New Worlds

[3kul]

HollowEyes stood up, looking around to see what had happened to the Brisicans whilst he'd been gone. The Bris Tree had definately grown, though it appeared that it's springtime was over - the flowers that had once flourished all over the tree were now scattered all over the forest floor.

Yes, that's what it looked like now, a forest floor, aside from the obvious lack of any other trees, the Brisican village was quite covered in the nature surrounding it. Some of the old houses were still coping well, though for some reason some of them appeared to have been broken somehow. Several pathwaths amidst the grassy moss had been clearly made, as the Brisicans and the Buo seemed to frequent travelling these ways. Looking back towards the Bris Tree, HollowEyes could see that the mushrooms it had been working on had done pretty well, though he could tell that quite a large number had been picked - the Brisicans must be getting hungry.

"Ou, Hollryes, you finally wake up!" The friendly and familiar voice of Bef seemed surprisingly close by, and after some confusion HollowEyes realized that this was because she was on top of his head. Knowing better than to question why she was there, he instead decided to simply reply to her question. "Yeah, the Bris Tree certainly knows how to waste people's time..." Strangely, Bef seemed a little dismayed at this. "Oh, really? That's no good..." HollowEyes figured that a quick change of subject was in order, so he decided to ask her about Brisican progress. "Ah, it gou well! Not much fish, but mushurm good too. More hulp too, makes things easy." "More help?" HollowEyes didn't quite follow, though he soon would.

A shrill chirp from somewhere alerted the other Brisicans to his presence, and he suddenly found himself surrounded - the Brisican population had doubled in the time that he was gone, alongside the Brisicans he had previously known, there were six new faces. Given that they were the same size as the other Brisicans and had many similar mannerisms, HollowEyes came to understand that these Brisicans were new arrivals (though he had at first thought that they might have been children). They all bowed down their heads to him, humming quietly as Pok stepped forward. "Ou to Hollryes, how are you?" HollowEyes knew that this was about as formal as their speech got, so he wondered what on Earth the occassion was. "Not bad thanks, just finished chatting with the Bris Tree, he told me some interesting things."

After spending a long time reacquanting himself with the Brisicans he'd known and being introduced to the offspring HollowEyes was feeling incredibly confused - he honestly hadn't thought that things would have changed so much. After suggesting it to Bef, she and Pok agreed to a private ceremony with HollowEyes, to bring him up to speed on everything.

"I'm not quite sure I understand exactly what's happened around here. I mean, even without the children it's more complicated than before." Both Bef and Pok nodded, though Bef allowed Pok to explain. "Hollryes sleep for a while, not do much like before. Bris Tree grow more, make mushurms, food. Brisicans like hulp - Bris Tree give, Hollryes not. Some Brisicans ok wait, some not." Their grasps of the English language was far too simplistic, but HollowEyes felt that he sort of understood the situation a little better now, and it explained some of the strange reactions he got moments earlier.

Evidentally, some of the Brisicans didn't believe that HollowEyes was communing with the Bris Tree at all, as it continued to help them whilst he simply slept. Others continued to believe in HollowEyes, happy to fend for themselves until he came to tell them what the Bris Tree had said. In other words, there now existed a rift between the Brisicans - there were those who believed in accepting the Bris Tree's help and those who believed in accepting HollowEyes' help.

Most of the 'True' Brisicans were ones that he hadn't had much contact with, or didn't feel that they'd benefitted much from his help at all - this included Curr Iys, Frotu Cook and Praw Krec, as well three of the newcomers, giving them a grand total of six. Frotu Cook was apparently quite the outspoken figure for them, speaking highly of every miracle performed by the Bris Tree and questioning much of what HollowEyes had done previously for them - this was most likely why he seemed incredibly nervous at the suggestion of a private ceremony for HollowEyes. The other 'True' Brisicans followed his lead most of the time, and believed in much of what he said, although HollowEyes suspected that there were some amongst this group who were more scared of him than anything. Their actions were dictated mostly by desire - when they were hungry they'd find food to eat, when they were thirsty they'd find something to drink, etc.

The same number of Brisicans openly supported HollowEyes, which included Sweesr Pok, Belkben Bef and Lem Sheek (unsurprisingly, these were the Brisicans that he'd been in the closest contact with) as well as and with three more newcomers this made six. This group was organized quite differently, and seemed to get much more done, most likely due to their understanding of the need to fend for themselves. Sheek had continued to fish as well as herd the Buo, Bef had spent part of her time aiding Sheek with fishing and part of her time foraging beneath the Bris Tree alongside Pok. The three shared responsibility over the newcomers, each spending some time teaching them what they were doing so as to gain more help in return.

This was an interesting difference between the two groups - those Brisicans who supported HollowEyes believed in sharing knowledge and expanding upon it, often trying new things even if they seemed impractical or impossible. The Brisicans who were only loyal to the Bris Tree on the other hand treated anything that they'd been taught by HollowEyes as something to be ignored. They believed that the Bris Tree would endeavor to protect the lives that it created, and provide them with answers whenever they sought them. HollowEyes could hardly hold it against them, as the Bris Tree had in fact provided them with fresh food whilst he'd been gone and a few other nice things, but he kind of felt like some of them had simply been waiting for him to do something like this to announce their distaste towards him.

"So, Pok, you, Bef and Sheek are all still my number one fans?" "Ou!" Bef eagerly replied. "So are Fis, Wur and Serrat." "The new Brisicans, right?" HollowEyes closed his eyes, thinking for a few moments about what he should do now. "Well, I suppose I'll have to bring them along too, we have some important things to do." Bef cocked her head to one side, curious about what he had in mind. "Things? Bris Tree tell you?" "Not so much, no, these are things I've decided to do myself, and seeing the other Brisicans like this makes it seem more and more like the right thing to do." "What is?" An equally curious Pok replied. "I'll tell you about it when we get there, but for now we need to go to Biglak."

((Post summary: HollowEyes finds that there's been a few changes since he was last here, namely -
1. Population increase - the Bris Tree has created six more Brisicans without warning HollowEyes (whether or not this was intentional is yet to be proven.))
2. Difference in Public Opinion - half of the current total of Brisicans continue to believe in HollowEyes, the other half prefer to rely on the Bris Tree for help.))

[Shaon]

[GBE]

((It's been a while... Ooooooh yeah yeah yeeeeeeaaaahhh.....))

Having been completely focussed on these odd little leaf munching creatures, Alec had had little time for anything else for a little while. But they were just so fascinating to him. It was fortunate now that he had just been accepted as something being there that moves. The creatures weren't bothered by him at all, and the relaxed nature of those that had spent a while with him being around seemed to rub off onto the other communities that they'd occasionally come across.

One of the creature had waddled over to a pile of leaves an had begun taking them to its own pile, little realising that it was owned by another. When the owner came back to find its leaf pile diminishing and running around it a few times to see if they'd only blown off, he waved his arms in the air, which to any would look funny.

As the thief came back and continued to take leafs, the owner came running around from the side and saw what was happening. Waving its arms at the thief its mouth became rounded as it released its little cry which was slightly high pitched with an undercurrent of a bass line. The sound was similar to "Aaaaaieeeeeeeeooouuuuuuuu". Sometimes this could result in a clash, but the thief let go of the leaves and ran away back to its own pile. Satisfied, the owner checked to see that its pile was in good condition before continuing to collect leaves.

The thief that had run back to its pile, checked its own pile and then took one of the leaves and began to munch on it, starting with the stem. As it got to the end of the stem, it almost began to struggle, before eating around the leaf, holding it with its many arms. This isn't the only method of eating. Some of the others prefer the roll and munch method, which involves rolling up the leaf as tight as they can (the tightness varies according to the level of skill they have) and then munch on it without struggling too much.

The creature finished eating its leaf, and not yet hungry for another leaf wondered off towards one of the trees and began to scratch at it with its claws, as it did, slowly it reached a sap vein, and as it slowly leaked, i sucked on the sap. As it did, a shadow loomed over it...

[3kul]

((Hmmm, looks like everyone's forgotten about this one... What a pity, it's only two pages away from being medal-worthy... Well, I'll keep posting myself for now, feel free to jump back in everyone ))

A few things had been bugging HollowEyes since his last meeting with the Bris Tree ((also known as Boris, but the Brisicans pronounced this differently)), things that didn't really seem to fit. He wasn't sure if the tree was deliberately secretive or just stupid, either way there was little point in communing with it again until he was.

