- ???? -

[I walk down a muddy path, darkness all around me. in the distance ahead I see a dim light, barely big enough to notice, I walk toward it. I hear whispering in the surrounding darkness, the words are foreign to me. Occasionally, as I walk, a silhouette would come out of the darkness and stand in front of me. It would stay there until I walk up to it, and it would then turn around and walk ahead a few steps before fading away.

I grew accustomed to the phenomenon, ‘just reach the light and rest’ is what I thought. My surroundings don’t change, no matter how much distance I cover, nor does the dim light grow any closer. A silhouette walks up in front of me again, whispering in its unknowns tongue, almost as if it’s expecting a reply. I dismiss its actions as I did to the other silhouette before it. They hold no meaning, I must reach the light.

Unlike the others, this silhouette does not move when I reach it, it just stands there, its whispers sound so much clearer than the others. I look at the shadowy figure and try to touch it, only to be met with a nothing as my hand passes through the shadow. I see no reason to stay and walk around the figure, yet the whisperings are ever present. The specter follows me, speaking to me.

I can make out a few words of the specter now, amongst the rambling I heard the words ‘Why’, and ‘Left’. I walk faster and faster, almost running now, but the silhouette is still behind me, almost screaming at me. Another specter walks out of the darkness, the previous one walks up to It and they exchange their whispers before the one who has been following me goes back to the darkness. The other silhouette stands before me now, it smaller than the last.

I walk up to it and it too does not fade away, it stands face to face with me, whispering… I start feeling strange; as if I should recognize the figure or at least the words it speaks, but I can't. They are too foreign, too strange, too old…?

“What are you?” I ask the silhouette only to be met with more whispers

“Who are you?” The silhouette stops its whispering at my question, a hand emerges from the shadowy body and points at my chest. The silhouette then turns around and fades away into the darkness. I place my hand on the spot that the specter pointed at and look down. I can't see myself… I place my hand in front of my face but I still can't see it. No matter, yes… it doesn’t matter, I must reach the light.

“Why…. Left….?” I turn at the sound of these words and am yet again met with a silhouette standing before me. I feel it looking at me with sorrow, its whispers almost muffled by the darkness. I walk passed it, the light… the light is important, I must get to it, these shadows hold no meaning.

“WHY…. LEFT….?!” The specters voice thunders in my ears I briefly turn around and look at the silhouette, only to see nothing but the darkness…

The light seems brighter now, I feel I'm getting closer, maybe I can finally reach it. Two shadows emerge from the darkness, both stand tall and quiet, no whispers exit their mouths. Instead, they speak words meant for me to understand.

“Why do you walk?” Ask the specters in unison.

“To reach the light,” I answer plainly.

“Why have you left?” Again they speak in unison.

“Left…? Where did I leave?” They make no sense…

“WHY HAVE YOU LEFT?!”]

I open my eyes in fright, there is no sign of the darkness anymore, there is just nothing… where am I? It’s cold here… I feel strange, this is weird… I am aware of myself but I see nothing, there is no dark nor is there light. I feel something around me, but I have no idea what it is. The cold feels so real, how can there be nothing here? I try to move around only to realize I'm in some sort of confined space. I can feel liquid around me now, cold liquid. Beyond it lays some sort of a wall, an egg shaped wall, it feels soft and alive.

The cold isn’t so frightening now; it’s just cold, simple cold… I remember hearing a voice, feeling a voice. Where am I? I’m not alone anymore am I? The thought is comforting but I can’t feel the voice that spoke to me before… ah, so tired… maybe I should sleep some more and then try to spread out again. Yeah, that’s what I’ll do, rest and try again…

I wake up in the same cold container, the liquid is constant and stable, I feel safe here, it’s nice. I try to spread my being outside only to find more cold. Not liquid though, just cold. I push further and discover some strange rocks. They feel soft, just like my wall. I try to push through the ‘shell’ and find the same cold liquid that surrounds me even now. There, in the heart of the liquid filled rock floats a being…

Surprised, I pull my being back to my shell, my safe, cold shell… Did this being in the rock speak to me before? There were multiple rocks like that one, why didn’t they speak to me? Did I invade its home? Will it not speak to me again? I take a moment to calm down and regain my rationality. With my distress calmed down I spread my being around myself. Trying to get a good feel for my container, I feel myself floating in the center of the shell, the shell is pulsating… why haven’t I noticed this before? Maybe it didn’t pulsate before? ah no matter, cold liquid surrounds me ,just like the other being I felt, nothing new here.

