Disclaimer: I don't own Inheritance, or the Underland chronicles. However, other characters and story ideas are mine.

Chapter 2: The Plant

It's a story of very long ago. Long back, when the Underland was not like we know it today. All of the creatures were as in the Overland, small, unintelligent, and only possessed the most primary instincts.

Also, there was a plant. It was a cluster, the beginning of the Vineyard of Eyes and the Jungle. But back then; they were just a small cluster of plants.

Then, one day, everything changed.

A meteor fell, from the black, starry night. The radioactive core, split, and it fell. It fell down, deep into the Underland where it reached that plant.

Then, its effects started. It began to mutate the plant, not only greatly increasing its size, but also its intelligence. Soon, that plant not only cared for merely surviving and reproducing, but it began to wonder.

It wondered how the light and air allowed it to make its food. It wondered, about the plants and animals around it.

It continued like this for a long time, for the radiation had given it a very long life. However, he was exasperated at the creatures around him. They only had the crudest of thoughts, to mate, to hunt, and to live. They couldn't wonder and think like him. What was the use of intelligence if it could not be shared?

So, the plant had figured out that the changes he experienced were due to the radiation. So, he broke up the core, and then mixed it with is spores.

Then, he released these spores throughout the Underland. Although the effects were not as strong as on him, it mutated the other creatures, the rats, mice, bats and hundreds of other species. It gave them their greater size, intelligence, and extended life span.

The spores even reached the water, affecting some creatures there.

And that was how the Underland creatures turned like how they are known today.

So, the plant then concentrated on changing the plants around him. Over a few years, he made the Vineyard and the Jungle had already been created.

However, most of the core had been used up, but it still was enough to sustain that plant for centuries.

Now, hundreds of years after it had released its spores, it just lay dormant. For a long time, nothing had mattered to it besides food, and growing. It had stopped wondering, and it knew that it was going to die.

One day, seven creatures wandered into the Vineyard. They were unlike any that plant had ever seen. They awoke his curiosity.

They were not humans, rats, or any other creature ever seen in the Underland. They were only pupae, he observed. They must have traveled a long way, so they were exhausted.

Then, they collapsed. They could not continue. He ordered the plants to drag them in, where he could study them.

When they reached him, he realized they were small. They would not survive. So, he opened to reveal the last of the core. Suddenly, the pupae grew; they grew bigger, and then formed a thick exoskeleton, except for one. That one was exposed directly to the core, which was depleted.

He not only grew an exoskeleton, but also then shed it and grew large, leathery wings.

The greatest plant in the Underland's history shriveled up and died.

Then, the creatures had not only grown, but also now adapted in new ways to hunt in the Underland. The Ra'zac jumped on the back of the Lethrblaka, and then they took off.

Okay, so that chapter was a bit long. But, I even gave a small back story of how the Underland developed.