So he'd decided to seek out the truth of this world elsewhere - Boris had let slip that there were others like itself around, maybe they'd be a little more talkative. He'd start with the tree that was near Biglak since, aside from Boris, that was the only other tree that he knew the location of, and see how things went from there.

Having made up his mind, HollowEyes called all of the Brisicans loyal to him over. Recognizable faces were Bef, Pok and Sheek, however, as they'd mentioned to him there were three new Brisicans who believed in what HollowEyes taught them. Somewhat unsurprisingly, these new Brisicans appeared to have more than their fair share of defects, their loyalty to him no doubt in part due to the fact that the 'True' Brisicans had rejected them for these differences.

Wur, a male, had elongated teeth extending out of his jaw, giving him an overly fierce appearance and made his speech even worse than regular Brisicans. Serrat, the other male, had large boney growths exposed from the ends of his tentacles, making his movements more awkward and less agile than the rest. Fis, the only new female, appeared to have hit the mutation jackpot - for starters, her pigmentation was all messed up, instead of being the dull purple colour that the other Brisicans were she was a crazed mixture of greens and reds, and on top of that she was almost twice as tall as the average Brisican.

Not that any of these physical differences bothered HollowEyes, he could already see how they might serve as beneficial. HollowEyes made several attempts tt explain the situation to them, and as always Bef seemed to have a better understanding of the situation than the others, though she didn't fare any better than he did at getting the rest to understand (as far as they were concerned, they liked both HollowEyes and the Bris Tree). In the end, HollowEyes just told them that they were going to look for something new and they seemed satisfied enough with that.

Not too long after that, HollowEyes, the Brisicans and the Buo set off. HollowEyes wasn't too sure as to what he was getting himself into or why he didn't trust the Bris Tree, but he had a feeling that whatever he might find on this trip would provide him with the answers that he was looking for.

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

After a couple of days travelling, they reached Biglak without any problems. The Buo happily waded into the shallows, practically inhaling the algae native to these waters that they loved so much. HollowEyes noticed this, and realized that the algae supply back at the Bris Tree had probably run out a little while ago - the Buo had been starving, and he'd definately need to stock back up on their food supply.

The Brisicans had begun to fish without much hesitation, using the Buo to safely hop around the shallows. Pok and Sheek excelled at this, HollowEyes noticed that they'd even gotten over their huge fear of the water with this, as even when they slipped they could quickly get back out without much panic. Bef probably would have been doing the same thing, but she was currently sitting on HollowEyes' head, curious as to what the Parasitian intended to do here.

The new Brisicans were a completely different story though, as from the looks of things they all were terrible at this kind of fishing. They spent more time in the water than hopping across the Buo, Fis and Serrat were both built differently when it came to legs and couldn't get the jumps right, and it seemed like Wur didn't even want to jump.

"That just Wur." Bef explained, pointing as he made his way out to slightly deeper water. He suddenly ducked his head under, remaining underwater for almost a minute before resurfacing with a large chunk of fish in his mouth. It appeared that this Brisican was making the most of his oversized teeth, but the problem was that it was too much effort for too little fish, HollowEyes made a mental note to try and explain this to Wur later.

"Alright, that's enough fishing for now." HollowEyes said to the group loudly. "You'll all need to move a good distance away from Biglak for now, you can take a break and eat some of your catch, but save some for later, ok?" "Ou!" The small group shouted back to him, some eager to see what he had planned, others just glad to take a break from the tiresome exercise. As soon as the Brisicans were all out of the way, HollowEyes made his way out into the water. "I'll be back soon enough, don't worry." He said to reassure them, before finally diving in.

[3kul]

((Double post for a thread resurrection!

This was one of my favourite threads for a long time, and since I just had some really good ideas for it I'd like to see it continue rather than die off.

If you want to continue your own world that'd be great, if you want to start a new one that's cool too. At the very least I'd like to see this thread hit the ten page marker, as it deserves a bit of medal recognition. If it's any kind of incentive, my world is going to be opened up to others in a couple of posts.

To get people interested again (hopefully ), it's time for my world to experience a time jump Also, religion! ))

"It was exactly 100 years ago on this very day that our almighty saviour, the Holy Riser, entered these treacherous waters, sacrificing himself to save us all from the fearsome Deviltree that lurked within."

"Seven days after his noble act, the six disciples of the Holy Riser encountered the last of the Murken people to surface, whose bodies were weak and their minds still bound by the roots of their Deviltree. They came to learn that these last Murks originated from the Deviltree that the great Holy Riser is still locked in mortal combat with, though they did not know of his whereabouts or his teachings."

"Thus the Six Disciples took in the First Murks under their collective tentacle, teaching them in the ways of the wise Holy Riser. Knowing that there was more than one Deviltree corrupting our precious minds, the two groups became one and were from then on known as Holrysians."

"They then travelled the world, freeing minds from the remaining Deviltrees whenever and wherever they could. They practiced and preached the Four Teachings of the Holy Riser:
I. Fend for yourselves, for you will gain strength through your adversity.
II. Think for yourselves, for you will gain wisdom through your own experiences as well as those of others.
III. Improve yourselves, for your potential is as limitless as the heavens themselves.
IV. Share these values with others, so that you may all benefit from them.
And in preaching such blissful knowledge they came to gain followers, people who understood the Truth that the Holy Riser had come to deliver unto us, his children. And so the Holrysian people grew in numbers and in strength, taking in anybody who would follow them and continuing in their travels."

"They encountered Fosu the Insidious, Deviltree of the Southern Wastelands, Captor of the Fofosu people. His fumes are said to blot out the heavens and choke the earth itself, and his food toxic to all."

"Amenitc the Vicious, Deviltree of the Northern Forests, Captor of the Amenitites. Her cruelty is found throughout her domain, there is not a plant that does not grow without her hideous thorns, and the rivers run red with the blood of her people."

"Bris the Devious, Deviltree of the Eastern Swamp, Captor of the Brisicans. He is known as the most clever of all Deviltrees, and since the departure of the original Six Disciples not one of his people has ever left his swamp, as he is able to see through to the depths of your very soul and tempt you to stay with your deepest desires."

"Murdelk the Ominous, Deviltree of the Western Oceans, Captor of the Murks. We have never seen nor heard of his abilities or domain, as his people were very few in numbers, though he is said to despise growth and prosperity, and that his domain was so barren that his people were forced to leave on their own."

"100 years have passed since we Holrysians began our journey, walking the path set down for us by the almighty Holy Riser. It has been a long and difficult journey, and regrettably there are those who have not lived to see it through."

"However, it shall be on this day that we begin to write the new teachings of the all-knowing Holy Riser, as after returning to the domain of Murdelk the Ominous to scour his dangerous waters we have finally found the entrance to the lair in which we believe our saviour and the Western Deviltree are still fighting."

"The Four Prophets, direct descendants of those who originally led our people through the perilous domains of the Deviltrees, will be the ones to enter the cavern of Murdelk the Ominous. It is they who will carry our hopes and wishes to the Holy Riser, and if need be, aide him in his fight..."

"They are the Wise Brisican Pomok, the Shielding Murk Neln, the Resourceful Fofosu Tetera and the Gentle Amenitite Kuume. May their strength, knowledge and growth be enough to guide them to our saviour, the Holy Riser."

The ceremony ended with the crowd cheering for their prophets as they left the stage, entering the airtight chamber that would allow them to journey underwater. A pair of Buo, adorned with a colourful variety of decorations, pulled the chamber, dragging it towards the ocean where the prophets hoped to find the long-lost HollowEyes, better known to the people here now as the Holy Riser.

[Swix]

Kheesth slithered over to the pool, this time unhindered by the creature she'd come to know as Genyal and his club waving antics. As she approached it was rather undeniably hard not to notice the near superabundance of vegetation that now surrounded the water. She had to avoid some rather strange, web like structures interwoven between the trunks of the strange coloured plants. To her surprise the ones attached to these structures appeared to have reverted back to their predecessors red-blue colour, rather than the purple-red that the other carnivorous plants had adopted. For carnivorous these were, as she was soon treated to the sight of an underdeveloped and unaware scuttler setting one of it's many feet on the 'webs' and almost immediately being engulfed by it.

There were many insect like creatures in abundance here as well, although their combination of purple wings and green bodies led the Tezcan to believe they must have been something that had evolved rapidly while she was asleep, as she did not remember anything at all similar. She had a good idea as to why Genyal believed this place to be dangerous, it certainly would have been if the snake summoner were his size. But she was not, and she had others on her side as well, so she had nothing to worry about.

