The world had been dreaming. For thousands of years it had a dream that it was free of all true danger, that it would never again face the troubles of a past long forgotten by all who lived on it. It was a dream however and it was time to wake up.
Humanity had conquered vast stretches of land fighting against nature itself. It had invented sailing, guns, machines and was beginning to master electricity. With all their great inventions and their grand achievements there was still vast stretches of land untouched by human hands rarely seen by anyone but the lost or desperate. One such place was a vast wild forest sandwiched between the unending sea to the south-east, and the grassy plains of the north-west.
Hidden in this forest was a small hill, indistinguishable from the many others like it. This hill was special though, on its west side it had a unassuming cave more ancient than history itself. For few millennium the cave had sat as the last remnant of its heart, a single shard, grew. Hidden from all, it had steadily become bigger, atom by atom piece by piece, the ruby red stone had grown. This morning it was the size of a small fist and was cut in a way that would make most jewelers drool.
As the dew began to settle and the birds began to sing, there was an unnatural pulse. It was quickly followed by another, and another each stronger and more confident than the last. Like a war drum the ruby heart beat, screaming for attention but was heard by none. As with most great threats to civilization it was not born with a bang but an imperceptible whisper.
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A spark
A life
A beginning…
A light, a bright yellow light. The new life, a child, stared in wonder as the light slowly shifted from yellow to gold, to red and then to an almost black blue. When the light seemed to have stopped changing, it slowly broke from its trance and felt its body. Becoming more aware of its existence and strengthening its sense of self. It was a small, grey tube made of stone with many spikes growing from the top and bottom. At the one end, imbedded in a large damp pillar, was a small perfectly symmetrical red stone that glowed and pulsed slightly. At the other was the blurry dark blue wall which was what had enchanted him before.
The child sat and pondered what that was, what it was, and what was its purpose. On one end a glowing stone on the other a light show, out of which it could only make out the blurriest of images. For a while it was content with this existence, however it was not meant to be.
Suddenly, the child’s unfocused attention shot towards the blurry light show, something foreign had entered its existence and it felt violated. Still curiosity got the better of the newborn and it observed the small thing as it explored the child's body. The invader was grey like the surroundings but was much smaller and could move on four legs. The creature was covered in fur with especially long hairs on its nose but none on its long pink tail. It observed this creature as it scampered to the red stone, often stopping and rearing up to smell the air. It honestly thought the thing was adorable and wondered where the creature had come from. Did the creature just pop into existence like it did?
The serenity and calmness of the situation was dashed as soon as the creature reached the glowing stone. Once there the creature bit down and began chewing. Immediately the child's body reeled in pain and horror. It could feel a part of itself being torn away and destroyed. Overwhelmed by the new sensations it lashed back with emotions it did not even know it had. A spike once firmly attached to the top of the cave fell and in one foul blow crushed the small invader.
A wealth of knowledge flooded the child and overwhelmed it as it was still reeling in pain, fear and anger. Instinctively it collapsed the opening to its cave to be safe from those things. Slowly the pain subsided and it began to calm down. It still felt like a part of it was forever lost but at least the creature lay flattened under a rock never to hurt him again. it did not know that it could shape its body at all, in fact until now it was not sure it was his body at all. It mentally willed one of the pillars to fall and it fell. With a better understanding of itself, it began to review the new knowledge. It learned that the blurry lights at one end was in fact an opening to a huge space teaming with an uncountable amount of those monsters. It decided collapsing the cave was the correct decision.
It now began to understand that it was but a small piece in a larger place and the first thing that found it had been consumed by a desire to destroy it. The creatures’ memories showed it scampering along and suddenly getting an irresistible urge to destroy whatever was is in that cave. It seems as if it was born into a space determined to destroy it. But it was not all bad, it had learned it could manipulate its body. tentative it flexed, and an opening began to form to the right of the pillar that housed its stone. It was as if the walls themselves were liquid as they melted back making a small room just big enough for its glowing rock and the spike it resided on. It then attempted to move the two and was amazed as they glided crossed the surface as if they were not attached to a solid stone floor. The stone slid smoothly into the pocket it had made and stopped when it willed it to. It seemed that it could make a home here, safe from the dangers outside. It would be a grand home and visions of a massive cave structure filled its head.
