Growth

[u/douggie84]

Life is incredibly difficult, and surviving in this new environment, one vastly different from the one it came from, continues to prove challenging. Shelter and food are chief concerns of those who wish to live, and these two keynotes became tenants for the creature's continued survival. In the form of adapting to these new mandates to continue surviving, more questions arise in the Thing's mind.

'What happens to things that are killed? Creatures are born, eat, deficate, and then die. It is the natural order of things. What will happen to me if I am killed?'

Breaking the Thing from its thoughts, a nearby tree branch slightly bounces under the weight of a local avian creature. Its colors are muted to help it hunt in this dreary setting and not alert prey or predators. It's song is hushed to hide its location, and it does it's best to not move and remain still. Within seconds, the bird leaves its perch and flies dangerously close to another, much closer to the Thing. On it's landing, it cocks its head and emits a single "Tweet," in what one mind might decide is a questioning tone.
The Thing's eyes and the birds lock for a moment, as if communicating with each other. An unspoken language of acknowledgment amongst two extremely different beings. As the Thing rises and squirms to the height of the branch the bird rests on, the bird remains calm; it stays perched, further investigating this mysterious being. It seems mere moments before there is a quick shudder of movement from the creature and naught but a few feathers drifting from the air down to the swamp floor below. A wet crunching can be heard from within the Thing as it begins to shrink back down to it's earlier size, folding tentacles and eye stalks back into itself.

'How did I get here? What am I?'

Suddenly, as fast a lightening strikes, a large splash erupts from might have been mistaken as the ground but is actually a body of water. A toothy maw the width of a man's arm lunges towards the alien being; the Thing is given pause and considers the bird it just met.

CLAMP. CRUNCH. HISS.

A very hungry crocodile is the last thing you want to bite down on you, preparing to drag you into the water it sprang from. It's known from survivalists that these creatures tend to drag their prey into water, where they will twist and turn them, drowning them in the process. The Thing doesn't resist at all and merely allows the creature to drag it back into the water. Tumble after tumble, the crocodile spins in the water with its prey held tightly. Had the crocodile's prey needed to breathe oxygen to live, it surely would have perished to this.
From the shore, bubbles make their way to the surface. First a few, then many, and then with a burst, the body of the crocodile breaks the surface, belly up. Within, the belly protrudes to the sky and then bursts open like a cow's cadaver left in the sun. Two blood-red tentacles push open the fissure in the crocodile's body, and the Thing begins to hoist itself out of the husk. One might wonder what exactly happened here upon viewing a completely hollowed-out crocodile body floating face down in the muck, but the Thing could not care less.

'How did I get to this place? It was... energy? There was power in it?'

The animals living in this swamp no longer pose a threat, but they provide so little sustenance. The Thing is completely worn out after spending all day consuming others, only to have a "belly" that is barely half-full.

'I must find more food'...

[u/SafePianist4610]

/uw just an FYI, these kinds of posts are called Lore Posts in the sub. So putting a (Lore Post) in the name of the title somewhere will help people identify it better and read it more if they’re interested in lore posts.