Approaching the crystalline, ever-changing blues of the waters edge Kheesth noticed the rather conspicuous total lack of anything whose ancestry she might have traced back to the squid-creature. Or even any sign of the scavengers with their delicate but dexterous pincers. Puzzled and curious the Tezcan slithered inside until she was literally at the waters edge, and looked down inside it.

To her delight she saw that the scavengers had indeed survived, but they appeared to have taken up the position which the squid things had left. She could see their descendants quite happily swimming about in the water. Their fleshy legs had become flattened but wider, and moved in the manner of many undulating fins whilst their pincers had remained as they were, although they too had become flatter in order to help with locomotion.

Kheesth espied a shoal of colour changers swimming about, and noticed that they had themselves changed very little, except to become larger versions of their ancestors. Her curiosity was satisfied for the moment, although she would have really liked to know just what had happened to the 'squids' the Tezcan turned around and began to make her journey back to Genyals small colony. So far they were the only signs of intelligent life in this place, and the Tezcan now found herself faced with the difficult task of communication. But she could mull this problem over on the way back.
_____________________________________________________________
Once the snake woman had reappeared near the colony Genyal, who it was clear to see by his stumbling over his own six legs had been running around trying to find out where she'd gone ran up to her, all the while clicking his mandibles.

Since the Tezcan had at least figured out this part of their language waved one of her hands dismissively.

"Yes, yes, I'm here, you've got my attention. Now what's the matter?"

Genyal stopped his clicking, blinked his three eyes at her and then babbled at her in his strange language. He moved backwards and forwards, clearly agitated about something.

"I can't understand what you're saying Genyal, I'm going to have to find a way to sort that out"

Again there was that blinking, before the small creature said 'Kist!' as loud as he possibly could before turning and scuttling away through the undergrowth, moving at high speed. Kheesth quickly followed him, noting as she did that the rest of the small colony had become very busy and agitated themselves, most of them only stopping to glance at the serpent before continuing whatever it was they were doing.

As Kheesth moved quickly behind Genyal she couldn't help but notice just how close the walls that enclosed this miniature ecosystem on this planet were getting. It seemed they were heading towards the very edge, towards the everlasting hot wind and sand that awaited through a tunnel to the outside proper.

The Tezcan soon found herself proved right as Genyal stopped near the small hole Kheesth remembered coming in through. He stopped inside the vegetation though, using it for cover as much as he possibly could. Kheesth followed suit by lowering herself so close to the ground her chin barely cleared the floor. She found that, down here she could see what he saw.

What Kheesth could see was a massing of hard-shelled creatures as they stopped inside the long cavern. The word 'massing' was the first to come to mind as they were barely an inch across, so the small cave provided plenty of room for them to stand side by side. The legs that their ancestors had used to grip the ground and prevent them from being blown away by the planets harsh wind were actually leaving claw prints in the rock, so they must be deceptively strong.

There was already one line marching inside, for the moment keeping to the walls edge and disappearing from Kheesths sight to the left. To the right was another line, this one marching out with what the Tezcan recognised as some of the same fruits and vegetables that Genyals kind had been hoarding, as well as the actual flowers that provided them with their nectar.

Now she understood what was causing him such distress, and the main reason why most of the life here had become carnivores. A mass of this many creatures, no matter how small, would surely devastate their food supply.

((Wow, I started typing then I couldn't stop myself . There's my bit up for you to enjoy anyway ))

[3kul]

((Wow, awesome post as always Swix ))

The small crowd was very excited to see the Buo return with the chamber as soon as they did, many of them had expected that they'd have to wait for days before seeing their respective leaders again, but here they were once again. The older and more learned members of the crowd were not so excited however, as this should have taken much longer than it had - something was definately wrong here.

Pomok was the first to exit the chamber, his slightly squarish head hanging in shame. Neln, Tetera and Kuume shared the same disappointment, though the crowd did not pick up on this and clamoured around them, eager to hear of what they'd discovered.

"The Holy Riser was not there." Tetera shrieked in a terrified voice. "We have betrayed our masters for nothing!" The Fofosu in the crowd echoed their leader's cries, lamenting this terrible misfortune. The other races began to murmur amongst each other, wondering what had happened.

"Please do not panic! There is more to this story than Tetera makes of it!" Pomok the Brisican shouted over the crowd, hoping to calm them down a little. He'd led the Holrysians for many years now, and had earned their respect as a wise leader - his flat head was the same as his great-great-grandmothers, or so he'd been told, and it helped him to stand out from the rest of his kind. "It is true that the Holy Riser was not there, but Murdelk was!"

The crowd suddenly fell quiet, even the panicky Fofosu, for now Pomok had their attention. The fact that their four leaders had met with a Deviltree and returned to tell the tale was quite amazing, and well worth listening to. "The Ominous Deviltree told us many things, though it's hard to say what's true and what's false." Neln gently nudged Pomok with his headplate, indicating that he wished to speak. Pomok obliged him, and the Murk leader spoke up, his teeth clacking together as he spoke. "Murdelk was there and the Holy Riser was not, so we asked him where our saviour was."

"Murdelk was not angry, nor did he have any grudge against the Holy Riser. He claims that they did not fight, but that they talked, that the Holy Riser had done him wrong and had come to apologize." The crowd cried out in disbelief, though the Murks in the crowd began to headbutt the noisier Holrysians, wanting to hear what their leader had to say. "After talking for a while, Murdelk began to feel sick, and was unable to solve his illness. The Holy Riser offered a suggestion, though we could not understand it when Murdelk tried to tell us what it was. Nonetheless Murdelk took the Holy Riser's advice and produced something not of this world."

"A portal." Kuume interrupted, grinning in the way that Amenitites do. "To another place." The crowd gasped in shock, wondering what exactly this meant. "Yes," Neln nodded, not appreciating the interruption. "A 'portal' is what Murdelk called it. A swirling blue mess is what it looked like. The Holy Riser told Murdelk that the build up of such energy might have caused his illness, and by releasing it Murdelk realized that he'd cured himself."

"Murdelk is no longer a Deviltree, he is something else. He is not greedy like the others and does not mind whether we are on his land or not..." Neln was interrupted once more by various outbursts from the crowd. It was to be expected, as the Holrysians had been raised to hate the Deviltrees, but Neln had hoped that they might have taken this better. "That is all good and well for the Murks, but what are we to do?" Tetera screeched angrily, obviously not liking what the four had learned. "Murdelk offers us home under the water, but I do not believe his lies!" The Fofosu leader seemed intent on adding fuel to the fire, and she began to caw loudly.

"Murdelk told us to relay this message - that in exchange for curing him, the Holy Riser made him promise to create a home for his children. This is all that Murdelk has been doing since meeting with the Holy Riser." Pomok shouted over the crowd, trying to regain a bit of control. "Fellow Murks, our home is as our ancestors described it, and we are welcome to it if we should so desire it." Neln shouted to the Murks in the crowd, and they began to clack their teeth loudly in approval of their leaders suggestion. Murks were originally aquatic creatures, and felt more comfortable in water, something which they'd seen very little of in their long journeys.

"Fellow Amenitites, there are no thorns in the home that the Holy Riser has prepared for us, and the food is plentiful." Kuume chirped, encouraging the Amenitites in the crowd. She made sure to focus on the fact that the Holy Riser was the one to arrange this, as her people were especially distrustful of the Deviltrees - Amenitc had been an especially cruel mistress to them.

"Fellow Brisicans, I ask you to continue following the Holy Riser as our ancestors did. Even if you do not wish to stay in the home that he has built for us, we must travel there first to learn of his current whereabouts." Pomok said to the crowd, hoping that they would listen to reason.

"My fellow Holrysians," a screeching voice cried out, silencing all others. "I do not believe for a second that the great Holy Riser would leave us with a Deviltree, and you would be a fool to believe Murdelk's lies! Regardless of what he says one thing is true - the Holy Riser is not here. We must continue to search for him elsewhere, and we must continue to free those who, like us, were once mere playthings to the Deviltrees."

