New Worlds

[Shaon]

It was a fine dark morning to the Kanti, waking up, and doing their daily business.

Until an unusual sound was heard, one that shattered the light chatter of the Kanti's scales.

A warp portal opening.

They all went into defensive positions, looking like a large formation of crystals.

Paranesia towered over them all, sitting as she watched someone stumble out of the portal, narrowly missing several Kanti.

She spoke to the humanoid.

~Why are you here?~

[Swix]

Kheesth, now resigning herself to the edge of the underground ecosystem contented herself with watching the other life-forms. For some reason, the plant-eaters that had attacked her before wouldn't go towards the edge, so they completely ignored the Tezcan.

Even as she watched, the lifeforms grew and changed. The plant-life got larger, and she could now make out two distinct species. One seemed to have formed somethin of a symbiotic relationship with an animal that she was sure had evolved from the plant-eaters from before. They now walked on six legs rather than eight, the pincers had grown larger, now it seemed they were used more for display and intimidation. The legs that had been freed from the ground were used to pull down flower-like growths from one of the tree species, and every so often Kheesth saw one of the creatures scuttle along with a bright red spot on it's back, caused by going inside the flower to get at whatever food source the plant provided it.

The other species of plant, now more of a purple-red colour than the red-blue of it's predecessor, didn't seem to need help with it's reproduction. Occasionally Kheesth saw one of these plants roots piercing a corpse of one of the six legged creatures, as though it was using the extra nutrients.

The other split of species in the animal life involved the pincers becoming longer and sharper, though not nearly as large as the plant-symbiots. They'd also developed antenna-like projections on their head, which moved around and seemed to allow them to home in on a dead or dying creature, soon dispatched by their pincers.

Even the creatures within the lake had changed, relatives or perhaps a descendant of the squid-thing had sometimes surfaced, venturing onto land to drag one of the hapless animals back into the water with it.

She could only guess as to what the hard-shelled creatures outside had evolved into

[3kul]

After several hours of travelling, the Bris Tree was visable on the horizon. For the Brisicans that is, HollowEyes had spotted it quite a while ago. It seemed very different to the Bris Tree that they had left - rather than being an ugly deformed stick in the ground with several ugly deformed branches twisting out of it, it looked like an actual tree for once. Covered in bright green leaves, even more flowers had grown on it than the amount that had been on it when they'd left. HollowEyes wasn't sure what to make of it, but hopefully the Brisicans back there could explain a thing or two.

Encouraged by the sight of their old home, Bef and Sheek drove the Buo on, Sheek increasing the distance between his throws of algae to try and get them to move faster.

----------------------------

Upon arriving at their old home, the two Brisicans quickly dismounted to go and greet their friends, and also let them know that giant fish monsters had not come to eat them. After much reassurance, the other Brisicans slowly made their way out of their houses to see for themselves if this craziness was true. Sure enough, the Buo seemed quite friendly, and were ecstatic when a massive glob of algae suddenly dropped from the sky in front of them, which gave the Brisicans enough time to get the food off of their backs. Now that HollowEyes knew that they wouldn't get in the way, he could get to work.

Leaving Bef and Sheek to catch up with their fellow Brisicans, HollowEyes moved several paces away from the tiny village and began to draw a large circle in the ground. Once he'd decided on what seemed to be a good size, he began to dig. In a relatively short time, he'd made a pretty decent sized hole. Coaxing a Buo over with several small lumps of algae, he was then able to work out what else he needed to do. The hole was far enough from the moss that was growing around the Bris Tree that the ground was still pretty easy to dig through, so it wasn't hard for him to just keep making it bigger. Eventually it was big enough to hold all eight of the Buo, and now came the trickier part of this job.

