《The Living Crystal》


 chapter 1

    In a place at the edge of the world, far away from any sort of meddling from the wills and wants of men, a slime was undergoing a transformation never before seen. It was a sudden strike of luck or fate, having just the right conditions, being at the right place at the right time.


    The slime shuddered as its core, a rough and uneven dim crystal pearl, started becoming bigger and smoother, its inner light shining brightly for the first time. The corrosive gel enveloping it began crystallising, turning solid and changing its shape to allow for a newer, sturdier form. The metamorphosis took only a few minutes, and at its end the slime had become something different, something greater.


    It now floated half a meter of the ground, hovering in the air by merit of some mystical energy, with its body standing a meter and a half tall and half as wide, a solid chunk of lightly glowing crystal with no arms or legs, only two glowing orbs for eyes upon it.


    It looked around taking in all the differences that its new form held. It had never felt so clearheaded, as if it had awoken from an endless slumber. It gazed for the first time, taking in the world in its new beauty and splendour.


    It stood inside a hollow in a dead tree, its surroundings lush with plant life, and the myriad sounds of animals not far. It was all so new, so overwhelming that it just sat there, stunned for reasons it couldn¡¯t comprehend.


    The next day it jolted to attention by a sensation of painful hunger, and quickly got outside to see what it could scrounge up. The dense forest seemed easier to take in, tough it was still a very daunting experience. So much open space, such high trees and an even higher sky. It averted its eyes from up high, it would take in that vision in another moment, for now it had more pressing matters to pursue, such as the growing hunger.


    At first it tried doing what it did when it was a slime, absorbing grass and other detritus of the forest floor into itself as sustenance. It was interesting to watch, as instead of being broken down by its slime like before, he utilized some kind of new force to extract the essence directly in a much faster manner, the grass becoming brittle and turning to dust in the wind.


    This new force he could exert with his mind was incredible, it allowed it to do things it never thought possible, like grab things and throw things. Amazing!


    But there was a problem. What before had been a satisfying meal now barely dampened its pain. It kept trying to eat grass and sticks, but still it made no difference. As it trekked through the forest trying to eat different things it came across a brook, and in there it saw things that had the greatest concentration of essence it had ever seen. It moved quickly and caught a fish just as it jumped through the air.


    It tried to absorb the essence directly from the fish at first, but quickly noticed that it couldn¡¯t. The essence appeared bound to the fish and ignored all his attempts at manipulation, so it tried its next best idea, and smashed it against a nearby rock. The fish splattered all over it, chunks flying into the water to be devoured by the other creatures of the brook.


    As soon as it splattered it saw the essence rapidly dissipate into the air and earth, and it wasn¡¯t quick enough to gather more than a smidgen, though even that much was a feast compared to the crumbs from before.


    It grabbed another fish, and this time controlling the strength of the force, smashed it into the rock. It took a couple of times to get the right amount of strength, but eventually the fish died, the essence dissipating much slower when it wasn¡¯t splattered. It drank deep from that well, never before having had such a feast, and when the final bit of fish turned to dust, it felt the hunger from before diminish drastically.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    It ate a couple more fish, then returned to his nest under the hollow tree. It could feel his core, the centre of his being, filled to the brim with essence, it was slowly being drained, but it should keep it sated for a while. However, there was an even more important discovery, as the essence settled within itself, it felt it condense and strengthen its core. It was a small amount, but considering that it was small itself, it could clearly feel the difference. The feeling was very nice, even better than staring at all the new things around it, and it looked forward to doing it again.


    For now, it just lazed about in its nest, grabbing and throwing stuff at random, crushing leaves and small bugs, and generally being easily distracted by all the new things it could do and see.


    Three days passed, with it going every day to eat the fish, and every day that passed it felt more in control of what it could do. All the wonder of vision was still there, but it could ignore the stimulus better, and it discovered a different kind of vision, one that allowed it to see the essence in all things.


    At first it was nauseating, but it quickly got it under control, and was again astonished to find that all things held essence within them, from a rock, to the river water, to the wind and sky, all held it, Lived through it, and died when it was spent, dissipating to other forms of essence or going below the earth. It tried to follow the essence below the ground with its senses, but it wasn¡¯t strong enough, his range much shorter than what was needed, and so for now where that essence went remained a mystery.


