Feeling
For as long as the universe has existed, a constant cycle of creation and destruction emanated throughout all things. Nothing stays the same, growing or breaking apart, recycled into the never ending cycle. Just as all cycles, there can be highs and lows. This story starts at such a time, a high of creation.
Next to a small streambed of a calm moving river a pile of rocks were stacked next to one another, their exteriors shiny from the occasional plunge into the waters. Ants had made their home nearby, their hill extending a few centimeters. Ants constantly streamed out from the well protected hill, each in search for food and material to grow their family. One particular ant strode forward towards the pile of rocks nearby.
The ant scuddled around the few rocks, its antenna searching and eyes examining the exteriors of the river stones.
Its energetic body excited to serve its queen, willing to do anything to help. The ant continued to look for any and all useful things.
But then a quiet clacking noise rumbled through the small ants body. It stilled. Recovering the ant looked around. Focusing its eyes Left, right, there was nothing.
Then it slowly focused up. A massive spider hung in the air. Its 8 beady eyes staring down silent and unblinking at the ant.
The young ant was remarkably quick on its feet. It darted straight back towards its nest. Pheromones blasting from the creatures backside, trying to alert its sisters!
Still far from the nest, the spiders horrifying hairy legs touched down. Its stride much longer then the young ant, quickly catching up to the creature.
The ant turned to face the spider, it understood that it would be caught if it continued to run. The small ant faced off against the goliath of a spider before it. Its mandibles clacking, legs fidgety. The spider charged. A screechy clicking noise vibrated through the ants carapace.
The ant stood its ground as the spider quickly covered the ground between them. Then just as the spider was about to strike with its grotesque fangs, the ant dashed left, counter attacking with a weak snap of her mandibles.
The strike landed on the spiders fangs, causing a small chip and brief pain to radiate through the spiders body.
Confidence exuded through the small ants body, that last strike sparking a flame of hope in the ants eyes.
The spider recoiled from the mandible chop, standing on 6 of its back legs, raising its two front legs towards the air.
The spider brought its two legs back towards the ground, stabbing their sharp ends towards the ant. Nearly missing the frail carapace of the little creature. The ant retreated back, trying to dodge the incoming attacks of the spider.
Moving left, right, backwards and forwards the ant successfully continued to counter the spider, inflicting small amounts of damage onto its hulking body.
The ant quickly dodged right, a thin long needle like appendage nearly missing the slippery ant. The ant tried dodging back left, its legs pushing with all its strength, but its body wouldn't move. Sticky webs covered the nearby ground, holding down the unsuspecting ant.
Not soon after; the spiders leg pierce the ants head. The creatures body going limp from the fatal strike. The spider crackled in victory, quickly wrapping the ants body with its webs. As the spider wrapped its prey a sort of energy leaked out from the ants body, funneling towards the victor of the battle. The spider hungrily absorbed the delectable increase in its strength, feeling lighter and more powerful even at the death of an ant.
But not all the ants energy was absorbed into the spider. A small wisp broke off from the invisible energy, whisked away. The energy, just as a leaf in fall blew into the air, then slowly descended, laying a top a river stone.
The wisp of energy leaked into the stone, and for a long time nothing happened. All returned back into peace. The spider retreating back towards its lair with its prey and the ants continued to search for food for their queen.
But after what seemed to be days, a small and inconsequential existence awoke from within the river stone. Unable to see, hear or smell the existence sat in silence, in darkness. It was confused, unsure.
It knew nothing, felt nothing and saw nothing, but there was an emotion present. Why? It did not know, but it knew for sure that it hated, with its whole being a creature, hairy and 8 legged. With 8 beady red eyes. An image of that hatred burned within its consciousness.
But this hatred burned, and simmered. Unable to release this hatred; this consciousness within the simple river rock baked. It could do nothing but hate, because that is all that it knew.
Days, weeks and years passed. This hatred built, blinding this small insignificant consciousness within this rock. Then one day, after an unknown amount of time passed. The hatred subsided merely enough for the being within to feel briefly something other then hatred.