"Sheek, I need you and the other Brisicans to take the Buo to the other side of the Bris Tree, so that they can't see what I'm doing." Sheek nodded and took some more of the algae off of HollowEyes, passing it out to the other Brisicans and teaching them how to do what he was doing. Pok stayed behind this time to watch along with Bef, both curious as to what HollowEyes was up to. "Heh, my two disciples decide to stay, huh? Ok then, but don't say anything if it doesn't work out properly." Bef grinned, though Pok seemed a little confused. "What work?" "I suppose you'd call it my first miracle, though I wouldn't call it that myself." HollowEyes said, dumping the rest of the algae he'd brought into the hole he'd dug. "You should probably head back to the Bris Tree now though, you might not like what's about to happen. Tell the others to do the same, I'll have to be the one to heard the Buo now." The two Brisicans nodded and quickly went to round up their friends whilst HollowEyes walked around the Bris Tree, feeling the rain begin to fall as he moved.

----------------------------

The downpour was unlike anything that the Brisicans had ever seen, given that they'd never seen rain before. Although HollowEyes had tried to explain to them that he hadn't been responsible for this, they fully believed that he had been, wondering why he was doing something like this. Had they angered him somehow? Once again, it seemed up to Bef and Pok to reassure their fellow Brisicans that HollowEyes had not forsaken them, and that this would help them, not destroy them.

HollowEyes was pleased that those two were taking care of the Brisicans, because he was having a very hard time with the Buo. They hadn't experienced rain either, and seemed pretty spooked by it, though without anymore algae he had no way to comfort them. Instead he had to use his legs to prevent them from running amok, stomping on the ground in front of them to keep them together. He soon realized what a stupid idea this was, as trees jumping around in front of them only scared them even more, and they began to attack his legs, headbutting them over and over again. Giving up and figuring that it had been long enough now, HollowEyes began to move back towards the hole he'd dug. The Buo, knowing that these jumping trees would be back if they didn't drive them away, chased after him, barking loudly. The Brisicans watched onwards from underneath the Bris Tree, relatively safe and dry thanks to the tree's newfound foliage.

The Buo forgot all about the jumping trees once they saw where they were going though. The hole that HollowEyes had dug was now a miniature version of their old home in Biglak, the shallow pond full of their favourite algae. They quickly entered the water, happy to graze on the plentiful amounts of slime as the pond continued to fill. HollowEyes kept a watchful eye out for anything during the rainstorm, which continued well on into the night.

((Argh, excuse the stupidly long post, I really need to work on a good way to shorten these. Quick summary: Holloweyes, Bef and Sheek return to the Bris Tree to find that it now has leaves as well as flowers, and are re-united with the other Brisicans. HollowEyes makes a pond for the Buo to live in, which is then filled with rainwater from the downpour that hits them.))

[GBE]

((3kul, I only just read the first four pages, and, well, I'm highly amused that Holloweyes would have called a tree, BORIS! *Falls over dying from laughter...))

The trees have not evolved much, other than growing long tangly vines which they attempt to wrap up the bush predators when being attacked. This is balancing the equasion between them both, since the bush predators have been breeding much more successfully. So with almost even numbers of each dying, the balance is being carefully maintained on this planet.

However, for the past year now, someone has been watching and learning about the indiginous species on the planet. Alec Empire, otherwise known as Keeper had accidentally entered a toilet cubicle ((which I believe was the sole transport to each planet? according to previous posts)) and found himself here.

He'd been paying particular attention to the strange little colonies of the protozoic life-forms. At first when he'd first started watching them, and approached them, they flashed bright luminescent colours to ward him away, and tried their best to charge at him, waving their many arms in the air, bumping of his boots and falling over.

Other members of the colony would then proceed to waddle over and help their colony friends off the ground, and then charge Alec together, thus causing them both to fall over. This kept happening for a while until almost all of the colony had their sole purpose as warding him off. Eventually, they grew bored of this threatening non-threat and began to feed again.

Oddly enough, they'd pick up as many leaves in their arms as they could, and drag the leaves along with them, occasionally getting stuck, and frustrated as they tried to tug their leaves free. Some would be jolted backwards onto their backs occasionally when the leaves got stuck.

