Deep underground was a small room; it lay amidst a sprawling network of caves, tunnels, chambers, and traps. This room contained a creature.
That's new, It thought. Thinking was new. Or at least, It's awareness of it. Until now, It had been a simple creature of instinct.
What changed? It wondered.
All of Its prior awareness was a muddled blur of sensation and vague impressions. Hunger sometimes, brief sparks of pain, the satisfaction of catching prey... What was that most recent memory? It seemed significant. It had captured something large. It had been lucky when a creature had foolishly blundered directly into Its waiting appendages. It remembered the meat tasting a bit ...odd. As it finished digesting, a change happened. It had become something... more. But why?
It was curious. Why did It now think? What was It? It only knew that to survive it must eat, and that moving creatures were the best sources of food. Particularly the two-legged ones. Instinct whispered guidance of which forms to take to lure in two-legged creatures: shiny metal things, hollow containers with designs. Threshold-dividers between chambers.
The instincts also said to avoid areas with too many of Its own kind. It was best to hide among some of the objects that It sought to resemble, but avoid moving if at all possible. Moving from place to place could secure better hiding places and hunting grounds, but also left It vulnerable to detection. To be discovered was to die, Its instincts cautioned, and movement was slow and costly.
Why was it thinking of moving? This spot had sufficient prey for survival. But now, It felt itself growing restless. It now desired more than mere survival. It wanted to experience. To learn. The instincts did not agree. Hide and wait. That is existence.
But why? It thought. Why not seek new things?
We hide. We wait. We ambush. That is enough, the instincts insisted.
It continued the internal conflict for a long time. It was yet undecided when it began to grow hungry again. At last, the instincts relented.
Moving is sometimes necessary if food becomes scarce, the instincts grudgingly accepted.
It felt a surge of anticipation. What will I find outside this chamber? It wondered excitedly.
Danger. Maybe death. Hurry, find safe place to hide, instincts urged.
It shifted forms to Its most basic, an amorphous shadow-like thing that rippled and warped from moment to moment. It had near-limitless versatility, but it paid for it dearly. Each motion was far more energy-intensive than it would be for a monoforme creature. This was one of the reasons lying in wait was better than chasing down prey. Lying still took very little energy.
Let prey come to you, agreed instincts.
It warped, twisted, and slithered its way from one shape to another, gradually moving across the stones.
It came to a threshold between chambers. A divider blocked the way, real rather than imitation.
It prodded the barrier with some appendages, scraping and nudging the surface. Dead tree material, said instincts. Good for some guises. Prey nest near it and create with it. It didn't see any way to get past. Bash through? said instincts. Costs energy, but no choice. Eat wreckage for weak nourishment.
Something stopped It. It wasn't sure why. There should be… other way? A vague idea seemed just beyond Its comprehension, like a near-forgotten memory of long ago. It poked and prodded some more at the door.
...What's a door? It thought.
But this barrier was a door. It did not know how it knew, only that it knew.
After a time, the curious experimentation yielded some inspiration. By a whispered thread of knowledge of unknown origin, it grasped a protruding node on the door and twisted it with a click. Suddenly, its other appendages felt less resistance as the door swung aside.
The instincts were silently reproachful. Strange. Dangerous, it warned.
Why? It thought. The instincts offered no reply.
It flowed through the now-open threshold. The anticipation surged once more. What shall I discover? What new things await?
No. We wait. We ambush, instinct insisted.
Why not more? It asked.
This new chamber was long and thin, with many doors dotting its length and two much larger doors at the far end.
Suddenly, its senses warned it of an approaching creature. It hastily morphed into an imitation of a door in an empty spot along the wall. It held absolutely still without effort as all of its tissues now took on the superficial characteristics of what it was imitating.
The double doors swung open, and a robed figure swept through them. It examined the figure. Fleshless one… and powerful, instinct warned. Not suitable prey. Dangerous if angered.
