Untitled

All copyrights go to stauker, and the human behind aforementioned alias.

*

The vast glacier filled the once fertile valley, distant mountains rising barren in the distance. A young female stood swaddled in thick robes, huddled in front of a solitary leather setee. I shuffled closer, hunched against the cold in my parka. I opened my mouth, then closed it again, deeply afraid of finding the answer I sought. With great trepidation, I gathered my courage and spoke.

"What do you await, young one?" I asked.

The small figure looked up, a cold, distant look of yearning in her eyes.

"I await the end of this era, when life will rip itself limb from limb and rebuild itself in a new image,"

I sighed, desperate to ask more, but knowing the price to be paid for such impertinence.

"Knowledge is power, safety is life,"

Her words have been running through my head ever since then, as I rallied the globe to create a vast compendium of the combined knowledge of the human race. I hope it helps.

→ A scientist, and the globe.

"Well, Karl, what do you think?"

"It's what we came for? Call it in,"

"Yessir," the first creature said, heading back out through the tunnels.

His powerful limbs carried him effortlessly along, shabby rags protecting his sensitive ears from the cold. Clear membranes slid in place over his four small, delicate eyes as he stepped out into the biting wind that whipped across the mountain peaks. Ice chunks bounced off his thick hide as his nostrils flared, quickly filling the massive air sac he kept folded against his throat. When it was almost as big as his torso, he braced himself and clenched the muscles that made up the sac. The imposing sklignar finally opened his mouth, making the mountain side tremble with a staccato burst of infrasound, the pressure wave rolling over the mountains and continuing on for hundreds of kilometers.

Karl walked up to the creature who had sent him on the icy excursion - he had enjoyed it, but he did have offspring to take care of. The creature he approached was surprisingly normal, with only six eyes - all on its head - and four arms, all on its torso. Even the massive hooves and thin, wrinkled hide weren't too off-putting.

"Is it what you expected?" he rumbled at the creatures back.

"Oh, it's so much more!" the creature said in a multitude of clicks and honks, hooves fhumping against packed dirt as it turned around.

"Then I'll take my leave,"" Karl rumbled, neatly cutting of what may have become a needlessly long and one sided conversation.

"Karl." came a sad, slow series of whistles, giving him pause mid-turn. As the beast plodded closer he held out a simple clay tab, covered in a child's attempt at common runic.

"My daughter wrote this for you, it seems the bear is active,"

Karl gently took the small tab in his talons, carefully putting it in his saddle bags.

"I will call my hotland kin to shelter you from the Unwelcome. Otherwise, what will happen, will happen," he sighed, disappearing into the cold desert night.

The andrel watched the overly large shadow retreat until it blended into the night, before turning to the artefacts he had brought him. Lazily plodding his way towards the large pile of infinitely black cubes, he gently picked one up. It was exactly what it looked like - a black cube, about the breadth of his forearm, boring but without blemish. He held it tight as a writhing chaos of pressure washed through his encampment, leaving him unbalanced and disoriented. He just stood there for a few seconds after the sklignars bellow had passed, regaining control over his senses. As the nausea left him, he gently put the black cube back amongst its twenty-four brethren. There was one artifact that was unlike the rest, shimmering silver with strange symbols running down both sides. An arm's length and half as wide, and as thick as his fingers. He ran one thick finger over the runes, and the face lit up in moe foreign symbols, shifting into mist beneath the surface of the strange tablet only to snap into perfect common runic. The fading light, the call of sleep, it all disappeared as he started reading. Some of it heresy, most of it held enough weight to make his head hurt, and yet he knew that every word was true. It spoke of the mythic age before, when the writers explored the distant stars, and made more in the ground below.

By the time the andrel had finished reading, he could hear the creatures of the night going about their business. The dim cacophony came together to form a melodic din, a comforting hum that spoke of safety and undisturbed rest. Setting the strange silver tablet down on top of its cube counter-parts, the andrel locked out his legs and spine, those perfectly smooth artefacts his last sight before he fell into the land beyond dreams.

Karl gave a quick bellow, to both settle the snow in front of him and to alert his mate to his imminent arrival. He was eager to see his youngling, to see how she had grown in the weeks since his departure. HIs heart warmed as he heard the distance echoes of his younglings eager response. He quickened his pace, the last kilometer seeming as only a few steps in his rush to get home. He shook himself with joy, breaking into a loping run, at the sight of his daughter dancing in the snow outside their cave.

La'nii chittered in glee at her papi's approach, the shaking ground tickling her feet as he approached. They played in the snow, enjoying the last moments of the setting sun.