As far as Alec could tell, there was no point to them moving the leaves around, they just made strange little piles that eventually got blown away, and they'd just eat leaves that they'd been clearing anyway.

The fish have not evolved, remaining a battle of wits between the herbivorious fish and the carniverous fish.

[Swix]

((I made a bit of an error on my part for the last post, and only just noticed it the plant-symbiots are supposed to walk on six legs, with two free arms and a pair of overlarge pincers above them.

So I've edited it now ))

The animal and plant life inside the the mountain had grown ever more abundant, and a third subspecies of the main form of life had appeared. The octapedal creatures had now learned to climb the plants, using shrunken, slender pincers and long, splindly legs to scuttle towards the leaves at the top.

One of the squid-things descendants also now showed more aptitude for both ground and land based hunting, four of the tentacles growing hard and rigid, the retractable spines growing longer as well. The creature often used a stabbing motion when it thought something was close to itself. They were still blind though, so some of the more inexperienced ones accidentally stuck themselves to plants near the water.

The scavengers and the carniverous plants had soon formed something of a large colony around the lake to take advantage of this food source.

Kheesth knew that there was no such thing as night in this little environment, as the luminescent rocks never darkened. Unfortunately, this didn't stop her own body's need of it, and the Tezcan curled around herself, enjoying the heat.

While her eyes would never have the ability to close, it was quite clear the Tezcan was soon fast asleep, the pupil in her eye had become extremely unfocused and sometimes twitched.
_____________________________________________________________
*Poke*

The Tezcan found herself slowly being roused from her sleep...

*Poke*

Her eye wouldn't focus properly, she can't have been asleep for too long...

*Poke*

Kheesth hissed, she wanted the distraction to go away. A disgruntled Tezcan isn't something that's very pleasant to deal with. It seemed to work for a short while, then she heard another hiss. It sounded right next to her head, and the Tezcan quickly jerked it up.

This caused the creature, one of the six legged plant-symbiots to stumble forwards, as it had been poking her with it's overlarge claw and the weight took it off balance a little.

Kheesth looked down at the creature, curious as to why it would want to do that. A slightly closer look revealed to her that it was larger than the ones she'd been watching before she'd gone to sleep, and the pincers had fused themselves together, acting more like clubs.

She also saw the freed legs now had at least six finger-like projections, and it now had a recognisable head on it's shoulders. It was slightly segmented from the body, and three black, clustered eyes stared up at her.

She then realised it was this one that had imitated her when she hissed, and slowly brought her head back down to the creatures level, wondering if it was ready.

"I wonder if you understand what I say or do"

She spoke, causing the plant symbiot to stare again.

"I'm Kheesth. Kheesth"

The snake summoner repeated, pointing at herself with one of her four arms. She hoped it would imitate this like it had her hissing.

"Kee?"

The creature did it's best to imitate, although she couldn't quite tell with the kind of mouth it had. It seemed to open in four ways, and the creature possessed one long, thin tongue.

"Kheesth"

"K... Kh... Kist?"

Kheesth sighed, that would have to do. She pointed to herself again, repeating the word "Kheesth" before pointing at the creature. It seemed to be a quick learner.

"Genyal"

It replied, still looking at the Tezcan with something akin to awe.

[Jent]

*This wasn't what Natu was expecting, finding several crystals scattered on the dirt. Careful Natu was, his mask must have been weakened someway during the warp trip. Slipping from his face, the mask hurled towards a few crystal, but he quickly grabbed it before it could harm the crystals.*

~Why are you here?~ *This spooked him somehow, maybe the warp did more damage to him than he thought?*

"Someone told me to visit other worlds, to expand mine. Maybe yours too?"

