ORIGIN

Effluvium continued its descent. Even though Hunger's jaws were fierce, the baby horror did not stop fighting. But the swamp leeched the fight from it bit by bit. And then, its jaws were gone. Effluvium gave another swipe at the water. Half hearted.

Something echoed from the depths. A voice, distorted beneath the water. Effluvium, simple-minded as it was, could make out words within the speech. It could not locate the Effluvium was now wholly convinced that the swamp had been fighting it. It opened its mouth to say something in reply.


"Eff-" it began, and ended. Its' voice escaped in a collection of bubbles and coughs. What it would've said remained a mystery. A scream of rage, a threat to eat it, perhaps even a new word. Whatever it was, it was both probably not intelligent, and lost to the swamp. Effluvium did what it could, though. A growl tore from its throat. Though its words may not have worked underwater, its growls did.

The young flesh-beast realized that, perhaps, it could not eat the entire swamp. Could not fight an entity that big Yet. A hint of cognitive reasoning. It should maybe start smaller. Effluvium would lose too much mass. Effluvium decided then and there, that it would escape, and tear down the swamp bit by bit. Effluvium, tired as it was, began to pump its arms, swimming in the direction it was sure the surface was.

"When I speak."

When I think.

It began to speak--the beginnings of speech--but then, perhaps due to a lack of... well, air, it gurgled quiet and began to swim. Hunger kept its distance, rising slowly in parallel but several feet--and then a few yards--away, bobbing to reach the surface at the same time Effluvium would.

Its jaws opened, the single red eye staring forth; it wanted to see, more clearly, the thing that it had bitten. The thing that it still wanted to eat--still might try to eat--but it had been told not to do so with those who could speak.

Hunger wondered, coldly and distantly and in a rather vague manner, whether eating only a part of the blob of meat would count. But eating a part of a creature usually killed it; and Hunger was not meant to kill the Speakers, either.

Hunger waited, then, to see what Effluvium would do. It half-wanted to lunge forward anyway, to eat this thing, to consume part of it. Just to see. But for now, its previous commands kept it at bay.

Words gurgled again from voiceless throat, each rasp of air bubbling through the swamp water in its jaws. "What... iss... Eff..?" it asked, dull curiosity driving its reptilian brain to speech.

Effluvium's head surfaced, it felt the chill of swamp air on it's flesh. It sneezed from wherever it possessed a pair of nostrils, hacking up water. Its eyes flickered rapidly, all glaring at the water with mistrust. It heaved a breath, and let loose a scream of warning. It wasn't very impressive. Comparable to the scream of a toddler.

It paddled to the closest thing it could find--the base of a mangrove. It was too large to heave its whole body onto the tree, but it would make do with the front half. It gripped the bark, and heaved as much of it as it could over the net of branches. It gave a halfhearted shake, like a dog worn out after a bath.

A vibration bubbled up from below Effluvium. It took it a moment to parse. The realization hit it. The voice had followed it. Its shaking stopped, and Effluvium's jaws snapped for the water. It got nothing but, well, a mouthful of water. It began to speak, trying to translate broken concepts into even more broken word.

"Effluvium Eff. EAT. Effluvium...mmm EAT. Effluvium EAT...Mm-EAT." It paused. It didn't have, nor know a word for swamp. It didn't know how to call the swamp bad. So, it defaulted to the third word it knew.

"NO." It said, directing a slap at the surface of the water.


"When I speak."

When I think.

Hunger made no judgments on its ability to speak--or lack thereof. It was hardly in a position to do so.

A quiet gurgling hiss escaped its throat, after a moment, as it watched the struggling flesh-thing in the water. Hunger's thoughts ran something like this: The flesh-thing speaks. I am not to eat those who speak. It is... Effluvium. It eats.

Some primeval part of its brain registered an implied threat, there, and though Hunger felt no fear--it'd seemed to best the creature easily enough, though it'd marred Hunger's oil-slicked hide with minor injuries--it did feel the need to address this.

Its throat-hole opened up again, sputtering wet air into the shape of voiceless words. "I am... Hunger. I eat," it emphasized.

Hunger, it seemed to be saying, would be the one to do the eating.

As for the 'no,' it could not find a meaning to this outburst, and so it disregarded it. Desire--an ever-rumbling hunger in its belly--still tempted it; and despite its exchange of words, the monstrous alligator-beast began to slip closer toward Effluvium; closer to the shore.

The swamp spoke again, and Effluvium listened. It gripped the tree, tightly. It still didn't trust the swamp. Especially since the swamp had teeth, and tried to bite Effluvium. Multiple times. Effluvium was good at biting back, though. It adjusted its pair of jaws, a moment of pride in its good biteyness. The swamp creature's words were growly, and low, but they were words. And Effluvium had been around enough not-foods to recognize...some words. Mostly to mooch food, but it had learned the rock bottom basics of speech The Swamp creature itself seemed to mime Effluvium's words.

And Effluvium had to tilt its' head. How could Hunger eat, if Effluvium ate? There could not be two things that ate. There could only be the one thing, and Effluvium was that. It was a paradox, not that Effluvium knew what that word was. Did swamp think it was better at eating than Effluvium? No matter how big the swamp was, Effluvium was better at eating. Effluvium eat the best.

"No," It said.

"Effluvium eat." In a show of power, and how good at eating it was, it bit the trunk of the mangrove. And bit....and continued biting. It growled, ripping its head back and forth, gnawing at the tree. The bark was tough beneath its teeth, and it couldn't get a grip on the slippery algae coating it.

"EFFLUVIUM EAT!" It roared at the tree. How dare the tree resist Effluvium! Effluvium would eat swamp! Effluvium good eater!

"When I speak."

When I think.

The Talking Meat attacked the tree.

An odd concept, to be sure, but Hunger was watching that quivering mass of free protein, the way its red glistened, and it had decided that perhaps 'effluvium' and 'eat' did not constitute actual language.

Surely it could eat a little of this creature, without consequence-? The sparse wounds across its back still warned it, and so it began a sudden, more rapid approach as quietly as it could, while Effliuvium was beginning to batter the trunk, raging loudly at it.

It felt nothing; and why would it? It was hungry; it would eat.

Effluvium was, for its part, totally unaware of Hunger's movements. It thought that the swamp was quiet, in awe. Watching Effluvium's attempt at eating with bated breath. Or perhaps it was unimpressed by the fact Effluvium couldn't bite the tree well. Even anger, that Effluvium would attack it? Was all the swamp connected? In any case, Effluvium's thoughts were totally swamped-pun not intended- with the idea of eating a tree. Effluvium tore its teeth from the bark, and tried again, from a different location.

Another clamp of jaws on bark, another failure. It growled. All the tree was hard, and unyielding. It would probably have to wait until its jaws were more developed. Or, at least, it had more jaws. Frustrated, it let loose a three foot toddler's bellow, and began clawing at the roots and trunk.

"When I speak."

When I think.

@Hunger