The projectile fell into the jungle like a meteor, disturbing all the wildlife. Birds, panthers, and reptiles, all shuddered as if their environment had changed forever. And it had.
The rock fell deep into the forest, where no man had ever set foot. The impact was so violent that the surrounding trees and ferns were pulverized, burned by the fire caused by the impact, though the flames were soon extinguished by a downpour that shook the beasts even more.
The projectile that had fallen from the sky, thrown by the serpent goddess Tlaloc, awakened its consciousness.
“What am I?” That was its first thought. It was a good question. It couldn’t move, trapped in its own body. Nevertheless, it was fully aware of everything around it: the small embers being drowned by the rain, the dense plants that had shuddered at its presence, the creatures hiding slyly in the jungle’s thickness.
It thought of its mother, the goddess who had cast it from the heights. It remembered the time it had spent in her womb and the affection she had shown. Still, it was here, in the middle of nowhere, unable to move.
“What do you want from me, mother? How am I supposed to face this if I can’t even move?”
No response came. A loud thunderclap echoed through the storm now flooding the jungle. The consciousness of the rocky egg, now trapped halfway into the ground, thought about what it had to do.
If it existed, there must be a purpose. It knew its mother was a goddess—a deity wouldn’t abandon one of her own. It tried to move, to escape its rocky prison. Nothing. Still motionless, frozen in the rock that eagerly absorbed the falling rain.
The sky continued to thunder furiously. It was its mother. It wanted to scream at her to take it back, to return it to her womb, to sail through the clouds alongside her, but it was futile. Apart from the storm, no response came. Suddenly, sleep took over—a lethargy it couldn’t control, made worse by the droplets on its rocky body. With nothing else to do, its consciousness faded.
It woke again to a blazing sun. It could see the cracks caused by its impact, and a few leagues around, ceiba and cedar trees teeming with weeds and orchids filled its world. It could see no further.
It tried to move again. Nothing. Any attempt to escape its stone cage was in vain.
Then, something began to stir among the trees. Fear gripped its consciousness for long moments, the dread of the unknown and the helplessness of being unable to defend itself. It didn’t know what to expect but was aware of the dangers such a place could harbor; the instinct its mother had passed down told it so.
Suddenly, a small furry creature emerged from the nearby ferns. It was tiny, with dark orange fur. The fear it had felt soon turned to curiosity. Such a small creature couldn’t harm it.
“A primate,” it thought immediately, for some strange reason recognizing the animal. The small monkey began walking around its world, moving its tiny feet between the cracks caused by the fall, observing the stone egg with curiosity, emitting light chirps.
The consciousness trapped in the oval tried to move again, to scare or perhaps catch the animal that approached. Again, nothing happened. Before long, the primate came close enough to touch the rocky wall. Seeing nothing happen, it climbed skillfully, as if searching for an opening.
Somehow, the creature’s closeness provided sustenance to the consciousness. “Life energy.”
It had felt this same sensation upon waking, caused by the puddles and dew.
Somehow, this gave it more nourishment, more motivation to stir inside, to free itself from the rock.
The creature continued walking around it, as if it, too, felt invigorated by the proximity. It wagged its little tail in ecstasy and soon began to chirp and beat its chest with its insignificant hands.
“That’s right, little one, give me your energy.” Then the consciousness realized: if there was a way to escape, it was by absorbing the energy of creatures like that. But it was going to need much more.
Sensing its need, the small primate leapt from the top of the rocky shell and disappeared into the underbrush.
It felt the cold of loneliness contrasted with the warmth of the afternoon. The wind rustled the leaves of the trees and underbrush around it, but the consciousness felt abandoned. Now a prisoner in that rock embedded in the jungle, it nostalgically remembered seeing the world below from its mother’s eyes when she flew over valleys, jungles, and seas. Now its world was reduced to a small cracked space surrounded by vegetation in the middle of nowhere.
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“Well, I’ll give myself a name. If I can’t do anything, but I exist, the least I can do is name myself.” It didn’t know what its mother’s name was or what she might have wanted to call it, so it decided to improvise.
“From now on, I’ll be Leye,” it thought. Somehow, it felt like the right name, though there was no one to hear it.
Soon the rain returned, drenching the world, and with it, the sounds of animals around. The sadness of loneliness was contrasted by the nourishment the rain provided. It felt stronger, though its attempts to move still failed.
