“Evolution is the incremental accumulation of tiny steps over a long period of time.”

 

“It is ever flowing and ever-changing.”

 

“It only has one purpose. To adapt and to propagate.”

 

*

 

Mane Savannah - Five years after the Dream Presence manifested.

A Honey Badger circled her prey. 

 

The prey was long, thin, and deadly, but she did not care.

 

She only had one goal, and that was to get bitten. 

 

Nothing else mattered. Not at this moment.

 

After circling the snake with the inflated neck, she closed the distance between them. 

 

The snake, in its ever-prevailing impulse, lunged forward. 

 

It opened its mouth. It stabbed its fangs into the offender. 

 

Through its venomous teeth, it injected venom, and just as fast, it retreated.

 

“Yeep”

 

The female Honey Badger flinched back in reflexive motion, but she had gotten what she wanted. Retreating for some time before the sleep overcame her, she prepared herself for what was coming.

 

Once she lay on the ground, her body began its counterattack, her eyelids closed, and darkness approached her mind. 

 

She held onto herself, with an integrated habit of having done this so many times. 

 

How long she spent in that darkness bothered her not. She had grown used to that when light blossomed to her awareness. After reorienting her vision into its proper place, she sensed her surroundings for a few moments. 

 

Her goal was the ever-present presence that had lulled her into seeking its origin. It was always there, but it took a few moments to reveal itself after she entered this place. Once the direction got confirmed, her body sprinted towards it at the maximum speed she could exhibit.

 

Passing bushes, trees, terrain, and a small hill, she came upon a burrow leading down into the deep darkness of the earth. Yet, that did not deter her, after all, she had done this numerous times before, even if the locations were different.

 

Without hesitation, she entered the burrow and reached its end. With skill acquired through a lifetime of practice, the earth blocking her way vanished in the blink of an eye. 

 

Then a light manifested as her claws pierced through and found the exit from this darkness.

 

However, there was no joy in being graced by light once again. No, her intentions were not over. Once more, she sprinted into the distance as she sought after the presence that became her beacon in the last few years. 

 

More bushes and trees were left behind when another burrow came into existence. Again, no hesitation revealed itself when she plunged into the darkness, and once more began to dig her way forward.

 

This time it took her longer, but she made it to the other side. Yet, still not being done, another sprint ensued, and another digging session followed when she broke through the ground a third time.

 

Tiredness overcame her as she reached the third layer of her Dream, but there was no time to rest. 

 

Not if she wanted to breach this layer for the first time. 

 

Again, she began sprinting for the presence in the distance, once again, a burrow appeared, and once more she began to dig. Yet, again luck was not on her side. 

 

As she dug down with her little claws and paws, she could feel the prongs of Reality calling out to her. 

 

For one moment, her little mind recalled what happened before when the pulling sensation overcame her. 

 

Instantly her renewed purpose gained strength. With every bit of earth she dug through, the pulling sensation increased in strength.

 

She tried her best to ignore the pulling sensation and to put more effort into reaching the presence calling out to her. 

 

She did not give up as she could feel, she was close to reaching the end. 

 

Every time she moved one paw and clawed at the earth, the presence inched a tiny bit closer. It felt as if it was just beyond her claws. 

 

However, the pulling sensation on her, could not be overlooked. With all the maximum effort she could muster one last time, her right claw dipped into the earth and pulled back all it had scooped up, and there it was. 

 

A light spilled from the tiny gap.

 

The light illuminated the first front of her face, meaning, her snout, the whiskers on the sides, and the right side of her mouth as it portrayed a grin full of joy and wonder.

 

For the first time, ever, she was able to penetrate the earth and reach the next layer. 

 

Just the thought of it, gave her strength to ignore the pulling Reality for that bit longer. 

 

Her tired muscles did the job a few more times by widening the gap by which she could squeeze through. 

 

Her head passed through the opening, and for the first time, ever, in her life, she knew not what she was looking at. 

 

It simply made no sense to her little mind. 

 

There was no earth on which to stand. 

 

There was no blue sky upon which to gaze.

 

There were no bushes through which to pass and no trees to bypass.