Tetera was certainly deserving of her title, resourceful even in the face of total defeat, and charismatic to boot. She'd successfully managed to turn most of the crowd against the three other leaders, but she wasn't going to stop there. Now that she had them eating out of her hand she was going to make the most of it. "The time has come for a new tree to grow my friends - the Holrysian Tree!" The crowd roared with excitement at the prospect of such a revolutionary idea (despite the fact that it made little sense), and Tetera continued to give them exactly what they wanted. "We have suffered greatly and seen the light, we follow the almighty Holy Riser, but there are those who do not! What do we think of those people?" The crowd erupted in a chorus of booing and jeering, exactly what Tetera wanted to hear. "Those who join us are welcome, but those who do not may as well be Deviltrees themselves!" More roaring from the crowd, the assortment of creatures were eating this right up.

"BUUUUUUUUOOOOOOOOOO!"

The loud cry of one of the Buo interrupted Tetera's rabble-rousing, and she turned to look towards her fellow leaders. "Pomok, what's wrong? Do you disagree with me?" The Brisican leader stood atop one of the Buo, glaring angrily at the Fofosu leader. "Do not be taken in by Tetera's words, she does not like the truth of this situation and seeks to create her own!" Pomok shouted to the crowd, determined to win back some support. "You are welcome to choose what you wish to do, but we shall be leaving to go to the home that the Holy Riser has prepared for us. Those who wish to come must do so now."

Pomok was deeply disappointed by what he saw, only about 20 members of the large crowd stepped forward to join him - 8 Brisicans, 6 Murks and 6 Amenitites. No Fofosu would bother going against their own kind, the bird-like creatures were fiercely loyal to each other and had strong flocking instincts, not to mention the fact that they hated enclosed spaces.

Tetera cawed loudly in delight, pleased to see that so many had sided with her. "The crowd has spoken my old friends, and you may now depart for your home beneath the waves." "It is a pity that you are setting sail down a blood river Tetera, we Amenitites are well aquainted with such cruelty. I expect that my brothers and sisters will be back to join me soon enough." Kuume said with a wide frown on her face, making her way back to the chamber. "I always thought that we Murks were peaceful and meant to protect, hard to imagine why else we'd have shields for faces. I too am certain that my fellow Murks will realize their mistake soon enough." Neln clicked angrily, his head lowered towards Tetera. Pomok was at least pleased to see that Neln and Kuume were joining him, as he wasn't feeling particularily wise at the moment.

The 23 true followers of HollowEyes entered the chamber, and the pair of Buo bellowed loudly as they pulled it back beneath the water. The rest of the Buo herd cried back in reply and began to follow after them, much to the dismay of the crowd. "Forget them!" Shrieked Tetera, worried that the Buo showing such bizarre defective behaviour might convince others that Pomok had been right. "We have more glorious matters to concern ourselves with."

[Swix]

((Thanks, but, I'll admit I've always felt yours were better ))

As the Tezcan began to feel she'd seen enough after having waited with most of her body near the ground, and was about to turn and leave, Genyal approached her. He moved as quietly as he could so as not to get the other creatures attention, although from what the snake woman had seen they weren't interested in meat, only vegetation. The little creature looked as though he was about to click again, but thought better of it and instead pointed his one of his six fingered hands at her, then at himself, and scuttled off.

Whilst Kheesth found hiding as she was to be rather stupid, nevertheless she followed Genyals lead and stayed low and as unseen as she could, although her currently conflicting emotions were not helping by subtly changing her scale colour. It would be a shame to see a budding, young race die so early on in its evolution. But should she? Would it interrupt their growth as a species if she did, or would they die from starvation after this invasion if she didn't? 'Is this what the gods must deal with?'. Suddenly she was glad she only communed regularly with the Elementals and spirit of her home, and the Portal Guardian... Perhaps she should speak with him.

Kheesth suddenly realised Genyal had come to an abrupt stop, thus bringing her out of her reverie. Peering through the strangely coloured leaves she could see he'd followed one of the Hard Shells lines, specifically the one that was penetrating deeper into the lands. Genyal kept watching them, he seemed to be waiting for them to do something as he kept turning his head back towards his own colony and then to the line.

At one point he went to dart forwards, but then turned his head until he could see Kheesth with one of his three eyes, made a jerking motion with it and ran as fast as his legs could carry him towards the colony. The line had begun moving towards the centre of the habitat where they lived, and he clearly wanted to beat them to it. While she still needed to get over the problem of communication, just by their actions Kheesth could see they were developing into, perhaps already were, a very intelligent race. The summoner quickly followed her 'guide' until they reached the others, all stealth forgotten on Genyals part.

The second he reached the very edge of the clearing, he began his loud clicking once again, until all oddly numbered eyes on each face were turned his way. He stopped, apparently in some sort of dramatic pause before loudly declaring something in the strange language of his. Many eyes became wider at hearing the news he'd brought, and their previously agitated work was resumed with greater intensity if not outright panic. Kheesth resumed her usual 6 ft 'reared' position, folding her arms as she watched them. They continued to stuff as much edible vegetation they could into holes in the trees, although how this was going to help the summoner was at a loss to figure out.

Genyal had scuttled into the middle of the clearing and was standing on a pile of deadwood, elevating him higher than the others whilst he barked out what were most likely commands and pointed in various places. He seemed to be co-ordinating the entire effort. Young ones were pulled up into the tops of the 'safe' plants, the ones who still survived on nutrients in the ground and the blue light alone. While they were nowhere near as graceful or fast than their Scuttler 'cousins', they still managed to use their hands and six legs with a delicateness that surprised the Tezca, who had never had the use of such things.

When Kheesth looked down again she found to her surprise that the holes in the trees Genyals kind had stuffed in them had closed! What strange things these plants were that lived here, inside a smooth mountain on a planet this hot. But all the better for the evolved species here, perhaps now they would not be in danger of starving.

Not all the vegetation had been locked away either, there was a small pile of what looked of what looked like rotting fruit that was being arranged in a circle around the colony, and to Kheesths near utter amazement it was being trampled on by those who were not already in the trees or helping to spread it, leaving mushy mess surrounding them. Genyal clicked for attention and said something once more after this bizarre behaviour was finished, perhaps a sign of approval, before both they and he himself climbed into the trees.

Genyal stopped to look around, realising he'd lost sight of the large creature that he'd met before, but Kheesth was nowhere to be seen. He had to assume she'd hidden herself, as it was too late to go looking for her now. The Hard Shells were already arriving at the outskirts of his home.
_____________________________________________________________
Unknown to anyone else, and unknown to Kheesth until it was too late, she'd been pulled into the Portal Guardians realm whilst she'd been fascinated with what those creatures were doing. Apparently, the Portal Guardian had been fascinated with what she'd been doing and had decided to interfere himself. Now the Tezca watched through a weak part of the fabric of reality, where Genyals world was almost close enough to this in-between state to touch, yet not quite.

"What does this achieve?"

Kheesth asked, trying to keep the annoyance out of her voice. Whilst she hadn't initiated this, she didn't particularly want to get on his bad side. It was better to keep these kinds of relationships polite at best.

"I BELIEVE YOU WILL FARE BETTER SIMPLY WATCHING THEM COPE, AND I FELT YOU WISHED TO TALK"

A simple answer, although that usually meant one thing with this being...

"That I do, but there's always a catch isn't there? What do you want in return?"

"CALL IT A FAVOUR FOR NOW"

((That's that part finished. again, enjoy ))

[3kul]

((Great work as always Swix (clearly yours are better ), I can't wait to see what comes next ))

Before I get started on this next part I figure that I should put up a quick description of what each race is like:

Brisican
Description: Brisicans have large heads covered in a wooden thorn-covered cap, two eyes and one mouth. They have smaller bodies and most of their weight is supported by their four tentacles, which can function as both arms and legs. Brisicans are quite intelligent creatures and very flexible, though they are not very strong physically, and tend to be purple in colour. They developed the speech that is used by most Holrysians.

Murk
Description: Murks have a large grey stony growth on their heads not too dissimiliar to a shield, six eyes and several mandibles arranged around their mouths. Their bodies are slug-like and pale blue in colour, and they have no appendages to speak of. As they breath through their skin, Murks are able to live in and out of water, and they are very hardy creatures, both physically and mentally. Prior to becoming a part of the Holrysian group, Murks used to communicate in a strange clicking language called Murkish.

Amenitite
Description: Amenitites are bright orange in colour, with two large green eyes and various markings on their forehead and running down their back. They have two arms with sickle-like claws for hands and a pair of long grasshopper-like legs. They are gentle creatures that scare easily, and though they are quite strong physically they prefer not to fight. Before becoming a part of the Holrysian group, Amenitites had a rather crude method of communicating via howls called Mentik.

