The first thing I became aware of was darkness. Gradually, I achieved consciousness, finding in front of me nothing but a black expanse. I felt myself blink, and immediately after felt the rest of my body, curled in the fetal position. All over I felt a warm, comforting, slimy substance covering my cramped form.

Attempting to stretch, I became aware of the hard barrier surrounding my body completely, and that I was confined within it. I didn’t have room to do so much as extend my arm out halfway in front of me.

It was… displeasing, to be trapped like this. I wiggled in protestation, attempting to find a weaker part of this all-encompassing barrier through which I could escape. Finding none, I felt, for the first time, anger.

I raged against this wall, pushing against it with my arms in front of me, simultaneously pushing my back into the side behind me. I struggled to break it desperately, exerting myself as much as I could.

Finally, my attempt to escape bore fruit. My back slowly started stretching the barrier, before the wall gave way with the first sound I would hear. A crack, muffled through the slimy coating on my body.

I tumbled out into the light, a red glow coloring my vision as I took in what my eyes were telling me. Barren, dry, cracked soil stained in a deep, dark red, nearing black. Above, an empty sky fading into red as far as the eye could see. Across the desolate ground was many small, round black eggs. Some of which were already split in half. Farther, I saw rows of black and withered trees surround the clearing I was in. Scattered sporadically in the clearing with me, I saw a variety of creatures, all holding the same shape with variations between them. Most had two arms, two legs, a torso leading to a head with two small, stubby horns on their foreheads, red skin, and a thin, whip-like tail jutting from their behinds.

The variations, however, seemed to share no common themes. Some creatures had an extra pair of arms, a select few possessed bat-like or insect-like wings on their back, more still were bloated and thick. One even had a second mouth located on its stomach. Many had combinations of these, mixing and matching multiple mutations to create even more diversity amongst them.

On myself, I found I shared the same basic structure of these creatures. My own variation or variations, however, remained unclear to me. Looking back at my former prison, I could now thoroughly conclude both myself and these other beings had come from the eggs scattered around the area, and that more still were to hatch soon.

As if to prove my theory, an egg in front of me rattled, and I observed a red, clawed hand breach the egg’s surface, desperately struggling to free itself like I had before. Looking upon its vulnerable position, a hunger overcame me, and I felt an impulse to strike down the pathetic thing in front of me.

And so, I did. My own claw raked across its exposed limb, drawing dark red blood to the surface. Inside the egg, I heard it screech in pain from my attack. It attempted to draw it’s arm back into the protection of it’s shell, but it was too slow. I grabbed it by the wrist with my free hand and delivered another slash to it’s arm, mangling it and worsening its wound.

It’s screams only encouraged me, driving me to bite down on it’s hand with my sharp, needle-like teeth. Taking off two of it’s fingers and part of it’s palm, I released my hold on it, allowing it to draw it’s arm back into the egg. Savoring the taste of it’s flesh before swallowing, I looked again upon it’s egg. This proved unwise, as from the small opening in the shell came a gout of flame flying directly towards my eyes.

The fire irritated my eyes in the instant before I squeezed them shut and fell backwards, buying my adversary several seconds free of my attention. When I had recovered, blinking my eyes to clear my vision, it had taken the chance to pull most of its body out of the egg it resided in.

This one had a third eye on its forehead, and a much thicker than average tail. Hissing in anger, I lunged at it, tackling it to the ground and engaging it in a violent grapple. Both of us scratched, bit, and head butted the other, using anything we could to bring harm to the other. I had the advantage, with one of it’s arms already out of commission, though it’s tail served as an alternative, even if it was less effective due to it’s lack of sharp implements.

This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

Instinctively, I flexed a muscle in my tail, which extended from it’s tip a needle as long as my finger. I drove it up into my enemy, surprising it enough to push the tip between a rib. I could feel a rush of air leave the wound as I drew my tail back.

It still struggled against me, but weaker now. Already I had light wounds across both arms, and gained another scratch on my chest before it’s movements grew stiff. Gradually, it ceased moving entirely, save for weak twitches. Likely an effect of my tail, as I doubted it could have bled out in the scant minute and few seconds it had been injured.

Relishing my victory, I scanned my surroundings for any rivals seeking to claim my prize from me. Seeing the others preoccupied with either fighting each other or fleeing, I did not hesitate to dig into the prey before me, ripping it’s sweet flesh from bone as quick as I could so as to decrease the chances of it being taken from me. Observing the chaos around myself, I came to the conclusion that my tail was likely a variation, as only two others of the hundreds I could see displayed the same needle on their tails.

Now, without an immediate danger calling my attention elsewhere, I could afford to give more focus to my own body. With some light introspection, I could feel myself grow more comfortable and sure in my movements as I tested my joints and flexibility through stretches. Through this, I also discovered a muscle in my neck I could instinctively feel would spray weak flames out of my mouth should I flex it. Through more observation of my fellow creatures, I concluded this, too, was a variation, though one more common than my tail.

Finally, my thoughts on myself led me to a key piece of information I instinctively knew about my being. I was a demon, and I had a name; Zargultha, and that should someone find my name for themselves they would hold immense power over me.

My pondering was broken, though, when I witnessed a much larger beast than I and the others emerge from the tree line. It resembled our forms very little, being a quadruped and covered in matted brown fur. It wasted no time before charging towards the nearest demon and swallowed it whole, opening it’s jaw wider than one would think possible to do so.

Around the clearing, more creatures emerged from the tree line, all varying in appearance even more than the demons surrounding me. Some were twenty times the size of me, others barely twice my size, varying amounts of wings, eyes, appendages of all sorts, and more features distinguished them from one another. Unifying them all, however, seemed to be their hunger, as they targeted any demon smaller than them they could find and attacking it.

I knew that I would not be able to defend myself should one of them turn their attention towards me, and so I scrambled to get away. Dropping to all fours, I ran towards the part of the tree line where I saw the least of the larger demons. Jaws snapped shut and claws rent bodies around me, a scene of carnage playing out in front of me. Suddenly, a hulking demon fell to the ground directly ahead of me, having been pushed over by an even larger demon standing over it. I leapt to the side to avoid colliding with them, and continued running for the tree line.

Nearing safety, I felt a surge of fear flow through me as I could hear a footstep behind me turn into a repeated thumping of something giving chase. With no time to turn around, I drove myself to run as fast as I could in a terrified sprint. Still though, I could hear my pursuer gaining ground, getting closer with every footfall.

Finally rushing past the first tree, I continued running, hearing my assailant keeping up behind me. Beginning to get tired, I desperately searched for somewhere I could get away from whatever was chasing me. Seeing a crevice in the ground that stretched so much farther than the other fissures I thought I could fit into it, I dove, narrowly avoiding the snap of powerful jaws coming from where I had just been.

Now in the hole, I pushed myself as far as I could get before turning around. Behind me was a furious, gaping mouth connected to four long, thick legs, like a I spider had half of it’s legs ripped off and a giant mouth grew on the bottom of it’s abdomen. The demon extended a long, slimy tongue from it’s mouth, reaching as to capture and consume me. The tongue grew closer as I desperately tried to back away, meeting no success. Finally, just moments before the appendage reached me, it was ripped back violently as something seized the demon above. I did not get a good look, as whatever demon inadvertently saved me lashed out almost faster than I could blink, pulling the spider-like demon away just as fast. This was soon followed by a loud crunching, and dark red blood soon spilled down into my hiding place.

Soon enough, the sounds stopped, and I heard something dragging itself away on the ground, leaving me alone. Finally safe, I soon felt drowsiness overcome me, lulling my tired body and exhausted mind into a deep, restful sleep.