[SOLO]Lunarian Isles - Covetous Hunger (Bite of Passage)
Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2025 9:16 pm
This had been a long time coming. Bite of Passage walked through the Limitless Forest. In all his solo travels these past few years, he had yet to come into what felt like the heart of the swamp. The forest flush with the power of legendaries and Other’s Beyond. His goal lay ahead. Somewhere among the trees that held wonders he’d only felt in strange dreams, he hoped to find the secret to breaking free of the cycle.
It had been jarring enough at first to step through the portal and find himself in the Crossroads, upright and clothed, his body feeling strange in its familiarness. Another time, he might explore more but it was not what he was searching for. This evening as fireflies began their nightly dance, he was on a mission. Bite of Passage traveled slowly through the towering trees, each as strange and different as kin in the swamp. The only thing that could be said for them was that they were all trees… more or less.
It felt like he’d passed by hundreds, considering and disregarding for any number of reasons before an enormous willow, heavy with age and feeling more sentient than any he’d passed yet enveloped him. Small creatures scurried among its branches and the smell of salt brought back the memory of that summer so long ago when the first rift in reality appeared. Bite of Passage walked through the door and into the glow of an ocean sunset.
Fur disappeared in favor of skin and scale as Bite felt his form shifting yet again. Claws formed from the tips of his fingers as the ocean's gentle roar unleashed a reckless longing he’d only felt once before under the mushroomed influence of the Harbinger. A deep craving for something he couldn’t name. Soft steps still struck notes from the wooden walkway as he began to walk. Their echoes joined the rhythmic crashing of waves as they sang through his blood, syncing with his heartbeat and overwhelming his senses.
As the sun sank into the ocean Bite felt the last shreds of his habitual restraint drain with its light. His form shifted again into something far more dangerous and animalistic than he’d ever been before and with the last of the light, he slipped off the walkway and into the water.
His long body curled and coiled through the dark tides. Scents of other creatures flavored the water and stoked a hunger in him that he was all too willing to succumb to. As twilight settled over the ocean he hunted its waters. He saw others like himself, draconic and humanoid, swimming the depths but kept his distance. He had no interest in interacting with others by choice just yet. Not here and not now. Instinct drove him to hunt the creatures of the water and he let it. He hadn’t felt this way in the swamp for far too long. It was a relief to release himself to it now.
Hours passed, time that Bite neither felt nor cared about. His soaring chase through the waters and skies of this land and his surrender of higher thought to primal instinct fed his soul as well as his body. Eventually, his bloodlust ran its course and he returned to the islands satiated and with a clearer mind. The moon seemed to welcome his return as he mounted the walkway once again, returning to that upright form that stirred vague memories of events past.
It was only now after the ocean had had its way with him, that he was able to take in the surface world. Others, kin he assumed, who looked similar to the way he did now, walked in and out of the buildings surrounding him. Music drifted faintly on the wind with snippets of quiet conversations. It was peaceful. Another novel experience for Bite. He walked, letting the natural flow of the walkways and buildings draw him further towards the center of the community. He didn’t stop there though, walking past the large communal building and back out onto one of the quieter branches that seemed to bear individual lodgings.
One in particular, drew his interest and as he brushed past the heavy drape that served as a door he found himself in a room that felt… like it was made for him. It didn’t matter that so many of these things he’d never seen before in his life. They didn’t exist in the world he’d spent his entire life in. Here they were his in the same way his feet, his hair and his eyes were.
His interest was immediately captured by a large desk sat near a window looking away from the buildings and towards the open ocean. His fingers slid over the polished wood surface, dexterous and sensitive. They danced through the curves and groves of its carved edges. Hooves never felt the softness of carved wood like this. They couldn’t create anything as beautiful. He touched each of the objects in his room in turn, each one a piece of art made uniquely for him. The chair at the desk heavy and comfortable, the bed with its airy unrestricting blankets, a finely bristled brush and matching inkwell that he seemed to naturally know was meant for writing. He picked up one of the small stone cups from a shelf and turned it about in his hands. It was cold and almost glowed as it trapped moonlight in its thin translucent walls. What would happen to it if he tried to take it with him? He wanted to keep it. He wanted to keep all of it. To possess the beauty and tranquility of this nighttime oasis forever. He slipped the cup into his pocket before he walked back out into the warm night air.
