11-03-2017, 05:21 PM
The creature – a three-foot-long, orange-furred rodent with buck-teeth and twelve legs – scampered up the tree and out of sight. China ignored it. He stared intently at its mate; the females were always the larger ones anyway... so what if the scrawny little male had escaped his grasp?
The lower half of his face suddenly split, the blank china surface opening into a wide grin, revealing his set of blue, glistening fangs. With all four hands he pressed the struggling thing down into the soft, loamy earth of the forest floor, as he leaned over and prepared to tear off its head in a single chomp.
“Yes-yes, me so much smart-smart, yes, no tasty-nice yum-yums escape great-strong hunter, no-no.” he chuckled to himself softly, pointedly ignoring the fact that one of his targets had, in actuality, done just that, and escaped. A moment before he would have taken that first delectable munch, though, something else caught his attention.
It was rather hard to miss, actually. For a moment the entire sky was filled with a blinding surge of light. Even after that had abated, though, it hardly grew much dimmer; floating there, high above, was a mass of pale cream wings and vast, slowly rotating shards of what looked like a sort of semi-opaque glass, illuminated from behind by rays of light in shades ranging from the golden yellow of the sun, to the silvery white of moonlight. From one side to the other, the enormous, airborne titan must have been hundreds of metres long...
Though of course, being not quite smart enough to count – or know what a 'metre' was, for that matter – China did not realise this. He could tell enough to know one thing for sure, though:
“Scary-scary, much-much scary.” his eyes were wide as he sat straight up, staring its way, and as his fear overpowered every other emotion, his grip loosened, and the four-foot-long rodent he'd been about to devour slipped from his grasp and darted off into the woods, emitting a shrill keening noise as it went. Not that running would save it.
Many of the shards moved, then, slowly reordering themselves to leave open a circle in the very centre of the being's form. Slowly, an orb of light somehow both golden and white, silver and yellow, formed in that emptied zone. China hugged himself and shivered in terror.
“No-no, no, no, no-no, no...” if he had had tear ducts, he would have wept, if he had had bowels, he would have wet himself. He may not have had all that book-learning that his creator had known, but it took little in the way of intelligence to recognise the end when one saw it coming.
China had travelled the world a lot, after being forced from his home and before settling in this nice place, and he had witnessed Holy Magic on occasion... and though his mind lacked the capacity to truly recall this in any great detail, deep down in his subconscious somewhere, his long-forgotten memories alerted some part of him to the undeniable truth that what was coming would obliterate not only him, but every living thing for miles around. This entire forest would be Purified.
The orb of Divine Light began to fall. It's descent was slow enough that China could track it with his eyes. He didn't want to, yet couldn't bring himself to look away. He was paralysed with fear, and moaned softly as the sphere grew nearer. The moment it struck the ground, his life would be over, for good.
What had he ever done to deserve this?
The orb landed. Light filled his vision.
…
Dark filled his vision?
No. Not filled. There was one small spark of the light remaining. It was shaped like a yummy food, like the sort that sometimes had used to wander into his forest, back before the yum-yums realised that it was silly for food to walk up to a hungry person and had stopped showing up...
It didn't feel yummy, though. China felt like this light was just as scary as the one which had been about to kill him, before... what? Had the yum-shaped light chased the other one away, like the moon and sun chased each other? If so, then this light was much faster than a moon...
China's inane thoughts were interrupted when the being spoke:
The darkness faded, and was replaced by light all around, and China shrieked with fear, arms covering his head as he curled up around himself into a foetal position, with his twin tails wrapping themselves around his body protectively; as if such a feeble defence could actually do anything to avert Purification...
And yet... nothing happened. Cautiously, he opened one eye, and peered out at the scene before him. This time, the big light had chased away the small one... yet this big light didn't seem so scary; he could even see small specks – which he knew from his long life of limitless experience was what normal-sized things looked like from far away – moving from place to place, going between slightly bigger dots on the horizon. These, China suspected with his cunning mind, were none other than the big stone blocks called 'houses' which the two-leg yum-yums like to store themselves in.