The robed skeleton strode through the hall quickly. From the general area of its face sounded an angry baritone muttering. "...wizard thinks he can just invade my sanctum and get away with it, does he? … No matter how cunning he is, he will have to tire eventually, and when I find him..."
It listened with intense curiosity. It could not recall ever having heard speaking before, but it easily understood most of what was being said.
The skeleton passed Its hiding place and abruptly stopped. It turned around to look precisely at the false door. He continued to mutter: "I don't remember putting a mimic here..."
It realized that the skeleton was referring to It. That is me? It wondered momentarily before concluding, I must be called 'Mimyk'.
The skeleton waved its hand and muttered some arcane syllables, and suddenly Mimyk felt an alien presence invade its thoughts and sift through its memories. After a few moments, the feeling went away. "...one of mine after all … must be getting paranoid in my old age," the skeleton said. "...hunger led it over here? … have to check on the goblin nests..."
The robed skeleton made another few gestures towards it, and a large pig appeared directly in front of Mimyk. The pig lazily sniffed at the door. Reflexively, it lashed out with several tendrils and grabbed the unfortunate beast. It could generate a powerful adhesive that kept creatures snared while they were slowly enveloped and digested.
After conjuring the swine, the skeleton continued on its way down the hallway and disappeared into one of the many doors.
What was that about? Mimyk thought. At least I got a meal out of it.
Mimyk waited a moment to ensure that it was alone once again, then shifted back into its unstructured form to continue along the hallway.
It was now very curious to see what lay beyond the doors where the lich had emerged.
Hold on. How do I know what a lich is? …I may be new to this whole 'thinking' thing, but it seems like knowledge shouldn't pop into existence without some sort of source. It pondered for a few moments before concluding it was a question for another time.
It reached the ornately carved double doors. They were made of dense, dark gray stone. Mimyk was disappointed that it couldn't find a knob nor any other visible mechanism for opening, and it doubted it had the strength to break through forcefully.
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Reluctantly, Mimyk made its way over to one of the other doors. This one had a slight current of damp air wafting from underneath it. Mimyk awkwardly twisted the knob, and with a rusty grating noise, it finally turned.
On the other side, the cut stone of the hallway quickly gave way to a natural cavern. Stalactites dripped overhead and shallow water covered the floor. It tentatively poked the water with a tendril, sending ripples across its calm surface. The water seemed harmless, so it continued on through the cavern, making small splashes as it morphed and squirmed its way around.
The water became deeper as it continued along. It paused, sensing gentle movement in the water ahead. After it lay motionless for a few minutes, a pale white fish swam into view. Mimyk waited patiently as the fish nosed its way through the sediment at the bottom. After several more minutes of waiting, the fish got too close and brushed one of the motionless tendrils. Mimyk struck instantly, and no amount of desperate thrashing of its fins could save it.
As it continued along, the cavern widened and connected to a much larger one. The water flowed into a slow-moving river. Mimyk was disappointed that farther along the river completely filled the cavern and made it impossible for it to continue its exploration, as it did need some amount of contact with air to breathe. Still, the fish seemed somewhat common, so Mimyk morphed into the appearance of a jagged rock and waited for fish to meander into its grasp. It had a steady supply of food, so it decided to settle here for a while and accumulate some biomass.
Several weeks passed. One day, as it was about to consume a fish, Mimyk heard a voice of instinct, that seemed… different from the usual urges. Analyze. Learn. Improve, it whispered.
Why not? Mimyk thought. It began to study the fish, observing how the fins were shaped to propel it through the water. It noticed how the eyes were strangely milky and clouded. Of particular interest were the gills. They seemed to function similarly to cells in Mimyk's own skin, filtering certain gases from the air to be distributed throughout the body. These function better in water than my own, it noticed.