    Two days later


    After its morning routine of going to the river and eating fish, as it was exploring the woods around its hollow, it encountered its first foe.


    It didn¡¯t need to sleep, and the cycles of light and dark meant little to it aside from its beauty of sight and sound, and so in the deep darkness of midnight it heard long howls in somewhere in front of it, and many responding howls from all around it. It was curious, as this had never happened before, so it stood in place appreciating the sounds, and before it noticed it was surrounded on all sides by vulpine predators. They stood at its height, with grey fur and red eyes that shined in the darkness, teeth bared and growling as they circled the prey.


    This was very new. And very frightening. It was the first time it felt such emotions as it recognised in an instinctual level the meaning behind those actions. It was encircled by ten of the creatures as they growled in an effort to intimidate it, each searching for an opening to take advantage of. It was at this moment that it realized a very important thing.


    All creatures need essence to survive, and just as it was wantonly taking its fill from the brook fish, so too would other creatures crave for itself.


    In this moment of realization one of the wolves perceived an opening and jumped for the kill, just to be violently smashed to the side as an unseen force pummelled into it. The force hit it in its upper body, shattering its spine and breaking its neck with the force of the blow.


    Just as it was about to feel relief at its victory two jolts of searing pain made it lose balance and roll on the ground with one of its assailers. Two more wolves had attacked it from the back, one slashing with its paws while the other bit strongly into its crystal shell, shattering its outer layer and piercing deep into its more fragile interior. It again launched its force against the wolf, splattering its skull open just as three more jumped on it. It would not be able to evade, and with its only form of protection being the force, it did something that it didn¡¯t think possible and tried to split the force in two.


    It felt something tearing inside its mind, as if a great weight suddenly divided into two but kept wanting to be one again. Its force hit two wolves head on, making their necks snap as they fell limply on the forest floor, with the last wolf scoring a quick bite before having its head smashed in.


    With suddenly half the pack getting killed before them, the rest of the wolves fled into the deep forest, and it now stood alone before its kills. Alone and victorious. And hurt. And tired.


    The joy of victory rapidly vanished as the pain from its wounds took place at the forefront of its mind. It rapidly ate the essence of its fallen foes and crawled back to its tree hollow, where for the first time since it became aware, sleep overtook it.

 Chapter 2

    After it woke up the next day, it thought deeply about what happened yesterday and sorted through all the different insights and truths it had discovered.


    The first truth was most certainly that all living things under the sky partook in essence in one form or another, and would seek it lest they suffer from the hunger it had felt when it first woke up. This was an immutable truth of this earth.


    The second truth was that it needed to find and develop means to inflict violence upon another, and to protect itself from violence in return. This truth was closely connected with the first one, for as all living things needed essence, it also meant that all living things were in a constant battle to acquire it, be it from the earth and sky or from each other. Therefore battle would come sooner or later, and so it would fight. This was an immutable truth of this earth.


    For now, that¡¯s what it had managed to gather from yesterday¡¯s conflict. It would make sure to engrave these truths deep into its mind, and never let what happened yesterday happen again.


    As it finished sorting its thoughts,  it realized that its body had changed during the night. It was a little taller and its core had grown, and on the ground around where it slept there were many pieces of pale fragile crystal. It seemed that the potent essence of its foes had been enough to elevate it to new heights, and that gave it another idea.


    It had felt that if it ate the fish every day, eventually it would grow, but if this process could be quickened by defeating being of strong essence, then it must do this, for the faster it could grow in strength, the faster it would be too strong to be eaten. Yes, like it was to the fish, it would be for all essence hunters under the sky, so it would never be preyed upon again.


    With its goals set, it went on to spend a couple of weeks inside its hollow, trying to master its force by splitting it or exerting as great a strength as it could. The task was steep, especially the dividing of its force felt like trying to part its head in two, and then making it stay that way was a whole other problem, however with much focus and persistency it eventually succeeded. It simply clicked one day, its mind parting as banks to a river, and staying so with much less strain on its faculties.