Suddenly, a screen appeared in its mind, visible as clearly as the ceiba trees around it in the night.
Snake Egg: Leye
Fallen Core of the Goddess Tlaloc
This type of egg does not hatch, but absorbs nutrients from its surroundings, and is capable of growing indefinitely if it manages its resources wisely.
Current Resources:
Water-energy: 10/100
Controlled Creatures: 0
Structures: 0
Area of Influence: 0.5 leagues
"Interesting. So this is my welcome, mother. A series of scribbles I barely understand. You could give me a little more information."
Although Leye could comprehend the sudden information that appeared before him, he barely understood it all. Somehow, the figures gave him a sense of growth, but he couldn’t see how he could overcome his current situation. He was still trapped in that inert body, over which birds and insects now began to walk with indifference, certain that nothing would happen after the initial impact.
The next day, however, things began to change. The "water-energy" had increased to 20 points, thanks to the exceptional downpour that hadn't allowed him to rest, and now he felt he could tremble slightly, scaring off the insects that tried to crawl on the rock. The ants that tried to build nests under his surface, competing with beetles, were flung away. Although the movement wasn't strong enough to intimidate the vultures and parrots pecking at his surface, it was something.
"Now I just need it to rain."
Soon the monkeys returned. This time, a small group of five monkeys, all with orange fur, like the one that had already visited, and which was among them. The primates began to walk on his surface, hitting his rocky wall with small stones, as if hoping they could peel her, like a giant fruit.
"Is this the fate you want for me, mother?—he thought with his pride shattered.—For a bunch of primates to mock me?"
Despite the humiliation he felt, the presence of the monkeys provided him with energy, food. Even though there was no rain, and it was a cloudy day in the jungle, his water-energy points began to rise slowly. About two per hour.
He saved them. If he tried to move and "shed" her rocky surface, not only would he waste them, but he would also scare off the entertained monkeys that were now contributing to his nourishment.
He remained calm. Now things had another perspective. The text before his eyes clearly showed it. “This type of egg does not hatch, but absorbs resources from its surroundings, and is capable of growing indefinitely.”
Leye knew that now he had to remain calm and endure the annoyance of a few primates pounding his surface. When he grew, if he ever managed to escape this state of helplessness, he would decide whether to control or eliminate those creatures.
The small clan of monkeys hammered at his surface for several hours, scratching his shell furiously, to no avail. Soon they grew bored, and just before dusk, they disappeared into the underbrush again.
The water-energy points on his screen had increased to 18. Not bad for a group of primates, although their presence was more annoying than the rain, and they provided fewer resources.
He decided to do nothing. he would save those energy points to control a creature when the time came. The name of the game now was patience.
That night, it didn’t rain. Puzzled, Leye waited for the thunder sent by her mother or some other sky deity to provide the nourishment he craved, but it didn’t come.
Suddenly, an unbearable pain began to emerge in the lower part of his structure.
"What the hell?"
Although he couldn’t see it, he perceived it clearly. It was as if a hook was slowly penetrating the lower part of his "body," with ten times more force than the blows the monkeys had given him that afternoon.
"Mother, make it stop, for heaven’s sake."
It didn’t stop. On the contrary, as the hours passed, Leye felt as though at least five spears were penetrating his interior, slow but sure. The pain was so strong that he was certain he would die.
Suddenly, he realized that if he directed some energy points to the places where he was being pierced, the pain lessened. He began to spend them, draining them without hesitation, only to see the pain return after a while.
"I have to get out of here!"
He knew he couldn’t. His body was embedded in the earth almost halfway, and in any case, it was a rock that could only move on sloped terrain. Everything around him was as flat as the surface of the sea.
Water-energy: 0/100
He was out of resources, but the pain didn’t stop. The rain and the creatures he now missed didn’t appear, as if sensing his need. The strange things now penetrating his interior continued to advance toward his core with each passing hour, increasing the pain.
He knew it was the end. Thinking of his mother and the happy time he had spent inside her, when everything was simpler, he surrendered to the silence and the pain that shattered both his interior and his rocky surface.
His last thought was for her, as she saw the roots now emerging around him, reaching his core, his consciousness. In his agony, he wondered if he, too, had had to go through this before becoming the proud being that galloped through the clouds with elegant reptilian movements, while distant thunder heralded a powerful storm.