Somewhere under the boundaries of human understanding, and past the borders of anyone's vision, was a place of nearly total darkness.
It could be said that the place was below everything that was, and beyond any distance that could be traveled.
Indeed these things were true, for despite its location under all things, one could dig into the earth forever and get no closer to it.
But even despite the place’s fathomless distance away from everything, humans had still set their feet upon it.
For on occasion, a mortal with particularly bad luck would fall helplessly upon its dark and endless soils, much like the light from their now distant homes.
These unfortunate few plucked from their lives would find their new environment excruciatingly cold, very quiet, and utterly barren anything but themselves.
It did, however, bear a smell. One of soot, ash, and other various indiscernible burnt things.
Not of something freshly singed; like a forgotten stew or the sleeves of the average pyroturgist, but one of coals from which heat had long since faded.
Like the stove of an abandoned fort.
Or a forest leveled by wildfire.
It was this smell and the faint lights from the unreachable above that would become the entire world to any poor soul left wandering these devoid lands. Taunting them by letting them know just how little they could do as they slowly froze, starved, or thirsted to death.
Still, despite the cold, dry and quiet nature of this place, few things could stave off the expansionist claws of life for long.
…
Motion, for the first time in forever. Fine particles of perfectly black dust cascaded down and away from a rising mound made from more of themselves. Since there was little wind in this place, whatever had disturbed these grains was the first thing to do so in an untellable amount of time.
Finally, something breached through the shifting surface of the dark sands and met with the stagnant air for the very first time. What it was could not be seen, for it wore the same shade of unreflective dark that belonged to the surrounding soils it crawled from.
The air upon its skin seems to reinvigorate the creature, and it began to writhe and shake to further free itself from its dusty earthen confines.
Soon, what could be called an approximation of a limb was now free, and the thing began flailing it to about in an attempt to further expedite its own unburial.
The thing marveled at the sensation of time passing as it slowly tried to unearth itself, which happened to be quite a new concept to it.
The experiences it had gathered so far were all blurred together in a crushing sandy tomb from which no reference for change could be observed.
It was an interesting sensation indeed, once which caused every chaotic movement the thing made to echo in its mind as an echo of the past. A memory.
Slowly the creature’s chaotic spasms were guided into more orderly motions to free itself, and it now was dragging its limb through the soil to push more and more material out and away. It savored the contrast in feelings between earth and air against its skin as each handful of dust was scraped laboriously away. It felt good. Really good. The walls of its longtime prison were finally being toppled.
Dust grains flowed off of the creature’s glassy smooth skin like a liquid as it finally withdrew from the ground and stood up straight. It stretched all 4 of its limbs to their limit for the very first time and reveled in its new freedom.
The creature hugged itself, raking the 4 sharp claws that tipped its digits against its back as it embraced the very act of escape itself. A few drops of honey-thick fluid seeped from the created wounds, but the creature hardly paid any mind.
Seemingly in response, a thin whiplike tail the creature never knew it had began to twist and grab at everything in reach in a manner reminiscent of a creeping vine.
It was free. Free! And to think that it never even knew that freedom existed only moments ago.
The creature calmed as it slowly relaxed its joyous grip on its own torso. It had celebrated enough, and now desired to make use of its liberation in a more constructive way.
The creature looked around itself, but found its own body only a dull silhouette against surrounding terrain. Both were equally inky and dark, and no discernible features stood out from either. If the slight glow from above were any dimmer, the creature doubted that it would even be able to see its own limbs at all.
In fact, what was that light anyway?
The figure glanced upwards for the first time ever, and was immediately taken aback.
The sky was filled with an unimaginable amount of tiny lights that twisted and swirled like an unending storm. Stars. It knew what they were called.
Below the fathomless vastness, the creature could do nothing but stand motionless.
Were they just scattered about haphazardly, or was there some sort of complex structure to them? How many were there, really? Could they be touched?
A slight wind blew across the dark flats, one far too gentle to sweep the dusty soil into dunes. Still, it was enough to momentarily distract the figure from stargazing.
It tasted this new air gently blown from many leagues away with curiosity.
Interesting.
It was rather slight, but the breeze felt different when compared to the stagnant air the creature was used to. If the creature could speak, it would certainly call what it tasted… fresher.
