“All Communities have a starting point. One man and one Female.”

 

“Soon children will come, but children need security before growing into useful members.”

 

“As such, a homestead is the first requirement.”

 

“A gathering point for members not of familiar origin is the second requirement.”

 

“Finally, the Core Tenet of a Community becomes the third requirement.”

 

“That Tenet is The Totem of a Tribe that binds a People into one Community..”

#Quite 19 - Book of Races and Species.

 

*

 

Central Continent - Inner Sea - Magi and Maximus

When it came, it was sudden.

 

When it came, it was pervasive.

 

When it came, it was overshadowing everything Magi knew.

What it was, she knew not. 

 

All she knew, with her whole existence, was that she had to go in a particular direction.

 

When Magi, the female Honey Badger, recovered from her focused state of gazing somewhere out of her current sight and glanced at her mate, Maximus, she noticed him staring in the same direction.

 

It was as if Maximus had obtained the unmistakable revelation as well. 

 

The revelation that he needed to go to a specific place.

Both knew not where this came from, but both agreed to do it after enough grunts, snorts, and cuddling, Honey-Badger style, was enacted.

 

Both would follow that sudden and pervasive feeling of traveling and reaching that destination.

 

With determination on both sides, they had their last meal in this patchy forested delta and made their way to a future they knew nothing about.

 

But one thing was for sure. 

 

Both would be fine as they were Honey Badgers.

 

*

 

Dream Realm - Goldy

 

Goldy, with its golden framed form, stood anchored on its Observation platform. 

 

Its golden-slitted iris in the middle of its silver shining mirror observed two Honey Badgers on their Journey to the Promised Land, as its Master jokingly implied.

 

While Goldy still found it hard to understand the implications of its Master’s words, it knew without a doubt that it was a joke. 

 

A joke that only its Master understood. 

 

Nonetheless, it was true that their Journey to the Promised Land was, without a doubt, Real.

 

So Goldy found it hard to understand the meanings, but that did not stop it from observing the Honey Badgers.

Goldy watched them brave the distance. It monitored them braving the foreign lands to both of them. It watched them hunt/eat and hunt/flame/eat anything that stood in their way.

 

With no fear of something going after them, they trounced the land beneath their feet. Only occasional hunts and sleep interrupted their schedule.

 

All of that was possible because of their hyper-aggressive attitude towards everything bothering them. 

 

However, Maximus' new size was one of the more obvious reasons.

 

The Second Stage of Ascension had increased his size, and he had surpassed a Non-Sapient Lion, as Goldy’s Master called it.

 

While in the beginning, it had brought forth trouble as he was not used to being so big, especially when looking for food, by now, Maximus got accustomed to everything. 

 

However, with Magi’s long-term experience of being a giant Honey Badger, it was to be expected.

With all that under their belt, the two Honey Badgers trekked through forests and grasslands and even crossed a few rivers by swimming of all things.

 

That surprised Goldy very much. He had not expected these hardy beings to be able to swim. 

 

Yet, Goldy wasn't the only one surprised by their grace. 

 

The lizard-like amphibians known as Crocodiles in its Master's memories found out.

Whatever their Journey to the promised Land was, Goldy had noticed that their path always took the easy and secure route. And that was clearly seen when their Journey led them directly to the most accessible way of crossing the rivers.

 

Nevertheless, just because it was the most accessible, it did not mean that it was without danger, but the threat was subjective, Goldy realized. 

 

Goldy had observed how Magi and Maximus expertly segregated their teamwork of one distracting and one biting the hell out of the two-and-a-half-meter-long Crocodile. 

Snap, Hiss, Snap 

 

The Croc went to its aggressors only to realize it was actually in danger and not the other way. 

 

Instantly, it bolted its way across the ground and into the water.

 

Once it was in the water, the two Honey Badgers did not chase it much further. Still, their meal had run away, as it was their first time going for an adult version of the Crocodile.

 

Maybe they could have done better, but it mattered not in the long run, as they crossed the narrow river that had been barred just moments ago.

In their future crossing, they were more careful. 

 

Still, as if something bad had to happen, bad luck caught them. 

 

Once one of the Crocodiles slipped unnoticed near them. It had lounged out of the water, and with its giant jaw, it had grabbed the rear right leg of Maximus and began its signature move of rolling and trying to drag Maximus down into the water.

 

Usually, such an action was a death sentence, as no matter if the creature caught in its bites was big or not, once it got dragged under the water long enough, its time was over.

 

However, these two Honey Badgers had cooperated long enough by that point that they knew that even though the White Flame did no damage to creatures, it was so foreign to them that it always surprised them.

 

So when Maximus got caught, Magi spewed enough Flame that, out of sheer shock, the Crocodile let go of its prey mid-second roll. Like that, both Honey Badgers escaped their river predator and made their way across the river.

Luckily, while still injured, the damage to Maximus’s leg was not debilitating. 

 

However, while Maximus could walk, if slower and more painfully, as the vicious pull and roll had dislocated his hip joint of the rear right leg. 

 

From that point, the two Honey Badgers had slowed down with Maximus limping behind Magi. However, their journey was not over just because Maximus was injured and slowed down.

