Zogrusz dreamed of floating in an endless black sea, but when he woke he found himself curled on stone. He yawned as he sat up, his jaw clicking. His body felt stiff, unresponsive, and he wondered how long he had slept. He remembered dragging himself into a cave, wending his way deeper and deeper under the mountain until he had found this cavern. It was surprisingly large, stone teeth dripping from a ceiling so tall that most of the trees he’d seen in the forest could have stood here without their tops brushing rock. There was also a pool of dark water, phosphorescent fish flickering in its depths, and many-legged insects that scurried along the walls in a continuous hissing patter.

Zogrusz heaved himself to his feet and stretched. He ran his tongue over his jagged teeth and flexed his stunted wings. He felt . . . different. He had been worried that the hunger would return after he rested, but in truth, he felt even better than when he’d thrown himself down among the boulders to sleep. From his foray into the minds of the animals around the fire, he knew he had experienced something like when they celebrated and drank the fermented juice of certain fruits. Drunk. He’d grown drunk on whatever he’d consumed as the animals had run screaming from him.

The People, they had called themselves, though from their pilfered memories he also knew that they were not the only tribe. They had wandered all over these lands, from the plains to the hills to the jungle, and everywhere they had encountered others like themselves to fight and trade and mate with.

He must find them again. His hunger had vanished in those chaotic moments after he’d tried to introduce himself, and Zogrusz savored the memory of the delicious sweetness he’d tasted in the air. Had he truly feasted on their fear? He wasn’t sure what he thought of that. It was certainly good that he’d learned how to fill the emptiness inside himself . . . but it did not bode well for making any sort of connection with these creatures. And he had yearned for so long to communicate with something else in the universe.

Zogrusz’s eyes drifted to the tunnel where he’d entered this cavern. There were yet more things to discover in this world, he was sure of it.

***

He emerged blinking into the day. The star around which this planet circled was yellow, young and vibrant. It would be many billions of years before it burst forth from its shell and swelled to consume this world. Zogrusz found this thought comforting, as the riot of life here would have many ages yet to flourish.

The sun drenched the mountainside sloping down away from him in golden light. There were a few scraggly trees among the boulders, but mostly the view was unobstructed all the way to where the mountain merged with the plains below.

Plains?

Zogrusz frowned in confusion. He distinctly remembered slogging through the thick jungle right up until reaching the mountain’s stony flank. But now he could only see a few scattered patches of trees, not the great green expanse that had spread below him when he’d first descended from the stars. Strange. He narrowed his eyes, focusing on these colored flat patches of land where once trees had been. On some, huge herds of four-legged animals roamed, while others were divided into neat rows of plants, almost as if there was some intelligence behind their order. And in the far distance, he could make out what looked like many heaps of stone, smoke rising from several of these piles to stain the sky. They reminded him of larger and more elaborate versions of the wood and vine buildings the tribe he had approached had lived in.

The world had changed as he slept. He had not been curled under the mountain for a month or a year – he guessed that this world had journeyed around its star hundreds of times since last he’d stood on this slope. But if that was true, why had his hunger not returned? In fact, he could sense a trickle of sustenance entering him right now, and as he followed this stream back to its source he realized with almost complete certainty that it was coming from the collection of stone buildings beyond where the great herds milled on the plains below.

How was that possible?

He needed to investigate. But the memory of those animals scrambling away from the fire was seared into Zogrusz’s mind. If he wandered down into that village as he was now, he suspected the response would be much the same.

But there was something different about himself since waking. He had changed after the hole had been filled. He had grown larger . . . and new things were fluttering inside him. Powers he did not have before, and he sensed that one of them was the ability to alter his appearance like he had in the hazy time long ago when he had first emerged from the void. He thought back to the night in the clearing, the image of that animal’s sibling that had been in her thoughts when she had first turned to Zogrusz as he stepped from the trees. A young . . . man. Yes, that was what these creatures called the male half of their species. Olive-skinned with dark curly hair, dressed in the cured hides of other creatures, brandishing a spear. That was who she had been expecting to see. Keeping that memory firmly fixed in his mind, Zogrusz began to change his form – he felt himself dwindling, his scales growing smooth and soft, his mouth-tendrils and wings receding. With his newly fashioned fingers he traced his lips and nose, tugged on his shoulder-length curls.

He now looked like one of these animals. One of the People.

It was time to go introduce himself again.