…
There was never anything below the horizon. It was just dark. Forever.
The creature had been on the search for something in the gloom for a very long time now. A fallen star perhaps? Or would it bump into another creature such as itself; barely visible against the inky soil?
The scent it was following had faded long ago, drifting back to how it was when the creature was buried. Still, it could use the stars to recall what direction that tantalizing aroma had been drifting from, and was still marching towards it even now.
Only, there was a problem. The star that the creature had chosen to follow, one that seemed to be perfectly in line with the smell’s direction, was fading.
Slowly, as the creature counted hundreds of thousands of steps, the star was drifting away towards the horizon and growing ever dimmer.
The creature felt somewhat saddened by this. That star had served as its guide for so very long, but its time in the sky was now coming to a close.
As it took its next few thousand steps, the creature mourned the loss of its longtime companion as it watched it fade into nothing.
The creature blinked, finally breaking eye contact with the space that the star had once occupied. In all the time since it had laid eyes upon it while chasing that long gone aroma, and for all the hundreds of thousands of paces, never once had it looked away.
The stars would move; the creature had found, but only when unobserved.
It was very subtle, only barely noticeable out of the corner of the creature’s eye but still definitely very evident. Nothing about the sky seemed to match up with the creature's memories.
All it could do really was to stare as a single spot-
The creature froze.
There was something below the horizon.
No, it can’t be. That just isn’t something that happens.
There was never anything below the horizon.
But there it was.
Merely a dim smudge at this distance, but it still stuck out like a sore thumb against the nothing around it.
It was the first mark that the creature had seen on the empty canvas upon which it stood.
The creature’s instincts were divided at first, with quite a few of them barking danger and to run away as fast as possible.
However, these voices were quickly overtaken and drowned out by a restless desire to find out just what this new thing was.
While most of the new feeling was just simple curiosity, the creature couldn’t shake the feeling that it was being compelled forward by something.
Like it really should go investigate. It had to.
The creature approached cautiously. After all, there was no telling what this new thing was at such a great distance. Was it alive and capable of movement like the creature was? What if it had claws as well? Would they have to fight? Would the creature even have a chance to win with no prior experience in combat?
The creature paused briefly with each step taken to potentially jump away just in case the thing were to suddenly leap at it. Carefully it noted information about the thing as it drew closer.
It was about the same size as the creature, if not a little larger; and shared the same general body plan with 2 legs and 2 arms.
While the thing was currently prone on the soil, the creature guessed that it was probably capable of standing upright just like itself.
So why wasn’t it?
Was it just a ruse to lower the creature's guard?
The closer it got, the less that the creature considered this a possibility, and when the two figures finally converged, it was certain: This thing was dead.
The creature was having mixed feelings.
The more primal, beastly side of it was relieved. It cared about its continued existence and liberty, and this ground-cold dead thing certainly wasn’t going to threaten either.
However, there was another side to the creature that was feeling some measure of disappointment. It was the more curious, adventuring side. The one that had pushed it to investigate this thing in the first place.
The same side of the creature would have almost preferred the dead thing to have attacked it. This place was just so terribly boring, after all.
Oh well.
At least this was better than nothing.
The creature lowered itself into a squat, its restless tail almost immediately beginning to explore the dead thing. The creature's clawed hands followed suit, touching all the different surfaces of the dead thing to get a feel for the strange new textures it had. Its torso, legs, and upper arms were covered with a loose second layer of skin that bore a number of different colours and feels. There were a few areas of softness with strips and patches of something tough and thick covering everywhere else. A cross-shaped object was attached to the corpse’s waist by one of those strips.
The cross thing was about half the length of the creature’s forearm and was attached to one of the smooth strips. It came off easily when the creature pulled it in a specific direction, the long arm of the cross sliding out of a rigid sleeve.
The creature held the free portion skyward to examine in starlight.
It was shiny. And sharp.
A weapon maybe?
The creature knew that its claws were weapons, and they were quite sharp.
A glance over to the dead thing's hands showed that its own claws were blunt and thin. It must have been compensating with the sharp cross then; the creature realized. That’s quite clever.