[3kul]

((Thanks for reminding me GBE, I almost forgot that HollowEyes called it that ))

HollowEyes sat himself beneath the now-flourishing Bris Tree feeling incredibly perlexed about two troubling things. The first of which was the surprising situation that they were now in, as it was still raining - it had started almost a week ago and had not let up since. The Brisicans had overcome their initial fear of the falling water and now quite enjoyed it, as did the Buo, though for some reason they insisted that HollowEyes had been responsible. Bef told them again and again how he'd promised a miracle, and thus they beleived that any resulting changes could only be beneficial, as they were assured again and again by those who would converse with him that HollowEyes' intentions for the Brisican race were only good.

Viewing the situation as an outsider looking in however, HollowEyes could see that there would also be serious consequences if this rain didn't let up. The Bris Tree and the limited amounts of plant life surrounding it were all doing much better in these wet conditions - the Bris Tree was growing again, the moss was spreading across the small group of houses and the algae in the Buo pond was growing back just as fast as the Buo could eat it. He'd noticed a couple of new species as well - amongst the roots of the Bris Tree a new kind of fungi was managing to just barely survive, which could possibly provide a new food source for the Brisicans. The moss was acting as a structural support to each of the Brisican mudball homes, as without it the small 'buildings' would simply collapse (since they were mostly made of sand).

There were just as many downsides though. The moss continued to cover muckworm foraging grounds, which meant that the Brisicans couldn't gather them up any more. Without muckworms they could no longer fish, thus eliminating their main food source. They'd need to find something else to live on within the next three weeks before they'd run out of the fish. On top of that, this much rain could cause Biglak to flood, which, taking into account that the ground in between them and it was nothing but flat ground, would be extremely problematic.

The other thing troubling HollowEyes was something that he had only noticed yesterday - he was sick. He had never been sick a day in his life thanks to his hyper-aggressive and extremely versatile Parasitian immune system, but something had managed to get through. It wasn't impossible for something like that to happen, and the notion that he may get sick after leaving the Parasitian Homeworld had crossed his mind, but it wasn't exactly something he'd expected to happen. It was really more of an inconvenience than anything, it wasn't like he was dying, but it still made him curious as to what could be responsible, and he didn't like the thought of leaving it to do as it pleased inside his body.

'Curing' himself wasn't a difficult process, it was one of the few abilities that he still had as a Parasitian (most standard Parasitian abilities were 'removed' along with his tongue), the ability to manipulate his body on a cellular level. Employing bacteria, virii and other parasites that had tried to infect him or cause him illness, he could probably find a combination that would at least allow him to weaken whatever this new sickness was. However, this process required a great amount of concentration to manage, he would not be able to interact with the Brisicans for however long this took, which could be anything from a couple of days to a couple of weeks.

He didn't want the Brisicans to freak out about this, so he was now trying to think of a good way to let them know. He would've been a little more at ease if the Brisicans were a little more adaptive or if there had been someone else to help him here. And as he thought that and leant back against the Bris Tree, he suddenly had a very good idea.

----------------------------

"What? Hollryes talk with Bris Tree?" Bef seemed a little confused with what HollowEyes' was telling them. "That's right, in light of these new miracles I must now spend a bit of time communing with Boris here. It's a very tricky thing to do you see, so I'll need you to cope on your own for a little." Pok seemed to be of the opposite mindset of Bef, feeling that she completely understood what was going on. "Bris Tree give life, Hollryes look after. Important to talk, yes?" HollowEyes nodded, slightly annoyed that though the tree had done nothing it was on the same level as he was. "Uh, yes, it is very important and I can't hold it off any longer. Truth be told I haven't spoken to Boris in a little while, it's probably getting annoyed at me."

The Brisicans all seemed quite worried by this, now urging him to hurry up before the Bris Tree could get any more annoyed. He left them with a few things to do just in case his 'discussions with the Bris Tree' took longer than he'd expect them to, then sat back down underneath the Bris Tree. Bef scarpered up to his head, staring him in the eyes, apparently unsatisfied with his explaination. But for whatever reason she decided to let him off the hook and climbed back down. "Be done soon, ou?" HollowEyes smirked a little, wondering whether it was necessarily a good thing that she seemed to have seen though his story. "Soon enough, don't worry Bef. Just be careful until I'm able to help you all again."

