And now, for the first time, Amazon was afraid. She backed away from Khloros, not wanting to believe it. She knew it, she had always known from the day she hatched. But this was one thing she just didn't want to know.

Was she really dying? Was that what the pain was? The sickness that she had? No, it couldn't be. Khloros said that pain was a release from great suffering but it wasn't so bad! She could still walk and explore and discover new things! That meant that she had to be living strong!

"How is that, though? Why am I sick and nobody else is? Is it your death? Do I carry it too somehow?'

@Khloros

Khloros eyed the little lizard, watching her. Observing her. Here was mortality, finding out that it was mortal. Here was the fear of the living as it recognized, at last, that death was its inevitable fate.

There were many things that he could say to her, should he wish to assuage that fear; he could tell her that perhaps it might be a very long time, yet. But that might be a lie. Or he could reassure her that death only came when suffering was great--that an illness would grow agonizing, before it killed. But even Khloros, as socially stunted as he might be, knew that promising someone that they would feel a great deal of pain, before the end, would be cruel rather than kind.

"We are all dying," he answered her indifferently. "Some of us more swiftly than others, perhaps, but we will in time all meet our ends."

Quiet thought took him as he watched her. "I do not know the source of what ails you. It is not my death. But should I yet live and the pain grow too great, you may come to me, and I will end it," he added simply. He would not plague her, should it come to that--no, he would offer a much swifter death. The plague was but a means to an end, an unpleasant sickness that had to weaken its carriers and allow them to live long enough that it might further spread.

An evil, but a necessary one.

As for the lizard? He could not think of any way to help her. And it did not matter. The caves ought all to die, in time; their endless cycle had to have a stop put to it.

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BRING OUT YOUR DEAD

@Amazon

Amazon wasn't sure what she was supposed to think of this. She was barely a cycle out of her shell and she was told she was going to die and she knew, deep inside, that she probably would. Well, as Khloros said, everything dies. Perhaps this was just her way of dying. Perhaps she would live just as long as everyone else and it wouldn't be something to worry about. Perhaps it would and she needed to do something. But what? What could she do against an unknown problem that would maybe end in death?

Each moment is a victory. Khoros's words hung in her ears and that was what affirmed her resolve to keep going, to put the thought behind her. Khloros was right - if she was so concerned about her end then she would forget to live and to forget about all she wanted to learn. "Thank you, Khloros. I'll try my best not to let it hinder me."

She realized that, now she was trying to put her death behind her, she had a very unique creature in front of her. So much to learn from him! She peered at him closely, wishing that he could tell her how the sickness had come to be. "I have a question. Why do you carry death? Does everyone you bring it to suffer as much as you say?"

@Khloros

Khloros regarded Amazon with a distant calm.

"There is more than life at stake in the caves," he began to explain in his slow and spectral rasp. "Those here... They live. They die. Then they are dragged back. Imprisoned in their gem forms, to live again. Their spirits know no eternal rest. There is no respite from the cycle. The death I bring brings pain. But it is nothing compared to eons of torment."

To him, this was fact. He was calm, a little sad, even, despite his detachment--sombre.

"I have thought of it at length, but I can think of no other way. I think others have come before me, to spread death. And others will come after. I do not know if I will be the one to succeed."

Of this, too, he seemed not to care--despite the fact that failure might obviously mean his own demise.

________________

BRING OUT YOUR DEAD

@Amazon

Amazon was confused. He brought pain...to end pain? He brought death upon those that cannot die? But hadn't he said that death was an end to pain and that life was something to be enjoyed? Why was he forcibly ending lives early?

And another she was confused about was her. Why hadn't he killed her yet? "Wait, but Khloros...you say that you're releasing everyone from a life of torment. Then why haven't you given me death? Why aren't you saving me from eons of torment, especially if I might die in great pain?" Once again, however, her ignorance of the situation came strongly. She did not think, for some reason, that Khloros would actually give her the plague.

@Khloros

Khloros peered, for a time, considering. Realistically, he should just plague everyone he came across, but-... There was nothing personal in it. There never had been. He did not wish anyone direct harm, or pain, and it was almost abstract simply to plague the lessers and quietly await the results off on his own.