Tossing the weapon aside, the creature then pulled out a small pouch from a pocket in the dead things loose outer skin. It was of note because of the interesting noises it made when disturbed, which the creature found quite entertaining.
Upon fiddling with the pouch a bit, a number of small shiny discs fell out of it onto the dusty ground which the creature quickly scooped up.
Holding them to the stars once more, the creature found the disks to be covered in odd markings and a few of them with etchings that looked like the dead things' heads.
Even after some thinking, the creature wasn’t able to come up with a purpose for the small disks, so it put them back into the pouch they fell from and tossed it aside as well. It made a nice jingle when it landed. There was another pocket on the other side of the corpse, but it was empty.
The creature used a moderate amount of effort to try flipping the dead thing over onto its back, but jumped back in surprise when one of the corpse’s hands broke off during a moment where it was under all of the dead thing’s weight.
It picked up the severed appendage and eyed the break curiously.
Its flesh seemed to be rather stiff and brittle, though much less hard than the creature's own claws. No blood flowed from either end of the wound.
With a claw, the creature opened a small gash on its own palm, and watched as a few thick oily drops of dark blood seeped out.
Creatures bleed when injured. It knew this. So why wasn’t the dead thing bleeding?
Its wound was certainly worse than this one.
Was it because all the blood had already drained from its body?
The creature inspected the soil under the dead thing, running its claws through the dust like a rake. It was no different than the soil the creature had risen from.
Did the corpse’s death cause all of its blood to dry up?
It dug into the corpse’s brittle forearm with its claws, tracing a vein it could see from the wound back up to its shoulder. This was a tube that blood flows through, right? It split the vein open lengthwise with scalpel-like precision, but found its content to be a solid red all the way through. Somehow, it felt… wrong, to call it dried. Like there was a more fitting way to describe it.
The creature definitely knew what that was, but felt an empty space where the answer should have been.
Why?
Its growing confusion was quickly turning into anger and frustration.
Why was the corpse not bleeding?
It swore it knew with every fiber of its being.
It pounded at its head in an effort to remember.
It was what happened when a liquid was exposed to… something.
It squeezed its eyes tight and clenched its fists, drawing more of its own viscous black blood in the process.
It knew.
It kicked the corpse in its anger, pushing it forwards slightly.
It knew.
Slowly and meticulously, the creature began to break off fingers from the severed hand that it was holding. It drove a claw into each joint and pried each individual bone away from the palm, hurling each loose segment into the dusty ground with a series of thumps.
There was something missing from its head.
It couldn’t feel it directly because it was gone, but it could feel the gaping hole that it had left behind.
The creature looked at the corpse’s face, now facing upwards after it had flipped it over. A drop of saliva hung at the corner of its mouth, just… stuck in place…
What was that?
The hand had no more fingers left to pluck, so the creature flung it into the ground as hard as it could and began to storm off into the endless flats in an effort to leave its anger behind.
It was only a matter of seconds before it realized its mistake.
The creature spun back around on a dime, but it was already too late.
It had made it only a dozen or so paces away, but the corpse was nowhere in sight.
It had vanished as soon as the creature looked away, just like the stars.
If the creature could speak, its screams would have swept across the whole realm.
…
It had found something.
It had been… so long.
So very, very long.
The creature couldn’t tell.
Time was impossible to judge when nothing changed
The creature could, however, count.
And since the stars changed all the time, the only thing there was to count were the steps it took.
427 billion, 851 million, 52 thousand and 5, including the ones that it took to get to the corpse. The creature walked endlessly without even a moment of rest. Walking didn’t tire it. Not physically. It had followed a dozen or so stars all the way to the horizon, and only now had it finally found something.
The creature stood over it, disbelief temporarily halting it in place as it took in the thing. It was another corpse, but this one was much, much older.
This one was lying on its side, submerged in soil up to the point that dust had flowed halfway into its mouth. Its skin had pulled taught as it had rested, its lips drawn away from now bared teeth. The imprint of its bones visible through long-wasted muscle and petrified skin. Yes, dry was the way to describe this corpse. That word fits well.