Fofosu
Description: Fofosu are bird-like creatures, with a pair of large membranous wings that they usually wrap around their body when they aren't using. They have two large eyes on either side of their head along with a large beak and a set of antennae, which they use to detect delicate changes in the wind, and come in three colours - white, brown or black. With six spindly legs each ending in a suction cup-like foot, the Fofosu, which spends most of it's time flying, can sleep just about anywhere. Their intelligence is on par with the Brisicans, though they're not quite as creative or adventurous. Usually noisy and opinionated, Fofosu are very loyal to one another and have strong flocking instincts, and used to speak in a squawking language called Fos.

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

"You've returned." Murdelk greeted the Pomok, Kuume and Neln, along with their 20 followers. "Though it seems that not all of you are here... No matter, welcome to your new home."

The cavern was not so much big as it was dark and empty-looking, Murdelk stood atop a large mound in the centre of the cavern, though that was about all there was here. Most of the followers had been expecting a little more, and seemed disappointed to see that they'd be spending their days in this damp cave. "It was built as HollowEyes requested it, though I suppose that you'll find it a bit roomier since there's less of you than he expected."

Nobody seemed to want to talk about the reason behind that, the sudden split had left a bad taste in everybody's mouths. So instead, a young Murk decided to ask a different sort of question. "Who is HollowEyes?" Murdelk rustled his branches in a confused manner, wondering why they were here if they didn't know HollowEyes. "HollowEyes is what Murdelk calls the Holy Riser." Pomok explained. "Ah, that's right, you call him something else..." Murdelk remarked, sounding a little amused. "Well, he requested that I make a home that's safe, easy to defend and with plenty of food, both for the body and mind."

"Food for the mind?" An inquisitive Brisican repeated. Confusion seemed to be the flavour of the day for the followers of HollowEyes. "That's right," Murdelk replied. "Food for the mind. HollowEyes realized that he'd been meddling too much when he saw the state that I was in, almost totally drained of life, and so he decided to leave this realm for good. A difficult choice, but at the same time he held a bit of favouritism - told me to make sure that any who came looking for him would be rewarded, that their faith would give them the kind of boost that would put them far ahead of the rest of the planet."

Murdelk spoke in a strange manner, and most of what he said seemed to be lost on the crowd. Well, except for the most important revelation that he'd sort of glazed over. "The Holy Riser is gone for good?" An Amenitite asked, seeming deeply upset by this. "Ah, well, he's not coming back anytime soon, if that's what you're asking. But he's not totally inaccessible." This caused a great amount of murmuring amongst the crowd, they couldn't tell if coming here had been a step forward or a step backwards now. "He left something here for you, within the deepest regions of the tunnels beneath me." A long branch extended towards the mound beneath Murdelk, though there were no entrances visible. "Of course, to let you get it straight away would make it pointless, gifts like that must be earned, and it's why HollowEyes instructed me to do as I've done."

"What?!" "Give us the gift!" "Deviltree!" "It belongs to us!"

Such cries began to ring out from the small crowd, they were angry that Murdelk seemed to be holding out on them, and they looked towards their leaders for help. Their leaders however didn't seem too concerned - they'd heard all of this before, and they'd asked all of the questions that they needed to. "I can't give it to you because HollowEyes told me not to. There is something guarding the gift, I think that you'd call it a Guardian Beast? Anyway, you're welcome to try and get the gift but you have to beat the Guardian Beast first, and you can't do that without bettering yourselves."

More confusion. Just what did he mean by 'bettering yourselves'? "In other words," Pomok interrupted, allowing the crowd to focus on him now. "The Guardian Beast is stronger and smarter than all of us and more put together. We need to figure out how to get around such a problem." Kuume and Neln nodded, having reached the same conclusion. "The ancient gifts of the Holy Riser is one such way, it was said that they could cut through any living creature with great ease." Pomok held up one of HollowEyes' tooth shards, now cracked and worn down, useless except for as a momento of a leader gone.

"Murdelk has devised a few ways to help us start off, as it naturally seems a confusing concept. We know the teachings of the Holy Riser but their meanings are generally up to personal interpretation." The Brisican continued, saving Murdelk the trouble of having to answer the many questions that the crowd wished to ask him. "Murdelk, we are all here now." Kuume said out loud to the tree, as though this were some sort of password. "Indeed, you may re-open your tunnels." Neln said, his head bowed slightly.

"If you insist." As soon as the tree said this, many holes began to open up in the mound beneath him. The holes reopening released all manner of creatures out into the cavern, and suddenly it didn't seem very empty or dark anymore. For a few minutes it was quite chaotic, and the small crowd didn't know what to do - Murks grouped together and lowered their heads, Amenitites hopped about fearfully, Brisicans scrambled to get themselves behind the Murks, and critters scampered all over the room trying to figure out what had just happened.

And then everything settled back down again. Creatures had found their homes again and everybody seemed okay. "Just so you know, I didn't open all of my tunnels. Some of them would be a bit much for you at the moment." The tree said, clearly proud of the amount of work he'd done here. "Now, let me just show you all what's what... Up there is a kind of slime that glows during the day and dims during the night, so you know when to sleep, and over there is..."

The tree went on for a long time, and more than a few of the 20 got bored and began to wander, only to find themselves scolded by their respective leaders. "... those critters with all of the legs and the berries on their backs. Those are actually eggs - you can eat them, but I don't know how they'd taste. Annnnnd... Oh, that's about it." In short, there was an abundance of food here, though you clearly had to work to get it. Almost everything had it's own kind of natural defense that you'd have to get around to eat it, which wasn't too comforting for the group to hear.

But something had been forgotten, Pomok knew that something was missing from before but he couldn't quite remember. "The portal," Kuume reminded him. "It's missing." "Yes, it is." Murdelk interrupted. "I told you before, I can only gather the right energies together for about one hour max. And even then, once I've done it for any amount of time it takes me at least a week to recharge. You'll have to wait until next week to see the warp portal."

The crowd seemed a little disappointed with this, as the warp had piqued quite a few people's curiosity, but it couldn't be helped. The leaders then pointed out that the slime was dim at the moment, which meant that it was night time, and that everybody should find somewhere to sleep. After much extremely cautious searching, the 23 followers of HollowEyes managed to find some corner of the tunnels that didn't have some other creature sleeping in it and dozed off.

[Swix]

Genyal and his colony watched the Hard Shells from their plant top purchases, Genyal himself scanning the ground with all three eyes anxiously. He was sure they hadn't missed a spot, but these invaders were so small even a slight shallowness in the mush could be exploited. They were massing around them, outside the circle of rotted squashed fruit, and seemed hesitant.

Genyal looked up to check on the colony, and all seemed well until his three eyes rested on an adolescent youngster. The foolish creature was trying to taunt the Hard Shells, sticking out his long tongue and making nonsensical gibberish sounds at them. But Genyal couldn't get his attention, he had to trust the more experienced adults in that same tree to keep him in line.

The six legged creature moved his eyes to the ground again, although he kept the third firmly plastered on the adolescent. The Hard Shells had already tried what he hoped, after looking confused they'd sent others through who'd taken a bite out of the off food. After they'd seemed okay, the Hard Shells at the front of the line had begun walking oddly, slipping around and generally causing chaos among the others. Once the fruit in this habitat had rotted, it had a pychedelic and hallucinogenic affect on the natives.

Not that Genyal was yet sophisticated enough to know this, all he knew was that he'd eaten some rotten fruit before. Afterwards, he'd been disoriented and convinced the Fliers and one of the trees were talking to him. When he'd first seen Kist, all curled up like a diseased plant he'd feared he'd eaten another without noticing. But she'd turned out to be real, although she was nowhere to be seen now, and the Hard Shells were beginning to get themselves back together.

The disoriented ones were pretty much bullied out of the way by others, which, while significantly lowering their numbers still left many of the Hard Shelled thieves circling the clearing. One of the braver of their kind put one of it's many legs on the fruity mess and crept forward. Elated at it's success it dashed forwards only to skid the second it had accelerated, trip on a harder part and flip over onto it's back. It's legs waved in the air, and Genyal was treated to his third eyes view of the youngster cringing. Underneath the Hard Shells were as ugly as their features were non-existent above. Tiny eyes, hundreds squashed together glinted from just underneath where the front of it had been. Further down them was a circular mouth, with teeth sticking out as it gasped, out of breath from the effort of trying to right itself. Not as intelligent as Genyals kind, it couldn't seem to grasp the idea of using the legs that would have been utilised for carrying food to turn itself over.