What he had been looking for wasn’t here. Not entirely at least. His experience hadn’t been without revelations though. There was a freedom here that he craved. He might come back, if he found this tree again someday but this was just his first taste. He craved so much more now.
(1021 words)
It had been jarring enough at first to step through the portal and find himself in the Crossroads, upright and clothed, his body feeling strange in its familiarness. Another time, he might explore more but it was not what he was searching for. This evening as fireflies began their nightly dance, he was on a mission. Bite of Passage traveled slowly through the towering trees, each as strange and different as kin in the swamp. The only thing that could be said for them was that they were all trees… more or less.
It felt like he’d passed by hundreds, considering and disregarding for any number of reasons before an enormous willow, heavy with age and feeling more sentient than any he’d passed yet enveloped him. Small creatures scurried among its branches and the smell of salt brought back the memory of that summer so long ago when the first rift in reality appeared. Bite of Passage walked through the door and into the glow of an ocean sunset.
Fur disappeared in favor of skin and scale as Bite felt his form shifting yet again. Claws formed from the tips of his fingers as the ocean's gentle roar unleashed a reckless longing he’d only felt once before under the mushroomed influence of the Harbinger. A deep craving for something he couldn’t name. Soft steps still struck notes from the wooden walkway as he began to walk. Their echoes joined the rhythmic crashing of waves as they sang through his blood, syncing with his heartbeat and overwhelming his senses.
As the sun sank into the ocean Bite felt the last shreds of his habitual restraint drain with its light. His form shifted again into something far more dangerous and animalistic than he’d ever been before and with the last of the light, he slipped off the walkway and into the water.
His long body curled and coiled through the dark tides. Scents of other creatures flavored the water and stoked a hunger in him that he was all too willing to succumb to. As twilight settled over the ocean he hunted its waters. He saw others like himself, draconic and humanoid, swimming the depths but kept his distance. He had no interest in interacting with others by choice just yet. Not here and not now. Instinct drove him to hunt the creatures of the water and he let it. He hadn’t felt this way in the swamp for far too long. It was a relief to release himself to it now.
Hours passed, time that Bite neither felt nor cared about. His soaring chase through the waters and skies of this land and his surrender of higher thought to primal instinct fed his soul as well as his body. Eventually, his bloodlust ran its course and he returned to the islands satiated and with a clearer mind. The moon seemed to welcome his return as he mounted the walkway once again, returning to that upright form that stirred vague memories of events past.
It was only now after the ocean had had its way with him, that he was able to take in the surface world. Others, kin he assumed, who looked similar to the way he did now, walked in and out of the buildings surrounding him. Music drifted faintly on the wind with snippets of quiet conversations. It was peaceful. Another novel experience for Bite. He walked, letting the natural flow of the walkways and buildings draw him further towards the center of the community. He didn’t stop there though, walking past the large communal building and back out onto one of the quieter branches that seemed to bear individual lodgings.
One in particular, drew his interest and as he brushed past the heavy drape that served as a door he found himself in a room that felt… like it was made for him. It didn’t matter that so many of these things he’d never seen before in his life. They didn’t exist in the world he’d spent his entire life in. Here they were his in the same way his feet, his hair and his eyes were.
His interest was immediately captured by a large desk sat near a window looking away from the buildings and towards the open ocean. His fingers slid over the polished wood surface, dexterous and sensitive. They danced through the curves and groves of its carved edges. Hooves never felt the softness of carved wood like this. They couldn’t create anything as beautiful. He touched each of the objects in his room in turn, each one a piece of art made uniquely for him. The chair at the desk heavy and comfortable, the bed with its airy unrestricting blankets, a finely bristled brush and matching inkwell that he seemed to naturally know was meant for writing. He picked up one of the small stone cups from a shelf and turned it about in his hands. It was cold and almost glowed as it trapped moonlight in its thin translucent walls. What would happen to it if he tried to take it with him? He wanted to keep it. He wanted to keep all of it. To possess the beauty and tranquility of this nighttime oasis forever. He slipped the cup into his pocket before he walked back out into the warm night air.
What he had been looking for wasn’t here. Not entirely at least. His experience hadn’t been without revelations though. There was a freedom here that he craved. He might come back, if he found this tree again someday but this was just his first taste. He craved so much more now.
(1021 words)