The monster known as The Hidden observed the small green being circling it with something akin to annoyance. The fact that the creature was magnitudes more powerful than it helped reign in its violent tendencies. Even so, the host it now inhabited was hungry and if The Hidden couldn’t find enough sustenance then even this carefully crafted host would fail. It growled at the thought before noticing the green thing was speaking.
While The Hidden couldn’t really understand words it could understand intentions and emotions well enough. It needed to learn in order to survive those who hunted it. Too many times it had fallen into the trap of innocence only to have the jaws shut tight. This green being wanted to know something. His mind formed images to communicate and The Hidden saw itself staying in this dark hole in the ground or leaving to find its way outside.
The creature growled. It didn’t want to leave but didn’t really know how to communicate such a thing. Its surprise was complete, therefore, when it felt its emotions being expressed by one of the other presences it could feel on the periphery of the conversation. The green being turned to gaze at a decomposer nearby, the one that moved strangely. The Hidden turned to face it even as the presence made itself more fully known.
The new presence also offered a choice but in an entirely different manner. The image it offered was of a joining, a binding of existences, and a leaving behind of the old to become something new. It was the pressure of it that captured The Hidden’s attention. The presence was certain of what it promised and it had promised much. It wouldn’t just offer itself, it offered safety, and a chance to spread.
As a symbiote, The Hidden needed viable hosts to seed into in order to have offspring. Male and female reproduction was contained within its body so it needed no other symbiote to help. Just a host. It had left behind seeded hosts before but they were all eradicated by those that hunted it. There were none left. Everything it had done was to survive another moment in order to get to a safe place and fulfill its monstrous nature. To spread and devour.
It leaned closer to this other presence as it finished speaking and gazed past the poor excuse for a body and into that other place. It gazed upon the one that asked for a joining and found blazing potential and a mind so sharp it could cut. The presence was young and old at the same time but its Spark burned with life untapped. So much potential. A worthy host indeed.
It must be understood that The Hidden while intelligent was not sapient. There was no firm identity in place despite the Title the System had given it. It did not see itself as a being nor had any of the higher thoughts we expect from sapience. It survived, hungered, felt pain and other emotions, but of itself there was no thought. Would it surprise anyone, therefore, that the creature accepted what most would consider servitude in return for a host that would not let it die out? That all but guaranteed its survival and propagation.
The acceptance was quick and the symbiote was quick to abandon its constructed meatsuit and all the power it possessed. It lost much in the transition but it had no knowledge of levels and ranks. It only knew that it was becoming something more. The joining that happened was quick but strange as the one it joined was not of flesh.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
That made no difference to The Hidden who flooded through nerve-like filaments until it reached a nexus and began joining with its new host. To one so long bound by the limits of flesh, Razum’s mycelium network and vast connection to other life forms was like heaven to the monstrous creature. It felt the presence say its goodbyes before joining it at the nexus.
This time the meaning of the creature’s words was crystal clear. “We have a lot of work to do. I am Razum, The Overmind. I name you Ten’Telo, The Frame of Shadows.” As its new name settled over it so did its new purpose, carried on the wings of its hosts Authority. It let itself bleed into everything, becoming a frame upon which something new might be built.
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Cheep-Cheep looked around at the eclectic group he had gathered and managed a quick nervous grin. He wouldn’t consider himself a hunt-leader but if others did then maybe he had it in him. Right? He shook off his doubts and squeaked a greeting to the assembled party.
“Hey-hey, I Cheep-Cheep. The green one, he wants us to do somethin.” He looked around as the group turned their gazes to him and stopped talking amongst themselves. Cheep-Cheep pressed his paws together in a nervous fashion before speaking further.
“We are to help his kit grow by huntin things. I don’t know how we are to do that though.” He spoke in the Muskeeran language and trusted that the Talpi present would understand him. The fact that they had gathered when he had asked them to proved they could to a certain extent at least. All of those gathered were either outcasts or had been with Cheep-Cheep when he had encountered the green one.
One of the Talpi raised his hand and spoke gruffly in broken Muskeeran. “When…do?”
Cheep-Cheep acknowledged the question with a nod before answering, gratified to find he had been right. “We go soon. Get what you need for hunt, then go to cave.” The others around him nodded and then departed silently to gather their various tools of the hunt. Cheep-Cheep did so himself, grabbing his spear from where it had been lying and climbing up to the bluff that overlooked the rough encampment below.
The plateau gave an excellent view of the surrounding lands and Cheep-Cheep took a moment to look out and enjoy the view. The Far-Light was dipping low in the Big-Blue-Above, beginning its descent into the earth to warm the Ever-Flame-Below. The Big-Blue-Above was beginning to bleed in color as the Far-Light was ripped from its embrace. Soon it would put on the dark somber colors of sadness and become the Endless-Dark.
Not that it bothered the people of The Teeth much. The Talpi and Muskeera both lived under the ground for most of their lives and only the Muskeera really hunted above ground and only during the embrace of the Endless-Dark. Cheep-Cheep had to admit the colors of the dying Far-Light were beautiful to look at. He shook those thoughts away as his party of hunters began to gather around him. He turned to find them also looking out at the fading lights with the Talpi looking at it in wonder and appreciation.
He decided to wait for a moment more and turned back to watch the sights until the light fully gave way to the Endless-Dark. Speaking without turning from the sight Cheep-Cheep chirruped, “Come-Come, the green one waits.” He turned then and headed for the tunnel where he knew there would be a challenge that needed to be completed. He hoped he really was the leader he was pretending to be.