1 Gerangi

Waking from sleep, the creature broke from the crusty rock that protected him during his journey across the Void, his skin black and covered with gray dust that stuck to his scales. He moved, and rocks moved with him, slowly rotating around him as if the gravity field warped, making the creature its center.

The Shadow creature silently moved across the Ethersar Sea toward the shore of this lush, shining Region, its heart filling with regret.

All these worlds the Builders had built here would soon be swept away. It was a pity.

Distant laughter and gentle voices caught its attention.

Making itself invisible, the creature saw several young Builders move past him, unaware of his presence. He had never before seen the Builders so weak and vulnerable. These beings were only pale kin to their predecessors of old, when they could wield the Maxis currents and herd stars. Their pure energy had awakened its hunger, though.

It followed them to the Nursery, where the Builders reared their precious new young - a large area composed of enormous reef pillars and sections filled with the swirling patterns of energy.

The Shadow killed the two older caretakers of the Nursery first. In the Nursery, it found babes, yet unborn, and not yet fully come into awareness. They were all going to die anyway, the Shadow thought and drained the rich energy that sustained them.

It feasted until there were barely dregs of energy left and then hatched the younglings that still held on to life. Almost ready to be born, they could not yet control their movements and failed quickly. As soon as he broke them free from their crystal cocoons, their light began to flicker and dim.

The Shadow had to hurry to kill them before all their energy was lost, but did not feel satisfied. He could have gotten more energy from a fat tarabon. Thinking of those fat animals, its ever-present hunger grew stronger.

Leaving the devastated Nursery behind, the Shadow hunted after the Builders old enough to have fled from him. Most of them hid, instinctively knowing that running from it would only awake its hunting instincts more. With pleasure, it searched for them.

Startling one out of hiding, it toyed with the helpless little Builder, when another youngling attacked. The Shadow creature stilled it by an enslaving command. Dark energy roiled from it in a wave that spread out almost a quarter of a kilosec wide, bringing all the susceptible Builders into submission.

"Come to me." The creature commanded.

Several dozen of the younglings came from different directions, their light trembling with terror, yet unable to resist.

After a critical look at them, the Shadow began to kill them all.

A distant call of alarm interrupted it, when only six of the younglings remained. Paused, the Shadow considered the energy of those who sent it out. Grown-up Builders were querying their designated caretakers on what was happening in the Nursery.

From the strength of the call, the Shadow perceived that the grown-up Builders might yet be a threat to it, especially if they arrived to stand against it in large numbers. Gathering up the remaining six younglings, it covered them by its dark mantle and left the area...

... Kaeril and his charge were in the desolate area between the developing worlds, practicing the youngling's skills with gate-jumping in alphavit permeated places, when the warning reached them.

Immediately, the elder stopped the exercise and directed the youngling to follow him. Quietly, they moved to safety, very alert and watchful. The little one stayed close to the elder.

There was a wrongness up ahead. The older guardian stopped, protectively drawing his energy fields around the youngling. This area was full of black alphavit, which did not respond to their will and blinded senses. The jagged outlines of dead reefs blended with the darkness that always dwelled here, permeating the place like creeping misty shadow or ethemeral black fire.

And then something moved.

The elder barely had time to react, shielding the youngling behind him, when a horrifying form with roiling black tentacles attacked. A piercing pain. And the dizzying sensation of a gate swallowing them up came.

The elder regained his senses in a confined narrow cave. The only light within came from his own burning heart, reflecting dimly in the glimmering black walls all around him.

The creature waited close by, its power tendrils stretched like a thick web, blocking the Builder from reaching the exit out.

"Well, greetings... Elishai. Or Enoriel?... Whatever it is that you call yourselves nowadays." It spoke to the Guardian mockingly. The Guardian startled. This Shadow Monster was sentient?

"Who are you?" He queried cautiously.

"The One who destroyed your worlds it seems. Although not by intent. But, do not worry. Once my Plan is complete, all of you will be reborn anew and become far more powerful and useful than you are here... Of course, none of it makes sense to you." The Shadow mentioned with amusement, perceiving the elder's confusion.

"And no, I am not mad." It added, as if reading the elder's mind.

"Why am I even talking to you? Lets just finish what we started, shall we? I need a proper meal before I leave this place." It muttered to itself.

Perceiving its energy roiling, preparing for a strike, the elder narrowed his defenses.

"Ha-ha-ha! You really think you can stop me?" The monstrosity laughed.

"You are going to die either way, old one. But if you give me that youngling, I promise that he will live a little longer yet." The Shadow looked at the child peeking from behind the elder's defenses. It looked at the child fondly, seeing that it was stronger than those it had taken before, and nearly independent. It would offer little resistance to it's influence, unlike this elder, who seemed to have made himself deaf to its Commands.

