Primal I (8)

The blood was spilled, the squirming shattered remnants of a Zerg remained.

Not for long.

The first right of the strong is the feast, my fingers digging deep into the essence rich meat before me all but lost in the ecstasy of its complex though utterly insane flavor. This foolish thing truly didn’t have a clue what it had been doing, retracing redundant codices and reproducing organs and limbs without understanding their purposes, often putting things which would have worked wonderfully at crossed purposes with each other. It didn’t even lack the capacity to grow brains, but most of what it grew were subordinated to a central will with little understanding of why the other functioning intellects could have been useful.

Mostly it just used neural expansion to expand its sensory capabilities, which I had to admit were top notch. No worries nameless impersonator, I’ll make sure your abundance of essence gets used properly.

Skizzy chittered beside me, finally uncloaked from her esoteric camouflage as she feasted beside me. I took special care to feed her bits of the nervous tissue I could find; she seemed to always like that stuff the best. I could feel her essence growing beside me as I indulged myself, gorging on the meat of my fallen foe.

Already I could identify several quickly implementable upgrades within the essence collected, and even from the shards of broken down armour. Some nice material strengthening upgrades that would improve my bones and carapace without compromising the shock absorption of them, an aero-gel like layer of fatty tissue... something I’d been struggling with how to achieve for a while. And almost shocking, a component that would allow me to project the plasma charge which I’d recently learned to generate with my tail into a directed blast. The upgrades I’d need to add around it were pretty extensive though… maybe laser cooling to reduce some of the heat stress? I’d have to work on it.

So intent on my meal I was I had almost not noticed one of the smaller imitators try to dart in and snatch some of the meat, somewhat emboldened by the presence of Skizzy partaking of the meal alongside with me.

That had been a terrible idea to say the least.

It never even reached as I slammed down my fist, totally on reflex to anything not Skizzy shaped moving quickly within my sensory range and reach. The poor thing cracked like a crab under a hammer, splattered against the ground even as I continued to eat, only barely aware that I’d crushed him in the interim until the moment that pulled in his splattered body and begun to eat that as well.

I ended up full... boosting my size at least pushing double what it had been before I’d started, more like a huge shire horse than a racing sized one, then invited one by one each of the others to come eat a portion of the total meal at my side. I had to grow an extra set of hoofed toes on the sides of each of my main running toes in order to better deal with standing weight distribution.

Mysteriously, no one else seemed inclined to attempt to eat outside of their turn.

Full and strengthened from my meal I rose.

“You are near complete. Isnana will be pleased.” Uvigd spoke from beside me, smug self-satisfaction clearly warring with a yearning hunger which burned in his essence. He wanted me something fierce, but he wasn’t my type. Maybe. “This trial has been taken care of indisputably. The Alpha lingers at the edge of sleep, he has something for you before he rests to martial his strength for our hunt.”

I gave a signal of acquiescence, then began to follow him closely into the very center of the valley.

“So. You are the one who upset the balance.” I felt the essential rumble of this voice deep within my bones, raw strength of essence permeating though me as a single eye opened on a beast no smaller than an elephant. It was bone white and bird-like with feather shaft spines which grew out into a ruff of wicked blades, a forest of them. Even on its side though I could tell that it had a rather panther like profile, though more of its body seemed to be devoted to a sleekness which bordered upon aerodynamic despite its size. I couldn’t help but note the drastic similarities between it and my rival/sponsor. “And a smart one too, not likely to simply flounder should you Niche collapse. Good, the pack needs new-blood. Older clades have been starting to flounder among us. I am Gozark.”

I found myself quiet, not knowing if I should respond or not to its comments, not knowing if my capabilities would even be enough to escape if this thing before me decided that it liked me better as a snack than a subordinate. Its pure oppressive essence was like being put into a pressure cooker with a ham being cooked in pure pineapple juice.

Hot, heavy, and delicious.

“You can speak up. I will bare you no ill will for speaking in my presence. Nor are you yet filling enough to be more than a tidbit before me.” I received what felt like a light chuckle as multiple eyes swept up and down my form. I felt like an attractive youth before someone considering just how long it would be until they could reasonably consider me matured. It was disconcerting at best. “You have questions.”

I couldn’t deny it. “Yeah. More than a few.”

“Then speak them. You are pack now.” His body never moved, but his essence waved graciously for me to continue.

“Alright, I’m a bit at a loss for why then. Why all this? Why the pack, and why drag me into it?” I couldn’t help but blurt, already suspecting the answers, but at the same time wanting to hear them for myself; wanting to hear if the big bastard was going to want to actually give them.

A great rumbling feeling surged through me as his essence shifted and roiled with what I could only assume was laughter, the largest of his many eyes homing in directly against me… almost pinning me in place with the weight of his gaze.

“Why the pack? I suppose because it is a tool. I too was once small, once frail and fragile. The greater predators of this world devoured anything that they could gain. I remember the old horrors from before they were pulled down or decided to lay dormant; Zervan the Mountain father, Klis the sky bane, Aszoto the Deep one to name a few. I am at least old enough to remember a time when pack life was not a component of this world, when it was a new phenomenon sweeping through a world dominated by singular powers. And while I cannot claim to be the first or even among the first to try this strategy, my pack is old.” The great beast before you rippled along its ivory coloured quill-spines, shifting slightly along its powerful frame. I didn’t doubt it when he spoke of age. “I have rebuilt it many times, learned many lessons which were taught by the error of trail and the devouring of others who gathered their packs against mine. This weapon I have learned to wield adeptly.”

