The being started its journey in a crazed hurry.
First, driven by a determination to make up for all the time it had wasted. Then, by desperation, as it realized that no matter how fast it ran and for how long, it didn't seem to make even a dent on the distance it needed to travel: the epicenter was just that unbelievably far.
Slowly, time dulled the edge of its panic, and dialed it back to simple anxiety. Which then turned to boredom, as the realities of this journey eroded even its stubborn, persistent discomfort, bit by bit.
It was, indeed, boring.
The first time around, when it had traveled with its friends - still convinced that there was a true link between them all - it had been a constant struggle. Every step on the way had been hard fought, beset on all sides by predators and other frenzied things. Any distraction could have spelled doom for one of them. A grueling experience.
But at least it had been interesting.
Now, every potential threat just scurried off. They must be capable of feeling the being's strength just as it was capable of feeling theirs... but it liked to think the makeshift shell it had painstakingly crafted was a factor. Cleaning it properly of all the guard internals had been a pain and it kept banging against everything, the tremors reverberating in its very bones... It had to have been worth it!
In any case, even the biggest, meanest predators fell over themselves to flee, if the being so much as looked in their direction in a displeased manner.
Not that it wished for more conflict, of course. That would be repulsive. Killing had always been something distasteful for it, and now that its strength was so far beyond anything else around that it understood how fundamentally helpless they all were, even more so. Also, it had been through a very stressful time: it deserved a break.
So maybe this change of pace was for the best? A nice way for the being to contemplate and return to its true nature and objectives, those that it had nearly forgotten in the face of relentless slaughter, and the quest for strength that had filled its life lately and that should have been only a minor goal.
Emotionally, the collateral hadn't been much different an experience from the owl's nest, had it? The being should really try to avoid such places in the future.
All in all, if it was careful of the hummings and avoided falling down into the pits to the abyss that had started opening up randomly more and more... it would be just fine.
Only bored out of its mind.
With this lack of excitement, and the crushing sameness of the landscape, it was only natural that the being lost interest in anything around pretty soon.
Its attention turned inward. In particular, to what still kept frustratingly eluding its grasp. And in this newfound calm, the being found that it had fundamentally misunderstood one thing.
It wasn't just a matter of strength, of fighting prowess.
Certainly that was a nice consequence and a huge part of the appeal, especially after the devastating beat down the dark one had delivered. But it wasn't everything. The moves, the whisper, and whatever other mystery was surely out there that the being hadn't yet encountered... they all had something deeper in common, as if they were just aspects of the same concept. And understanding one should naturally lead to understanding the other.
Unfortunately, there was nothing to be done about the moves. Perhaps the absolute barrier over them could be weakened with enough time and effort, but not when their fundamental inspiration was gone. Without the dark one to watch and learn from, it was a lost cause.
The being would likely never meet that magnificent creature again, which was both a pity and a relief.
The other mystery... that was another matter.
The guards - and mostly the knight - might have influenced the being's understanding quite a lot, but they weren't the only source. The 'whisper' was just the way that they wielded a deeper principle that permeated the entire world. Perhaps it was extremely rare and hidden, but traces could be found just about anywhere, if one was strong and lucky enough to look for it. In fact, hadn't the frog perceived it first even back then, while lurking in the owl's nest? Far before it even knew the guards existed, and an immense distance away from the castle.
The being had just been blind to it most of the time.
Until now.
Now it could feel something. Something impossibly elusive, hiding at the very edge of its vision, scurrying away as soon as it even thought to look. Like trying to catch the dust in the air with its bare hands. But it didn't feel entirely impossible anymore.
And so it started trying anything that came to its mind, to feel the ineffable thing, the principle again.
It tried to mimic the knight's motions from memory, because they weren't particularly complex or profound and the being had observed enough to mimic them easily. It quickly realized that was precisely why they were useless.
The knight's moves weren't like the dark one's. The whisper had nothing to do with them, but was just... layered on top. Something to enhance them, take a crude base impossibly further.
The being was much better served with its own moves.
