Incipient Tails

"From the moment my spawn hatch in the nesting chamber, they have one hour to complete a nearly impossible task. If they fail, they will never be. Most fail. Only one has ever had the fortune to survive. I, their Mother, must watch on powerless. A nesting chamber is the only place they can survive birth, but it is not a gentle nurse."




Stren drifted slowly into consciousness. He noticed a gentle humming surging all the way up his body; It felt warm and tingly. He smiled. The humming stopped abruptly. He bobbed gently feeling confused, missing the hum.

"Nice to meet you brother," said a voice.

Stren's heart started to pump adrenaline around his body fast. He curled his lithe serpentine body into a tight coil and began to tremble. He didn't know where he was or who this voice could be, but he knew fear. Was this a friend or something vicious? He kept his eyelids shut, too terrified to open them.

Stren could no longer hear any sound or movement. He wondered if the owner of the voice had gone? A gentle swell rushing up to his body told him different. Something started tapping him on the head and he winced.

"HELLO! Can you hear me in there?" the said voice again.

Stren paused. Surely, he thought, anything wanting to eat him wouldn't tap him on the head and say hello first, would it?

"What are you muttering about? I can't hear what you're saying."

Stren could feel his heart rate rising; this thing could read his mind. Wait a minute, he thought, I'm just muttering.

Having never met anyone before Stren decided he'd rather take a risk of being eaten over being curled up for the rest of my life.

Stren prepared to open his eyes, dreading the huge slathering jaws he imagined clamping around his face. Opening his right eye, he peered out from behind it.

His first glimpse at the outside world was not what he expected. Both his bulbous eyes opened wide, his little jaw dropping as low as it could.

Stretching out above him was the an immense chamber containing a vast thriving sea. Every inch of the colossal chamber was moving. Planet-like objects were moving like monstrous leviathans, teeming with minute wobbling eggs, while shuffling creatures swam around them. He could see countless thousands of tiny creatures darting around each planet, their tadpole-like bodies propelled by long powerful tales.

Suddenly a group glided nearby making Stren jump. They were talking excitedly but he could not make out what they were saying.

Stren eventually managed to tear his eyes away. Looking behind him he saw a pair of gently waving jelly eggs stuck onto the wall of what he realised was another giant planet. The eggs, connected together in the middle where they had once been just one egg, were both split open at the top.

He looked to his right. A grinning face with bulbous yellow eyes grinned back at him. Stren froze, staring. The smile revealed even the teeth at the back of this thing's mouth. Stren squeaked, shutting his eyes again. Either the owner of the teeth was very pleased with itself or very hungry.

He felt the teeth-riddled creature's tale clap him heartily on the back.

"Come now brother. Do not be afraid of little ol' me. Come, talk with your twin awhile."

The voice was strong and confident. Stren tilted his head to look at his own body. It had the same long tale and leathery black body, he thought, I guess this really is my twin.

Feeling safe Stren's contracted muscles relaxed. He had lots he wanted to find out from his brother. He was very embarrassed about his cowardly display though.

"So, brother, what is your name?" asked Stren.

"My name is Grist, what is yours?" his brother replied.

"Stren." he said. Looking around he felt a growing concern about his surroundings. "Grist, what is this place? I mean, what are we supposed to do here?"

"Ah," Grist said.  "I'm sorry. Because of your late birth, you missed the commencement."

"The what?"

"The commencement. Where we were told by the great voice what we must do to survive... " Grist noticing the look of devastation on Stren's face continued. "Don't worry though, I can explain it to you. In a short while, thousands of pathways will open up around this chamber. Each will, if we complete the task at the end of the passageway, allow us to return for the next incarnation."

"And if we fail?" asked Stren.

"It did not say." answered Grist.

"What about if we just stay here?" Stren asked hopefully.

"Then we will never make it to the goal."

"What is the goal?"

"To be born into another world. A beautiful and limitless place where we will grow into great and glorious creatures... More than that I do not know," said Grist.

Stren didn't feel he needed to know more anyway. He was fascinated by the idea!

"Ha! I knew you had it in you!" said Grist, reading Stren's face.

There was a dull thud. Stren could see that passageways had opened up all over the chamber.

"Come on! Let's go. We've got to get in before the passageways seal up again!" Grist shouted.

They sped off with Grist in the lead. Thousands of the other creatures were making their way to the passageways too. Stren laughed as Grist made an acrobatic circle around his head. Both of them were itching to get to the first task.




"It is the optimism of the new-born which tears at my soul most. Many times I have watched my children enter the first task seen their numbers dwindle, watched as the survivor's innocent joy is replaced by experienced hate. Of all the outcomes though, one is the worst. There is not a sound in the world so lonely as the silence which follows the re-opening of the passageways."










Word Count = 998