And with that, he was out.

((Post summary - the rain continues, making a few changes to the environment aroung the Bris Tree. HollowEyes has become sick for some reason, and is unable to help the Brisicans for however long it takes him to discern what exactly is wrong.))

[Shaon]

[Jent]

"The person who told me was a immortal, most likely one of my friends. I'm sorry for not watching were I step, this warp portal was faulty, and most of the others I go through."

*Natu looks, studying the crystals.*

"What are they?"

[3kul]

((Fie on you short posters, making my posts look far too long by comparison. Long posters forever! ))

HollowEyes focused several clusters of cells towards a big pile of whatever was making him sick, thoroughly confused with it. Nothing seemed to work on it at all, or rather, it was far too quick to attack or drive away.

~Greetings and salutations HollowEyes, how's every little thing going?~

A strange and unfamiliar voice echoed throughout his mind. ~Go away, I'm busy now.~ HollowEyes thought back, not really thinking about who the person or people were and what they were doing in his mind - for now he was focused on one thing and one thing only. ~Oh? Busy with what?~ ~Something that requires a lot of concentration.~ HollowEyes thought, 'feeling' the disease slip through his defenses once again. He was finding this hard to believe but he had the distinct feeling that he was making things worse. ~Mind if I take a look?~ The voice inquired, now obviously even more curious than before. ~I would mind, but it's not like you can actually do-~ ~Too late!~ The voice thought back, ignoring HollowEyes' wishes and beliefs of what was possible. ~Aha, I thought that they were up to something funny with that rain, I guess they really don't like you being here after all.~

HollowEyes wasn't sure just what the voice was getting at, but he didn't really understand how it could do what it had just done. ~Hey, did you just...~ ~Yep, but don't get me wrong, it's only to help you out. Seeeee?~ HollowEyes felt something suddenly attach itself to his back, though in his current internally conscious state he couldn't physically stop it. As he moved several clusters of cells over to attack the base of whatever it was, he thought rather angrily to the voice. ~I don't know what you think you're doing, but if you think that-~ The voice cut him off in what was now becoming a most annoying mannerism. ~Just a minute, almost got it... There, all gone!~

HollowEyes accidentally released his manual control over the cell clusters, such was his surprise as to what the voice had just done. ~You... You just absorbed that sickness right out of my body! How did you do that?~ ~Oh, you think that was clever, eh? Well, first I hyper-accelerated the growth rate of the spores that had attached themselves to your back when you leaned against me to rest, which grew into a fungal growth that happens to live off of other plant matter. Oh, but you probably noticed me experiment a bit with fungi a little while ago though, you're pretty observant like that.~ HollowEyes felt a little shocked, not really wanting to admit to himself what the most probable truth of the situation was. ~Wait, so that means that you're-~ ~Correct! I am none other than Boris, or perhaps I'm better known as the Bris Tree. Hard to say really, you seem to switch between the two of them - not that either of those was anywhere near my old name. Ah, I'm getting off track now - what exactly was it you wished to commune with me about? I'm totally up for talking about whatever.~

This all seemed a bit much to take in, and HollowEyes had no idea how to respond. 'Communing' with the Bris Tree had originally been nothing more than an excuse to stop the Brisicans from worrying about him, he hadn't even considered the possibility that the tree had it's own mind. ~Ok, Boris, how exactly did you get here?~ ~Beats me.~ The tree replied rather quickly. ~I was just... here. I've always been here.~ HollowEyes wondered if he'd somehow messed up the instructions for the new world to create Boris by accident, but decided to find out a bit more before coming to any conclusions. ~Ok, how did you make the Brisicans then?~ ~Oh, well, that's just this thing that I did but I don't know how I did it. Pretty neat though, wasn't it?~

