I was half an hour old by now and every second my power was growing. The Queen, my mother, had now given birth to two other siblings, one male one female. They were yet to be named. I on the other hand, now had a name. It was a name that would terrorize Albia. If the Norns lived after my reign of terror they would still tell my story for generations to come.
My body was already becoming strong and able. It wouldn’t be too long before I had as good a body as the one I continually inhabited in my visions. And I was only starting to near half my potential growth. I could very easily be twice the size of the original terror of Albia.
Once again I felt the Queen’s mind reach out to mine. She was weak from the birth of my latest two siblings, but she was still willing to try and teach me in the hope that I would learn from her experience.
Her mind entwined with mine and for a brief moment our minds became one. For a second I could see and feel the entire world as she did. This was always a side effect of her showing me the past. Usually it only lasted for a second or so, depending on how long it took her to bring up the memories of past minds. But this time her mind was open to me for longer than usual. It took me a couple of seconds to realize what was going on. She had deliberately left her mind open to me. Before, she had always shown me the past through others eyes, from fallen heroes and others. This time she was going to let me see the past as she had seen it.
It was then that I realized our minds were still separate. We could see each other’s minds but as of yet we hadn’t actually become one person.
I focused my mind and drifted slowly towards her. It is impossible to explain how her mind looked. It is perhaps even harder to explain how my mind looked. Because unlike in the physical world where you can only look through your own eyes to see what is around you, in the spirit world I could see myself and everything around. I was no longer just a part of myself but also a part of everything around me, at least to some degree.
From what my mind could decipher from the spirit world I could tell that the Queen’s mind wasn’t alone. At first glance all I could see was her, but as I looked deeper I could see that there were many others. I burrowed into her mind, letting her past experience become mine.
Instantly I learned that the Queen wasn’t one person. There were many minds infused to make one. I burrowed deeper and I found that the Queen had died many times. She was hundreds of years aged and yet only a couple of weeks old.
There had been several Queens over the years. The current Queen, my mother was the tenth Queen to live on Albia’s surface. Every time the Queen was about to die she laid an egg for the next Queen to hatch from. She placed all her memories into the new Queen’s mind and therefore preserved her knowledge for future generations.
It was impossible to tell where one mind ended and one mind started. My mind brushed over all the minds that made up the Queen, looking for where one became the other. I couldn’t find any chink in the minds so I went back and tried again.
Once again I failed to find anything by just dipping over the surface of her mind. I went back one more time and this time I sunk into the depths of the Queen’s mind looking for answers. This time I found something. I couldn’t really say that I had found where the minds where different; they still seemed to be the same mind. But this time I did discover when each previous Queen had died.
These parts of the mind were almost impossible to explain. As I went through each second where each Queen had died through to when the next Queen had been born I found a sort of hole. An emptiness or blackness where nothing seemed to exist and yet there was still something there. I went over these images again and again and again. Faster and faster the pictures of the past began to swim through my mind. Sucking me into their depth until I could no longer feel my own mind. I was in a vortex, half-asleep yet still completely functional. You know that place where you aren’t quite asleep; you are free to witness all that goes on around you, even allowed to think for yourself, but you are incapable of controlling what you think or where your thoughts take you. That was the place I had entered. I could no longer control my own thoughts, although they were still my own.
These images went around and around in my head, slowly killing off my own sense of being.
“The Shee will be mine” the Grendel murmured, “I will take her for myself and she will beg for mercy before the end”.
“Calm yourself” the Queen whispered in her voice that could be heard beyond the ability of the ears. “She will get what she is meant to get. And only time shall tell what that is”.
“But I want to take her now!”
The vision blurred, only to take me to another, completely different time and place.
“Kill him,” the Grendel growled slowly and deliberately. The Grendel that spoke was the one who’s body I usually inhabited. This time though I was an onlooker to his evil. As I looked up at him I could feel his evil flowing from him, and I knew that one day I would be just like him.
The creature whose body I held assailed the helpless victim that I had been told to dispose of. The flesh tore beneath my solid hands and claws. The screaming thrill of cutting open that which was still living was pumping through me. The pale creature under me screamed and struggle, trying to pry me off him even as I reached into his open chest to tear out what little remained of his life.
I tore into him, reaching into his insides to destroy him. Out of nowhere he struck at me. Out of nothing but shock I jumped backwards, letting him sit up slightly.
He slowly looked down at himself. I could see the fear in his eyes as he saw the hole in his chest. He looked up at me and I knew he knew he would die. There was also something more in his eyes, but the delightful glee ripped into me again and I went to lunge at him. At the last second he reached into his robes and took out the sharpest of daggers. It was then that I knew what I had seen in his eyes. He knew he was destined to die, and he also knew that he would take me down at the same time.
I felt the dagger rent into my skin, breaking the thick hide that had served me so well in the past. This time my armored skin was no use. The dagger dug through the flesh and into my heart, and then I felt no more.
The music was great. It attacked my very soul it was so incredible. I couldn’t tell if what I was hearing was beautiful or evil, but whatever it was it burned into me, sucking at my life force until I felt drained of myself.
Slowly I awoke from my trance like state. The Queens mind was still there with me, but seeing that she had brought me back from the dreaming world she became silent again, letting me contemplate on what I had just witnessed.
I grabbed a bird from one of the surrounding bushes. I held the critter for a few seconds before reaching out and breaking its neck. I threw the head away and swallowed the rest in one bite. I then fell into a deep sleep, thinking of the horrors that awaited my enemies.
CHAPTER #3 (Tiggy)
As soon as I awoke I had the same feeling as I’d had when I had come out of my egg. Not quite as strong but it was there all the same. Luckily I knew how to deal with this problem. I looked around myself but I couldn’t see what I wanted. It was amazing how everything was still so bright and colourful. I looked up and saw the Hand. It floated down to me and sat in front of my face. “Tiggy food”, I said. The Hand gave me a small tickle and floated off. I followed It with my eyes. It floated a few metres and then stopped and started to land. As It landed I saw ten of so of the pointy orange food. I quickly forgot that I suddenly knew my own name without being given one, and hurried over to get the food. As I munched away on my food the Hand went away for a few seconds. When It returned It was carrying a strange new object in It’s ‘Hand’. It appeared to be an oval with a stick through it. The hand dropped it at my feet.
CHAPTER #4 (Tiggy)
I was still standing on the small platform, but I was in a small room. To my left, a large machine, to my right was a pole coming out of the platform. The pole had a red dot on it. I took a closer look at the dot.
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