Dust to Dust: Monster 02

Wet

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Finally alone, the dust golem began inspecting itself, curious as to its new composition. Every step he took had dirt flaking off of him, and every time he made contact with bare earth again, he picked some up.

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He was slow. So very very slow. His earthen limbs were heavy, weighed down by the lack of hollow bones that allowed him such speed and agility in his past life. Reaching out with a paw, he swatted at a holly bush. The thorns didn't pierce him, they merely passed through him. He was an ethereal existence, his impassivity being the only reward for his loss of speed and what limited strength he used to possess.

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Testing the limits of the dirt body he now inhabited, the hare began to sprint. Well, sprint as best as he could. When he pushed off using his formerly impressive hind legs, the dirt tips of his feet cracked, and all his efforts to move resulted in broken feet. After assimilating enough dirt to repair his damaged feet, the rabbit began a new attempt to run, slightly changing his style.

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And again.

And again.

And again.

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Countless attempts later, the clever golem had devised a loping, stretching gait that allowed him to use his long hind legs reach to take great, stable strides across the ground. It wasn't as fast as he used to be, but it was the culmination of hours' work, and it wasn't getting better any time soon.

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As the intrepid little dust bunny bounded along his way, taking his new body for a spin, as it were, the dust that comprised him began to slowly peel away. Small amounts, at first, barely noticeable. A speck here, a speck there. But then they began to fall in greater numbers. A speck, a pebble, an entire twig, fallen to the ground, and for the first time since his rebirth, he wasn't sticking to the ground he was on.

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Danger. Death.

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Alarm bells go off in the rabbit's primitive consciousness, but the creature isn't a problem solver. He isn't an engineer, a god, or a hero from another world. He's a rabbit. His entire brain consists of eating, mating, and running. Since he learned to run, and couldnt find the necessary equipment to mate on his new body, the only option left was to eat. Low hanging edibles leaves and the lucky find of a root found their way into the golem's mouth as it devoured anything it could find, desperate in its attempt to survive. Every bite he took seemed to disappear into his body, revitalizing the warm feeling that pulled him together when he first materialized.

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The crumbling stopped for an hour. After an hour, it was back, and just as bad as it used to be.

And so the rabbit foraged for days on end, not noticing that it no longer slept, not noticing that it's size was slightly bigger than it used to be. Its mind was focused on the sole task of survival, which eventually led it to a clear, spring-fed pond.

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A drink, only a drink. His cute, dirty, button nose touched the water, testing whether to see if it was safe.

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Safe it was not.

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The water clung to his nose, seeping into the dirt, and slops of his nose began to fall into the water. He was falling apart again, but not because of lack of energy, but because he was being assaulted by the mere presence of water.

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The rabbit scrambled, attempted to run as fast as it could, but a hind leg stamped into a puddle as it ran, melting down into a mush. The rabbit pulled at the leg in order to break it free, but the supposedly useless leg kept kicking. Once the rabbit drug the leg free, he managed to make it a distance away from the deadly pond, nursing his wounds. Once mobile again, the rabbit once again began to forage for food. No time wasted, survival is everything. However his gait was sloppy, something was throwing him off. His hind leg that had been dipped into water was broken. No, not broken, it was working far better than it had been previously. It felt sinewy once again, like the mud had memories of being a rabbit as well.

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The pond was deep, and dark, and a slip would cost the rabbit his life. But the new leg made him far too strong to ignore, so he tracked down a small stream coming out of the pond, and laid down where it was weakest.

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The trickling water slowly ran over the dust bunny, closing the cracks on his dirt body, the newly formed mud giving the rabbit the feeling of being a creature of flesh. He felt strong. The new mass weighed him down, but the benefits to the new-found strength were too many to list. No longer would he crack when exerting himself, or lack the energy to fight the wind.

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The dust bunny, made of dust no longer, padded back into the forest, eager to continue living.