It might be dangerous to approach, since food could be scary if there was a lot of it together. Yes, many foods could gang up on one hungry person and overpower them, no matter how sharp the hungry person's claws. China had found this out himself, long, long ago, and had barely survived the ordeal.
It was almost as bad as the time one especially tricky yum-yum had fooled him into trying to fight a bigger food called a 'bull', whilst trapped in a small, enclosed space called a 'shop'.
It hadn't ended well for China.
Luckily, he was pretty hard to kill, and could (eventually) heal his body completely – somehow, despite being made entirely of ceramics – so he had ultimately lived to tell the tale.
Back to the moment at hand, though; he got up onto all fours, head darting from side-to-side as he took in his surroundings. With a glance over his shoulder he spied the largest trout he had ever seen, and was on the point of leaping at it and tearing away with his claws when he noticed that it was grey, unmoving, and seemed to be vomiting up an alarming quantity of water.
He turned and gingerly approached. It didn't move. He clambered over the low wall which separated him from the big yum-yum, stepping into the small pool of crystal clear water which surrounded the enormous fish. It didn't move. He rose up to stand on two feet, his tails stretching out behind him to keep his balance, stepped closer, and hesitated. It still did not move. Had he had a tongue, he would have formed a mouth, if only so that he could have nervously licked his lips. China worked up all his courage, and tapped the food in the side with one claw. Nothing.
He broke out in a huge grin... but only for a moment, before he realised what was wrong with this food; it had no smell!
Indeed, as he formed a mouth and tried to chomp down on one of its fins, he immediately tasted the flavour which confirmed his greatest fears. Rock. Some sick-minded individual had carved a huge boulder into the shape of a tasty food and left it here to trick poor, unfortunate hungry people like China... the level of evil was staggering, almost beyond comprehension. This horror would come back to haunt him in his nightmares, he was sure.
Shoulders slumped with dejection, the Ceramic Beast trudged sullenly out of the fountain and away. There were yum-yums aplenty around, but with so many all in a wide open space like this, how was a hungry person to ever kill just one or two? The whole herd of foods would stampede for sure, and he would be doomed!
…
China walked for what felt like an eternity, avoiding the gazes of others and keeping his distance from the yum-yums, no matter how nice they smelled. It was torture. He realised that in this white abyss, the houses were the only places in which he might find any sort of privacy; which meant a place to store his food, if he could get it separate from its herd.
It was a long shot, he knew. Very few foods were silly enough to invite a hungry person into their houses... yet he had to try, or else he would starve for sure.
He walked.
And walked.
And walked.
Eventually, after what must have been decades (but was actually a couple of hours) China reached one of the 'houses', only to find that it wasn't a house at all, but instead a pair of bent-over trees, which touched in the middle, creating an archway of sorts... through which lay even more trees!
Somehow, this house had turned into a forest! If he went through there he could find many places to hide, and if the other foods in that area proved too scary to eat, he could always just come back here and grab a two-leg yum-yums and drag it through! It wasn't just amazing, it was a miracle!
And not a nasty type of Miracle either, like the sort that was made by yum-yum magic and did scary things to poor, unlucky hungry people, but a good miracle instead, where nice surprising things happened, like stumbling across a whole nest of baby two-legs foods which had come wondering into his forest for a 'dare'...
China never had found out what a dare was. Maybe they had meant deer? Deer were tasty. Maybe he should have asked the baby foods where the deer was before he ate them?
Musing thoughtfully over potentially missed meals, the Ceramic Beast stepped through the portal which separated the Nexus from the Tangled Green...
The lower half of his face suddenly split, the blank china surface opening into a wide grin, revealing his set of blue, glistening fangs. With all four hands he pressed the struggling thing down into the soft, loamy earth of the forest floor, as he leaned over and prepared to tear off its head in a single chomp.