I push further, outside my shell. I once again reach the other rocks… better to call them shells too now. I enter the one I visited before and once again it’s just floating there, in the middle of the shell, so peaceful. I try to feel what the being is, maybe talk to it again. I try to greet it but I'm met with silence, I feel weakness from the being. It can’t be the one who talked to me before; I felt emotion embedded with words that time. I surround the other being with awareness and probe it, I seem to be asleep, maybe I should try one of the others.

Leaving the being to its rest I depart from its shell and search for another one, which isn’t too hard as they’re practically spread out not too far from each other. When I spread out my being before I felt about 6 other rocks or shells. I will by awareness into a shell next to the previous one and explore its insides; again I find the cold liquid and a being in the middle. I probe it, just as I did to the one before, and try to speak to it. No answer. It too is asleep, I try others, only to find them sleeping as well. It seems I'm the only one awake.

I spread my being further out until I reach another wall, this one being colder than the shells, it’s harder too. I spread as much as I can but it seems I can’t get passed the second wall, either the wall is too thick or I can’t spread far enough. Thinking it inconsequential I return to my shell and sleep once again.

I awake to the now familiar cold liquid, spreading outside my shell I check up on the others, they’re still asleep. I return to my shell and try to feel the outlines of my body; yes I seem to have a physical body. I first found out when I probed the other beings, we seem to be the same. I feel comfortable in this body, it feels natural, can’t move around freely yet, but I can and move just a little. I have one head and five limbs, them being two arms, two legs, and a tail.

My body is covered with soft little scales, it seems my body is fed by the liquid; it seeps inside my body through the scales. Now that I focus on it I can feel the scales harden little by little as the liquid passes through them. My arms and legs have five fingers each, with tiny, soft claws. It seems I don’t have enough control to wriggle my fingers one by one yet, I should practice. The tail is different, though, I can slowly move it around in the liquid. It is quite draining though and I feel sleepy again.

I wake up with renewed vigor and decide to experiment a little. If I can spread my being and probe others then maybe I can influence the intake of the liquid into my body. I spread out by awareness, stopping just at the inside of my shell, and start slowly compressing the liquid. This soon proves too much and I am forced to stop as I succumb to exhaustion.

I wake up and refocus my being, while compressing all the liquid in the shell is too draining, is it possible. This time, I’ll try something else, I spread my being just outside my body and push the liquid that’s inside my zone into my body through my scales. A refreshing feeling encompasses my body, success. I continue slowly taking in the cold liquid until exhaustion takes its toll again.

The cold welcomes me back as my consciousness returns, I check up on the other shells and find that they’re still asleep. No surprise there I guess. I then weakly stretch my body, working on flexing my joints and moving my tail. Once I’m done I continue with my little routine and push the liquid into my body as I did before. little by little the liquid drains from the shell, and my soft container shrinks and begins to fold onto itself, nothing drastic, just slightly different than before.

Time passes as I carry on with my routine, and the others have begun to awake. When I check up on them I can sometimes feel their curiosity or their fear of the cold. Their shells are now noticeably different from mine. While theirs is still well rounded, smooth, and still pulsating with power; mine is folded and shriveled up. I feel more in control now, more capable. I can move my arms and legs on command and use my tail to level out some folds underneath my body, so I can comfortably lie on the bottom of the shell. Now that my body took in almost two-thirds of the liquid I can’t float in it anymore.

As I spread my being to check up on the others like many times before I feel something, I feel emotions; excitement…I feel ecstatic, there are others as well! Maybe they are the ones who spoke to me. I search for words in their emotions yet find none. This saddens me somewhat but I'm still happy to find others, maybe I can reach out to them…

I spread my awareness to one of the beings that I felt emotions from, this one is big… they all are. Maybe we’re different? Or are they different? They don’t even have a shell… maybe I shouldn’t probe them, and just see what happens? No, they are here as well so they surely aren’t hostile… or are they? Maybe they’re here to take the others… but they’ve just woken up. They didn’t even take in most of the liquid; they must be weak and sleepy like I was in the beginning.