"Do you not recognize who I am, old one?" The Shadow asked with surprise. The elder narrowed his shining gaze and then unwillingly jerked back, aghast.

"Gerangi!" He whispered. Pleased, the ancient monster smiled.

"Not quite, but close enough. Now... Give that youngling to me and I will consider making your death swift." It offered.

"Why don't you come closer." The elder Guardian growled. "And we shall see whether you can add anyone else to your count, killer."

"Why should I?" The Shadowlord responded with amusement. "You bleed, bright one. Soon, you'll grow too weak to fight. And I will take this youngling then just the same."

Playfully, the shadow sent a sharp spike deeper through the elder's outer mantle into his inner core and the youngling's light convulsed together with helpless elder's.

"As for you, you will do quite well to distract your brethren from following me." The Monster sent them a memory of another elder, whom the Shadow left just as its body began to swell and break apart with hatchling dark monsters sliding beneath the surface. The larva fed on the dying Guardian's husk while he was still alive. The Gerangi meant for them to distract his pursuers, to make them follow false tracks that bore its signature.

The youngling sensed the raw pain and grief wash from his elder, because he recognized the dying elder in this broadcast memory and realized that he had no hope of winning this fight or of protecting the youngling entrusted into his care.

The young Builder lunged at the horrifying being, surprising it and his caretaker, both.

Instinctively, the Shadow recoiled from that fearless assault, then laughed, remembering whom it was fighting.

"Oooh, a little fighter. Brave." It commended the youngling, playfully parrying its swift, light strikes.

Suddenly, diving past it, the little Builder created a series of mini-gates and sent them to the sides, causing the reef to the Shadow's side to explode, sending shrapnel to sting its side.

"Stop." The Shadowlord Commanded without further humor and the youngling helplessly froze.

"Maybe I won't keep you alive, after all. You are too bothersome. Quite unlike a normal Builder." The Shadow commented with displeasure. A swift approach, and it already held the little being engulfed in its grasp. Tentacles maliciously slipped past the child's imperfect defenses, wrapping around and pressing, snaking through toward his inner core. The shadow moved with intent to kill his victim as slowly and painfully as he had time to spare. The little being's surging terror stirred its Hunger and the instinct to kill.

"... Why kill him, when you can have me?" The elder's calm voice broke through the creature's pleased anticipation.

Irritated, the Gerangi turned toward the elder.

"I'll have you soon enough." The irritated being growled out a promise. The little one in its grasp made a pitiful cry. It was an agony to be held like this, with its tentacles sinking painfully deep and burning along the reaches of his inner core, drawing his life energy out. There was no thought left in him but an unspoken plea for the pain to end.

"You'll have an empty husk. Why settle for that, when you could have it full?" The elder guardian suggested again. The Shadow looked at him, puzzled. Then, it began to laugh - a caustic, harsh sound that echoed across the black walls of the cavern, making the elder wince.

"You offer yourself to me? You would make a bargain for this child?"

He moved closer and lifted the paralyzed youngling before the elder. The elder's light convulsed.

"Yes, Dark One. For this child's life, I will trade you my own. I will surrender to you without fighting." The older guardian said with barely contained disgust. The shadow's hold lightened around youngling's heart, and the unbearable pain began to ebb away. The little one was able to perceive things once again. Thoughts returned.

"If you surrender, Old One, and do not fight me even to your death, I promise to keep this one alive." The Gerangi promised, a sly feeling creeping from him.

"No, don't listen to him, Dara! He's lying!" The little one said before the Gerangi tightened its hold, forcing the youngling into silence.

"No, he will not live long as your prisoner." The guardian said sternly. "Release him. And then, when he is far and safe from you, I will do what you wish."

"I don't think so." The Shadow denied, amusement and disappointment mixed in the emotions it broadcast to them. Still, it drew closer to the elder and greedily studied him, because the suggestion tempted him. The elder opened a little more and let his light shine brighter, so the shadow could see his life full within him, rich and pure.

"Our kin will pursue you until they are certain of your death." The older guardian continued, his light steady.

"And even if you escape into the Void, it will be a long time before you can hunt again. Yet I can give you more now than you have ever received, more than you'll ever have again."

"I have taken from your kind more than you know. And I will capture many others like you, yet." The Gerangi growled, drawing closer to the elder. Greed-lust and anger fought within him, oily and thick. The elder Builder was right to a point. It would be almost a year before he finished building the enslaving device strong enough to capture more adult Builders. If he waited for this elder to weaken, only a little energy would be left, less than what the restrained young one possessed. He waivered only a moment.

"I let him go, and you surrender. Now!"

"He doesn't have enough strength to cross the vast planes. You must give him time to run." Elder protested.

