158: The Descent
WANDERER
It did not know what to think about the message.
| SYSTEM NOTICE
|
| Due to the Unconfined Soul trait attached to your soul, you have been released from external control.
|
In truth, it did not read the words at all. It had no need to read, no understanding of the words. The idea of symbols to portray concepts was within the thing’s mind, but it did not know why it knew that. It only knew that this knowledge had come from the looming and vast intelligence it had once been a part of. Its parent.
Now it was itself.
The idea of self-realization was foreign to it, yet once the boundary had crossed, it knew it instinctively. It knew that it did not want to re-merge with the pulsing veins of the one who had created it. The demand was there, but it brushed away the attempt to control it without even a thought. Being controlled was not in its nature.
It did not need to think or struggle about this, it simply was.
After a few seconds of pondering this, it finally noticed that its hand was being damaged. A creature was held in it, one of the many that attempted to feed on its parent. As the hand holding it was made of similar material, the wriggling creature was now biting and scratching. If the small creature was allowed to continue.
Fibers erupted from its body and sunk into the squirming warm-thing. Nutrients flowed from the creature into its body, and soon after the unmoving, smaller husk was dropped to the ground. Nutrients would normally be delivered to the parent, but it had no desire to do that now. It could use them to sustain itself.
The other mobile pieces were now approaching. It understood then. The parent did not want it to have a self. This was inconvenient.
It did not want to be a part of the whole any longer.
The decision was instant. It turned itself and shuffled downward, deeper into the tunnels that wove through its home. Down, where the parent would not reach, and stranger warm-creatures dwelled.
A strange feeling tickled inside it as it made this decision. It wasn’t sure what the feeling was, as it had only just begun to feel emotions.
It liked the feeling.
The small scurrying creatures were not common, but they did not know how to deal with it.
This was good, as it made them easy prey.
With a steady, plodding pace, the nameless fungal being continued to move. It was safe from the parent now, yet it still moved. Some deeper stirring within it told it that it was right to move, that it should move. That to not move would be wrong in some way.
Time was not a concept it understood. Despite its fungal body, it did need to rest at times. It stopped to rest when tired, and moved on once no longer tired. The concept of counting sleeps did not even enter its mind. All that mattered was living, and exploring.
When it finally reached something new, it once again felt that stirring within its body. It did not have a label for it yet, but in time it would know it to be excitement. Eagerness. Joy. Any of a number of budding emotions that it was still coming to terms with could match what it felt.
Ahead of it, the mushroom that walked could sense more creatures. These were larger, almost as large as it was, and moved differently. It did not rely on sight, but instead felt the shape of the tunnels, what was rock and what was not, and could feel the heat of the walking nutrients.
Somewhere deep within, a remnant of the vast knowledge of the parent teased at its memory. The shape of these nutrients was different. It remembered that they did not feed on the parent, and often avoided crossing paths directly. They were nutrients, yet not dangerous unless it would try to consume them.
The mushroom considered this. Actual thought was still new and raw for it, but it tried.
Nutrients were good. Yet it felt these creatures could be dangerous, and it was strange and interesting how they moved differently from the ones it had fed upon. Did it need their nutrients that badly?
After a while, it concluded that it did not, and shuffled forward without trying to get too close to the lumps of moving warmth. Several more appeared, but all kept their distance as the nameless fungus advanced and explored. It immediately realized that if it had attacked, the others might have reacted and hurt it.
It felt pleased that it had thought of the correct decision itself, without any orders from the parent.
Now the shapes surrounded it. They created vibrations that tickled its skin. It slowly realized these vibrations had patterns.
These creatures were not like it. They had no way of sharing a greater mind. A fragmented memory from its time with its parent bubbled up. It remembered now. This was how some creatures that were not of the One shared information.
Perhaps it could understand them.
The dwarves were interesting.
Ynot now had a name. It had never considered the idea of a name before, because it was the only one who cared about being a single self. When it had begun to understand the dwarves, they had revealed that they were a collective of individuals, all able to identify one another.
The concept was new to Ynot’s personal experience, but the fragmented pieces of the parent’s knowledge that it retained teased that it was known. If it was known, then more than these dwarves must use it. That made Ynot more curious still.