Talking with Boris seemed like it was just going to frustrate HollowEyes, so he moved onto a different line of questioning. ~Well, what about when you were talking about that disease, could you explain that a bit more?~ Boris thought for a moment, HollowEyes guessed that it was probably trying to think of the least helpful answer it could possibly give. ~I can't really explain it all to you, but I tell you the bits that I know. Firstly, the 'disease' that you had was a special kind of plant growth designed to skip around your natural defenses, you've obviously been hanging around Biglak a bit much because that guy noticed you and doesn't seem to like what you're doing.~ ~I'm sorry, 'that guy'?~ ~Ah, well, I don't know his name, but he's like me, expect in the lake. There's a few of us here on Mudstra, you know.~ ~Like you? You mean trees that spit out tiny people?~ ~Well, we're kinda the same, I guess. I can't say that I've seen his people, but I'm fairly sure that he and the others have all done the same thing.~ ~What? 'The others'? How many of you ware there exactly?~ ~Oh, we're not all here. I can tell that there's others like me, I just don't know where or when they're existing.~

This conversation topic was deeply confusing HollowEyes, so he moved onto a new one. ~Ok, so this other Boris-~ The tree cut in, obviously offended. ~Hey, I'm the only Boris, he can't have my name, give him a different one.~ ~Fine, this guy, who is now called... I don't know, Murdock, doesn't like me for some reason. What did I do to set him off?~ ~Well, I'm just a casual observer, but from where I'm standing, you totally favoured me over him, which in my opinion was really cool of you, but he probably didn't think so. Then, assuming that he's creating life like me, you taught Brisicans to kill his squishy fish and eat them, and just recently you stole the fish that he probably made especially so that you couldn't kill them.~ HollowEyes was a little surprised by just how much of a massive jerk he must seem to Murdock. ~Wow, I didn't realize that I'd done so much bad stuff to the poor guy...~

~Hey, it's not all bad, you know!~ Boris cut back across. ~I mean, watering me is always a good thing, and you've done more with the Brisicans than I ever could have. That's why I cured you, because you've been so cool to me.~ HollowEyes appreciated what Boris had done, but still felt somewhat guilty about what he'd done to Murdock. He made a mental note to go find the other weird plant and apologize to him. ~You sure seem to love being watered though, what's up with that?~ Boris now seemed a little surprised. ~Dude, you haven't noticed? I can do all kinds of cool stuff when you water me! I mean, I made all that moss, and grew little flowers and leaves, and just recently, mushrooms!~ ~You also made the Brisicans you know.~ ~Oh, they were by accident, I'm not sure how to make them again, but I'm working on it.~

HollowEyes thought for a moment, curious about this little gem of knowledge he'd just gained. ~So essentially, the more I water you, the more things you can do?~ ~Yep, that's how it works. You're pretty smart HollowEyes, I'm glad that you're the one who's looking after the Brisicans.~ ~Well they sure as hell aren't going to be surviving on their own, now are they?~ ~Ehehe, well, like I said, they were accidents, so it's not like I could make them smart or anything...~ Boris trailed off towards the end of his sentance, seeming a tad distracted by something. ~So whilst it's been awesome communing with you and all, you should really get going.~ HollowEyes found himself somewhat anxious about the tone in the tree's voice, and didn't think that he'd like where this was going. ~How come?~ ~Well, it's been about a month, I've made a few cool new things too, you'll probably want to check in and see how they're going.~ ~Almost a month!?! How could this idle banter have taken so long?~ Boris was now the one feeling nervous, and replied with a bit of a shaky voice. ~What's that? Sorry, the connection's going bad, maybe we'll talk about it next time we commune.~

HollowEyes snapped his eyes open, and he immediately noticed that it was night time. The rain had stopped quite a while ago, and given the small bits of moss and vines that had grown over parts of his legs he felt inclined to believe what Boris had told him. He leaned back against the Bris Tree again, closing his eyes slightly and wondering what could have changed whilst he was gone, feeling quite perplexed about what the not-so-intelligent Brisicans might have gotten themselves into whilst he was gone. ~Hey, don't forget to water me, ok?~ The tree's voice came back across to him, slightly worried that the Parasitian might forget. HollowEyes opened his eyes again, deciding that he didn't feel like resting under the Bris Tree anymore.

