Pikmin Tales11/16/08
Prologue
Instinct.
It's what causes the heart of a mouse to pound in fear at the sight of a cat, urging it to turn and flee. It's what causes a young squirrel to gather nuts throughout the autumn in anticipation of a season it has never experienced. It's what causes salmon to fight strong currents and leap up waterfalls to the place where it was born, a place they cannot remember but know it is there, somewhere, and so they go, without knowing why, without knowing how.
Instinct is a deep, internal emotion that resides within every living creature on the face of the planet. It's a powerful, stirring feeling that subconsciously shares the necessities of how to live, how to flourish, and how to survive. It's nature's gift, her means of sharing knowledge about the world to her children, much like any good mother would. She gave this gift to all her children.
Well, except Pikmin.
Somehow, this natural intuition bypassed the small, colorful creatures. In the presence of a charging predator, a Pikmin will simply watch its approach with a tilt of its head. When its stomach growls in hunger, a Pikmin will stand idly until it perishes from starvation. And even when mingling with others of its species, a Pikmin will feel no desire to communicate, to associate, or even acknowledge another.
So why has nature withheld her precious gift of instinct from the Pikmin? I believe it's because she had something greater planned for them, greater than anyone could have ever guessed. Like any mother, she did not leave one of her children without means to survive.
Never at any time, or any place, will the species of Pikmin pass away entirely. There will always be one that remains. No matter how many times the species will rise and fall, advance and dwindle, there will always be one upon the face of the planet.
Where other creatures will live and die, sometimes to utter extinction, Pikmin will always have a second chance. It's nature's ultimate gift that she only gave to one of her children. But how the Pikmin use this gift is entirely up to them, and many times they have wasted it, progressing only a few baby steps before dying away once again.
But still, I believe nature waits patiently, watching the Pikmin come and go, waiting for something only she knows may one day come to pass.
And so this account begins at the end of yet another Pikmin extinction. This time, however, the Pikmin had progressed farther than they ever had before. With the help of two advanced life forms from a far off planet, the Pikmin had begun to grasp the concept of attack, of flight, of reproduction, of fear, of passion, of joy, of courage, and even of speech.
Perhaps this time, nature's purpose for the Pikmin's unusual gift of survival will finally come to light. Perhaps this timeā¦
So begins the journey of the one, always the one, that begins the Pikmin population once more. And from that one small, insignificant Pikminā¦perhaps the future of their species will be built.
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