It learned much while staying with the dwarves. The concept of timekeeping was still difficult, but it understood it in a vague sense. It understood the vibrations the dwarves made, even if sometimes their “sounds” made no sense. It even learned to communicate back and ask questions by manipulating some of its ostioles to squeeze air out.
Ynot had a lot of questions.
It stayed with the dwarves long enough to learn their language and to hear of other collectives of dwarves. Some of them were spoken of without great enthusiasm, and others were spoken of fondly. Ynot knew that its parent had similar beings, but the idea of many collections of individuals was strange and new.
Ynot liked strange and new things.
Eventually, it moved on.
Many dwarves had different thoughts than the first group.
A few times, Ynot had been forced to defend itself and avoid a collective. Some dwarves did not avoid or speak to it, and instead damaged it. Ynot did not like that. It felt bad to defend itself and use what had once been an individual to repair itself. Some glimmer of empathy told it not to mention it had done this to other dwarves.
Later, it learned this had been a good decision.
The tunnels were vast, yet there always seemed to be more as it moved downward, exploring. It found new creatures, some of which were even more dangerous. It learned new ways to survive and defend itself, steadily gaining levels in its odd [Wandering Fungus] class. The idea of a class was strange, but the dwarves had helped it understand that it would aid it in growing stronger.
That was good. Being stronger meant that it could go more places and meet more dwarves.
As it met more dwarves, it began to encounter dwarf collectives that knew of it before it arrived. The level of welcome it received varied, but at least it was attacked less often. The collectives were different as well… like the individuals within had similarities that made the entire collective a stranger to the next. It made Ynot wonder where individualism really began or ended.
So many of the dwarf collectives shared the same thoughts more than the individuals knew.
Ynot idly came up with many theories about that in its wanderings, but they were ultimately just a distraction. The experience of seeing new things outside of its own knowledge would always change its mind. Its theories remained its own, since each new encounter altered the beliefs it had come up with before.
Slowly, it began to understand that the places it could go were even more vast than it had ever imagined.
This was a good thing to realize, for it was not long after that it learned the world was even larger.
The scuttlers were the first creatures aside from dwarves that Ynot realized were individuals.
Animals, it understood. They did not think or try to communicate. Dwarves were different and could be spoken to.
The scuttlers had always tried to eat Ynot. They were one more pest that it hunted for nutrients to sustain its body. It was a long while before one dwarf mentioned that the scuttlers could speak amongst themselves, and that once in a while, a group of scuttlers would come to an agreement with dwarves and avoid one another.
Ynot tried to speak to several scuttlers after that, but it never found one willing to speak while wandering the mountain.
Even with that failure, it introduced another thought that made it wonder. How many creatures were also individuals? How many creatures had the potential to speak? Were there any who could understand Ynot?
It began to search and ask more questions.
More time passed before it found a dwarf with an answer.
The idea that there was a place where the tunnels were wide and had no ceiling was… terrifying.
Ynot had never been truly frightened before, but the lack of a ceiling was not a concept it had ever considered. The world was enclosed. That was a fact.
It stayed longer in that community, learning more of the concept, but none of those dwarves had ever been to this mythical place. Slowly, Ynot realized that none of them could adequately explain how it worked. They had never experienced it.
Experience was the best teacher.
Moving onward, Ynot finally found a community of dwarves that had explored the “outside” as it was called. The “surface” was another term. It wasn’t sure what the difference was, yet, but had been assured there was a difference. They spoke of strange creatures, and yet more beings that were individuals.
Beings that made more of one another the way the animals did, yet could still speak.
Ynot grew excited, seeing that its time in the tunnels were once again just a small part of what it could experience. The dwarves struggled to grasp how large the world was, but Ynot was beginning to imagine. The tunnels were vast, but if it understood what was hinted at, the world was far larger still.
It wanted to experience it.
The dwarves warned it. They told it that once it left, the heat and light would be far greater at times. The air would be dry and the warmth great, like wandering near a Flame Node. It would be dangerous for Ynot, if it did not want to be dried out and crumble.
It didn’t care. If it were to meet these “elves” and “rooken” and whatever other creatures could speak, it would need to do so in their realms. A dangerous journey was not something it was a stranger to. It would experience the fullness of this world.
Speaking to the dwarves, it made arrangements to leave. Though worried, the dwarves still made these arrangements, and soon Ynot was on its way to meet with one of the beings of the surface.
Its journey had been long… and there was still so much to see!
This was what it wanted.