ORIGIN

Anubis stepped into his cave, the sound of his footsteps accompanied by a high-pitched squealing. The source came from his mouth - holding, by the tail, was a freshly caught red mouse that writhed and cried and tried desperately to bite its captor, but it couldn't quite reach the jackal that held it.

Anubis sat down in an empty part of his cave and carefully transferred the mouse from his mouth to a paw, holding her tail between two of his toes. "Shh, Aati, it's okay," he cooed, fondly. He needed to calm her down or she was going to hurt herself before he could do anything! With a spark of magic, fungus began to bloom across her tail, spores slowly crawling across her skin as a mold-like substance grew in her fur. She screamed louder and struggled harder for a moment, but as the minutes passed by, her struggles began to weaken.

With a smile, Anubis set her on the ground, still holding onto her tail until the fungus had taken full effect. It took a little while, but he was patient.

Eventually, her struggles came to an end and, just like all the ones before, she lay on the ground, too tired to move. "Good Aati," he praised as he released her tail from his hold. "That wasn't so hard, was it?"

He turned the mouse over, inspecting her for any kind of gemstone over her body, but found none. That would make things easier. They sometimes crystalized for him, which would absolutely get in the way here.

He arranged the mouse on her back, who at this point had stopped moving entirely, besides breathing, from the sheer amount of mold-like fungus across her skin. He traced along her body with one of his claws, pressing down here and there, feeling squishy organs beneath him, before at last beginning to cut.

It was...messy, unfortunately. His claw went too deep, raggedly cutting open the chest and belly of the mouse with his heavy 'hand'. He grit his teeth in frustration. Damn, he needed to get better at this. "Sorry, Aati," he swiftly apologized as the mouse gave a high-pitched squeak before falling still.

Well, that was too bad. But it was okay that she'd died in the beginning stages - it didn't ruin everything.

Once she was open, he began carefully digging around, extracting each and every bit of her and laying it across the ground. A claw carefully pointed through everything, identifying organs, wondering over their purpose. He didn't understand the body, not completely, but he could identify the heart - he'd accidentally opened it in his messy dissection and blood was spilling rapidly from it. It had pumped one or two more times before stopping.

He could also identify the lungs. They'd inflated and deflated rapidly when he'd opened her, but now were still. How strange they were and amazing as well! What was the purpose, anyways, of breathing? What did it do for oneself?

The stomach he quickly discovered when he cut it open, revealing half-digested bugs and tough grasses. Another might have been repulsed at the mess he'd made on his floor, but Anubis didn't mind, much. It was just science, after all.

The rest of the organs, he wasn't sure. A long, stringy piece, a short piece, little stone-like organs, and a deep red slab. He marveled at them, wishing he could have seen them in action, but there would be other opportunities in the future.

Now it was the time he had been excited for. This new fungus he had discovered - he wondered if Giggle had ever experimented with it before, or if she even knew it existed! He wondered if he were the first to ever learn of it.

He carefully set the organs back within Aati's body and closed her up as best he could. It wouldn't be perfect, but it would suffice.

Magic threaded through his paw once again and the fungus bloomed. He felt the spores burrowing deep into Aati's body, holding here from every angle, grasping her life, her essence, her physical being in its sinister hold. And then, as Anubis willed the magic to fill her with life once again, he felt his own energy surge forward. He gasped with surprise at how heavy it was, how difficult it was just to animate the spores.

But it worked. He felt her, through his own magic, another piece of him, extended off of his own life force. With his will, he had her turn onto her feet and rise. She moved again, despite the gaping wound and the organs nearly spilling out of her body.

Anubis panted with the effort it took to keep the magic going. He looked into her eyes, excited to see life returning as she was reanimated, excited to see her be alive again...but he saw nothing. He lifted a claw, turning her face this way and that, but without his will moving her, she was nothing. A puppet. This was not revival. This was not rebirth. She was still dead.

