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A female mugger crocodile dug her nest of eggs up carefully, sensing
that
the time had come for them to hatch. Of the 33 eggs, 25 had cracks in
them,
and moved slightly. Gently she nudged them, helping with the destruction
of
their shells, and birth of their new lives. After a while, 23 of
them
finally escaped their encasements, and followed their mother into the
water.
The newborn reptiles fed on small life forms, hungrily. It was late
spring;
the swamp they inhabited was muddy and warm. Half of them did not survive
their first week of life, being taken by birds and other predators. Over
the next year they grew bigger, and stronger, wiser in the ways of
survival.
Then when they were strong enough, their mother disappeared, and they
split up slowly. The largest of them departing first. He left the
swamp and took to a river. Moving with the current he fed on fish and
birds, skulking along just below the surface. He grew rapidly, becoming
quite huge over the next few years, eating larger birds, deer, and various
other creatures. On a hot, steamy day, late one summer, he was gliding
along, hungry again, he spotted odd forms by the riverbank and swam
closer, nostrils and eyes the only thing above the surface of the water.
They were odd creatures, they stood upright like the birds, but did not
have wings. He slipped closer, the hunger fueling his boldness, they
seemed to be shedding their scales, then jumped into the river. Closer
still he crept, one of the strange creatures swimming a bit distant of the
rest, closer to him, he went under. Moving closer to the odd creature he
felt it stir very close to him, jaws opened, tilting sideways his tail
fired him forward, powerful jaws closing on the soft form, the sound of a
muddled scream. It struggled hard as he drug it below the surface, down to
the bottom of the river, jaws clamped down, but soon, it ceased moving and
he swam off with it, to a safe place to feed. Managing to survive several
attacks and fights with other Muggers, and other creatures, he went on,
patrolling the rivers, finally settling down into a nice secluded swamp,
or so he thought.
One day as he lay
basking in the sun, an odd feeling overtook him, he thought it was hunger
at first, but it was not. He could not move because the sun was
darkening. Then a bright flash, alien images flooded his mind. He
found himself on two feet, but he did not have control over his
actions, he was putting on odd scales...like he had seen
those birdlike creatures wearing. He...WAS one of those birdlike
creatures?!?!
Confusion flooded him as he watched himself walk out of a dark hut.
The
sunlight flashed in his eyes, and suddenly he was no longer on his
hind
legs, and there was no hut, but the sun was there...and there were
odd
creatures around him, some massive, some smaller, some with feathers,
fur,
wings, long tails, spiked tails, huge teeth. And they were all running,
the
head turned and saw what they were running towards across a sandy plain
was a mass of odd, hairy creatures. Bright Weapons flashes in their hands,
and in the hands of his companions. As he ran he saw them in closer
detail. Fur covered them completely roaring lips formed around jagged
sharp teeth.
They howled and
charged at him and the others. The two armies met with shrill bellows of
agony, and triumphant roars and howls. A bright flash and he felt an
excruciating pain, two, three of these creatures were on him, he fought
wildly, crushing one, claws rending another in half, but the third drove
an weapon deep into his stomach, roaring in triumph, the blade was twisted
and withdrawn, blood spraying from his form he felt himself falling,
blades flashed all around, then a bright flash. He saw an odd creature
that seemed to have three glowing golden eyes. Armored back and sides on
it's massive form, bigger than any creature he remembered seeing in the
river, long deadly looking claws glinted, jagged claws clenched and
unclenched, then suddenly it was gone, but he had an odd feeling and turns
his head, out of the corner of his vision he saw...the tip of a tail, he
craned his neck more
and saw a long armored, scaled body, in confusion he looked down and saw
two massive, clawed feet, leading up legs that were....He had become that
creature. He let out a bellow of fear; the real world fading in he
found himself on the side of the river, in that odd form. Strange
creatures were approaching, like the ones in his dream, A large one,
on hind legs with wings seemed to lead them. The approached and made
noises.. he understood them, they were telling him things. Telling him
that they had titles, and so did he. The led him through the steaming
jungle to a safe place, and
explained who, and what he was, and named him, Sight Of Sun. They told him
he could become one of those odd birdlike creatures, and showed him how,
they began teaching him how to write their language, and others, how to
speak, and understand them. They taught him how to use his new forms, and
how to fight with them. He took them into odd places full of those
birdlike creatures, which lived in odd buildings.
One day, as he
basked on a bank at the end of a long day of fighting, he felt a sharp
pain in his stomach and heard noises, he bolted towards the water but
things began getting dark and blurry, he slid into the water, but could
not swim, he could not move?! Rage and fear surged through him, he felt
something loop around his jaws, he tried to struggle but he could barely
move. As he was hauled onto some hard and cold everything went
black.
He awoke slowly,
feeling weak and sick, not opening his eyes. Slowly his strength returned
and he opened his eyes, he saw walls, all around except for one, it seemed
clear, he charged at it, and slammed into something, something was
blocking the way. He slammed at the seemingly unblocked opening but again
was stopped with a jarring smash.
Everything
seemed to blue and he grew, as if in the distance he heard sounds of
crashing, breaking things, screams of agony, felt blood in his mouth. He
was cold, he ran, slamming right through some sort of wall. He continued
running, smashing anything that got in his way, trampling monkeys. He
finally saw no more, relaxing he felt himself shifting again, he became
a
monkey, and hurried along he knew not where. As he wandered,
shivering,
occasionally hiding from large metal screaming creatures, he realized it
was
not warm, but cold, colder than he had ever felt, he searched for
somewhere
warm, when he felt something, rather like warmth, and followed it, he
found
himself in an odd field with stoned sticking out of it, a cemetery, he
moved
on feeling himself closer to the seeming warmth, he rushed towards and
odd
building after one of the screaming creatures had passed. He entered Jacob’s Field,
for a whole new chapter of his life to begin. |