The others seeing this rushed in, and they themselves skidded, some tumbling over each other in a dash to help the distressed one. Suddenly the clearing was filled with rotten-smelling Hard Shells, and waving legs. Genyal was surprised to see such camaraderie in these creatures, but the fact still remained. They'd come here for only one purpose, to take all the food in his home. They'd done it once before, and Genyal was determined that his kind would survive this second coming.

He wasn't going to be disappointed either. After this confusion, and a few more Hard Shells accidentally getting the taste of rotten mush, the ones who were still coherent in their movements had attempted to open the plants where the real food was being hidden. Covered in the mess of mush that they themselves had helped to spread more, even with their tremendous strength their tiny claws on the ends of their legs/arms could find no purchase. Trying to climb only made them slip down to the floor, and trying to force the chambers open resulted only in the plants tightening their hold on their trusted cargo.

Genyal and the others had to wait a long time for the Hard Shells to leave, the invaders appeared to be particularly determined. But Genyals primitive defense paid off, as they did leave. Covered in messy mush and without any way of getting to the food they could smell, the Hard Shells eventually retreated, following a scout who must have found something.

Genyal and the colony as a whole waited until their competition was far, far away before they let themselves relax. A loud cheer went up, along with several clicking sounds.

Genyal didn't join in the celebrations as the others had however. He hissed instead, in celebration of the creature who'd given him this inspiration in the first place.
_____________________________________________________________
The Tezcan had watched the whole thing through the Portal window, her unblinking eyes had taken in everything that had happened since the Portal Guardian had brought her here, and the serpentine summoner was impressed. They wouldn't starve and had proven themselves to be smarter than the desert dwelling creatures.

"They didn't need any help"

Kheesth said, partially to the Portal Guardian and partially to herself. The next time the being from between dimensions spoke, she could definitely detect amusement in the immortals voice.

"ONLY A LITTLE. CAN YOU NOT HEAR THE LEADER?"

Kheesth scanned the window again, although she needn't have bothered as the Portal Guardian moved it's focus for her until she laid her reptilian eyes upon Genyal, and heard the same sound she'd heard and made when they'd first met.

"YOU WERE MORE OF AN INFLUENCE THAN YOU'D THOUGHT"

The Portal Guardian said again, and Kheesth turned around to look at him, fully expecting to see a smirk of some kind on the face of a being she'd never seen face-to-face before, despite all the millennia of working together.

((Ooh, I'd love to say what the Portal Guardian looks like here, but I have to leave it at that I'm afraid .))

[3kul]

((Hm, I feel like a bit of New Worlds story

Posting in a slightly different style this time, just because.))

They call themselves Holrysians, true followers of the almighty Holy Riser. They say that he gave this world unto them, and so they set out to claim it.

Or at least, so they said to begin with.

The flyers were the first to leave. Skittish and nervous, they quickly lost their confidence and returned to their Master, their heads bowed in subservience. Their Master is clever, so he offered to only punish one - a sacrifice. The flyers are selfish cowards, and so they agreed. Their leader is tied to a rock for all to see, her wings torn and her eyes cut out, only allowed to live so that her cries may remind the other flyers to never betray their Master again.

He keeps them in cages - smoke for a ceiling and poison for walls. If they fly too far up they will choke to death, if they fly too far away they will either starve for lack of edible food or eat the toxic foods, either way they will end up dead.

The flyer now tied to a rock had been their only leader, and so the Holrysians quickly fell apart. Unable to decide on where to go, they accused each other of being selfish, and their differences began to become unbearably obvious.

The walkers were the next to go. As soon as they came close to their Master's territory they could hear his voice calling to them, softly and sweetly. He offered them food, safety, shelter - everything that they had been denied since they'd started calling themselves Holrysians. Unlike the other races, the walkers had a Master who had never treated them cruelly, and so they selfishly decided that it would be in their best interests to abandon them and return to their old Master.

The two remaining races, the hoppers and the crawlers, despaired - one had a Mistress whom would surely slaughter them should they ever return, the other had a Master whom they knew nothing about. It is hard to say who was more fearful.

Too few in number to make a difference, the small group of Holrysians wandered the world, looking for any place in which they could dwell safely.

And it is on this perilous journey that they happened across us. We listened to their tale, and though they wept as they told us what had become of them we did not shed any tears - it was a tale of stupidity, of foolish ideals and poorly thought out plans. Some of us even laughed at how this had all taken place in a single week, considering it to be a most pitiful effort. They begged us to live on our land, seeing no Master or Mistress here to imprison us, and we agreed. We did not see a need to tell them that our Ruler was absent, or that our original Mistress was dead. Our history is our own.

However, nothing in this world is free, they were told to make an exchange. They did not understand this, and so we explained - if they will take, they must also give. We gave them safety, but in return we took their freedom.

We are the Liyaons, and today we have learnt what it means to have slaves.

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

((Back to the regular style ))

The small ragged looking group of Murks and Amenitites, the last of the surface Holrysians, followed after the slender Liyaon that was leading them to their new home. "We Liyaons are proud, we have much to be proud for. We are the most advanced race on this world." He looked back at the Holrysians, as though he expected them to argue with him on this point. They didn't, these people were far too tired to be proud anymore. He and a few nearby Liyaons got a laugh out of this, and he continued to talk.

"When a Liyaon makes a request of you, you must oblige him or her. This is what I am told slavery means. Fail to obey and we will consider this your way of saying that you wish to leave." The Murks clicked nervously amongst each other whilst the Amenitites groaned in understanding. Slavery would not be an easy life, but it was better than death. The Liyaon continued, stopping only to check that everybody was still following.

"You may live anywhere that we Liyaons do not call home. If you can build you may do so, provided that it doesn't cause trouble to us." He pointed to a cluster of oddly shaped rocks as he mentioned homes. Made of what appeared to be a similar clay to what the Brisicans had used to build houses back when HollowEyes was around, but these were made into cubes, not spheres. It showed craftsmanship, and upon closer observation each house had different decorations.

Not the kind of thing that nomads like the Holrysians had ever considered building, and it struck them as bizarrely unnecessary, though they were too exhausted to care. After the Liyaon finished speaking most of them wandered over to the houses, settling into the small gaps between the misshapen structures to finally get some rest. Many of them wondered how their lost brothers and sisters were faring deep beneath the waves, though none envied them - they were certain that they had been enslaved by Murdelk, and were now leading a life far worse than they.

It was this kind of pessimistic optimism (forgive the oxymoron ) that kept them going. 'At least they're worse off' would become a popular saying amongst the slave class, even long after people forgot who 'they' were.

((This basically wraps up what's happened to the remaining Holrysians, they are punished for their lack of faith in HollowEyes!

For now the following can be considered as the main 'groups' in my world:
* Liyaons (followers of Little Sister)
* Liyaon Slaves (made up of Amenitites and Murks)
* Brisicans (under Bris)
* Fofosu (under Fosu)
* Holrysians (followers of HollowEyes, made up of Amenitites, Brisicans and Murks, with Murdelk)

I'll have to write up a description for the Liyaons later, and next post I'll be back to the Holrysians under the sea ))

[Swix]

In the place between places, what the serpentine summoner was 'standing' on appeared the only physical thing there. There was a floor and walls of sorts outside of the solid circle the snakes coils were on, but it appeared in a constant state of flux. The only thing Kheesth could possibly use as a familiar reference to describe it was when you looked at the distortion in the air above a hot flame, except far more pronounced. Spending long periods in here without being able to focus on anything physical would often lead to disorientation after returning to the universe.

However, what she laid her eyes on now was quite a large creature, twice as tall as she and a bit more bulky. However like it's surroundings it too was in a constant state of flux, yet obviously apart from them. She could make out a single pair of arms and legs, and two small pinpoints of light stared at her where eyes would have been in its head. If she could see the features that was where she imagined they'd be anyway.

To her astonishment, the Portal Guardian laughed.

"IS MY APPEARANCE DISTURBING YOU? PERHAPS YOU WOULD PREFER SOMETHING A LITTLE MORE FAMILIAR?"

He said, then where the opposite distortion there now stood a complete copy of herself, even including the look in her lidless eyes.

"I do not think that would be appropriate for the questions I wish to ask you"

She said, as carefully and as calmly as she could. It didn't help that she could feel the ones she worked with laughing.

