**Author Note**

This is my first story on here and the format of this site is confusing as hell, so bear with me. I'll try to have regular updates in here though. I really appreciate the kind reviews people are leaving though and thank you all for taking the time to read this!


"What is this? Around me…it's…some kind of liquid…" a thought found itself moving inside the mind of the creature. It heard nothing but bubbling, and saw nothing but darkness.

"I...I'm called...Tavros?" the creature thought. He wasn't sure how he knew this. He wasn't sure how he knew anything, in fact. It was just…there.

"…What do I do now?" He thought as he waved his arms and legs around, testing the fluid around him. He seemed to have perfectly grown appendages, not the grub-like tendrils of his infancy…

That's thanks to this fluid, it accelerates your growth. You'll thank it once you face the dangers outside.

"Where did that come from?!"

Tavros didn't have long to think, as an opening emerged, causing the fluid to spill out of the pod into a grating below. The natural light flooding into the pod from outside stung Tavros's eyes, making him recoil.

Hey now, this is your larval awakening, you better look the part and exit the pod with some dignity. The voice scratched at the back of Tavros's mind, but he paid it no attention, trying to keep from getting blinded.

After a few minutes, allowing his eyes to adjust to the illumination, he looked around the room he was in. It was composed of rugged dome-shaped walls, carved out of stone. The floor was the only smooth surface in the room, and it was covered with a number of pods, possibly like the one that he was in himself. The 25 or so pods were black, covered with a number of differently colored stripes, and three of them were open, their occupants nowhere to be seen. The room itself was also covered in a number of...mushrooms...that happen to provide the intense lighting for the room.

"I-I don't want to leave…Maybe, I could," Tavros reached forward, pulling back the now transparent screening of his pod. It creaked and groaned, so this obviously wasn't how it was intended to function.

STOP THAT NOW. GET OUT OF THE COCOON. A different voice chided him. Tavros almost relented, but fear pressed him to continue to pull back one of the four appendages that made up the cover of the pod. A loud metallic groan emerged from somewhere in the pod/cocoon, followed by some rattling, slowly moving up the interior, until…

Splash! A fluid, similar to the kind that Tavros was submerged in, fell from a new opening in the top of the pod, and onto Tavros's head, quickly soaking inside. A stinging sensation filled his head as vivid flashes and visions of death invaded his mind; visions of rebellion, visions of slaughter and culling on a massive scale assaulting his brain. Tavros screamed in agony, pulling his hands to his head and crumpling to the floor outside of his pod. Otherworldly pain wracked his body as he began to see only red. As his vision began to fade, at the edge of his consciousness, a voice said "What's wrong with you?"

Unable to respond, Tavros continued to convulse in agony.

"Hey. I asked you a question. What's wrong with you, lowblood?"

The voice was little more than a whisper to Tavros's mind, too far gone at this point to even mutter a response. A sense of overwhelming dread got to him, and some force tugged at his consciousness, stealing it away.

I didn't want to have to do that, but you left me little choice.

Time passed as Tavros lay still on the stone floor, unconscious and breathing slowly, but otherwise unharmed. He thought he could hear the metallic sound of other pods opening, but he was too far gone to register what was going on around him. Eventually, consciousness returned to Tavros and he steadied himself as he slowly rose to his feet. A larger number of pods were now open, suggesting that he had lain on the floor for quite some time, testament to the ache in his limbs. Looking around, he noticed that one of the pods had a silvery shine on its opening, and on closer inspection, seemed to house an occupant of its own, more successful in closing her own pod. Tavros inched closer to the green-striped pod, slowly becoming aware of the shivering girl inside. Just a few feet away, and the girl whimpered,

"P-please, don't hurt me…I don't have anything…" The screen of the pod blocked out most of her voice, and in its reflection, Tavros saw himself, his short figure, his grey skin and long, jutting horns.

"It's okay…you saw that stuff too?" Tavros asked the girl, his head still throbbing from the torment it went through.

"…Yes…how do you know about that?" She replied, herself spouting much shorter horns, bent roughly halfway to go back over her head.

"I…had those visions too. You can trust me though, I won't hurt you."

"I...I guess, it's r-really cold in here." She slowly pried open the transparent screening of the pod, stumbling out. She, like Tavros and the others, were naked, but also like them, didn't seem to notice, or care. The two supported each other, arm in arm, as they slowly shuffled toward the exit.

"So…what's your name?" the girl asked, starting to regain her strength.

"It's…my name is Tavros."

"Mine's Eydale, not sure how I know that though…"

"Same here…Eydale," Tavros said to his new friend. The two would face many trials in the days to come, and they had only just begun.