 

What she was witnessing, simply made no sense. But what she sensed was that her arrival had triggered something. She could feel that something was entering her and giving her strength.

 

Invigorated by the feeling she was experiencing, she pulled herself inside this strange world. As she did that, her little mind wondered where to place her paws with which to stand. 

 

When one of her paws found a solid ground where there was none, that got ignored.

 

Once her whole body was through, she somehow stood in pure darkness, yet, that said fact got overlooked, when her eyes actually took in what they were seeing, and it still made no sense.

 

There were so many things to see. 

 

Plagued with uncertainty on what to do, she grounded herself in the invigorated feeling feeding her strength. 

 

Moments passed as her indecision continued, but her eyes did gaze at everything, in her desire to understand. 

 

Below her, was the thing that attracted her attention the most. It drew her as such because she was familiar with the color white. 

 

All Honey Badgers carried it on their heads, backs, and tails. Yet, there were no such things there. 

 

There was only White as it shimmered with its radiance. 

 

If somebody with higher intellect observed it they would call it The White Flame, but this little female Honey Badger knew not what a flame was, as it had never met this phenomenon before.

 

She knew not that a flame could be dangerous. At the same time, it was magical with all the things it could do.

 

So she observed it for a while in wonder. 

 

Above the White Flame, tiny little White Balls shone their white radiance as they emerged from the tips of the White Flame. The only thing those white balls reminded her little mind of was eggs. 

 

Eggs that she had enjoyed cracking and eating, even if it rarely happened. For a moment, she wondered if she could eat one before her eyes lost track of the White Ball she had focused on.

 

This White Ball had met other white balls emerging from the White Flame, and together they flowed upwards. When enough of them assembled into one, they streamed together into a long, thin white snake-like thing. 

 

What she was seeing looked like a tiny stream of water emerging from a mounting, but this female Honey Badger had only one thing in mind. 

 

Her mind wondered if she could snack on this snake-like thing, at least once, before it congregated with other streams, just like it, and became one huge agglomerated mass that behaved the same as the small little White Stream.

 

This time there was no thought of eating it. It simply was too big for her to even bother with it. 

 

Although she did not think of eating this White River, she did observe how it flowed up and up until this huge White River, with its wave-like flowing, began to circle itself before narrowing the circle and becoming a spiral. 

At its end, it became disk-like as it circled a black spot that swallowed it all. 

 

What happened inside the black spot? The little Honey Badger was not sure, but her mind associated it with quenching one's thirst or hunger, only this one had a never-ending stomach. 

 

The only worse thing was how it exhumed something from its top. What it was, she knew not, as her angle of view denied her a detailed glance, however, what came after was very easy to notice. 

 

Whatever it was that the black spot exhumed above itself, it gathered into one huge mass. 

 

To the female Honey Badger, it looked like clouds just before it would rain, but the colors were what was wrong. 

 

Clouds were dark when rain fell from the sky. Here the clouds had various colors. 

 

There was brown that she was familiar with as she walked on it every day. 

 

There were green colors like leaves that had grown on bushes and trees. 

 

There were blue colors resembling the sky she had seen from the first moment her mother had allowed her to leave her den.

 

There was red and yellow, just like the tiny but bright focus in the blue sky that defined day, and there was black that defined the night. 

 

After those came pink and purple, the rarest of all, as they only ever came after the rains, and even then, they were rare and lasted very little.

Moments passed as this female Honey Badger lost herself in those clouds of colors. Only after the restorative force replenishing her strength vanished did she return to the current moment.

 

Her black beady eyes looked around. Her mind wondered what to do. Sniffing her way forwards was of no use. There was simply nothing here to smell. Despite all that she was, there were no sounds that reached her ears aside from her own grunts. Even taste failed as there was nothing to lick.

 

Lost and confused, she tried to wander about to see if she could possibly touch something, yet, no matter how she walked, she was getting nowhere. At least nowhere but one destination. 

 

Not quite giving up, she tried her best to do something, but when ultimately nothing worked, she began to sulk slightly and made her way to the tiny little hole she had made to get here in the first place.

 

Sticking her head inside, the darkness of the tunnel she made awaited her, and that is where she began to squeeze herself in.

