I've spent about a week back at my old nest. Going by the years on Pretty Shell...now Grandmother's Squiglies, it has been almost a millenium since the Rulka ambush.

To me, it's been half a year. I even made sure to ask the Squiglies in as many ways as possible, but the answer always remained the same. At first, I just stared blankly at my sister as I learned this. She, in turn, silently locked her eyes with mine. Together, we watched as the last shared relative our generation shed a tear of molten lava.

I had done this before, once, and paid it no mind. Now though, with a much larger capacity for thought and understanding....I understand how frightening this action truly is.

A fraction of my core has left me, a piece of my soul that shall never be regained. In turn though, as the drops of sorrow landed on the cold stone floor of our family's grave...the world began to change.

As the entire cavern around us started to shake and shudder, we felt ourselves forced to the ground as a violent energy seemed to thrust the entire cave up through the stone and dirt.

What was before a large, yet shallow cave soon became a dome-like shape as the tunnels began to close one by one. Many of the children had begun screaming almost immediately, and my oldest nemisis...aside from empty-headedness....began to send a shuddering pain down my spine.

Each and every shriek reverberated off of the walls and floor, magnifying the sound and proving absolutely mossing horrible for my pain tolerance. Which, funnily enough, leveled up about five seconds after the ground decided to start flying.

The entire ordeal lasted about five minutes, but it felt like days to my ringing skull. Eventually though, and thankfully, I began to feel the trembling chamber gradually slow to a hault. Just as I was able to get to my feet...a decent two minutes after we stopped, the Squiglies appeared with a new little Ding! sound.

Congratulations! Due to a collective Luck stat of 1827 in a low-levelled monster tribe, this tribe has gained the chance to obtain a Special Ranking. As such, the abefore mentioned tribe has been moved to Section Leyva-Col-2007-Para of the Cave of the Rock Giants. Due to the lucky tribe's history, current leader's reign, and Selected New Leader's attributes, the tribe's home cave may become either:

The Cave of Fallen Foes

Oasis of the Rock Giants

The Cave of Sorrowfull Giants

Soon, three trials shall face you. Depending on your tribe's abilities, you may grow into any of the three, or a wildcard may occur. Be warned though, as you can just as easily be wiped from existence. Should you succeed though, the rewards and strength you gain shall be great. You have twelve hours to prepare for the first trial; The Passage of Bloodlust.

Good luck.

+5 Luck for all Rock Tortoise creatures in Unnamed Stone Cave. 

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

After taking a moment to read, two things instantly popped into my mind. One, PEBBLES. Two, this is bad. 

"Do you have any idea what this is?" I ask, after all, she's been around a long time. She has to know something....right? Unfortunately though, Grandmother stayed silent for a decent thirty seconds longer as she slowly read through her own message. 

(Helloooo, me again. Orchid's speech is, quite frankly, horrible. It was bad before, but little squeaks and whistles are surprisingly easy to graph on a linguistics chart if you roomed with the right musical major in college. Good old Saraswati. Anyway, I'm having a demi-god of stone that owes me a favor translate the tortoises' speech to something a little less...ear splitting.)

After finishing, she closes her eyes and releases a quiet, whistling breath. "No, I know nothing of this. As I'm sure you can gather, we are in danger. You..you will help, yes?" 

"Of course I will! You're still my stister, I'm going to be here for you." I don't think my face can actually smile, but I try anyway and say I did.

You have accepted the trials before you instead of cowering. Courage Stat +5 for entirety of tribe. Fear Resistance skill +1 for all in tribe.

Congratulations! You have reached level 500 in Fear Resistance during a special event! Your Fear Resistance has evolved into;

Into the Eyes of Death: Long have you known to fear the world. Now though, you realize that fear is naught but an illusion of possible safety. In times of terror, you stand calm, and gently return even the gaze of Death herself.

Suddenly, everything about my world shifted once again. The nervous tremor that had crept across my shell had stilled, along with my ever-growing racing thoughts. Something about me was inherently different, but somehow I knew it wasn't bad.

Closing my eyes for a moment, I steel my resolve before once more finding my sister's gaze. "We are going to survive these trials. Twelve hours? We need to get ready though. First, let me see how many of us there are."

Grandmother nods and begins to shuffle off towards the opening of the nest, curious heads and eyes peeping out as our footfalls grow closer. Just from here, there's at least four litters worth of younglings still in their 'baby' stage. 

Getting to the actual entrance to my home, I see that things aren't nearly the same as I had thought. "Sister, how did this tunnel get here?"

See, I really don't remember a tunnel leading to a seperate, choppy cave, buuuuuut then again I may never have wandered over here to notice. Granted, there was that time that one of the skeletons making up the nest had collapsed under me, but I don't think this is the same hole. Maybe?

"After you...got stuck, everyone in the nest had gotten the "Blessed Lineage" title. It let us grow and evolve far quicker and more varied than would normally allow. This cave was built by Stone after he gained the 'Carver' evolution. He grew out a few spikes and ridges along his body that let him chip and cut away at the stone. Many of his children now carry the same characteristic."

Surely enough, I saw several little tortoises running around and digging gashes into the walls as they ran by them. They did look quite a bit like my brother, and I took a moment to once more examine his...corpse.

The dusky grey and darker shades of his body had only deepened over time, his head seemed perfectly built to grind and prod at rock, while his legs had grown far more stocky to allow for leverage. 

In fact, each of the bodies lying around the nest looked somehow different from one another. Looking around, many of the younglings seemed to lean more towards one or the other, appearance wise.

Taking a moment to closely look at each and every tortoise around me, my thoughts wander to the many hardships that a nest of this size took to grow.

How long had my siblings stuggled to come this far? How many years did they spend protecting our home? How...how many battles fought only to one day lie down and never stand again? 

Those were thoughts for another time, for now...

"Tell me about the other evolutions, we need to come up with a battle plan, and this might just be the perfect place to pick a fight."