    As it was learning the ways of its force the strikes it could conjure were made stronger and faster, wasting less time and energy, so much so it was forced to stop this practice altogether when it opened a new entrance in the backside of its home. That had been ¡­ enlightening as to its strength, though finding a way to fix the huge hole had been a stressful endeavour. Hopefully a couple of big branches and leaves would be enough.


    When it finally felt ready to leave its den for more than just its fishy meals, it had grown a bit more and felt more settled in its own body. More at ease and nimble. The thought made it happy, as if this new, wonderful world had finally accepted it into its fold.


    Although now was the time to leave the nest and have a greater presence on the forest, it was not yet time to wield its violence. No , before that there was one last step, and the great earth would be the one to teach it.


    As it wandered through the forest with caution and focus, it looked around it, trying to follow the creatures, big and small, that wandered up the trees or wound through labyrinthine roots. It observed how a small creature with many legs weaved a net to catch unwary passers-by, how a minuscule being defeated one far greater than it by the great quantity of its brothers and mastery of teamwork, and how a strong shelled beast claimed victory by showing its biting opponent the futility of its actions.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    It had become aware a very short time ago, and thanks to the wolf ambush it¡¯d also become aware of how small, new and inexperienced it was in this world of hunters. But even as a newborn it was sure of one thing ever since it laid eyes on the world around it. the forest, earth and sky live in essence and breathe its life and knowledge across its infinity, and the creatures born and raised within this, each carry a fragment of this lore. This was most certainly an immutable truth of this earth.


    It would collect all the pieces that it could from them, and it would learn to wield it for its future, for the time when it finally grew beyond this cycle of violence and essence hunting and reached a new place where violence was a choice, not a prerequisite for living. In these past weeks it had decided it didn¡¯t enjoy the act of violence all that much, but it knew to be a necessity. For now.


    And so it set out to scout the areas all around its hollow in order to learn more about the hunting of essence, the ways it can be used and to assess its opponents, as well as their habits and methods. It would strive to learn of all hunters in this forest, and in doing so overcome them.


    From a tortoise it understood the great importance of an impenetrable defence, to the point of having no need of violence to drive its assailers away. With that insight it tried to spread out its force in a semi-circle around itself and putting it to the test by standing underneath a waterfall and falling branches, to moderate success. Its shield was able to deflect things without a problem, but when a log went down the waterfall it smashed right through its defence and almost ripped half his body off. It would have to be very mindful of this limit and maybe find a way to improve it.


    From the ants skittering along the ground it learned the advantage of great quantity and superb coordination, finding the things they did to be incredible despite their small stature. It tried to imagine if it would be able to do those things were their size the same, and found itself wanting. Unfortunately, even after weeks spent in this forest it didn¡¯t see any other being similar to itself, so it would have to apply this knowledge to its force and see if it could improve the number of times it could be divided and its dexterity with each piece.


    And finally, the spider. It was fascinated with this creature that was so different from the others, almost the exact opposite. It weaved a web from a substance within itself, then hid in a concealed position and waited, completely immobile, for other creatures to entangle themselves in the net, where it would finally devour them. It didn¡¯t have a very strong shell like the tortoise, and it was a very lonely creature bringing violence upon its own kind unlike the ant.


    That spider made it realize the myriad ways a creature can use to achieve their goals, and that all of them, no matter how antithetical, are valid paths to follow. So from the spider it decided to take the knowledge of its web. This material it produced within itself that seemed to be at the core of its way of life, it could not stop thinking of how useful such a thing would be for itself.


    As soon as it returned to its hollow it lay on the ground and searched deep within itself for that thing that would become a part of its way of life, that like its force would provide it with what it needed to take a step beyond violence, and become the core of this forest. It couldn¡¯t tell how much time passed, how long it searched for the spark that would grant it a new, dazzling path to follow, but eventually it came, lighting up its inner mind with blinding light, bursting forth like a repressed waterfall eager to crash on the stones below.


    When it finally opened its eyes again, it saw that its hollow, the inside of a dead tree at the top of a small hill, was completely covered in a transparent crystalline substance. All the walls as well as the entrance and the hole it hadn¡¯t been able to patch, were completely blocked by the transparent crystal, and the faint light that filtered through it cast the interior in a wonderful new appearance, looking as if stars shined from above as well as below.


    It could not have hoped for anything better.