And that was exactly what it tried next. Perhaps the knight's moves were a catalyst that allowed it to catch the principle somehow? One that depended on its internal structure or something, and so the being should find its own? That would explain why the guards were apparently so incredibly stiff and inefficient. It was probably a stretch, but what did the being know?
Since coming up with this theory, the being dedicated a certain chunk of time, every once in a while, to flail its limbs around every which way, hoping something would happen.
Unfortunately, it was turning out to be just as useless as expected, and the greatest achievement it had to show for this effort was stumbling into a chasm and almost falling into the abyss. Not that such a trifling incident was enough to dissuade it, of course. It would just try harder.
It also tried to feed on the spikes it had carried, trying to absorb some inspiration from them like they were a gem, and - in one horrible moment of weakness and despondency - on the filth too. It knew it couldn't possibly work, that it made no sense at all.
It still tried, because it had no other leads.
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
... Rather, there was one thing: the principle was something other, wasn't it? Something that could not be touched or heard or held. So maybe the being should try to just... feel it?
But how could it feel something without any physical cue? Maybe if it had some idea about the right process, it could get something going, but it just had none whatsoever.
Though maybe... if it couldn't heighten the correct input, maybe it should just decrease the wrong ones?
It doused a piece of pilfered skin with filth and then covered it with two other pieces on each sides, creating an effective triple layered barrier, that wouldn't be emotionally crippling to have in contact with its skin.
With that, it covered its eyes - all essence disappearing from the world, in a fundamentally panic-inducing state - and with its hands its ears, trying not to hear what was happening around.
When that failed to accomplish anything, it even buried itself under some rocks. There, it found total silence and blindness...
But it was useless.
Nothing it tried helped any.
Nothing changed anything at all.
...except for one time.
At some point during its journey, the currents above had started behaving strangely. Usually they would just lazily float up there, swaying peacefully. Now, some of them had started to stutter, jerking about in disharmony with the others. A very peculiar sight, but nothing worth worrying over, at first.
Then, a feeling of something awful had crawled over its back, something wrong, and the being had looked up just in time to see one of the currents seize up... and then jolt suddenly, much harder than ever before. Downward.
It hit the ground with a spectacular, cataclysmic impact, that by the looks of it should have been deafening, and made the ground shake even from so far away. But all there had been was silence and stillness. An eerie, menacing quiet.
However, the being didn't care for any of that, because in that moment it had felt it. The principle. Caressing its existence, and perhaps even reacting to its thoughts, just a little bit... but it was gone too fast to be fully sure.
The being had tried desperately to internalize the feeling. Learn something from it. Anything... but it was all useless. It had been too sudden and unexpected to react in time.
But what if it was the being that decided the timings?
There was a nice, tall hill nearby, where the currents swept down low enough that they were almost touching the summit.
Wasting no time, it climbed on top, and approached the nourishing swirl, feeling triumphant: it was a hidden thing, very hard to pick up, but there definitely was a trace of the principle in there. The being had found it! For the first time, a source as steady as the knight's whisper, but untainted by that twistedness. And much stronger too. It would only need to...
It hesitated.
The being had never been so physically close to a current, but it had always known them to be pleasant and... welcoming. All leisurely silent and peaceful, floating in a calm stillness. A positive force.
But something was off here. The sheer fact this one was so low in altitude was a very clear sign of that.
This current might not be as welcoming as the being had thought.
But neither could it give up now. So, it compromised, and moved closer slowly, painfully slowly. And when it was close enough to reach forward, it did so with its least favorite hand, pointing with its least favorite finger-
and promptly lost it.
If the being hadn't faltered yet again and pulled back, it wouldn't even have noticed: there had been nothing to signal the loss. No visual effect, no force applied, not even pain.
Well, that came soon after, along with a ridiculous temptation to dive in...
Of course the being did nothing of the sort, and rather jumped back and rushed all the way down to the ground. As it hurried, it realized it hadn't checked what had happened to those creatures hit by the fallen current back then. But it could make a good guess now.
To think that even the currents that were supposed to be peaceful nurturers would become like this... Just what was happening?