There was no weapon at its waist, and what was left of its second skin was much more delicate than that of the last corpse. It was delicate and thin where the last one was tough and thin, and the creature’s claws tore through it easily with the slightest touch. The same claw also drew no blood from the corpse’s skin as it scratched into it, but the creature felt like it knew why this time. It had dried up rather than…
The creature ignored the confusing thoughts of the last corpse’s blood and moved to begin searching the corpse’s pockets.
Ah. Yes. Exactly what it was looking for.
The creature was happy.
It had found another pouch of noisy disks.
It shook them to listen to their rattle, it took them out and clinked them together individually, it tossed them into the air and attempted to catch them between its claws.
Mmm.
Very good.
Nice discs.
It hung a loop of sting the pouch had over one of the spikes on its head and drew it closed. It wasn’t going to leave anything it wanted to keep away from itself. Not again.
The creature assumed that there would be more pockets on the other side of the corpse, and hopefully even more interesting things.
Well, not that the bar for what could be considered ‘interesting’ was very high.
The creature grasped the arm from the exposed side of the corpse's body and gave a mighty pull.
The arm came off easily.
Ah. Right.
The creature began to dig the mummified corpse out of the soil, pushing the loose dust into piles that flowed apart as they settled only moments later.
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The further down the creature dug, the dryer the corpse was; becoming naught but tough leather tightly shrunk around bone.
Once enough of the ground was removed the creature slid its hand under the corpse to where its other pocket would be located, and sure enough, there was another small pouch in it. The creature's eyes narrowed in a way that was consistent with a smile as it pulled its prize from the dust. It shook it slightly, but was disappointed by the lack of jingling. Oh well, that just meant that it had to have something different inside.
The creature inserted 2 claws into the pouch and pulled it open to reveal…
More dust…
The creature kicked the corpse’s torso in frustration, but it didn’t move a bit.
Huh?
That was strange.
This corpse was much lighter than the last one since it had dried out, and yet the last one had moved when the creature kicked it.
The creature slid its hand under the corpse once more and lifted upwards this time, causing a couple cracking noises but otherwise little movement.
It began to excavate further, having to move its piles of soil even further back as the dust would flow like a liquid to try and re-bury the emancipated corpse. It was as if the loose earth was trying to envelop and swallow this obviously foreign body, trying to ensure that its surface remained as barren and as featureless as the creature had always known it.
To hell with that.
The creature could tell that it was different from whatever the corpses were, and it felt like the land knew this. These corpses were caked in dark soil, whereas it ran off the creature’s skin easily. These corpses were dry and dead whereas the creature was alive and could bleed. The corpses had objects to do what their bodies couldn’t, whereas the creature had hooked claws that could protect it just fine.
The land favored the creature.
The land loved the creature.
So…
The land should give the corpse up to the creature.
Want.
It.
With enough soil now cleared, the creature threw its arms around the corpse and grabbed onto its other arm. It was this arm that was lodged in the ground, driven downwards at a 90 degree angle like a nail.
The creature pulled, surfacing both the corpse’s entire arm as well as the object locked in its fingers with a death grip. This was the thing that had lodged the corpse in place, an item that had sunk into the earth and taken the corpse along for the ride.
It was rectangular, roughly the size of the corpse’s chest, and had a handle still tightly gripped by a bony hand. On one of its sides, a flap could be opened up that revealed the interior of the object. Just like the pouch that the jingle-disks were kept in, the object was a container.
Another one filled with yet more dust.
And you know what?
The creature was fine with this.
Sure, it wanted to find more things in the case.
Sure, it wanted another one of those cross-weapons.
But in the end, the creature just wanted.
And the case and the pouch were things it could have.
After giving the corpse another look over just to make sure that it hadn’t missed anything, the creature was content to start walking away, leaving the corpse to be swallowed by the endless expanse of nothing.
…
It was only a few dozen billion steps later that it returned.
It.
Every single train of thought in the creature’s mind had stopped all at once. It wouldn’t have been able to remember what it was doing no matter how hard it tried.
That smell.
The creature had practically forgotten what it was like.
It smelled fresh.
It smelled new.
And most importantly; it was something other than dust.
The creature closed its eyes and turned towards it. It could tell, after searching this realm for so long; that this wasn’t something that it needed to see to find.
The creature hurdled itself across the plains of black. This time, it would reach the smell before it faded. This time, it would be fast enough.
