Water drips. Strange crystals shimmer in clusters upon columns of natural stone. A pool, ice cold and so clear it appears black as one looks down into its depths, springs forth from the ground. Moss creeps here and there, only where the pale fingers of sunlight poke through cracks and crannies. The only unnatural sound is that of a crackling, spitting bonfire. The smell of smoke, trapped by the high, stalactite-covered ceiling, permeates this area and drives away many of the cave’s denizens.
And they are many. Almost too many for such a space, despite that at first glance one would think it to go on forever. Creatures of all shapes and sizes, reptiles and mammals and flying things. Yet to call them beasts would be too simple. They are too varied in form to be classified by the same typologies one would use for nature--they do not follow the same rules in their beings, nor in their interactions. They are...aberrations? Deviations?
Monsters.
@ReusableSword@Gobby(?)
Different pairs of small, humanoid figures with gossamer wings and brightly colored hair, fluttered in and out of a crevice in the rocky walls. Too narrow for larger creatures to fit, too high for those bound to the earth to reach, and too out of the way for most fliers and climbers to bother with. It made the perfect hiding spot. Yet when each pair had hidden away something wrapped in a small bundle of leaves--yes, small even for a Pixie--they darted away, laughing and giggling. Pixies, after all, are not well known for their parenting skills. They are tiny creatures, so perhaps it is befitting that they are small of character as well. Why bother raising a child? Even giving birth to the thing is laborious and very not-fun. And to a Pixie, if it doesn’t feel good, why bother? So off they went, to do the things they wanted to do without a care in the world for silly notions like consequences, long-term planning, or compassion for their fellows. And the bundle stayed right there in the crevice, at the very least out of the open air. Along one wall, a vein of crystalline blue peeked out of the rock. It pulsed rhythmically, but as the leafy bundle began to stretch and gossamer wings unfolded for the first time, the crystal’s light began to bleed away.
@Duoya
Hidden under a large rock, an almost equally large Dire Rat--the biggest, meanest looking rat one could imagine covered in fur so black it almost looked blue--shivered as she panted. Her nose dripped with moisture as her breathing grew heavy and ragged. Her distended belly rose and fell as she fought for every gasp. For twenty minutes this went on...and then, finally, her ordeal was over. She lay still for some time. Then she felt six tiny, wriggling bodies pressing against her, and she rolled over to answer their pitiable squeaks. She never questioned any of the whys or hows surrounding these actions. A beast needs only its instincts to survive, after all, and something deep inside told her that creatures who did not reproduce simply ceased to exist. When every day is a struggle simply to live, why bother developing troublesome things like complex thought? But that does not necessarily make one stupid. For she certainly knew, perhaps the most important truth of all, that she did not want her existence--nor that of these little ones--to end. Not even that of the one with patchy, missing fur and red, rough looking skin...
@Rune_Alchemist@Tatsu
Under a thin layer of dirt, in a hollowed out pit, a clutch of gray spheres about as big as golf balls sat huddled together. Their mother had gone off, likely to find food or a heat source, with little concern for what might happen should the clutch be discovered--they were already fully formed inside the eggs, after all, and all that was left for them to do was grow. Suddenly, all at once, they began to wiggle. Then they began to crack. And soon the shells were splitting apart, their gooey insides dampening the dirt, and the scaly little critters inside immediately realized that they had broken free of a prison only to become exposed, vulnerable, out in the open. Each reptile acting on its own impulse, they began to scatter or lay flat on their bellies, shifting from side to side to toss a layer of camouflage over their scaly hides. For now they would hide, until they recognized the need for a heat source, and got hungry enough to try snapping up some unfortunate beetle or spider. Some might even get lucky enough to sink their fangs into an unwary predator’s foot, and let loose a stream of potent, paralyzing venom into its veins. Then all of them would gorge themselves, even before the creature’s heart had beat its last.
@Kazemitsu@Guy0fV4lor
A particularly large, rotund ball of moving goop, colored the dark and desaturated green of a dead but not quite withered leaf, slowed its already ponderous roll across a flat rock ledge. This particular Slime had eaten quite well as of late...perhaps too well. The excess mass was not being converted fast enough, and it had nothing to do as of yet with so much. It was time to shed the weight, quite literally. The blob began to undulate, and then with an oddly familiar movement a human would have called “straining,” the Slime’s back end began to swell up. Or rather, its body was beginning to separate. With a wet squelch, a much smaller ball of putty was deposited over the side of the ledge, dropping a few inches onto the next level of the cave floor. But this goo, unlike its spawner, was bright red! The parent Slime had now become a brighter shade of forest green, and its upper edge seemed to wobble in relief. But it still wasn’t quite enough. It inflated for a moment, as if sucking in air, then repeated the process. A much more saturated little blob popped out this time, colored an even more vivid green, but now the parent was back to its original, healthy blue. Warbling incoherently, the Slime began to roll away, leaving its offspring to immediately begin receiving new information through their own independent pseudopods. There was a surface under them, hard and cold, and it was not food. But tiny particles on the cold, hard surface, told them that food would be in a certain direction…
@UltraCraftGames
A sphere of glowing pink light, feather soft around its edges and leaving a trail of shimmering ozone, rose up through the darkness of the cave's far corners. It wobbled, rising and dipping in its flight like a drunkard, before it finally came to roost on a rocky outcrop. It pulsed once, twice...then, much like a sneeze, it gave a sudden movement that propelled it backwards against the rock. This fit dislodged a much smaller light, almost like a dustmote, of pale blue. With a sound like a tinkling bell, the yellow light nudged the blue in a familiar fashion. Then it darted off before stopping again some distance away, and despite its lack of a face it evidently turned to look back. Again it chimed, bobbing up and down, as the smaller light began to drift on its own...
@Knox@Renny
The Goblin infants opened blurry eyes for the first time. Strange, guttural voices spoke in a language they could not comprehend. But a few of those tiny minds were not those of infants, and though at first the sounds didn’t match up with the movements of the mouth, soon the souls within the tiny bodies began to comprehend the new words as they once had their old speech.
“More boys, boss.” said a green figure with odd, bright red markings. Were they scars, or tattoos? As the infants blinked, the adult goblin came into focus. A dirty hand with long yellow nails loomed over the babies, a wriggling grubworm dangling between his fingers. Then, with a pop, the first of the infants found his first “bottle” being poured down his throat.
“Good! Tell my womens to make ‘em strong! When they gets a little bigger, put ‘em to work!” The second voice came from another creature of some kind. Bigger than a Goblin, covered in thick black fur, arms rippling with muscle, he sauntered away without a second glance at his offspring.
It has been one week since your new life began. Or at least, that’s what you believe based on what natural light you see here in the cavern and the apparent sleep cycles of other creatures you’ve observed. For some of you the first few moments were as if coming out of a deep sleep. Groggily, you acted on auto-pilot until those first few primal needs were met, but now you have truly awakened to your predicament. Some of you had to grow a bit before you could really accomplish anything. Some of you had to find a place to hide, or a source of easy food and water, before you could relax and really begin to examine your surroundings. But now you think you’ve got the hang of it. You’re probably not fully grown yet, but all of these creatures are the type of lower life forms that live fast and die faster, so your maturation rate matches that pace. And now, with an understanding of what you are...it seems like it’s the right time to figure out where you are, and where you’re going from here…
Of immediate note in your surroundings are four things: The strange blue crystals, which pop up here and there in clusters among the rocks or catch the eye every so often from veins within the walls; the pool of water and the odd green herbs growing so thickly around it despite the lack of light; the small, distant light that seems to be the exit; and finally, the large bonfire around which you see the shadows of a few goblins...