After that, it gave up on actively reaching for the principle, and just went on with its journey. It would keep staying attentive for clues, of course, but nothing more than that. If it came, it came, and if it didn't, the being wouldn't get itself killed for something that couldn't be, yet.
And so it was back to the relentless, endless boredom of the journey.
At times, when it felt too discouraged and tired, it would climb somewhere to lie down, to disconnect and feed a bit – though with the ever-increasing essence along this trip, there was no real need. Creatures would fall over themselves to make way... and then they would gather around it.
At first, the being didn't understand why they were doing that, thinking they must simply be pressed for space. After all, the sheer number of creatures around had only increased and increased and increased, as it kept going. So much so that if the pattern kept going like this, they would soon reach levels of a bad surge back at the castle, but everywhere and always. And wasn't that a terrible thought?
It wasn't unlikely that these little ones were just forced to be here by the press. Yet there was a small part of itself, that hoped there might be something more... Because there had been some unexpected consequences to its transformation.
Just as becoming the frog had awakened a desire for action and purpose - that vague goal of 'finding something to do' - becoming whatever it was now had imposed more complex desires, most of which the being couldn't even begin to parse. Let alone try to accomplish them!
But some of them where much clearer than others. Much clearer indeed, in the lack of anything else to do but walk.
The being had discovered loneliness. And this one discovery, it didn't like at all.
With no more friends to walk with, no more dark one to admire and no more enemies to fight and plot against, there was only discomfort. An emptiness that made the being feel as if it could never quite fit.
That was why, even if it had decided not to get attached to these simple things, it had started to hope, just a tiny bit.
It shouldn't have.
There were always predators skirting at the edges of the group that always gathered. It took the being an embarrassingly long time to realize that all these creatures gathering around were just using its strength to keep their enemies away. And it was an effective tactic, since the being couldn't stand predators, and always chased them away if they got too close.
Worse, this realization led to another. It had known its own little group of 'friends' was just a matter of self-interest, but up until now, it had at least clung to the belief that the frog had been a central part to it. Not even that was real.
They were just making use of the bison's strength for protection, and the frog had been too blinded by its delusions to realize. No wonder the creature had...
Maybe not even the grasshopper had been anything real.
The being left immediately after that, not caring to look back. And from that moment onward refused to let anything stay close, a void forming around it any time it stopped somewhere, separating it from any other creature. But it didn't matter, did it?
Even if they were so close as to almost be on top of each other, each and all of them were alone either way.
It didn't know how to process all this. The being was a happy thing by nature, and this physical impossibility of finding fulfillment ever again left it truly disoriented.
... Nothing to do but hope that somewhere was better, was there? Or if there wasn't, then make one such place!
Like this, the being kept marching for a long, long, loooong time. So long that it almost didn't realize when the landscape started changing. It was very gradual, at first.
There were ever more frequent, longer hummings, bigger chasms lacerating the ground, taking with them more and more careless creatures and those unfortunate enough to stand on top of one when it opened.
But those things were nothing outstanding really. Just the natural continuation of an established trend.
It was the currents that first clued it in: now they were all behaving absurdly, each and every one swirling around the other wildly, smacking against it and, in a few dramatic cases, fusing together, becoming chaotic messes that were terrifying to even look at. And they'd started to come down regularly.
The being would have seriously considered turning back and leaving: if it got hit by one of those, no amount of moves or strength or knickknacks could save it.
But it was too close now. Far too close.
So it kept going on despite everything. Jumping over pits, trying to predict and avoid murderous currents descending from above, and shielding itself with its bags as pieces of creatures that couldn’t flew about.
It kept going so long that it almost couldn’t believe when finally, finally, it was there.
Just behind this hill.
The being felt that it should stop and somehow celebrate this momentous occasion. But right now, its patience was over. And even if what it had been forced to get through - all the signs on the way - made it dread what it would see, it needed to.
And so it climbed up, past the last barrier that hid what lay at the end of its quest, and see it did.
Do you think a glossary is needed (at least for the words the being uses)?