"Inside, little one," her papi finally rumbled, shaking the snow off his back. La'nii followed her papi back into the cheerfully lit cave, winding through his legs as he nuzzled her mother in greeting.

"What is wrong, dearest?," her mother rasped, the somber tone shattering La'nii's exuberance.

"I'm so sorry, my love," Papi rumbled, sliding off his carry-bags and gently pulling out a frozen clay tab. She tried to look at what it said, only for papi to gently cover it with his massive talons. He turned towards her, stooping down so he filled her vision.

"What does it say, Papi?," she whimpered, the sadness in his four eyes scaring her as much as it had the first time. "Is Marg gonna get lost too?"

"La'nii, my love, what would you do to change the world?," he asked, his eyes searching her like they did when she took extra sugar-lichens, only sadder.

"Would it make you proud?,'' she asked, not sure what her papi meant.

"Very much so", he murmured, gently handing the small tab down to her.

La'nii gently took the clay tab in her claws, careful not to scratch the words. Her head started to hurt but she pushed that aside, reading a story about a youngling that did great things, exploring the distant stars and even bringing a few back home. She smiled as she drifted off, delightful imaginings of bringing her Papi one of those glittery specs from the sky.

The andrel peered through his outermost set of eyes, glad that they didn't stay closed as he slept. His every instinct was like a sklignar bellowing danger. He kept every muscle frozen, waiting for something to move in a way that it shouldn't. Everything was as he had left it, with the addition of a small rodent sleeping on his desk. Except rodents wouldn't set him on high alert, nor would they sleep in the open. His eyes flitted around his encampment, desperate to find the intruders before the nights chill wore off.

There! A few patches of ground were too smooth, and even more terrifying, the only creatures that could camouflage so perfectly were only active in the hottest hours of the day. Hissing in frustration, he forced all his joints open, dragging his sluggish muscles forward to grasp the rodent, trapping it under his armoured digits. The rodent was instantly awake, yet perfectly calm. Shit.

"Hive mind..." he hissed, bringing his face in close to the rodents.

The rodent quickly began tapping away in the code of the voiceless ones, staccato tapping interrupted by bursts of silence.

"What of the predators? And the prey?"

"So you've already read the silver tablet," he replied.

"We have, and our question remains,"

"How did you find out so quickly?" He asked.

"We are the desert, we reiterate our question: what of the relationship between predator and prey?"

"I am confident the cubes have an answer," he stated.

"Let us be the answer. We will handle the mindless food prey, make each generation better than the last. All we ask is protection, and to further our own intelligence,"

"Why would a gestalt need protection?" He asked the rodent.

"Gestalts cannibalize, and I doubt you would let us breed combat beasts,"

"Kill sentients, and you will be hunted," he hissed.

"Deal. Sleep now, and there will be food and a surprise when you wake,"

"I sleep only because my death would bring you nothing," he grumbled.

The rodent merely smoothed it's fur back in place, before curling up to sleep as well.

The disembodied consciousness quivered in joy, before reaching out to it's many hundreds of thousands of bodies and releasing a small bit of it's happiness into their primitive minds. On distant cliffs, leathery wings were spread wide as the gestalt led the great beast inland. It revelled in the power and freedom of flight, doing a quick somersault while it tried to expand itself into the mountains. It was surprisingly easy, turns out all you had to do was head in on the wings of a bone skreet and find a herd of waddling blob creatures, and you were in. The gestalt giggled to itself, going home in the skreet whilst heading deeper into the mountains as the herd of blob creatures, their thick rolls of fat making them nigh impervious to the cold. Soon enough, gestalt had reached their destination - a cute little lichen cave chock full of non sentients. He looked around in awe through forty different creatures, spellbound. The cave led into impenetrable darkness, but the walls, ceiling, and most of the floor was just a mat of thick, fluffy lichen, some of them colours the gestalt didn't know existed. They hung from the ceiling like upside down trees, and great bushes grew from the floor. The walls were a chaotic plethora of colors, shapes, and textures. He was loathe to disturb it, but those with stomachs must eat. And besides, they would grow back. The ones in the desert caves always did.

What hid in the darkness where even the blobs dared not go, that vexed him. They would return when he was the mountains as well as the desert. Two biospheres, and not a drop of blood spilled needlessly. And that was just a side effect of his original intentions. The gestalt was happy. It was a good day.

*

If you're reading this, yes it's short, yes there's more, no I don't know when, there's, like, six other stories in progress, one of which I've scrapped and redone three times now. This and one other have not been even remotely planned out, so feel free to suggest something fun and see if it works it's way into the story. Happy holidays, stauker.