Fear sprouts in my being; I must protect the others… I'm the eldest. I shrink my being, leaving just enough to cover all of the others including myself inside. I use the rest to harden the outskirts of my being, compressing all I am into a wall, a safe place for me and the others. I feel the bigger beings approach, stopping just outside of my wall. They exclude a feeling of confusion, one of them reaches out to touch my wall, pressing down on it. The force the being pushes with against my wall is immense, I can’t take much more. I try to push against the being only to be extinguished… my efforts were for naught. I hope the others will be safe as my consciousness slips from beneath my grasp.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

-Murus of the Many -

The time has come… I finally get to hold my young. My One and I are walking hand in hand down the ice corridors with the other mates, all of us are excited and impatient to pick up our offspring’s. This greeting was the biggest in a long time now, just the two of us produced five young, they can still be taken by the cold, yes, but nonetheless… Greeting five young is a rare phenomenon.

All together we all Greeted thirdly-eight young ones, thirty-eight potential future warriors of the Many. Ah, I'm so proud right now… The one who has overcome the cold is the reason for most of my pride... I haven’t heard of this happening before, and what he did… He felt my despair and radiated a feeling so bright it swallowed up all the grief at the Greetings. The pure happiness he excluded, I just can't fathom how he did what he did.

A curious feeling calls out to me from my left “Murus, you must be excited…” It’s Asa’di, my One.

“Of course, I am love, but aren’t you the same?” I ask teasingly as I remember her fit of hysteria when our young fought off the cold. A largely concealed wave of embarrassment is emanating from my One, only soon to be replaced with a warm feeling of excitement.

“No use hiding it from you now is there… I can’t wait to meet them, they’re ours you know… ours.” Another wave escapes from my One, a wave of distant grief, she remembered our lost ones no doubt. This was our third Greeting, no young survived the previous ones. I grow agitated at the memory, how many were taken by the cold, with the decree of the Goddess… But the Many shall survive through this, we must.

“Calm yourself my One, the past is behind us,” Asa’di presses herself against my arm and places her hand on my heart. “The future is before us now, let us welcome it together.” I take her hand into my own, take a deep cold breath, and calm down.

“You are right as always my love, let us welcome it…” We continue along the ice tunnels, briskly walking to the Greeting caves, now in silence.

As we approach I sense a feeling of fear, this confuses me. I stop, spreading my sense to the others, checking if they felt the same. Having my suspicion justified we continue on, slowly. My One holds my hand tightly, and I return the gesture. We step through the cave entrance and spread our sense onto our young, thirty-seven eggs. One is missing! I quickly spread my sense further, deeper; to check up on the eggs only to be stopped just before the first few, what is this; there is something akin to a wall that stops my sense from passing through the front.

I walk towards the barrier and put my hand on it, It feels solid… I press down with a little force and sense the barrier shaking before my hand is pushed back. I rub the arm that was rejected by the barrier with my other one, and think about what’s happening here… the others are now coming closer, surely they are just as curious about what happened as I am.

I sense that the barrier has shattered, must’ve been much weaker than I thought. The others have carefully started to sense for their young, and my One has started doing the same. She found all five, but was surprised to discover one of them to be shriveled, and dried up. Her surprise was what drew me out of my short, dazed state. The four were normal and healthy, ready to ‘hatch’, but the last one, the fifth one… he was different. He was the one who survived before, it seems like he also sucked in most of the energy…

Normally, when young hatch, we gather leftover liquid energy from the shell, and feed it to the young, after mixing it with cold milk. But this one has almost used up all of his liquid, in the span of five days, haha… truly a special one. He also seems like the only one to be asleep… there’s still the question of the barrier from earlier. Was it one of the young? Can’t be one of the Many… and seeing as there is no one here, it must be one of them.

Did my little one do it? With what he’s done so far, it would be more believable than one of the other young doing it. Then there’s the feeling of fright I sensed before, maybe he was frightened by us? And set up the barrier to protect the eggs? A brave one if so, I’ll have a good time teaching him about the ways of the Many …