Creatures Caves

C1anddsaddict and Mea decided it wasn't worth it to try and excavate their old home, and so we've moved to another, smaller cave with a beautiful ocean view. Even better, it's only a hop and a skip away from my actual home, so if I need to return there for any reason I can do so quickly and easily.

Mea was nice enough to set up a fire (though the methods she used looked a bit painful - no point hurting yourself just to start a fire, even if you are partly mechanical). She also brought back some food in the form of seabirds, although one of them managed to make it through alive and in reasonably good condition. There seemed to be some debate about what to do with it, though since Mea just killed two birds, I doubt that she'd have any qualms about finishing off a third. At any rate, I just suggested to leave it be - if it really was in good shape, it'd fly off on its own.

As soon as we were settled, I finally had the chance to tell my story. The story of how I got to this island, and the framing device by which I told them about the other warp portal.

I'm having trouble finding where to begin...so I guess I should start with a basic introduction.

Unlike you, I actually call this island my home. I wasn't chosen by a hand to be a contestant; I was here quite a while before Survivor began, and was simply asked by the game organizers to be the opinions columnist. But I wasn't born here; if I was, I would most certainly be a bit of a savage.

I had my starts in a sandy, aquatic place, overlooked by a large coral, amongst a cluster of my fellow eggs. I never knew who my parents were, and neither did anyone else who was born in that patch. Certainly, if my parents actually cared about my egg, my name wouldn't have been so silly. Back then, I wasn't called Mahk Mako; my birth name was Chivalrous Box. Hardly a fitting name for an aqua grendel, but then again everyone had a name like that. Back then, names hardly mattered anyway - our birthing area had no food, and we were forced to find it.

To survive, we had to march across the sandy bottom until we came upon a rickety old elevator, and then use that elevator to reach another area decorated with old ruins. In this area, there was a clam shell that would warp us to our final home: another group of ruins watched over by the statue of an old norn. According to the elder grendels, this place was called "Devil's Reef," and the place we just came from was called "Past Seas."

Despite the name, Devil's Reef was actually quite a nice and simple place to live. We snacked on jellyfish and sponge seeds, and got into scuffles with our fellow grendels. Sometimes, the elders would bring us all together and tell us tales of the time when a hand set up our world. According to them, we were engaged in something called a "wolfling run," and the run through Past Seas was called an "IQ test."

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. When I was an adolescent grendel, something unprecedented happened - the hand who started this whole shindig, after generations of absence, reappeared. It declared an end to the wolfling run, and then exported us all.

I don't know if either of you have ever been exported, but it's not a pretty process. You're trapped in a strange bubble, unable to move, and then there's nothing. You can't do anything, not even think, until the hand sees it fit to import you again. If you're unlucky, you might never escape that nothing.

I, obviously, was fortunate enough to be re-imported. My next memory after being exported was falling down a couple of feet onto a heating pad, in a new land they called the Norn Meso. My memories of this place are foggy, since I didn't spend much time there - it was a place without any water, I was told, and so I was taken by the hand into a different area: a massive, freshwater lake. Its shoreline was decorated by some nifty-looking plants, and the water was home to fish species of all sorts. I was informed that this place was called Norngarden 4.

Life here was just as easy as it was at Devil's Reef, but it was decidedly boring. The hand did not see it fit to give me companionship in the form of another grendel. Oh sure, it stopped by occasionally to ensure that I was well-fed and whatnot, but other than that I was limited to playing with the fish and staring through the glass out into space.

After some time, I decided to take my fate into my own hands. As it turned out, this room had a door. After the hand left after checking up on me, I used this door to find myself in a hub, learning at the same time what the "4" meant in my initial home's name.

I wandered through these new areas, filled with plants and animals of all kinds. I can only assume that this land was known as the Norngarden, but what rooms had what numbers were beyond me, and it never mattered, anyway.

My explorations eventually took me right out of the Norngarden and into a cold, sterile room I now know to be the Capillata hub. My first thought was to return to the Norngarden, but something in me told me that I needed to explore these new areas. I would discover every single bit of this ship, and no norn, grendel, or hand would stop me.

The door to the left of the Norngarden door caught my attention the most, and so that was my choice for my next round of exploration. As luck would have it, it would be my final one.

What waited beyond that door astounded me. The place was decorated with bits of machinery, but the one that shocked me was a flower-like device sitting on the floor. I knew what this thing was - it was a warp portal, a creation spoken only in the stories of the Devil's Reef's elders. The device our ancestor's creators used to travel the stars. The device that allowed instant access to all worlds.

The device, I hoped, that would bring me to my ancestral home of Devil's Reef.

Unfortunately, the device was closed shut. If this thing was operational, I had to find a way to open it up. I pushed it. I pulled it. I hit it. I even tried to eat it once or twice. The thing did not want to budge.

I was about to give up and return to the Norngarden when the hand suddenly floated into the room. I stared at it, fearful for my own state. I had stepped beyond the boundaries it had set for me. I had disobeyed it. I feared what it was going to do to me.

At best, it would grab me and return me to Norngarden 4, forcing me to spend the rest of my days there. At worst, it would condemn me to exportation. In either scenario, my adventure would come to an eternal close.

What it actually did surprised me. Without saying a word, it poked the warp portal, causing it to open and produce the swirling blue. It then floated away, and that was the last I ever saw of it.

I was confused at first, but then had an epiphany. The hand wanted me to leave the Norngarden 4. The hand wanted me to enter this room and find this warp portal. I was a wolfling run-spawned grendel, after all. Whatever my destiny was, it awaited me within that swirling blue.

Without wasting any further time, I placed my hand on the now-open portal....

...The next thing I knew, I was standing on the shoreline of this very island. There was a portal behind me, but while open there was no swirling blue, and nothing I did made it work again.

I was forlorn at first, but as I explored this island more I learned what a boon it was. There was no hand here to monitor my movements, to tell me where to stay or to export me. The locations here were more varied than they ever were on a ship. I may had never seen another creature again, but I had an entire island, and with it an entire ocean, to call my own.

I was my own master. And to prove it, I ditched my silly old name of Chivalrous Box. From then on, I was Mahk Mako. It is a name I shall wear proudly until the day I die. I made my home just off the coast of my arrival point, and I've lived here ever since.

After I was done with the story, I told them where I arrived, motioning with my arms in its direction. I don't know exactly where the old portal was - since it didn't work, I didn't bother mentally jotting down where it was located. I personally have no desire to get it working again, but perhaps Mea and C1anddsaddict might. We'll see where this goes.

This is Mahk Mako, signing off.