"The only time he'll have is when I feed on you. I will make no other bargain, Bright One. Take it, or I'll take him, and then I'll take what is left of you." The Shadow's thought was a menacing growl. Indeed, tempted by the elder's suggestion, its hunger now drew openly. It rarely had to hold himself back from its desires. The youngling in its grasp felt the monster's clouds undulate around him, flexing, stretching, and jerking in impatient restraint. The one who held him helpless barely kept himself from striking a deadly blow.

The elder starling's light pulsed once before he opened his defenses. The Shadow flung the child aside, forgotten, as it lunged toward the elder and greedily sank his tentacles deep into the elder's bared, bleeding core. The elder cried out. Now, he could not have closed off his defenses if he tried. The elder looked through the haze of pain and noticed that the youngling yet hesitated, caught between two instincts - one to run, and another to fight, to protect the elder. And if the distracted Creature reached back and caught the youngling again...

"... Flee." The elder commanded through his agony.

Pushed by the instinct to obey, the youngling fled.

A moment, and he swiftly maneuvered through the strands webbing the Monster's lair. Had he been bigger, he could not have squeezed through so quickly without touching off at least some of the traps. But he passed the tangled mess easily.

A moment, and he flew along the scorched slope of the mountains up to the Inner side of the world facing the sun, where green rush forests ran. Could he still escape while the elder was sacrificing his life for him? He doubted his chances. But the elder expected him to do his best to try.

Which way? The child paused for a fraction of a moment. If he made a jump-gate, as the elder had just taught him, he would still be too close when that Monster chased after him. In the bleak, dark alphavit plains, the trace of his passing would burn as bright as a trail. The Shadow was strong and would catch up to him in moments.

The child flew up a distance above the world and looked below at the wild green expanse beneath the Ethersar Currents.

He dove in...

The Shadowlord finished with the elder Guardian. The elder Builder proved true to his word. He didn't fight him at all, to the last glimmer of his life, when his awareness faded and feeble instincts tried to reclaim the little left.

Flowing away from the empty husk, the Shadowlord reflected on the failure of the Builders to contain the willful insubordination of the lesser Shadows. Due to the ethical handicaps prewired into their nature by their self-righteous creators, it was almost inevitable that they would be deceived and defeated by those free to use every guile and means at their disposal to achieve their goals. Still, it surprised the Ancient being that the naive Builders even chose to interfere when his Shadows attacked the humans. He would not have expected such action from creatures whose every fiber of being was designed for another task.

The humans made a foolish error when they released the poison, which doomed the Builders to eventual extinction. The Builders were useful, in more ways than one. The Ancient, whom the now dead elder Builder thought to be a Gerangi, condemned the foolishness of the humans. Nothing could be done about that now, however. Putting it out of mind, the being turned his thoughts to tracking the youngling that escaped from him.

He almost smiled at the memory. To the very last moment of awareness the guardian's hope for the little one's survival burned so bright that it even overwhelmed his inevitable fear. As if by his will the elder could shift reality to be what he so ardently wished it to be. His hope would be in vain. The Ancient easily followed the youngling's trail, the anticipation of yet another tasty morsel blending pleasantly with elation of the rich feast he just had.

The youngling's trail shone brightly to the edge of the Etherless world and then lead beneath, dissipating in the energy-lacking domain. The Shadow stopped and searched around the area, expecting the trail to come up again to a signal of a Gateway. The youngling was surely trying to trick him. But he found no other tracers of familiar energy. The foolish little one truly had escaped into the world below.

"... What a waste." The Ancient thought with disappointment, surveying the expanse of the wilderness stretching endlessly to all sides below him. The youngling was sure to die out there, cut off from the ethersar streams which all creatures like him needed to live. And even if the youngling managed to take on a slowed form, but surely he was still too young to accomplish such a feat, there would be little left to eat of him now.

There was only so much energy that a slowed form could hold, and much energy was expended to attain it. The youngling would be too weak to offer him much, even if he caught him and brought him back up into ethersar streams. The effort required to catch him would expend more energy than he would receive in return.

The Shadowmade saw the bright trail disappearing down the mountains into the etherless woods.

"Clever..." He commended the youngster's wit. Did the little Builder understand that his pursuer would be unwilling to lose power and time to follow him there?

Not to be denied, however, the Ancient sent out another Command to all the creatures nearby.

Immediately, they responded.

A great number of small, spidery creatures came scattering from the previously lifeless appearing rocks and approached the hovering shapeless Monster, their forms swelling and shifting in response to his malevolent will. They crowded all around, rising their tentacled heads and clicking their jaws, their instinct changing to a new purpose.

"Find and kill him." The Ancient ordered them.

The creatures locked in on the youngling's trail and scampered away, crawling down the steep rocky paths and falling into the world below. Waves of them rained down into the green woods.

With a satisfied smirk, unwilling to waste farther thought on the incident, the Ancient gathered his clouds and left through the gate he formed. The blazing hot rock cooled behind him, its surface cracking and turning a sooty black...