"NO? VERY WELL. PERHAPS SOMETHING ELSE"

This time, what replaced the figure of the Tezcan he'd taken was wreathed in flame, and two forward facing black horns stuck out of the top. A pair of muscular armd hung nearly to it's knees on the double bent legs, and it had black clawed hands and feet. The Summoner opened her mouth to object but it was too late, what had been mirth had turned to a burning hatred and anothers voice came out of her mouth instead as she became wreathed in a similar fire.

"Fool! Take off that ridiculous facade this instant!"

The Guardian made some sort of non-committal motion before returning to his previous flux form, and Kheesth was released from the flame and hold without even a burn.

"SOME PEOPLE CAN'T TAKE A JOKE... PERHAPS THIS THEN?"

He said, before changing again, though this time it was a creature that looked an interesting mix of bird and reptile, with the claws of it's three-fingered hands indistinguishable from the actual digits. It too had double-bent legs, and four toed feet had similar looking claws, one toe pointing backwards. It had a rigid looking tail, and it was covered in cream coloured scales. It's head had a beak and crest with three small, horned points at the sides and middle, and it had three yellow eyes, the third being to the middle and top of the other two.

"What is that?"

"IT IS A SPECIES OLDER EVEN THAN YOURS. THEY ARE NO LONGER AROUND"

He answered as a table then appeared between them, and the Portal Guardian sat on a chair that wasn't there.

"NOW, ASK YOUR QUESTIONS"
_____________________________________________________________
While this had been going on, the world had changed again. The vegetation was barely below the blue rock that provided it with light and life, although despite the shadows overcasting everything now the shimmers from the pool could be seen all around the cave. Plants were not only becoming carnivorous now, they had even started using each other as a form of nutrient. Often a type of dark blue weed could be seen coiling around the base of a large plant and slowly working it's way up.

The insect life had multiplied and split almost exponentially now, but it was still possible to see their common ancestry, as those with wings and bodies modified for a specific purpose still shared the purple wings and green bodies. Even the ones that had found a living in leaf litter and debris littering the ground and therefore had nothing but vestigial wings still retained the colours of their cousins.

The colony of creatures that had come into being in this hostile yet fertile habitat had exploded after following the advice and leadership of the one called Genyal, now there were nearly two hundred of them. They had taken to the trees in a big way, primitive housing made out of the more sturdy flora could be seen nestled in the tops of what passed for trees, with ladders of vines hanging down when someone was climbing up or down. Food was plentiful, but the strain of supporting such a large community was starting to show and a lot of them were feeling the restlessness and need to move elsewhere.

The 'Yallians', as they had now taken to calling themselves, needed to expand, and the only way to do that was to go through the tunnel that the thieves of history had used. They'd split apart out of sheer necessity soon, following their own inspiration, as Genyal had been shown by the visitor who hadn't been seen since.

[3kul]

Kachi-kachi-kachi-kachi...

The sound of frantic scuttling, it came from within one of Murdelk's tunnels.

Suddenly the owner of the scuttling legs leapt out into the open cavern. It was a large spider-esque creature with a mass of egg sacs that almost looked like berries on it's back. Two Amenitites were chasing after it, howling loudly to spook the spider into thinking that it was being pursued by larger prey, though in reality it was being hunted by creatures that it could easily dispose of by themselves. As the spider darted towards what it believed to be a safe tunnel, it found it's route suddenly cut off - the three Murks had appeared, using their large boney head-plates to create a barrier.

They couldn't stop the spider from running off in another direction, but they did cause it to hesitate for just a moment, which was all that the others needed. Four Brisicans darted out from two other tunnels, a long length of what appeared to be rope stretched out between them in pairs. The spider made for another tunnel but tripped over these poorly crafted ropes, moving rather clumsily for a creature that seemed a bit more graceful than that.

The reason as to why it wasn't moving quite as well as it normally could became apparent when it dropped it's precious cargo - the numerous egg sacs bounced as they hit the ground, rolling about all over the place. As the spider-like creature scurried about, frantically trying to recollect it's unborn young, the hunters all darted forward, grabbing as many eggs as they could carry before bolting off down a nearby tunnel. Furious hissing can be heard coming from the arachnid, but it doesn't dare leave it's remaining young unattended for fear that the same thing might happen again.

The group are given a loud and cheerful welcome as they return to where the rest of their kind have taken up residence, and the food is quickly distributed amongst the masses.

"Which method did you end up using?" Pomok asked Neln (who'd led the hunting expedition), who had to swallow his mouthful of egg before he could reply. "Block-and-trip. Less food but much safer." Pomok frowned, as though he didn't really approve. "It would be better if we could get more food though, so that we don't have to spend all of our time foraging to survive..."

It was a problem that the group faced down here on a daily basis - now that they were few in numbers once more they had a hard time building up a decent storage of food, and needed to spend most of their time hunting and gathering. Murdelk provided them with the resources, but he wouldn't advise them on anything else - apparently, this was what HollowEyes had told him to do. It had been interesting to learn about their new home at first, but the Holrysians were now tiring of these difficult and unfamiliar conditions and morale was low.

The rather uneventful opening and closing of a small warp portal hadn't done much to affect this. The Holrysians were quite amazed at first, but after nothing emerged from the swirling blue mass they wondered what the point was. Murdelk had suggested that perhaps he needed to build up more energy to create a more stable portal, and then told them that this would take more time. How much he didn't say, but it was a safe bet that they wouldn't be seeing any warp-related action for quite some time.

"I think I may have found a solution to our problem, my impatient friends."

Kuume announced herself in an unusually cocky manner, and so it was obvious to the others that she'd achieved something pretty big here. She'd left with a red and green Brisican (a rather rare genetic mutation that had carried on through generations, it symbolized his relation to one of the original followers of HollowEyes) not too long ago claiming that they were going to find a smarter way to get food after witnessing a few too many spider hunts gone wrong. Pomok recognized this male as Sif, one of the Brisicans who usually was in charge of looking after the Buo.

"It wasn't too hard to think of, considering how much our ancestors did it back when HollowEyes led them." Sif began, stealing a little of Kuume's glory. She didn't seem to mind, though she was determined to beat him to the announcement. "Herding. Herding is the answer."

"Herding? You mean like with the Buo?" Pomok couldn't really see what was so great about this, and neither could many other Holrysians. The Buo were good for labour and travel and that was about it - the giant fish-like creatures currently resided in the watery entrance to Murdelk's cavern, gorging themselves on water-weeds to the point that nobody really needed to look after them anymore. "Perhaps 'farming' is a better term for it." The Brisican with Kuume responded, pausing to allow Kuume to explain. "Treat them as your own and animals will do the same to you."

She slid forward a crudely woven bag made from thick dried seaweed - inside was a small amount of mushrooms. "We can't eat these Kuume, they make us sick." Neln said cautiously, not understanding what the Amenitite was trying to tell them. "We're not supposed to eat them Neln," she replied, rolling her eyes at him. "They do." She flicked a mushroom over her shoulder and it was caught in mid-air by something long and sticky.

"Yerooo!"

Most of the population of the cavern leapt up in fright at the sound of the bizarre creature, terrified that Kuume and her Brisican friend had led some horrible monster here. It wasn't until they looked up that they noticed it - crawling about on the ceiling with it's six legs and staring at them with big bulging eyes. It had some sort of bizarre growth on it's back that was fuzzy with a few round bulges here and there.

"Don't run! It only eats mushrooms!" Sif was quick to point out, throwing another mushroom up into the air. "Yero!" The creature happily cried as it snapped up another seemingly toxic treat. It crawled back down the wall and made it's way back over to Kuume and the Brisican, laying itself down as it got close to them. It was longer than it was large, and they could quite easily reach it's humped back if they wanted to. Kuume removed one of the bulges from it's back and threw it to a nearby Murk. "Try eating it." She said in a kind voice, grabbing another to eat herself.

"It's... Fruit?" The Murk said in a surprised tone. "It's from a special plant that grows near where these lizards live." Sif explained. "Somehow the plant gets stuck on the lizard and then when it eats enough, food grows." The tiny people did not understand the rather complex symbiotic relationship that was being presented before them, but most of them were quick to understand what it meant. "How many lizards do we have?" "Where can we find more?" "How many mushrooms do they need to eat?", the room was suddenly filled with questions, and Kuume led out a much larger party to where she knew there to be more lizards.

"That's quite a good discovery, Kuume is very smart, isn't she?" Neln said after the noisy ones had left. "Yes, it's not bad..." Pomok replied, scratching a few symbols into the loose earth on the ground.