((Summary: HollowEyes finds out that Boris (aka the Bris Tree) actually does have a mind of it's own, and after it heals him they talk for a little bit. HollowEyes learns of another tree's existance in Biglak (which he has dubbed Murdock), and that this tree was the one who made him sick due to the fact that he unwittingly has been a huge jerk to the tree. HollowEyes learns a bunch of other stuff from Boris, then finds out that Boris has somehow been talking to him for a month and becomes conscious again.))

[Shaon]

The ones Natu studied quickly hid themselves, causing their crystals to shift and make gibberish-music.

~They call themselves the <musical notes that are untranslatable>, and as such do not have a true name. I have dubbed them the Kanti.~

[Jent]

"Kanti, that is a reasonable name for them. How do they communicate, by music?"

*Natu was still puzzled by this world, what stopped his silence lay deep in Natu's body. Hurting him.* "Arg."

[Shaon]

~Most would infer this.

As such, we need a device to communicate to them, if you aren't as skilled as languages as a goddess like I.

Oddly, you mortals have already prepared one. It is known as a.... 'Glockenspiel'.~

((Yes they sound like walking Glockenspiels ))

[Jent]

"I never heard of a Glockenspiel, if I did. The warp might have erased that part of my memory." *Natu looked around himself.* "What do you like to talk about?"

[Swix]

Kheesth had followed 'Genyal' nearer to the middle of the isolated environment. There were now more flowering trees, and some of the carniverous plants had found ways of 'catching' the scuttlers. One of them had a vine wrapped around it's shell-less body, and was being slowly hauled up towards a hole in the side of the tree. It must be a new species.

Genyal made a rather loud clicking noise with it's four mouthparts, drawing Kheesths attention back to it. It scuttled through the thick carpet of plant-life before coming to a colony of sorts.

There were at least twenty of the same sort of creatures as Genyal, and Kheesth could even see some offspring, far smaller versions of the one that had decided to poke her. One of the adults, sporting a sandy coloured pulled down a large flower so the little ones could feed. It seemed they still relied on the kind of nectar these flowers produced. Kheesth wondered what would happen if the flowers died out. Would they adapt, or would they die out too.

Genyal made his clicking sound again, and the others stopped to stare at him. They then slowly moved their eyes up to stare at her.

Genyal hissed and pointed at Kheesth, then said something in a language she'd never heard before. Not that that should really have surprised her, of course. She had partially been expecting those clicks to be their language, but it appeared to be more something to grab your attention. She did hear the word 'Kist' several times though.

The Tezcan turned around to go and look at just what had happened to the lake while she'd been asleep, she wanted to see just what had changed there.

Seeing where she was headed Genyal quickly scuttled back and tried to block her way, his clubs waving around as though he thought he could frighten her back to the colony. Apparently he thought it was dangerous.

"I'm not going to be too long Genyal, I just want a look"

Kheesth said, though everything in the explanation apart from the name was completely lost upon the creature.

Since Genyal wouldn't move, continuing to wave his clubs around, Kheesth tried a different tactic. The serpent turned around and headed towards the colony again, Genyal no longer waved his clubs and scuttled at almost equal speed next to her.

Kheesth entered and stopped to watch the colony going about their work, Genyal stopped to watch her.

Apparently satisfied she wasn't going to slither off somewhere dangerous again, Genyal joined the colony as well. Kheesth watched curiously as they collected seeds and fruit, her fears about them only being able to feed upon the nectar now a little alleviated. They piled the seeds and fruit inside holes in dead trees, apparently using them for storage.

Kheesth waited for quite a while, and making sure Genyals back was to her she turned and slithered off towards the lake. No-one followed her this time, and she wouldn't be too long. She just wanted to look.