The ground felt more solid than before, providing a firm enough surface to push off against with the creature’s full might. Even when the creature stumbled, its hands would claw at the ground to right itself without missing a beat. It soared over the land, not even glancing at another corpse as it passed it by.
Just chasing it felt amazing, like it was getting rewarded with every pace forwards by the smell growing ever-more intense.
It smelled exciting.
It smelled sweet.
It smelled like the exact opposite of the creature's endless wandering and eternal boredom.
Oh, how good would it be when the creature finally got there?
Ah.
There it was.
The creature could feel it against its face even though it knew it was still a ways away.
Heat.
The case and the pouch fell out of the creature’s slackening hands as it basked in the sensation of warmth.
Heat that radiated onto it and soothed injuries and cracks that it didn’t know it had.
Heat that warmed the creature's skin, but went no further.
Yes, the creature could feel it now.
For every inch of skin that got warmed, a hundred more stayed cold.
Its insides turned themselves to knots as reality dawned upon the creature.
It was freezing. It had always been.
Its heart was a block of pure ice that sat in its core and radiated cold.
It simply was impossible to tell since everything here was just as frigid as it was.
It felt as if at any moment it’s entire life would freeze solid forever…
Just like the first corpse.
No.
It wouldn’t let that happen.
There was still something it could do.
The warmth. It needed it.
It needed to consume the heat, to drive it deep inside its core and use it to fuel a furnace that would melt its wretched heart.
It could feel the source of the warmth now cresting over the horizon, and it opened its eyes to gaze upon its glowing salvation.
It was a corpse, except… It was alive.
And it burned with the light of a trillion stars.
The creature bore down on it, determined to reach it first even if there was nothing around to compete with it.
The living corpse didn’t notice the creature’s approach even though it was facing in the right direction, and a small part of it wondered if the two of them even saw the world in the same way.
But…
Words of doubt began to enter the creature’s mind as it ran.
If the creature stole this thing's warmth, would it become just like the corpses the creature had seen so far? Wasn't the creature searching for other living things; beings like itself? Would it ever meet another one after this?
Ah well.
It’s too late now.
I’m just so cold.
The creature leapt as it finally reached the other figure with claws outstretched and a mouth full of serrated teeth forming on its face.
Its claws pierced the soft skin of the figure, drawing warm, readily flowing blood.
…
A gentle tapping on the hunched over creature’s shoulder finally brought it out of its trance, although not gently. It whipped away from what was left of the figure with claws bared and swiped wide, a response driven by pure instinct to defend itself and its meal. It missed.
At first glance, nothing was there, just the black of the ground. The creature only saw it once it squinted its eyes and focused: a patch in space darker than the rest. It reflected no light at all.
From what it could tell, it’s figure was much the same to what it was used to; a biped like itself, but was smaller by about half.
A child?
While its colour was similar to the creature’s, the dark figure seemed to be missing claws or a tail. Was it not a threat?
Now that it was warmed by its full belly, the creature’s control had returned to it, and it eyed the dark figure cautiously as it waited for it to make its first move.
“Hello my child” the dark figure said.
The child made no sound as it spoke, not like the loud noises the creature’s meal had made for the first few moments. All the same, its words could be understood easily.
“Have you calmed down enough for a chat?”
The creature looked around, surprised at what was going on yet still cautious.
“Good. Then let’s begin.” The child spoke, gently reaching a finger out towards the creature’s forehead.
The motion was so smooth and so outwardly non threatening that the creature’s reflexes did nothing to prevent the two from meeting. As they touched, the creature was struck by a searing pain that ran through its spine like a bolt of lightning, and it leaped backwards over the remains of its meal as soon as its muscles would let it. The creature clutched its forehead as the spot where the child had touched bled viciously.
“WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?” The creature screamed before immediately cupping its new mouth with a bloody hand, not used to its own thoughts being broadcast for the world to hear.
“I gave you a small gift. It can hurt a bit if the subject isn’t cooperative.” The child replied as it sat down. “I’d like to ask you a few questions. Until I have what I want, you will only speak to me when prompted with exactly what I ask for or I will want to leave immediately. Will you cooperate?”
