::the right to exist::

[wynnyelle]

The soil was suffocating her. She flailed through the moist stuff with her arms, completely surrounded in it, buried in it. She could feel which way was up, though, and paddled with all her strength.

She needed air most of all. The need for it burned in her newborn lungs, lungs that had never taken a breath before, but suddenly needed to in the next couple of minutes or she would have died before living. At last, her flailing arms found the looseness and freedom of open space. What thrashed its way up out of soil sweetened by remains of prey and what little leaf litter could be found in the desert was a black cacnea.

At least, she looked black at first glance. Only about two inches wide in body, her light magenta flower not yet bloomed, she showed up as a very, very deep black-green under the bright sun. She gasped her first breath, and lay a moment or two next to the hole she'd struggled out of. The, on instinct, she rose as quickly as possible and whirled around, as though something were about to attack her. She saw her surroundings--sandy soil, rocks here and there, and stringy grass and scraggly bushes, all under a clear brilliant blue sky. Her copper eyes fixed on the only sign of movement nearby--another cacnea moving up through the soil a few feet away. She and the other cacnea locked gazes, and then the other cacnea got a battle lust in its eyes and waddled towards her with spiny arms swinging.

The dark cacnea readied her own arms for defense. Only moments old, she was already about to fight for her life.

The other little cacnea rushed at the dark one and she swung at it. Both their arms clashed in offence. The dark one managed to push her attacker away and then when she came at her again, give her arm a broad sideways swing. It caught the other cacnea, who was slightly bigger, off guard and sent her rolling sideways. Without thinking further, the dark one leapt upon her, arms pounding. Thick almost sandlike blood spattered on both cacnea and the sandy soil they fought on.

The green-black cacnea fed upon the meal of one who was probably her sister or half-sister. By instinct, without thinking she had killed her, her hunger too great to ignore. She feasted messily upon the fallen one's body.

A cloud passed overhead and the green highlights left the dark one's skin. She paused to watch the change in light. ~Darkle,~ she thought although she had no exact word for it yet. That was her.

Other cacnea were sprouting from the soil, as the garden birthed them one by one. Darkle turned to look at them as she finished up her meal. She allowed herself to pick at the meat, and lap at the blood.

[MorriganFearn]

((Woot. Cacnea! Me loveth the desert planties. Thanks for making this board, and the idea behind the gang hierarchy is so original.))

He struggled and thrashed under the harsh soil and sand. He knew there was an above ground and below ground, and knew that things were better above ground. The idea of sun, all though he had no conception of it yet, pounded through his genetic memory. He pushed one arm straight up, and felt heat. A frenzy swept over him and he surged upward, exploding into the world of sun with sand flying every where.

He climbed out of his hole quickly, and looked upward with bright yellow eyes. Heat blasted down from the golden disk far above in the bright searingingly blue sky. He caught the light on his little green body, felt it fill him, give him strength. That was what he wanted to be. The sun. Golden, giving strength.

A cloud pssed over the sun, and he found his new found strength ebbing, only to be replaced by hunger. He stared around wild eyed, and felt the sand quake beneath his pins of feet. Dancing backward he saw something moving, light, pale green, sickly as a root in the sunlight. He grinned, the holes of his mouth stretching apart, as he discovered how to assuage the hunger.

The head had barely cleared the hole before he came in, swinging with his club arm. There was a satisfying squashing sound, and the young plant was bleeding for a head wound. The other continued to struggle free, still alive, confused, its movements sluggush. Again he slammed it with his spiked fists. Over and over, beating the prey senseless, dead, nothing left but a bloody, pulpy mess of brains, cellulose, and the sponle-like water filled flesh. He began to feast on this bounty as the sun beat down all the stronger.

[wynnyelle]

Darkle watched the violence erupting from the garden as she sat on the edge of it. pondering whether to stay in the vicinity or move on outward. She would stay...for now, she was drawn to it. She would remain there and wait for her next easy meal to emerge unsuspecting from the sandy dirt.

Around them stood sleeping cacturne, like sentinels in the blazing heat. Darkle was looking at their giant forms when she saw more movement in the soil. Several other cacnea had emerged by now and one of them looked at her and started moving towards her.

" Cac! Cac! Cac!" Two more turned towards her and began to waddle after her. Darkle took a step back, and as she did so a third started after her. She turned and ran for her life, moving slowly around small tussocks of grass that had sprouted vigorously during the brief rainy season.

[MorriganFearn]

The young male looked up from his second kill as another cloud scudded over the sky. He was growing stronger, more sure f himself on his pins, however, questions were beginning to fill him. He wanted answers. He wanted guideance. He wanted to know what these large statues ringing him were. Life was becoming complicated already, and he just wanted the assurance of being told what to do, although he didn't quite understand the concept itself. He merely felt an incomplete void.

Perhaps if he fought more, life would become simpler again, and he wouldn't be bothered by the incesant thoughts that preyed on his mind. This theory discovered he decided to put it into practice by looking for others to fight and kill.

[wynnyelle]

Darkle found herself hiding from her peers in a small scraggly bush, not far from a clump of real cactuses. She decided to turn their attempts to prey on her to her own advantage. For some reason they had singled her out and wanted her dead, but she was determined that it not be that simple.

Thunder rumbled in the distance, and a wind kicked up as the rare rains moved in over the desert. In a matter of minutes, it was raining, and hard.

[MorriganFearn]

The sun vanished. The male cacnea looked skyward, lost and confused. Where had the light gone? And then water hit, the little stinging as they hurled down on his young, relatively soft body. Her felt them absorbing through his skin, and grinned. The thought of finding other was forgotten. The rain seemed to fill him, feeding him and making his hunger receed.