 

Once all of her entered inside, the little whole she had made began to close itself, and in moments it was as if it never existed in the first place.

 

When it closed, the female Honey Badger began to notice a pulling sensation. 

 

She felt and knew she could resist it, but as if her whole being had concluded that her journey for the day was over, she let herself go.

 

Almost immediately, everything began to vanish from her sight before blackness returned, and light revealed itself as her physical eyelids opened up to let light pass through.

 

Twitching here and there, she heard a gawking sound beside her.

 

Instantly shifting her eyes towards it, she saw one of those scavenging birds that sometimes bothered her and even occasionally stole from her if she was particularly uncareful.

 

“Grrr” One growl from here said it all, and the bird jumped away from her. 

 

It took a physical lounge at it, to scare it away and make it fly away.

 

Finally awake, this female glanced around for a bit, and seeing no danger, she just laid there as her mind began pondering upon the memories that bothered her.

 

Unlike before, this time, she had a much greater recollection of what she had undergone to reach that place. But the memories of that place were far more apparent than anything else.

 

Every time she recalled it, it came to her in the same clarity, as if it was imprinted into her.

 

It continued like that for some time before her hunger overcame her wonder.

 

With greater purpose behind her steps, she searched for something to snack on.

*

 

What happened to this unique female happened to a few others.

 

In truth, only five individual Honey Badgers were lucky or unlucky to find themselves in the correct circumstances and at the right time to experience all this.

 

Four males and one female were the results of this luck.

 

Every single one of them was seeking the same thing. And all five would succeed eventually and find themselves in that strange place they knew nothing off.

 

Neither did they know what their trials signified for the future. In truth, even Mir, the Master, and Creator of the Realm they visited would not know their significance as he was still sleeping. 

 

And would continue to do so for quite some time, as his sleep was not self-induced. 

 

Whatever that Eldritch entity had done to Mir, whatever it had done to his Realm, and whatever condition it had placed upon his awakening, all that would have to wait for the future.

 

For now, five Honey Badgers did their best to return to that Realm that beckoned them every night.

 

Every time one of them succeeded, all their fatigue would vanish, but every time they succeeded, they gained something. 

 

It was small, but the conditioning from constant exertion and recovery reinforced their awareness. 

 

Afterward, every time they tried to reach the Realm, it became easier and more manageable. And not just that. Everyday dreaming became more encompassing as with a stronger mind, they relied less on being bitten.

 

It continued to be so until one male reached the destination on his own.

 

When he did, nothing strange happened, but as the frequency of his visit increased to every night, he soon learned to travel the Realm on his own.

 

As the saying goes, practice makes the person, or in this case, a Honey Badger. 

 

This male began to walk towards the black spot, yet no matter how hard he tried, no matter how many times he tried, he never reached or even closed the distance between them.

 

It was as if it would take an eternity to reach it. His innate stubbornness supported him, for quite a number of tries, but even a Honey Badger had his breaking points of boredom.

 

Many, many trials later, he had come to one conclusion. Traveling anywhere but the White Flame at the bottom was impossible.

 

So that was where he made his way. It still took many tries but eventually, he reached the White Flame that had engulfed the whole bottom of the Realm. 

 

When he neared it, there was no heat emanating from it. Neither did he feel any threat from it, but with care, he inched forward step by step and touched it with his snout first to sniff it.

 

“Yeep”

 

He shouted with surprise and jumped backward to get away from it. Only to find out that his eyes still saw a White Flame. His snout had caught on fire.

 

There wasn't pain, exactly, but it did feel intrusive somehow. 

 

With twitching and shaking moves, the male began to dance out to get rid of the White Flame on his snout. 

 

When shaking did not do the job, and there was nothing to rub it onto, a paw had to do the job, yet that only worsened the situation as it caught on fire.

 

With wide fear-filled eyes, the Honey Badgers tried anything he could to rid himself of the flame. It only made it worse. It got to the point where he saw nothing but the White Flame wherever he looked. With disorientation clouding his moves, he failed to notice the wall of flame his body was heading into.

 

There was no sound, and there were no feelings. He just slid inside without any disturbance to the White Flame.

 

From that point on, all this male knew was White.