoughts churned as she went over all the possibilities and what to do.
Her superiors couldn't find out about it or she'd be done. All of her hard work would go to waste, as all her opponents would use this failure to bring her down. There was the possibility that Milgrem wasn't able to report to her, because of some unforeseen complications but would still contact her later. Right now she should treat this as an emergency that could at best cost her her station and at worst her life. The Overseers didn’t like failures.
Having come to a decision she took a look at the person in front of her. Her assistant was responsible for all communication with other facilities and most likely rushed straight to her after finding out that something was wrong. He had been a good assistant, but she wasn't about to risk this information spreading.
His face paled as he realised what was going through her head. He turned to run, but it was already too late. The ring on her finger glowed in a sickening green light and he immediately collapsed as his heart stopped beating. It wouldn't be easy to explain his death, but she didn't care at the moment. The Administrator clenched her hand into a fist. She would fix this, no matter the cost.