Perhaps he was a coward, but it mattered little--and that, actually, was rather the crux of it. Individual Greaters didn't really matter. They might just heal themselves, or even find a cure. No, he had to destroy the food source, and then...

"Things must proceed at a certain pace. If I began to hunt others who can think and speak, they would strike back, little one. Worse than that, they would suffer and die early, and there is no need. First the other creatures in the cave must all die; when there is no food, then the others will die and the cycle will end. There will be nothing left to revive the dead."

He was wrong about that--so very wrong. Had he asked around he'd have found that the first generation of Gembound, hatched only a few years ago--himself included--hadn't been created by others wandering the cave, before. No. There were none who knew the cave's history. The magic itself had spawned them all, and it would likely do so again. It still was doing so. It was not, as Khloros imagined, other Gembound wandering around giving life to random stones in the walls.

As he had.

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BRING OUT YOUR DEAD

@Amazon

Amazon frowned. That didn't seem right. Nobody left to revive the dead? But what about all of the new ones that came in? As far as she knew, she had not been a dead one revived nor was she anyone's child. Of course, she did not know what it was to be anyone's child or a revived gembound, but Khloros would not know if she knew or not. "But wait, what about the new ones? All of the new creatures that hatch, like me? You are condemning children to death if you destroy the food. And wait..."

She realized then that, perhaps, the lesser gembounds, the rats and mice and bugs and deer, probably came from gems just as she did. She wondered about this and suddenly wanted to know if she was correct. She would have to study it, find it out for herself. "All of these creature's your giving death...isn't it futile? Won't a new generation hatch in their place? Gems will grow and form new life, right? So it doesn't matter if you kill everyone in the caves. Life will return either way...I think." She stared into the distance, wondering about all of this. Was she right? Was it true? And then another thought came to her. "And what about those that eat plants? They're not my preference but I could probably live off of plants. You're not killing them too, are you?"

@Khloros

Khloros watched the little one impassively.

"When there are none left to hatch the new, then no, none will grow, and hatch. A gem fallen only grows if another gives it their own life. These will hatch, and find a dead world with illness, perish, and that will end the cycle. Life is nothing compared to the soul." He was terribly matter-of-fact about this, though he was not flippant, either.

"Those that eat plants will be given death, in time. It resides in the fish. In the water. It will be swarming throughout the cave. It will be difficult to avoid." One the plague was running rampant, there would be little that could be done; even the herbivores would find their infections lying in wait for them.

At length the horse lifted his head, and turned, taking a few paces away. "I have much to do, little one, and cannot rest yet. Is there anything else you wish to ask of me, before I depart?"


When I think.

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BRING OUT YOUR DEAD

@Amazon

Amazon was now realizing the danger, not that the horse posed personally to her, but what he had done to the entire caves. She realized that further conversation was futile - he was intent on his journey, on his quest to rid the entire cave of life. She didn't agree with this, not at all, especially if it was painful, as he said.

But she could do nothing about it now. She had her own things to worry about. Besides, she had no come across the plague just yet. Perhaps she would live whatever time she had in her life without ever being touched by the affects of Khloros's death. She could have a few days, or a few cycles. She didn't know. But she wouldn't let that hinder her.

She took a step back and dipped her head. "No, I don't. Thank you...for telling me all of this. And thank you for your wisdom." She still wasn't convinced about the gems being given life, but she had other things to do, to explore and discover. She would return to Polaris now and finish up there - she had left, after all, with many parts of it left unexplored.

She turned away from Khloros and began to crawl back towards the tunnel opening that she had come from, new knowledge weighing heavily on her back. It would be a burden, certainly, but one she knew she would have to learn to bear.

*exit

@Khloros

Khloros dipped his head in acknowledgement, and watched the little lizard go. There was nothing more, then, to do here.

Quietly he turned, pacing away, a soft snort escaping his nostrils as he picked his way from the shadowed crevices here. Moments later he was gone, no sign that he had been here remaining--bar a few wet hoof-marks in the stone.

He would move on, and he would continue his quest, though the lizard's words played in his mind. Morality, fate, plague, illness, death--was he perhaps going about this all wrong..?

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BRING OUT YOUR DEAD

//exit Khloros