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However, something was wrong, and the red stone began to dim. It could feel it losing the ability to think and perceive and was frightened. It did not want to die so soon after its birth and lashed out it every directing in fear before losing consciousness.
A spark
A life
A beginning…
A light, a bright yellow light. The child stared at the light as the events of before poured in. In its rage it had destroyed most of its pillars and spikes. By chance it had created a small opening in its blockade at the entrance. Although it did not notice it before, it could feel it now, something came from that opening. Flowing like a liquid it filled the cave and permeated everything. When it reached the glowing stone, it was consumed and converted into something else. It assumed that this process was the mechanism that give it life and the bigger the opening to the cave the more power it would have.
It could not be safe it could never be safe. To survive it had to be exposed and to be exposed meant death. At least the damage to the red stone had begun to disappear, but it was nearly out of rocks to throw at anything else that may enter it.
It needed defense and it needed it fast if it wanted to survive. The simplest plan was to build more spikes and make the glowing stone hard to reach. Which it did by creating many random juts and spikes, far more than it had before. It also affixed the pillar which housed its stone to the ceiling. Even with all of this it knew it was weak and it was afraid.
It wished it had one of those monsters that attacked. If it could have one of those it could at least fight on equal terms. As if by its command one suddenly materialized in the middle of its cave. It reeled in horror screaming for the creature to leave. To its surprise the creature listened. The small thing scampered as fast as it could and leaped out the opening. After which the creature promptly dematerialized.
Understanding washed over it, it did not know why but it knew instinctively that creature was not real. The creature was just a part of it. Just an afterimage of a once living being that it could now recreate and command. It made as many copies of the creature as it could make before it felt exhaustion creep in and ordered them to protect it. It seemed it had a limit to how many creatures it could make before getting tired, but anything created by it listened to it.
Twenty-five of the grey things began to petrol the entrance and it secluded itself, content to watch its creations work. They scampered in basic patterns or sat very still watching the entranced in a way that did not quite seem natural. They did their job though and it felt much better with them around.
While he was musing about his grey defenders a small green wiggly tube slithered through the hole. Instantly the grey things attacked and while a many died to the green things bite it was no match for the sheer numbers. When the green thing finally laid still it was down to only 10 grey things, a massive loss. It tested its ability and like before with a single wish he could summon them. It now had a small army of green and grey things numbering at ten green and fifteen greys. The single invader had taken out over ten grey things and it was glad the green thing on its side now.
For days it continued like this, with the only real challenge being a black flying thing that had taken a long time to kill because his newborn’s creatures struggled to reach it. Only after a lucky spike drop that damaged the left wing did it finally kill the thing. That all changed however when two small fleshy appendages, reached in and began dismantling it wall. Whatever this thing was it frightened it but it was also excited at the prospect of getting something so large.
A massive head peaked in and its previous excitement was turned to dread as it realized just how big and scary this was. The strange thing pulled more rock lose and began to climb in, it ordered all of the creatures under its comand to hide and be ready to strike. As soon as the strange thing entered fully it minions attacked. The thing flailed and fought back with terrible screams and powerful blows but was no match. It watched as the fight slowly left the thing and decided to drop a spike to end it. The fight was a lot easier but far messier than it imagined, and it was a little disappointed. It did not know what it was going to do with such a large body in its cave.
The child however was not prepared for the wealth of knowledge that flooded it, foreign ideas such as language, names and society. It felt bad for killing such an intelligent creature, it now knew as a human child. However, the child had held information it did not even know it needed and may have very wall saved its life, it thanked the human kid.
It began cataloging its creatures and its new ideas. It had snakes, mice, bats, crickets and many more, but what was it. It did not know; the kid had no information about anything like him. What the it did know about was humans. Humans scared it, human creations scared it, most of all firearms scared it. It could see the aftermath of a great war, it could feel the pain and fear the kid felt when his mother and father were killed in front of him. It did not fully understand the reasons why war existed or how the kids mother and father were “traitors” but it was terrified by a species that could kill its own kind so carelessly. It could now understand why the kid had fled to a cave which housed who knows what.
It decided that it would do anything in its power to survive against an enemy so savage and frightening. First it needed a name, and in memory of the child's help, it decided on the human kids name. From now on he was a he and he will be called Johnathan, and Johnathan was determined to fuck up anything that entered him.