That Which Nightmares Wrought

[Dark Link]

It was time to awaken.

The hibernating creature became increasingly aware of its own existence, of its own being. It felt the crackling of its joints, the twitching of its muscles, the beat of its heart. With each passing moment, the being's senses helped it gain knowledge of its immediate proximity. It saw the darkness surrounding it, heard the waving motions of its limbs, felt liquid caressing its skin. As its long slumber gradually came to an end, it gave way to a sense of agency and control; the creature ceased to drift near motionlessly where it had always been and began to interact with the world around it.

Yet, as soon as the creature gained awareness, restlessness began to set in. Its cradle, that was so warm and comforting before, had become small and constraining. It barely moved one of its pincers when it already managed to hit upon the limits of its habitat. No matter where it touched, all it could find were rough and sturdy walls. Realising just how limited the space it inhabited really was, the beast started to panic. That place no longer felt safe....in fact, with each passing moment, the mere act of being there felt more and more agonising, even suffocating. It wanted to be elsewhere, anywhere....it wanted out!

The being hit the shell enveloping it with its appendages, but it remained intact. Undeterred, it struck another blow, but the walls would still not give way. The creature found itself caught up in a frenzy; with all its might, it pushed along the limits of its proverbial cage while it continued to smash at it with its extremities. For a while, it seemed like this was a fruitless endavour, but instinct and sheer desperation kept the creature going. Finally, after numerous impacts, the shell began to crack and became increasingly fragmented. Emboldened by its progress, the beast continued to pound the walls with its pincers again and again and again...

At long last, the egg burst open in an almost explosive manner, sending pieces of its sturdy carapace flying and splattering the vicinity with leftover yolk. Emerging from its confinement with a low, yet victorious, growl, the crab-like organism spread its wings. Without much effort, it lifted itself in the air and remained hovering in place just above the ground. Though the creature felt a burning sensation in each one of its many small beady eyes, it still forced itself to examine the area.

Though it was certainly brighter than the inside of the shell, the outside turned out to be a world of twilight. The sporadic neon lights covering the ceiling provided just barely enough illumination to prevent the area from being completely submerged in shadows; even then, some of the devices were in serious disrepair as they were either flickering or had ceased to operate entirely. The ground was a wasteland, a literal junkyard with innumerable objects littering the ground as far as the eye could see. Industrial machines hummed in the distance, processing a variety of objects into disposable fragments. The place where the being saw all of this from was a small concrete dome, its walls littered with cracks. Whatever its original purpose was, it had long been lost to the passage of time.

Before it could do anything else, the levitating being felt something touch its mind, a weak and raspy voice echoing in its thoughts. Turning around, it saw another creature lying on the ground not far away from itself. It had the same purple flesh as the floating beast, but looked more like a dog with a raptor-like head and prominent pairs of claws and teeth. Though it seemed far better equipped to defend itself, it was wounded...severely. On the side of its body, there was a gaping hole where a significant section of its stomach should have been. Though the organism had somehow managed to survive and recover from some of the damage, it still lacked large chunks of its flesh, some sections even exposing bones and internal organs. Its head lied in a puddle of purple slime, the creature's mouth occasionally opening to take a small bite in an attempt to sustain itself.

The culprit responsible for the creature's wounds was immediately apparent....its own blood dripping from its claws. Though it had managed to survive on its own well enough, the being realised that it stood no chance by itself in the long run and that a colony needed to be established. Yet, no matter how far and wide it searched, it could not find any of its fellow kin; as far as it could tell, it was completely alone in that world. Lacking the means to achieve its intended goal, the beast had only one alternative left in order to try and ensure the survival of its species. It sought a relatively safe refuge and, in the face of its own sense of self-preservation, sank the razor-sharp nails into its own body and dug out chunks of its own tissue.

Thanks to its hyperactive DNA, the flesh did not simply rot away; instead it joined together into a mass which, over time, subsequently morphed into the species' primal state. From this almost experimental process emerged a purple maggot-like creature with a segmented, multilegged body; it contained the genetic information of any of the species' breeds, allowing it to evolve into any of them. As it had no one else to give it instructions, it followed what the dog-like beast wanted from it. The worm lookalike transformed into an egg....and eventually, into the levitating organism it was at the time.

Not knowing whether or not its moments were numbered, the clawed animal glanced at the newcomer with its yellow eyes. Using whatever meager concentration it still had, it telepathically connected with its kin. In spite of being a newborn, the floating beast was not lost or afraid....upon contact, it knew exactly what it needed to do. Buzzing in confirmation, the crab-like entity moved towards the center of the ruined structure. Laying down on the floor, silk threads burst out of its orifices and gradually covered it in a white, soft residue. Instead of taking a more firm shape, the casing pulsated as though it were an organ.

The creature inside it began to morph once more, the cocoon itself changed in order to accommodate the transformation. As time passed, it sprouted tendrils and swelled to an enormous size, almost pushing the limits of the dome that was concealing its existence....