It quickly adjusted its own surface tissues to extract air from water more effectively. Mimyk felt a flash of satisfaction that it no longer needed to stay near the surface. After scanning the cave for potential dangers, Mimyk shed its disguise and detached itself from the cavern floor. It formed appendages similar to the fins it had studied. It took practice, but with time it was able to paddle through the river with greatly improved speed and agility.
No wonder monoformes move so much! At this speed, perhaps I could even chase down prey!
Mimyk moved down the river, which gradually widened into a vast lake. Many of the fish here were larger than the ones it was used to. Despite its optimism, its newfound mobility was no match for the keen senses of the fish, so it went back to waiting in ambush.
One day, just as it caught a fish, a massive shape emerged from the gloom. Mimyk held completely still, but the still-struggling fish attracted its attention. The form resolved into greater clarity. It was a massive fish with rows of long, razor-sharp teeth. It was difficult to release anything once the adhesive clung to it, so all Mimyk could do was wait. The predator fish approached quickly and bit down on the writhing fish, taking a large chunk of Mimyk's flesh with it. Its body exploded with shock and pain, and it was all Mimyk could do to stay calm and rapidly close the wounds. Either the large fish didn't notice that some of the tasty meat came from a 'rock', or it was no longer hungry. Either way, Mimyk was relieved to see it disappear once again into the gloom. For a mimic, which parts of the body were damaged mattered not at all. What mattered is how much was lost. The more mass a mimic had available, the more sturdy and versatile its forms could be.
This place is too dangerous, Mimyk decided.
It checked for more predators before changing forms and swam along the walls of the cavern, looking for an exit. It eventually found a tunnel that moved gradually upward, but it quickly discovered that only the first bit was submerged. It wanted to explore, but it was loath to leave behind its newfound mobility.
I need to study some of those land-dwelling monoformes, Mimyk decided. Then I can take their shape and move effectively wherever I wish. It slowly squirmed its way up the tunnel, pausing every few minutes to listen for dangers. Eventually, it reached a fork in the tunnel. One path continued upwards, and a cool draft drifted from it, smelling crisp and full of unfamiliar scents. Instinct warned against those scents, but the other instinct seemed to disagree. The other path stayed level, and Mimyk could smell a hint of meat coming from it. Hunger took over the decision-making, and it took the second path.
Soon, the smell grew stronger, and Mimyk could hear faint raspy voices snarling at each other. It flattened itself against the wall and morphed to blend in. As the minutes passed and the voice grew no louder, it decided that they seemed to be staying in the same place. It cautiously crept along as silently as it could, until at last, it could see the source of the noise. Five stout creatures with bulbous, lumpy noses and pointed ears huddled around a crackling fire. The tunnel above them was cloudy with smoke.
Goblins, the different instinct said. It carefully melded its form to the cavern wall but left a rock-like outcropping near the floor to snare creatures passing by. Eventually, the creatures ceased their yapping and sprawled haphazardly around their fire in slumber.
Mimyk silently edged closer. The mouths seemed to be the most noisy part, so when it reached the nearest goblin it took care to cover that first. The creature struggled and flailed, but it was already stuck and quickly succumbed to suffocation.
Mimyk successfully engulfed the second and third goblin as well, but as it edged toward the fourth, the creature sniffed in its sleep and became agitated. Its eyes flicked open and it spotted the amorphous creature approaching. It howled and snarled angrily, waking its companion before Mimyk thought to extend an appendage around its head and silence it. The last goblin grabbed a spear and fearlessly charged.
Mimyk was far too slow to dodge, so instead it wrapped the spear's handle with an appendage and pushed it to the side. The goblin stumbled and Mimyk quickly snared it. As it was the last goblin, Mimyk kept it alive to study its anatomy and methods of movement.
After several days of this, the goblin seemed to be tiring and Mimyk was confident that it could replicate the creature fairly well, so it put the struggling creature out of its misery and consumed it like the rest.
