Adexios leaned in, making himself more comfortable as the heat of the campfire a few meters away from him erupted in droves. The heat dug deep into his skin with each wave, the crackles of the bonfire being the last few bit of semblance of sound he could hear as the chirps of the insects outside the nursery got louder and louder.

He bit off a piece of the jerky he held on his hand, it was, quite frankly, one of the last few bits of rations he had for himself after his brood ate the entirety of the meat that had been brought from the hunt yesterday. They had roasted it, or atleast, most of it - the jerky on his hand was apparently cut from the same animal and was instead, preserved, - whilst he was working on creating a bow and arrow.

he missed the feast, obviously. But the fact that he was able to create a basic bow if not an ineffective one proved to have been a good trade. And though he knows he's just gonna spend the rest of his time outside learning how to actually craft stuff like those, it was better to get started now and be experienced when he actually does start working as a Craftsman- something that the tribe actually allowed him to do thanks to his natural interest in all things crafts ever since he was hatched.

he bit off a piece of he jerky he held once again. Right now though, something that piqued his interest entered the nursery: a shaman of the tribe.

One, that, as things stand, is supposed to be able to summon life out of the mire using plants and the hearts of animals. It was something that got his interest and if not for the fact that people like her are generally capable of doing the things they do thanks to the their God, - Larcerta, an intermediate got of Evolution and one of the last few that has remained awake after the end of the second era, - he would have went ahead and asked her to teach him how to do the things she does.

though, learning about the very God that gives her powers doesn't really sound that bad. So, Adexios leaned in, jerky in had.

"alright? so, where was I?" asked the old reptile as she looked around, a smile that made the Shaman's wrinkled chin drop even more dawned her face as a broodmate of Adexios raised his hand. The shaman nudged the hatchling and he replied by standing up and calling out where she last stopped,

"you were talking about the time the ascended demon rose from their fortress!" the hatchling with green hide, frankly female, judging by her voice, says as she sat back down. Her answer was acknowledged by the shaman with a single nod and she continued-

"right, the ascended demon." she says, "after the Gods started to push the demons back out into their last fortress, the first and strongest demon, just like his enemies outside of his fortress- started eating his own kin to make himself stronger and the more he ate, the more powerful he became until-" the Shaman paused, no doubt to give suspense. Adexios tilted his head, perhaps... it wasn't best to look at this critically.

he bit off a piece of his jerky as he blamed his elders silently for teaching him how to keep an audience when he tells a story. The shaman continued on, "he ascended." she says with emphasis as the fire right beside her crackled to life, "and when he did, he became more powerful than any of the ascended Gods and he was, quite frankly, one of the very first Gods to have had in possession of multiple domains to his name.

"things such as Hunger, Undeath, Evolution and the like were tossed the powerful Demon's way to make him even stronger. The world had acknowledged his power, uncaring of the destruction he might bring." Adexios tilted his head, if that was the case then... was the world truly blind?

he finished his jerky, thinking about the fact the elders told him two days prior. - "the world, young Adexios, does not know what it is doing, it rewards those who quite frankly, do not deserve it and punishes those who could be considered heroes." - and he sighed, if the world does not know what it is doing then what is it?

his head turned and he looked at a nearby trap, "machines?" he says the word of the more intelligent races taught to him by one of the elders. Apparently, machines, as they are called, are nothing but uncaring cattle that move because that is their purpose. They are no different from livestock and golems though unlike livestock, they do not tire and unlike golems, they do not need a constant source of energy.

all a machine needed was maintenance - something that they very well cannot naturally do - so that they may not fall apart and other than that, nothing.

is the world a machine? - Adexios thought to himself as his focus went back to the old Shaman, "Eons passed and as the Gods fought on, some of them have started losing hope, that maybe, the adversary right in front of them was simply too powerful and yet-" a small mound of mud grew a few inches away from her feet. The shaman smiled as the mound grew a mouth that opened and closed, and then, it grew two eye sockets that, should they have eyes, would have looked around.

Adexios watched in morbid fascination as the golem collapsed back into the ground and the Shaman continued, "they persevered and after a thousand years of battle, they managed to beat the ascended demon and come out on top."

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a few hatchlings found themselves covering their mouths as they stifled a yawn and the Shaman, noticing this, smiled as she concluded her story, "but, the world did not get out unscathed." she says softly, "as when the Demon was defeated, he cursed the land to never give birth. He then moved on with the animals as he too cursed them to never be able to evolve just by eating alone," she says, "and then, his pieces, or what was left of him, moved across the continents to inflict a curse upon them so that whenever a pile of corpses get stacked upon each other, a demon will spawn and he, the Ascended Demon, the first of his kin, will have a chance of rebirth."

the Shaman stood up, "and, he did," she says, "during the second Era but that,-" she looked around and her sage-like eyes met and locked with tired ones, "is for another time," she dusted herself off and with a flick of her finger, the fire on the center of the room dimmed down.