“Yes-yes, me so much smart-smart, yes, no tasty-nice yum-yums escape great-strong hunter, no-no.” he chuckled to himself softly, pointedly ignoring the fact that one of his targets had, in actuality, done just that, and escaped. A moment before he would have taken that first delectable munch, though, something else caught his attention.
It was rather hard to miss, actually. For a moment the entire sky was filled with a blinding surge of light. Even after that had abated, though, it hardly grew much dimmer; floating there, high above, was a mass of pale cream wings and vast, slowly rotating shards of what looked like a sort of semi-opaque glass, illuminated from behind by rays of light in shades ranging from the golden yellow of the sun, to the silvery white of moonlight. From one side to the other, the enormous, airborne titan must have been hundreds of metres long...
Though of course, being not quite smart enough to count – or know what a 'metre' was, for that matter – China did not realise this. He could tell enough to know one thing for sure, though:
“Scary-scary, much-much scary.” his eyes were wide as he sat straight up, staring its way, and as his fear overpowered every other emotion, his grip loosened, and the four-foot-long rodent he'd been about to devour slipped from his grasp and darted off into the woods, emitting a shrill keening noise as it went. Not that running would save it.
Many of the shards moved, then, slowly reordering themselves to leave open a circle in the very centre of the being's form. Slowly, an orb of light somehow both golden and white, silver and yellow, formed in that emptied zone. China hugged himself and shivered in terror.
“No-no, no, no, no-no, no...” if he had had tear ducts, he would have wept, if he had had bowels, he would have wet himself. He may not have had all that book-learning that his creator had known, but it took little in the way of intelligence to recognise the end when one saw it coming.
China had travelled the world a lot, after being forced from his home and before settling in this nice place, and he had witnessed Holy Magic on occasion... and though his mind lacked the capacity to truly recall this in any great detail, deep down in his subconscious somewhere, his long-forgotten memories alerted some part of him to the undeniable truth that what was coming would obliterate not only him, but every living thing for miles around. This entire forest would be Purified.
The orb of Divine Light began to fall. It's descent was slow enough that China could track it with his eyes. He didn't want to, yet couldn't bring himself to look away. He was paralysed with fear, and moaned softly as the sphere grew nearer. The moment it struck the ground, his life would be over, for good.
What had he ever done to deserve this?
The orb landed. Light filled his vision.
…
Dark filled his vision?
No. Not filled. There was one small spark of the light remaining. It was shaped like a yummy food, like the sort that sometimes had used to wander into his forest, back before the yum-yums realised that it was silly for food to walk up to a hungry person and had stopped showing up...
It didn't feel yummy, though. China felt like this light was just as scary as the one which had been about to kill him, before... what? Had the yum-shaped light chased the other one away, like the moon and sun chased each other? If so, then this light was much faster than a moon...
China's inane thoughts were interrupted when the being spoke:
Quote:“My name is Omni. This is not the world you know. This is the Omniverse. You interest me, so I have made you part of it. The Omniverse is a place that reflects the wishes of those who are part of it. But! There are rules. I will explain them only once, so listen carefully.”
Omni handed him a glimmering orb in which all the colors of the rainbow coalesced. “This is Omnilium. It’s what ties the Omniverse together. Without it, you are nothing. With it, anything you desire can be yours. But you will need more than this. If you desire it enough, you will find it. You will find that using it comes naturally. Just think of what you desire most.
“You will not be alone in the Omniverse. There are others. Of course, they, too desire Omnilium. Do not fear death. For as long as you interest me, you will be reborn.
“That’s all you need to know right now. You’ll figure out the rest soon enough. I’ll be watching … and waiting.”
The darkness faded, and was replaced by light all around, and China shrieked with fear, arms covering his head as he curled up around himself into a foetal position, with his twin tails wrapping themselves around his body protectively; as if such a feeble defence could actually do anything to avert Purification...
