Well, I mean, it could be less, but the herd all sleep at the same hour like clockwork, and they’ve done that around five times at about a twenty-hour difference. Either way, by this point, I’ve actually gotten really close to the pillar of light!

At the start of this, it looked kind of like a needle. Now, it’s almost tangible.

The only reason this doesn’t make me happy is since heading straight for the pillar would mean leaving the glacier, and the herd along with it. The crack-like area I’ve been wandering through all these days has actually been sloping around a bit here, so if I don’t leave soon, I might start heading away from it instead of towards it.

...But I don’t want to leave the cows. And not because I’m being clingy or anything, I just don’t want them to get hurt once I leave!

These are the kinds of thoughts currently running through my head as I wander alongside the bull at the front of the herd. It's not like we can talk or anything, but there’s a mutual sort of understanding between us.

But I don’t want to leave him, either! He’s just one guy, how can he possibly-,

Hold on. Is that… a fork in the road?

No, not quite, not really. But it’s like there’s a giant gash in between the glaciers framing this path. Looking at the mountainous regions to our sides, it seems the gash isn’t just through the glaciers but the mountains as well.

What the heck?

The herd and I soon read it.

Yup, there’s just a giant cut right through it. Forming a crossroad of sorts. But it doesn’t even look natural, all the edges it carves out are just hard and rigid! One of the cuts seems to pitter out by the end, returning to the typical glacier-mountain tiger-stripes. But the other side, the one headed straight towards the pillar of light… It reaches an abrupt end.

My pot of gold.

I turn to the bull and he meets my eye. No words exchanged, but he understands.

But maybe I don’t want to go? Maybe I want to stay with-,

The bull starts walking, turning his back on me. The cows and the calves give me fleeting glances before following him. I’m left standing alone. I shouldn’t feel bad. We were just tagging along. I protected them and they… they were my company.

Really, they did nothing for me that I couldn’t have done myself. Useless cows and bulls.

...So why do I feel so empty?

I wander, eyes skyward on the rainbow, feet moving towards my pot of gold.

A-, alright! Here we go! Towards wherever-the-heck-I’m-going!

I wonder if I’ll be able to eat the thing making the bubble? Then again, all things considered, the purpose of the bubble is probably to keep asteroids from pelting the planet, so if I want this ecosystem to remain, I guess my best bet is to just keep it going. Even so, according to not-my-memories, there should be other such crystals around here. Of the edible kind! And when I eat them, I’ll become bigger!

...Why do I even want to become bigger? Oh, wait, survival. Hrm. One of these days I’ll be able to strive for something other than just surviving, but that day is not today!

Today, I’m-,

Wait, hang on, I’m being attacked. At least, I think so?

Just in the corner of my eyes, I can see these white almost gorilla creatures. Each about a tenth of my height. There aren’t that many of them, only around thirty, but just a look at them puts me on edge. They don’t seem too friendly, and I ready my tentacles for an attack.

...Though, how can I know they aren’t friendly for sure? How can I tell they don’t want to be friends?

I still my offensive. Let’s see what they do.

The lot of them are clambering on the sides of the deep groove I’m pacing through, but at noticing that I’ve halted, they move. A large monkey, about half my size, lands right in front of me. The rest follow. I watch with bated breath as the monkey approaches and reaches out its hand. Maybe for-, for a handshake?

I compress one of my secondary tentacles into a single thick tentacle and reach out as well. He grips my tentacle.

The monkey rips off my tentacle. The rest go berserk and climb onto me like I was a damn tree.

Aha. So that’s how it is, then?

But I have many tentacles. I have enough tertiary and secondary tentacles to grab each and every one of these monkey jerks! And that is just what I do. Heck, I don’t even wait for the big boss monkey to attack before I shove all his underlings into my awaiting gullet!

450 -> 1 235

It takes the boss monkey a minute or so to react to the carnage I exact upon his underlings, and once he does, I’ve already eaten every creature he arrived with, random limbs scattered across the ground beneath our feet.

1 235 -> 1 590

Only one left.

The boss monkey, stupid as he is, turns tail to run but my tentacles are quicker. And now I know just what to do with him, since he’s a little too big to fit in even my primary mouth. Since he has four limbs and I have seven primary tentacles, I’m able to hold him in one tentacle each while I stand on the rest. He squirms futilely. I crush his entire body in a single movement. If the many crushed organs don’t kill him, the snapped spine sure must have. And then I eat him.

1 590 -> 2 740

...I still don’t feel truly fulfilled. But that doesn’t matter at the moment. I just need to keep going.

While I walk, the pillar of light growing nearer and nearer with each hour, I get attacked by two more such groups of monkeys, all beginning the exchange by feigning trust and hope for mutual allegiance. I kill and eat them all.

2 740 -> 7 320

...How much does an increase in size cost again?

Increase Size? Cost: 7 000 (you have 7 320)

...Hrm. I guess it’s worth it? It better be! Otherwise, I’ll be real upset for no good reason! Buy it!

7 320 -> 320

I could’ve predicted that myself, yanno? Anyhoo!

I’m starting to get really close to the pillar of light, I can tell. I’ve only stood beneath a skyscraper once, but it’s really starting to feel like that. Like looking up at something so completely beyond oneself that it’s hard to even understand what it is. There is only about half a kilometre left, I can tell. The path ends pretty abruptly there, right at the base of the pillar of light.

I’m almost there.