He wandered happily, not truely caring where he was going, until he saw a mob of other ones like him gathering in the distance. A he watched, they circled around some victim, and then began clubbing it to death. He watched, only for a few seconds, new knowledge sinking in. If he was found, he would be next, unless he was part of a different mob. If he was with others he would be safe.

Quickly he began to look around, and totter through the grasses on stubby pins, looking for other lone things (people?) like him, those who had yet to band together, but were willing to protect themselves, and one another.

[wynnyelle]

Darkle saw the other one moving away from the garden that had birthed them. She moved towards him not as an enemy but as a possible ally. He had not tried to attack her. Already the other cacnea had returned to the garden area, eager to claim a meal or two as the last of the sprouts emerged. The dark cacnea with the magenta flower waddled towards the other, but not too close. " Cac?"

[MorriganFearn]

The male jumped, and sized up the female. She was much darker than he, and bigger, he couldn't help noticing. But she hadn't attacked him. Perhaps this was the sort of person he had been looking for.

"Cac," he reflected back at her, extending a spiked club slowly, spines down in a sign of truce, possibly friendship. "Cacnea?"

[wynnyelle]

Darkle looked at the arm, then at him. She thought at first he was abotu to attack...and then he didn't. Odd. But refreshing...somehow, very refreshing. She slowly put her club arm to tough the tip of his. " Nya."

[MorriganFearn]

The male breathed out. He was unsure about this, now that he looked at his new ally. It (she?) seemed to be black. She would attack, and he should attack first. Then her arm was outstretched, just like his, in the same form of invented childish greeting. And suddenly it was all different. He would not attack her. If he attacked, she would only hurt him, and that would mean neither could enjoy prey. Prey was good. He only had breif belief to go on that she would not attack him. It was certainly enough for a young plant.

But already he could feel worry (and hunger, but that was minor in the raint shower) creeping up on him. He vaguely remembered his reaction to her, and her color, her very strange and different color. He wanted to know what they (they! together) should do about her strangeness. Why was she strange? He wished someone would tell him.

"Cac cac," he tried, pointing at himself, and then her. "Cacnea nya nya?" he mimed with his spikes stretched outward but not touching her an attack on her dark skin and hoped she understood, and would show him what to do.

[wynnyelle]

Darkle blinked her brilliant copper eyes. She tried to make sense of what he was doing. She pointed to him, and then back at herself, and realised he wasn't just making up some game he was trying to tell her something...or -ask- her something.

She looked again at her own outstretched arm. It was not coloured like his was, nor was it coloured like anyone else's that she had seen. Her attackers, all of them. They had all more or less been coloured like this one, maybe somewhat lighter than him. Was that why she'd been attacked?

She noticed that in the garden nearby, three cacnea were coming away from the freshly disturbed soil and towards the two talking cacnea. They made their way around the sleeping cacturne in the late afternoon sun. Blood spattered their bodies. Darkle readied her arms to attack...

[MorriganFearn]

He turned the way the dark one was facing. He growled slightly. Three on two? But he was hungry. He leered madly at the three new ones with his yellow eyes. If they attacked either him or the dark one he would smash their heads in. That was what the pact meant. He was to serve the dark one against threats like this, before they could go their separate ways to hunt and feast.

There was a small chance that they could be looking for others to join the way he was, he wouldn't dispute that. But hunger came first.

((Since they are your NCPs, well, obviously, they're your NCPs and I shall not touch without permission. ^^))

[wynnyelle]

ooc: Oh you can touch them! Do anything you want with them, I made them just as disposables. ^_^ Go wild!

ic: Darkle was ready to attack them as they approached. She swung her arm and caught another's arm in her swing. She felt the scrape and puncture of the other one's spines as they pricked her skin. Enraged, she swung her arms again but the enemy had jumped back from her reach. The other cacnea, an olive-coloured one, was a bigger female than Darkle was. But Darkle was determined to be the faster...

[MorriganFearn]

A spiked arm connected with his mouth, and he felt skin tear. He swung his arms wildly, and smashed into his assaliant, who stumbled backward a few totering steps. His pins mimicked the action, dancing backward on the shifing, solidifying sand. He felt somthing broiling up inside him, pushing like mad for release, to get out, be free. Something corrosive surged though special veins in his system, and suddenly he swung at the other male seeking up from behind.

A purple ooze flowed freely from the tip of his hand spikes, and this poison was smashed into his opponents face, before the enrage cacnea turned to face the first attacker. This one hit him with its body, sending both cacnea bowling head over pins, their clubbed arms beating on each other's bodies.

((Ah poison sting. How I love thee. So versatile.))

[wynnyelle]

ooc: awesome post.

ic: Darkle saw her friend being assaulted and rushed to help him. ~Wish I knew that trick,~ she thought of the poison ooze, as she slashed with her spiny arms at the poisoned cacnea's face. She used her weight to push it back as she did so. Poison now stung the cacnea's open wounds.

The larger cacnea took this chance to attack Darkle from the back. She ran at her with her spiked arm out in front of her, bent to point a deadly spine right at Darkle.

Darkle felt a pain stab at her back, luckily not deeply, for her skin was naturally resilient. She whirled around with her arms stuck blindly out, aiming for the other female.

The rain fell down harder, pelting the sand in fat drops. It washed the blood all down the bodies of the fighting cacneas.

A couple of other cacnea had been attracted to the fight by the yelling, noise and movement. They seemed reluctant to join right away, though.