Chapter Text
On a barren swatch of land stretched across a dead planet drifting out in the empty expanses of space, a lone color swirled egg laid nested within a vast crater.
Within the egg, a tiny being began twitching and writhing as it awoke into sentience. It became aware of a nagging feeling, an instinct that told it to free itself from the warm confines of its shell. With Herculean effort, the infant unfurled its coils to shatter its confines.
It laid quietly on the ground for some time, unmoving.
It was a tiny green serpent, although not a kind any culture was likely to recognise; the snake possessed a humanoid head, almost skull like in appearance, and dusting its cheeks were too brightly colored swirls that matched the colors of its shell. Occasionally, a small black and white striped tongue would flicker out to taste the state of the world around it.
Once again, the creature was struck again by instinctual desire.
Slowly, two eyes began to open; one a vibrant red, the other, a bright lilac speckled purple.
Instantly, the creature became aware that it was not a singular being, but two, compressed into a singular body.
They watched their shared tongue flicker out between their teeth for a while; their infantile mind was delighted by the way it moved and liked how it was striped.
After a couple moments, they surged forward in a vain attempt to catch the strange wiggling thing and delighted in the fact that they could move.
The pair began writhing and wriggling around in an effort to gain mastery over their squirmy body until they grew tired.
Instinctively, they inched back towards their shell, which smelled of safety and familiarity.
It was ironic, they thought, and at the same time, they specifically found it poetic.
Startled, the serpent froze.
They blinked confusedly, and waited.
Weird, they thought.
Intriguing, they thought after.
Vaguely, the pair became aware of their thoughts, and almost of each other, but the pair fell asleep before such progress could be made.
The infant awoke to a pain under its skin; thoughts from before were already forgotten.
Hunger, it thought madly, hunger and discontent for it.
The scent of the candy colored shell beckoned the baby forth, and within a hours, it was gone.
After consuming their first haven of safety, the pair settled again into sleep.
Only this time, it did not happen as it had before.
The red thoughts slept, this the violet half knew, but she herself remained awake, and her thoughts were now purely her own.
It felt cold and upsetting and the baby hissed in frustration, but there was no change.
She growled, or tried to; the sputtering clicks were hardly worthy of such an accolade.
Saddened, the violet half began to wonder about the situation she was in.
She was alone.
She was a she.
The red half, she now knew instinctively, was a he.
He was her brother and she would never feel him beside her again.
The situation was no longer jarring for her; the baby was yet incapable of feeling anything too strongly or for very long.
Contented, she began slithering away from her hatching place; there was nothing here for her any longer, to remain would be suicide, and such a thing was unreasonable to the newborn.
She didn’t know quite what she was looking for, as she slithered forward, but she knew that it would smell tasty and that she needed to eat it if she wanted to get bigger. Stronger.
She meandered across the scorched earth until the dusty crater gave way to dead plant matter.
It tasted awful, but it was better than nothing; she was just starting to get used to the taste when a different scent caught her tongue.
Curious, she followed it.
At the bottom on another, slightly smaller crater, the scent of another candy colored egg lingered on the rockbed.
Naturally, she meandered down to investigate.
The egg was completely gone, as was its inhabitants, though lingering smells of fizzy orange and berry punch remained, and the baby pouted at the discoveries.
She flicked her tail angrily and decided to abandon the area.
After slithering tirelessly to escape the second crater, the baby was exhausted.
She slithered under the mangled remains of a brick structure, curled up, and went to sleep.
Almost instantly, the baby was awake once more, and the boy blinked his red eyes in confusion at finding himself nowhere near where he had been before.