The recent feasting had almost doubled Mimyk's mass, although it kept its volume the same. Excess bulk was not overly useful in cramped underground spaces, so Mimyk simply increased the density of its current form.
Mimyk changed into its best likeness of a goblin and immediately fell on its face. Apparently walking on two limbs is harder than it appears.
It spent the remainder of the day falling, wobbling, tripping, and slipping, but eventually managed to develop a reasonably stable gait. It now made rapid progress through the tunnel. After passing several more intersections, the tunnel became more rounded and orderly, showing the telltale signs of deliberate carving. Then Mimyk began to smell the sickly-sweet stench of decay. It slowed down and crept forward in silence, keeping wary of dangers.
It spotted the first of the corpses. It was a type of bipedal monoforme unlike any Mimyk had yet seen. It wore flowing robes and had pale flesh and an octopus-like head. Strewn along the tunnel were scores of the things! All of them had been cut, slashed, or impaled by a grisly assortment of violent wounds.
What predator doesn't consume its kills? How wasteful!
It didn't appreciate the smell, but rotten biomass was still biomass. After it enveloped the first two, it had to wait a few minutes for them to digest.
Mimyk was moving on to the sixth one when it felt an alien presence brush against its mind. It stopped cold. This feeling was similar to when the Lich had read its memories, but more… primal, somehow. As Mimyk considered what to do, the mental probe weakened and gradually slipped away. Cautiously, Mimyk decided to scout out the remainder of the area before resuming its feast.
The tunnel led to some kind of settlement, with buildings and doors carved out of the stone. A few scattered corpses littered the ground, but most seemed to have perished near the entrance tunnel.
Another mental probe brushed Mimyk, but it began to suspect that whatever it was was not particularly skilled, and the feeling once again dissipated a short time later.
Mymic continued exploring the various chambers but found very little of note until it stumbled into a large circular chamber with a domed ceiling. In the center stood a raised pool of liquid, in which rotted a heaping pile of torn and mutilated flesh.
So much flesh. What manner of creature was this?
As Mimyk studied the pool and its contents, it noticed a slight movement. A creature swimming in the liquid wriggled and bit at the meat in the center. It was about the size of one of the octopus-creature's heads and had a vague resemblance to them as well.
Another mental wave washed over Mimyk, but this time it was able to distinguish the source: this strange creature in the water.
Greedily, Mimyk surged forward. The creature spotted the movement and swam to the other end of the pool, but it only had so much space to flee. Mimyk quickly snared it and carefully began to analyze its cells. It took extra care to not kill the thing, searching for the secret to its ability. Where are the mind-energy cells?
Weeks passed, and Mimyk divided the time between studying the creature and consuming the remaining biomass cluttering the area. Mimyk made very little progress creating its own mind-touch-cells, but it now had sufficient mass to mimic entire chambers if it so chose!
In goblin form, it was so dense that it had to move carefully to avoid making the ground tremble and nearby pebbles clatter when it stepped.
Once the meat ran out, the captured creature became annoying. It kept trying to bite off bits of Mimyk’s appendages, so it was forced to seal its jaws closed with a careful application of adhesive.
With its weapon neutralized, it started launching clumsy mental attacks at Mimyk, which it easily brushed aside. Later on, Mimyk had an idea: What if I study its cells during the mental waves? It hurried back to the pool and nabbed the creature from where it sulked. It only took a bit of gentle shaking before it began trying its psychic attacks again.
Finally! Mimyk was able to observe some changes in one particular type of cell, before and after mental energy was produced. With that knowledge, it was not long before Mimyk was able to create rudimentary psychic cells of its own. However, just as with walking, using them was easier thought than done.
Having, at last, relinquished its secret, the creature had outlived its usefulness. It thoughtfully donated to Mimyk's burgeoning biomass. As Mimyk grew, its old instincts were silenced and replaced by the new. Seek the crisp air! They whispered with renewed clarity. It remembered the upward tunnel and backtracked for several hours before finding it again.