Almost as if it were a cool gentle breeze, a river of energy floated around the consciousness. With this moment of lucidness, the river rock enamored, reach for this energy. Its conscious pulling it towards itself.
It felt a pull, so small, something urging it to grab this energy and make use of it. So it tried. It reached out and with zero finesse, failed.
The energy slipped from the beings inconceivable extension of their conscious. But it tried again, and again, and again. After many failures the rock seemed to have shook physically, anger seeped from it.
Then it reached out again, changing its tactic. It had reached out, with no thought behind its action. Merely instinctively. This time it controlled the rage and directed it towards the small river of energy. The rage seeped within, taking hold and conquered the few specs of energy that it had found.
The new energy meshed with its own extended consciousness. The being within the small river rock shook again. It felt a change. Something different from the rage.
It had grown stronger. It felt more capable. It could detect a slightly larger reservoir of energy around its small stone cage. The rage made way for another emotion at this time. Something that it didn't believe itself capable. Curiosity.
It felt that it was not forever confined to this darkness. It just had to grab hold of this energy. So that is exactly what the little wisp of consciousness did.
Each spec taken, strengthened the spirit. Its vision of energy expanding ever so slowly.
Then more time passed. Slowly the rock discovered patterns to the energy. They flowed in certain patterns, parts confined, others free flowing, creating currents that passed over, around and underneath those confined reservoirs of energy.
The free flowing energy was the rocks favorite. It was free, easy to grasp and hold. Sometimes even allowing the rock to grasp it without leveraging its rage. But those confined spaces of energy, those seemed to cause the rock more rage. Those places were selfish. The difficulty of taking the energy from those spaces couldn't be any harder. The rock had to pull the energy through a seemingly unbreakable wall.
So it decided to only grasp the free energy.
Eventually the vision of the rock expanded so far that it caught a glimpse of something it had never seen before. It was particular, but agitating at the same time.
It found an oddly shaped confined energy reservoir, but that wasn't were the peculiarity ended. No, the reservoir was moving against the free energy, moving places, seemingly at random.
This reservoir had 6 appendages and a long body. The energy was evenly spread out through the whole space. But the rock understood how it was able to move.
The reservoir's appendages allowed the body to traverse freely through the free energy. Curious, the rock observed the creature. It felt a particular yearning towards it.
Then at the very edge of the rocks field of vision the energy reservoir stopped. Its legs wiggling but its body wasn't moving.
Then a long appendage, longer then any reservoir the rock had ever seen appeared. The purity of the energy within the creature practically shone in the rocks vision. Then another appeared, and another.
It only took moments before 8 long appendages towered over the small creature. The rock shivered.
Its anger that it had suppressed, surged. It felt its hatred burn brighter then it had ever. The rock shot out its consciousness, almost all of its energy. A large part of its hatred directing the wave of power.
As the spider lowered its head down, to bite the small ant trapped underneath itself, a rush of pain grabbed at its body. The spider thrashed, forgetting the prey that it had trapped.
It felt as if its insides were being attacked, ripped apart and conquered, every spec of energy that it had stolen from its weak enemies.
After the initial surprise the spider started to defend itself. Directing the energy within itself to fight back against the foreign invader. The two different energies clashed.
One was pure hatred, directed with force and power. The other was venomous, poisoning and spreading to everything it made contact.
Quickly the rocks energy was destroyed, drowned by the abundant reservoir of the spider.
The spider devoured the invading energy, a look of content on its gross, hairy face.
The rocks rage subsided after the loss of most of its own energy. The rage it had directed towards the spider being devoured by the endless energy that it mobilized.
The few wisps of energy left within the rock knew that it had lost. But it also knew, that it only needed more energy to overwhelm the creature that centered around its pure hatred.
So, it extended its now weak spirit and absorbed the free energy floating around itself. A goal burning within its puny soul.
The spider unsure what had just happened, fled back to the security of its own nest, leaving behind the trapped ant, escaping from the vision of the immobile rock.