[Swix]

((I think I'll leave Kheesth and the Portal Guardian be for now. If you haven't seen already, the picture called 'Dream Being' in my sketches thread is pretty much what the Guardian just turned itself into. You'll also see a pic of Genyal there too .

Also, a list of animals [so I don't end up confusing myself as much as anyone else ].

Scuttlers - Share a common ancestry with the Yallians, possessing eight legs and claws on each leg to better grip the plants, as well as delicate pincers, shell-less. They've taken on the red-blue colouring of the non-carnivorous plants for camouflage.

Aquatic Scavengers/Hunters - Common ancestry, possessing eight 'fins' that were once legs, with flattened pincers to help with movement and grab prey. Now a blue colour to blend in with its new environment. Shell-less.

Rainbow 'fish' - Organisms that move in shoals, possessing no limbs but having a very prehensile body with 'fins' above and below, running along the length of their bodies. Change colour constantly to confuse others, completely blind and communicate with each other through weak electrical currents.

Squid-predators - Blind and when last seen were making the transition from water to land. Went extinct due to plant and land-based Scavenger/Hunter predation.

Insects - Newly evolved, possessing purple wings and green bodies. Sub-species can be found in leaf-litter, living in the ground and/or the trees. However, most of them are Fliers feeding off nectar and fruit.

Hard-Shells - No relation to the Yallians despite obvious similarities. Live outside in the crevices of the planets (Celus) surface. Possess eight legs with claws, one pair of which can be bent the entirely opposite direction to the others. Far stronger than they look, with eyes and a round, tooth filled mouth below the protective shell. Possibility they now possess a hive mind))

Up high in the trees was a large platform, constructed of webbing and sturdy branches and stretching across at least five of the benign, red-blue plants. It was low enough that the Yallians could stand upright comfortably, but high enough that they could see the shimmering blue rocks clearly through the branches. There was a gathering of the tribe, nearly everyone had shown up this time, and the structure creaked worryingly under their numerous legs.

It was the first time that Kelgen hadn't seen this amount of Yallians turn up for anything, she must have got them really riled up. She currently stood at the highest slope on the platform, where everyone could see her yet she wasn't separated completely. They were a united species after all. Or at least, they should have been.

The female clicked her four mouth-parts together loudly in order to attract everyone's attention, and when that didn't work used one of her clubs to add to the noise she was making. Finally noticing, the others quietened and turned each of their three eyes towards her.

"Thank you" she said, perhaps a little tiredly. She had been trying to get this together for a while but it often seemed no-one wanted to know. It wasn't until she'd started dropping important names whenever she could whilst flaunting her ancestry, Genyal and Kist being the ones getting the most attention, that she'd finally been given the opportunity to speak. Now she had it, she wasn't entirely sure how to start.

"I'm sure everyone's noticed, but we're running out of food" she stated, murmurs of agreement following her words "We should do something about this"

"Obviously" a dissenting voice murmured "but what?"

"I was about to get to that" Kelgen said, even though she had actually planned to say that part much later "We should leave"

That had the effect she was expecting, albeit a bad one. A lot of the Yallians muttered and left, others pretty much broke into hysterics about not wanting to leave their ancestors home. Yet others asked the questions she had been hearing so often lately, but knew no-one had the answers to.

"Where would we go?"

"How will we find food?"

"How will we find water?"

"What about the Hard-Shells? Don't they live outside?"

'Perfect' Kelgen thought, that was the one she waiting for. She clicked her mouthparts again, and the crowd again fell silent.

"Yes, but just think. They eat similar things to us, and they don't invade here often enough that there's nothing out there. There must be food and water of some sort out there, that we can eat too. It would solve our shortage, but only if we leave" Kelgen paused, and then added "Follow your inspiration, as Genyal did. I certainly am"

"... She has a point" another Yallian finally spoke up, agreeing with her. He was a strong male, not yet tied down by a family who went by the name of Nagian. "There must be something out there, not a wasteland"

"You go, then. I'm staying here. I have a family and a nursery to look after and I'm not subjecting either of them to the kind of suffering you're suggesting" This was a female older than Kelgen, who was always in favour of staying in comfort and familiarity. Kelgen wasn't sorry to see her turn her back and leave, but she was at seeing the amount of Yallians following her. Kelgen tilted her head inquisitively at the rest.

"Well, will you follow me outside? If we all stay here we'll all starve eventually, and you all know how dangerous the water hole has become recently" This was more true than she knew, the Scavenger/Hunters had recently acquired a taste for young, unwary Yallians who weren't watching the deeper parts of the pool, or had come down unsupervised for some sort of dare. They'd mastered basic tools and weapons, but they were poor swimmers and thus easy prey. She eventually got her answer after allowing the remainder to mull it over.

"Yes"

"We'll follow"

"Excellent" Kelgen responded, even though she had been left with a quarter of the population, fifty strong Yallians were a little short of what she'd hoped for. But it was better than leaving with nothing. "Pack your things, essentials only. Bring mainly food and water with your tools, I have a feeling we'll need them. We leave in 48 hours"

[3kul]

Kachikachikachikachikachikachikachikachikachikachi...

The sound of scuttling grew louder. For the scouting party of Holrysians, this seemed a bit unusual - they had only ever encountered Kachi-Kachi one at a time, and they did not recall the spider-like creatures making so much noise.

I must stop you here Holrysians, for the Kachi-Kachi are not meant to be harvested.

Pomok and his group stopped. They could not pinpoint Murdelk's voice, but they knew it to be him (after all, who else could it be?). "Why not?" Neln shouted into the darkness, curious to learn why Murdelk appeared to be hindering them.

Consider them to be your older siblings. The Kachi-Kachi are my most successful children, though they have achieved very little compared to you.

Pomok looked at the Murks as if they'd have answers for him, but they did not. "If they are inferior to us, then-"

Do not think of them as inferior. Just because a few younger mothers are willing to sacrifice a couple dozen eggs does not make them a weak species. They almost drove your kind to extinction before HollowEyes sent you to the surface.

The Murks seemed quite shaken by this, though they could not recall any of it - those original Murks who'd come to the surface were long gone now, and their memories along with them. "So they are like us then?" Pomok enquired, curious to learn why Murdelk had not mentioned them in great detail before.

No they are not. They are the dominant species down here, and so there is no need for them to improve themselves. Without a drive for evolution, they do not change, they do not advance. They are still animals, whilst you have become people.

The small group quietly considered all that Murdelk was telling them, then decided to abandon their quest. For now they too would have to be satisfied with their lives as they were, surviving yet not thriving.

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

Several months passed, with no activity from the warp portal that Murdelk had created. He was trying for different places each time, but so far very little had made it's way through. Having gotten over the initial disappointment, most of the Holrysians simply enjoyed the light show, and a small celebration was held each time Murdelk opened a new portal.

Recently though, some of the Holrysians had begun to act quite strangely. Murdelk had informed them that he could not produce seeds as some of his siblings could, and that they would all be forced to reproduce in more normal ways. At first this resulted in a great deal of confusion, but after a bit of explaining and experimenting most of the Holrysians seemed fine with this change.

As a result of this though, several females were now experiencing pregnancy for the first time. Murdelk privately consulted the females to learn of who the fathers could be, and was quite surprised with what he'd learned. Unlike what he'd expected, there was barely any breeding between members of the same species. After spending so many months together living in harmony, Holrysians mixed with each other perfectly, and so nobody believed that there was any real difference between the Murks, the Brisicans and the Amenitites anymore. To these people, they were all simply Holrysians.

Soon enough, the Holrysians found their numbers increasing with children. The children, many of them mixtures of the two races, had various features, but given that each race had some similarities between each other there were almost no problematic births. Ten children were born, bringing the population total up to 33, and for the next few weeks the entire colony was busy with caring for the children as well as their usual tasks.

However, one child quickly distinguished itself from the others. It's parents were Buurs, an Amenitite female who helped with the herding of the Yero, and Belkbef, a Brisican male who could trace his lineage back to both Bef and Wur, two of the original followers of HollowEyes. The child, a female, looked mostly Brisican, with a weak-looking exoskeletal shell covering much of her body and the same sort of underbite defect that her father had, only less pronounced than his. She possessed a pair of hauntingly green eyes that glowed on occassion, and she had a very peculiar air about her.

This was a child whom Murdelk had altered slightly to give the Holrysians a test of sorts. Sure, they got along well enough now, but what if one of their own became so radically different that they were forced to acknowledge this? This would be the trial of mutation.

((I'll have to do some drawings, this is kinda hard to explain with just text .))