He had her move around a bit longer, until at last his magic would not sustain much longer, and then released. Aati fell forward, the puppet's strings severed, and she fell to the ground, dead once again. No, she'd always been dead. She had not lived since he'd cut her open.

He watched as her body decomposed rapidly, skin melting to oil, all her body slowly becoming thick liquid. He was disappointed and it was visible in his crouched form, ears pulled back. It was a failure.

He mourned the loss of Aati and his failed experiment. This was not the way to overcome death, it seemed. Was there a way? He didn't know, but perhaps one day he would truly understand. The way through mycelium had seemed promising, but this felt like a dead end.

He was silent for a while, musing, before standing up, feeling weariness in his bones. It would be okay. It wasn't the end of the word, or the end of his research. There was much more to study and he wanted to get going on his next series of experiments. Namely, the ones involving Mother.

He stretched out the fatigue, stepping over to snack on some of the edible fungus he had growing in his cave, before heading out of his cave. His first need was finding a new Aati. It wouldn't be hard - this cave was full of mice.

He managed to track one down - one that, he noted, was not covered with white fungus. A swift strike and he barely managed to grab onto her tail before she fled. Smiling softly, he leaned down and picked her tail up gingerly in his mouth and carried her back to his cave.

As he walked, he slowly transferred magic over to Aati, spreading the familiar mold-like fungus over her tail and into her body. She was squirming for most of the way, but by the time he had returned, she'd stopped moving, panting heavily, exhausted from her struggles and from the fungus.

Before entering his cave, he set Aati on the ground near a patch of white, quickly pressing his paw on her tail so she couldn't escape. Using a paw, he carefully gathered a bit of the puffy white spores of Mother's fungus and pushed it towards Aati. With a gentle claw, he pried open her mouth and stuffed it down her throat, fumbling with his paws, that were much bigger then her, to get her to close her mouth and swallow the stuff.

Once he was sure she had consumed some of it, he gingerly picked her back up and returned to his cave.

He quickly cleared away another free spot and set her down, sitting next to her with a paw on her tail, content to watch and wait as the fungus took hold.

Anubis leaned it towards the mouse, one paw still clamped firmly on her tail so that she couldn't escape, fascinated by this change. It was sudden and without warning, unlike but also very much like the change that had come over him when he had consumed the fungus. His other paw reached forward to ever so slightly tilt the mouse's head up as he looked into those blank, milky eyes. They reminded him of the eyes of the dead mouse decomposing on the other side of the cave. She wasn't in there, not really.

But then the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. He wasn't sure where it came from, but the chill that ran down his spin instilled a unique sense of fear. A warning - danger was coming. His eyes widened as he stared at the mouse, tilting his head back to her. "Aati?" But wait, this wasn't Aati anymore. This was Mother. And he had to remind himself - she was dangerous.

He wanted the experiment to continue, he wanted to let the fungus completely take hold of the mouse, but no. He had to stop it! What experiment would there be if something happened to him?

With a sudden movement, he pinned the mouse to the ground and bit down sharply into her throat, ripping back to ensure that she died as fast as possible. He wasn't sure what he'd done as he stared forward at the body of the mouse, waiting, frozen in place, listening for the sound of whatever was going to come for him.

As soon as he heard the wingbeat he shivered. Leaving the body of Aati behind, he made his way to the entrance of his cave, black frilly mushrooms sprouting across his skin - preparing himself for what was coming. He thought of running or hiding, but no - Mother knew where he was now. If he ran, he'd lose his cave, his home. She would just come back and wait for him.

But if it were too big a threat then...it would be foolish to stick around. He would have to flee.

He glanced back, the glint of red making his stomach flip. He hoped that, if he ran, he would not have to abandon it for long. This was an important project and he didn't want it falling into Mother's hands.

He looked back forward, stepping out of his cave and squinting in the direction of the wingbeats. He needed to see his enemy before he made the decision to fight.