And yet... nothing happened. Cautiously, he opened one eye, and peered out at the scene before him. This time, the big light had chased away the small one... yet this big light didn't seem so scary; he could even see small specks – which he knew from his long life of limitless experience was what normal-sized things looked like from far away – moving from place to place, going between slightly bigger dots on the horizon. These, China suspected with his cunning mind, were none other than the big stone blocks called 'houses' which the two-leg yum-yums like to store themselves in.
It might be dangerous to approach, since food could be scary if there was a lot of it together. Yes, many foods could gang up on one hungry person and overpower them, no matter how sharp the hungry person's claws. China had found this out himself, long, long ago, and had barely survived the ordeal.
It was almost as bad as the time one especially tricky yum-yum had fooled him into trying to fight a bigger food called a 'bull', whilst trapped in a small, enclosed space called a 'shop'.
It hadn't ended well for China.
Luckily, he was pretty hard to kill, and could (eventually) heal his body completely – somehow, despite being made entirely of ceramics – so he had ultimately lived to tell the tale.
Back to the moment at hand, though; he got up onto all fours, head darting from side-to-side as he took in his surroundings. With a glance over his shoulder he spied the largest trout he had ever seen, and was on the point of leaping at it and tearing away with his claws when he noticed that it was grey, unmoving, and seemed to be vomiting up an alarming quantity of water.
He turned and gingerly approached. It didn't move. He clambered over the low wall which separated him from the big yum-yum, stepping into the small pool of crystal clear water which surrounded the enormous fish. It didn't move. He rose up to stand on two feet, his tails stretching out behind him to keep his balance, stepped closer, and hesitated. It still did not move. Had he had a tongue, he would have formed a mouth, if only so that he could have nervously licked his lips. China worked up all his courage, and tapped the food in the side with one claw. Nothing.
He broke out in a huge grin... but only for a moment, before he realised what was wrong with this food; it had no smell!
Indeed, as he formed a mouth and tried to chomp down on one of its fins, he immediately tasted the flavour which confirmed his greatest fears. Rock. Some sick-minded individual had carved a huge boulder into the shape of a tasty food and left it here to trick poor, unfortunate hungry people like China... the level of evil was staggering, almost beyond comprehension. This horror would come back to haunt him in his nightmares, he was sure.
Shoulders slumped with dejection, the Ceramic Beast trudged sullenly out of the fountain and away. There were yum-yums aplenty around, but with so many all in a wide open space like this, how was a hungry person to ever kill just one or two? The whole herd of foods would stampede for sure, and he would be doomed!
…
China walked for what felt like an eternity, avoiding the gazes of others and keeping his distance from the yum-yums, no matter how nice they smelled. It was torture. He realised that in this white abyss, the houses were the only places in which he might find any sort of privacy; which meant a place to store his food, if he could get it separate from its herd.
It was a long shot, he knew. Very few foods were silly enough to invite a hungry person into their houses... yet he had to try, or else he would starve for sure.
He walked.
And walked.
And walked.
Eventually, after what must have been decades (but was actually a couple of hours) China reached one of the 'houses', only to find that it wasn't a house at all, but instead a pair of bent-over trees, which touched in the middle, creating an archway of sorts... through which lay even more trees!
Somehow, this house had turned into a forest! If he went through there he could find many places to hide, and if the other foods in that area proved too scary to eat, he could always just come back here and grab a two-leg yum-yums and drag it through! It wasn't just amazing, it was a miracle!
And not a nasty type of Miracle either, like the sort that was made by yum-yum magic and did scary things to poor, unlucky hungry people, but a good miracle instead, where nice surprising things happened, like stumbling across a whole nest of baby two-legs foods which had come wondering into his forest for a 'dare'...
China never had found out what a dare was. Maybe they had meant deer? Deer were tasty. Maybe he should have asked the baby foods where the deer was before he ate them?
Musing thoughtfully over potentially missed meals, the Ceramic Beast stepped through the portal which separated the Nexus from the Tangled Green...