Innes

Cave Gecko

Meat

The stripes along a cave gecko's hide become bio-luminescent when it senses danger. Not nature's proudest moment, there.

50

6

When Innes was a hatchling, her mother asked her to kill a gecko. The creature skittered into their cave, oblivious to what was to come, and as it did her mother stretched out a wretched claw. "You have power, Innes. A power which is useless unless you learn to exert it over others. Show it to me."

Young Innes was terrified of everything small and damp that managed to creep through the underbrush and the dark corners of places; she spent as much energy as she could trying to avoid them. And yet, as this tiny lizard looked at her, she wasn't afraid. She was protective. And so, wordless, she shook her head. Her mother, furious but unsurprised, snatched the creature, crunched it like a cracker in her maw, and gave Innes a thrashing she would never forget.

"You must learn to obey," her mother would growl, "you are lucky to be one of the Being's chosen descendants, after all."

---

Innes never believed in the Being, at least not like her parents and siblings did. And even if there were hints here and there at a higher power exuding influence over her family, she was certain it was not a blessing, but a curse. As she grew older, she began to develop a voice, whispering at the back of her mind, telling her that she had to do what she could to stop whatever it was her parents where planning. So, she would mess with their plans in small ways: stealing a potion ingredient, informing passersby to avoid her family's cave, or purposefully mispronouncing incantations. Somehow, this meddling always went unnoticed.

The voice which told her to do this things grew stronger as she grew older.

The voice...

Could it be... the Being? This revelation came to her shortly when she came of age. Had she been playing exactly the role in the Being's game that she was meant to all along? She refused to believe it. And so, desperate to separate herself from her family and the Being's plans, she slunk out into the night to try and find a new home, as well as maybe some answers.