Adexios yawned and watched as the Shaman left, and when she did, he let himself lie down and fall into the embrace of sleep.

...

"GO! ATTACK HIM IN THE NECK!" Adexios winced as the shout of the hatchling right beside him made his ears ring. He moved away, taking a step away from the loudmouthed broodmate with brown hide. Making himself comfortable after finding another spot, one that's away from his shrieking broodmates, Adexios crossed his arms and watched as the two of his kin started to circle, growls hummed from their throats as they eyed one another with hostility.

he smiled. Truth be told, he liked being apart of this crowd and watching his broodmates fight one another as either a sport, a test of dominance, or to just outright win an argument is actually quite pleasing. And as loud as the crowd may be, the energy that they provide to the fight was something to behold.

them screaming like this gives the fight some semblance of importance, and if they weren't there, enjoying the two of his broodmates fight, it would nothing be but a pathetic show of force instead of a form of entertainment.

His claws dug against his arms as he watched. One of his broodmates, the one with the yellow hide, had lunged for his enemy, a broodmate that had blue skin that somehow managed to spread all across his entire body.

Yellow, after his lunge, elbowed the dodging blue his hitt connected and he tried to fix his now open posture with a single kick that sent him flying to the left and the opposite direction of his enemy. Blue, meanwhile, gasped as the sharp elbow of yellow hit his sternum, fear and realization filled his eyes as his hand subconciously reached for his throat.

Adexios narrowed his eyes, then his pupils moved to yellow. He hadn't realized. - He mused as he smiled, yellow, for all his smart glory of being able to fight wasn't able to see blue fear for his life and the air within his lungs as his gaze shifted from confident hostility to fearful approximation.

a puff of air left his nose and Adexios continued watching as Yellow regained his balance and is now moving from side to side, eyeing blue wearily as his eyes narrowed into thin slits.

Yellow eyed blue, then his eyelids relaxed as they opened once again and the thin X that was his iris enlarged and Yellow once again lunged, Blue tried to dodge, but yellow was faster, stronger, and more importantly, have thought what his enemy would do the moment he realized that Blue was being careful.

Yellow knew that he was going to dodge and that knowledge was more than enough to give him confidence that should he keep running then-

Blue fell to the ground, Yellow on top of him. Yellow's fist went up, then it fell back down faster.

a loud squelch was heard as Yellow's fist collided with the throat of blue.

Adexios left the scene as the others started to yell in glory. "GO! GO! GO!" they all cheered as fist after fist fell in rhythm to the cheers. Or atleast, that is what Adexios assumed but frankly, he was already far enough from the seen that he wouldn't even know what was going on even if he tried.

but hey, the elders said that it is creativity that pushed the major races to where they are now and that it never hurts to think that way.

leaving the crowd, Adexios made his way to his little spot on the nursery, in which is filled with a whole lot of crafting materials and tools. This place was a safe haven given to him by the elders and a place he rightfully took when a bunch of his broodmates tried to take his stuff by force. Of course, courtesy of a bone knife along with a bone plate that he can attach to his arm, none of them were able to do anything and Adexios had to fight off several more groups after that but once the entire thing was done, he had gotten out of it with a lot of body wounds and a place that he can call his own.

Adexios sat on the ground and made himself comfortable, he looked around to see what kind of thing he should be working on for the rest of the day; there were a lot of things he had been planning on making, Weapons, - a club that had a lot of spikes attached to it, a "rake" that had sharpened bones shaped like hooks as tooth, a few knives with a lot of varieties, some were curved, others were serrated and all were sharp, - Armor, - things such as the attachable bone plating for his forelimb that will soon into a gauntlet, a chest piece that was a layer of bone and wood stacked atop each other, he planned on adding something soft below the wood to make himself comfortable should he wear, and a helmet that he made using Tar and bone, it was brittle, if not weak and would probably collapse should a blunt object collide with it but Adexios is working on it. - and the like, there were even traps and a few bows that he had made sprawled about but before he tries making more of those, he's gonna have to ask his elders on how to actually properly make them before dabbling with them again.

and in courtesy of said elders, he was able to make all the stuff that was all around him. Adexios smiled at the thought of it and decided he wanted to be simple for the time being so he grabbed a serrated knife with a hooked end, something that he planned on using should he try to grab unto the flesh of a massive creature with his current size.

Adexios grabbed a piece of sharpened rock and he started carving the bone to make it sharper.