The creature stopped itself from blurting out a response and weighed its options. The child had snuck up and surprised it, and had caused it quite a bit of pain as well. On the other hand, this was exactly what the creature had wanted: to find a being like itself. It was still trying to prevent its excitement from getting out of hand.
“Alright. I’ll hear you out.” It said, and sat down as well. “Although I don’t see-“
“Ah, guess I’ll be going then.” The child interrupted and turned to leave. “Goodbye.”
“Wait, don’t-” the creature stopped itself, remembering the rule the child had laid.
“Oh, a fast learner I see. Very well, you get one more chance.” And the child-shaped hole in space sat down again.
“First question: what do you think of me? And don’t lie.” It asked.
Lying hadn’t really crossed the creature’s mind, so it answered the question to the best of its abilities.
“I think that you think too much of yourself and are very rigid in your thinking. Even so, I’m still glad that I’m not alone and have someone to talk to.” The creature spoke.
The child nodded.
“Good. Second question: How would you feel if you could get anything you wanted whenever you wanted it without limit? Once again, don’t lie.”
The creature thought for a while on how best to answer the question. Even if it couldn’t lie, it could still bend the truth into something favorable towards itself. The problem was that it didn’t know what the child was looking for.
“I would be happy, but… probably very bored.” The creature wanted to say more, but the question that the child asked didn’t allow for context.
“Last question now. What do you want the most? More than anything else?” The child asked, leaning in and tilting its head slightly.
Even though the child hadn’t specified to tell the truth this time, the creature had already known what its answer would be.
“I want to never have to be forced to be alone. Not like I was. It won’t let it happen again.”
The creature answered truly, but not mindlessly. Despite the child’s brashness, it hoped that the two of them could be companions as they traveled this barren landscape. It would make the time pass so much more quickly.
The child leaned closer.
“That wasn’t the truth.”
“Yes it was!” The creature yelled. “Plus, you didn’t specify that I had to tell the truth for the third question!”
“It was implied! And you didn’t pause to think of your question like you did with the others. You lied without realizing it.” The child nagged, its tone growing firmer but not more aggressive. “Your answer would probably be quite a bit different if I gave you a bit of time to, shall we say, ‘cool off’ before I asked again.”
The creature thought for a moment, and found the child to be right. The cold was debilitating. It was worse than loneliness, worse than anger. Worse than being crushed below the soil. It had only grown harder with heat dangled right in front of it. Like it was being taunted with just how little it had.
“You feel good now, don’t you? So good that you’d rather tear your own heart out of your chest that allows yourself to grow cold ever again.” The child stood up and walked towards the still-crouching creature.
“…Yes. At the time I felt as if I was going to die. No, worse than that. I felt as if I would be trapped with that feeling forever, powerless to do anything about it as it ate away at me. No matter how much I wanted to play with that being, the cold hunger was not something I could let grow any larger.” The creature said as it eyed its red-soaked claws with a pang of regret. “At least it’s over now.”
“Ah. About that…” the creature started. “The heat you’ve stolen won’t last forever, and eventually you’ll be wanting for more. And before you ask, you can take it without breaking them. You simply need to leave them with some heat remaining without damaging them too badly and they’ll warm back up by themselves. Then you’ll be free to play with the same one over and over again. The only challenge is holding yourself back.”
“You speak as if I’ll meet a lot of them. Do you know where they come from?” The creature asked.
“I do. Feel free to do whatever you want once I send you there.” The child said, placing a hand on the creature’s shoulder. “I asked the questions because I was going to give you a name, and I know exactly which one.”
A single tear welled up from where one of the child’s eyes should have been, and it used its free hand to wipe it away.
“The name I will give you is a blessing that will let you create life just like how I created you, although the full details and benefits of it will be dependent on how you choose to live your life. Take care of this name and use it well, for it is my own.”
The child held out its tear on a finger and placed it against the creature’s lips.
“This is a pact. In exchange for my name, you must not speak a lie; defined as a fact you know to be false, ever again. Do you accept it?”
“…Yes…” the creature answered. It didn’t care about the consequences.
“Very well.” The child said, leaning into the ear of the creature.
The syllable it spoke was quick and light, and yet seemed to carry enough weight to move the world.
“Hel”
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