“So we are just claws and teeth to you then.” I asked accusingly. To which the creature chuckled.

“Yes. Yes you are my claws and my teeth. My power and my glory. You are a part of me now and forever more. Together this pack will hunt, together it will endure. It will bring me prey beyond my means and its own alone and one day when I am so old that no other beast can challenge me with essence enough to make me care it will raise the next leader needed to keep me sustained. I take great pride in this construct which I have created, a tool to forge tools of flesh and bone.” There was fervor there, a manic glee at the thought, the long term planning of a hungry immortal wanting to raise both meals and successors. “You, I can see, will prove a fine tool. The very reason why I chose to have you or destroy you.”

I stayed quiet, my thoughts a seething whirl. I knew it, I’d understood it… but to be told it so plainly...

“Do not be bitter little beast. Wild as you were you had little to no hope of becoming strong enough to challenge all comers before someone hunted you down. This is the way of the world. With me, you are guaranteed a chance, the power of fairness is one which I have honed and sharpened to a razors edge, competition that drives every aspect of those competing upward and beyond is what I desire. The rules of the pack facilitate this.” The elder looked upon me, amused at my apprehension and skepticism. “The fact is. You will be mine. And in turn all else will be yours. The pack will support you, fight for you, give you shelter and enable your development. And maybe, on the day when finally it comes to the right time, we will see which of us has chosen the better path to ascension.”

“Fairness I suppose. More than I expected.” I finally answered, letting the truth of it fill my essence.

“Good. It is not often that the packless can look on and understand the give and take of mutual benefit. All rules you are subjected to are simply to aid in pack cohesion, to ensure that the body of our shared beast remains healthy and functional. To share your kills with your pack who helped you make them, to declare formal challenge against a pack-member who you wish to devour, to declare rivalry with anyone whom you wish to be your exclusive hunt. To back your pack-mates against outside forces and attempt to support their survival outside of formal predation. I am the final arbiter, but above all… fairness is the measure of our success.” The elder Zerg’s eyes each shuttered and blinked.

“That… is a surprising outlook, all things considered.” I offered. “Most of our kind would simply and gladly kill each other in any circumstance possible for their own advantage. Fairness… I wouldn’t have expected it to be a central tenant.”

“Yes. It is something to be laid out clear.” The elder chuckled again. “I have been here for a long, long time. Pack structure must have rules, and fairness to work. Without rules then who knows how to act? And without fairness to those rules… then why would those under subjection to the rules act in accordance with the rules? We Zerg are too fractious and selfish to allow ourselves to be subjected without benefit. As it should be.”

“As is should be… though I suppose that there are other ways?” I asked, trying to be sly.

“I suppose you are yet too inexperienced to have found your way to any of the Great Mothers and listened to their gossip, to learn the History of our kind that they would repeat. For me it is a personal thing, something I heard from mouth of the eldest of all Zerg. The Mountain Father spoke once... a loud musing to all who could hear it I suppose. He told of the time when all were subjected, when he was but a worm burrowed deep within the ground adaptations of his anchoring him deep even as the Corrupted ones gathered most of the biomass of Zerus together, perverting our beauty into a single vast warped beast, tendrils of essence linking each of them in a vast net subordinated to a disgusting single will. The strong, the weak, all were subject, all their essence congealed and twisted. No competition, no ability to fight back, simply subordinated into a single whole.” The disgust at the very concept was tangible. “This pack, this is a path forward. Both the individual and the group advance and are made more. And just as I devour and become stronger so too shall those who follow me.”

It was strange... yet enlightening. In a weird yet barbaric kind of way.

“Now that you are joining us there is one last task which you will be given, to cement the bonds of you to yours and yours to mine.” Gozark gestured, and from behind me three figures came forward.

Two large powerful Zerg and one much smaller weedier one of similar make to the creature calling the shots. The smallest one did not at all feel like it wanted to be there. It’s essence roiling with panic even as the spines along its body flattened and undulated wildly. The other two stood, blocking all paths but forward, and their powerful muscular bodies ensured that no attempt to dart away would see success.

“To complete your entry into the pack you must join us in all ways. Your mind is sharp, sharp enough to see the concepts that I have spoken of. But to ensure that all of yours who have joined my pack will know down to their bones how to be a part of the pack, they will need the right instincts to work with. They will need to have instinctual understanding of our strategies, of our communication methods, of the needs of supply and command.” The elder spoke raising himself slightly from his resting position, his head and sinuous neck raised like a striking serpent as his long mane of spikes puffed out in malevolent intensity. He glanced in the direction of the small Zerg causing it to shrink back into its guards. “This is the weakest and least successful of those who are mine.”

If I were still human, my breath would have been held, halted under the weight of what I realized was coming.

Under the choice which he was giving... a choice which was no choice at all.

“This is my offering to you and your pack. And from its essence you will derive all that you need. I will direct you in installation of its essence.” The Alpha spoke, no trace of mercy, nor empathy employed.

I looked into the many eyes of this the pack Omega… and made my choice.