It had taken Goldy’s intervention, by informing its Master of the event, to help Maximus recover from its injury. 

 

Yet, unlike what Goldy expected, its Master did not immediately heal Maximus' injury.

 

No, its Master had done minimal work and delayed the healing for weeks.

When Goldy questioned the decision of its Master, the only explanation was to observe the behavior of the two Honey Badgers. 

 

And that was what Goldy had done. It observed Magi not abandoning its mate. 

 

Somehow, Goldy was sure, Magi knew that Maximus would recover if given enough time. So with that being the case, Magi took up the slack and nursed Maximus with food and the occasional Flame treat.

If this cooperative spirit was something the Honey Badgers had before, or if it was new, Goldy knew not. But from Goldy’s perspective, there was more to it, so out of curiosity, Goldy questioned its Master again.

 

Its Master's reply was simple. “I've enhanced their cooperative feelings, but having them is useless if not explored under Durres.”

 

And that was what Goldy observed. Magi nurtured Maximus back to full health.

 

Soon after, their Journey to the Promised Land continued.

 

*

 

Time passed once more. 

 

Two Honey Badgers crossed a great amount of land, but their Journey was coming to an end. Goldy was sure of that.

 

Said fact stemmed from Magi having taken the lead during the last part of Journey. It was as if she was familiar somewhat with the destination. 

 

With every step, Magi and Maximus stepped closer to their destination. 

 

At the same time, Goldy observed a certain type of Truth begin to resonate inside these two Honey Badgers.

 

The Truth was neither small nor grand. 

 

It was of Home.

 

To Goldy, The Truth of Home was neither simple nor profound, but it held tremendous meaning to those who lived and protected that home. 

Goldy knew how it was happening as just one glance of its golden-slitted eye in the direction of the Galaxy Core showed it the two bubbles representing the two Honey Badgers.

 

Goldy even knew why it was happening, as Its Master was the influence behind it, to a degree, at least. 

 

What bothered Goldy the most was that it knew not what the unique thing about this Home was. And for which Magi and Maximus had braved the long journey.

 

Was it because it was the place that their species originated from? Goldy wondered.

 

Goldy wondered because, while everything looked the same as it observed those two, the feeling of the background triggered its memories of the past.

 

No, there is more to it. Goldy realized, and when there was something more to it, it was bound to involve Mir, the Master of the Dream Realm. 

 

Goldy was sure of that because that was the only logical assumption, as only its Master had the influence to cause something like this among the Honey Badgers.

With every step, the two Honey Badgers took, the more the Truth of Home resonated with them. And when it reached its peak, nothing happened. 

 

Well, nothing out there in Reality.

 

Inside the Dream Realm, Goldy noticed a difference. 

 

Two bubbles representing Magi and Maximus automatically got pushed off their previous position towards the Galaxy Core. There they burst, and the Potential Momentum they carried was crushed, ground into particles, transported, and refined in the Nebulous Clouds.

 

When that part was done, Goldy’s perception landed on the third building that its Master created and the current location of its Master. 

 

There Goldy saw its Master collect enough Potential Chaos into two balls. With a flick of his right paw, both flew towards the Arching Portal and the stars representing Magi and Maximus.

 

When Goldy observed the two Honey Badgers again, The Truth of Home began to recede from Magi and Maximus. 

 

However, after the resonance of a Home retreated, Goldy noticed that it was not entirely gone. A small part of it was left, and that part began building momentum again. 

 

Day by Day, it began to build up again. 

 

And if Goldy’s observation were correct, once it reached its peak, it would trump the one that just occurred.

 

*

 

Dream Realm - Ho’Ney

Standing behind Goldy, I observed the projections that its mirror body showed me.

 

The projection was of two Honey Badgers in general, but it mainly focused on the female, as she was currently undergoing labor.

 

Around the central projection, lots of smaller projections showcased Magi’s health and the health of her cubs. 

 

However I looked, everything looked acceptable to me, and I doubted that the birthing process would spell any trouble for Magi. 

 

Still, I paid great attention to the event for one simple reason.

During the days of the pregnancy, I noticed an anomaly inside Magi. 

 

The babies she was carrying were proportionally more undersized than they should be when the mother's size got taken into account.

 

That sported a little topic with Goldy and its memories. 

 

After a lengthy talk with Goldy regarding the Ascension process that it held in its memories, I recognized a small problem. 

 

It shocked me to learn that despite a creature achieving an Ascension, that Ascension did not directly affect the children they birth. 

 

Yes, it gave them a higher chance of reaching their own individual Ascension in the future, but the collective base of a species always had to start from the beginning.

Not to mention it being an enormous waste of time, chance, and resources, this Ascension process is a genuine double-edged sword. 

 

The individual that achieves Ascension skips millennia upon millennia of standard Development, but not laying that new form as the standard for the next generation is Ludacris.

 

I refuse to believe that it was not done intentionally. 

 

It makes sense that way, especially as the individual gains an Almost-Human form.

Never mind the Ascension, the actual cause of why I observed this birth was that this event became the first true intervention of the Honey Badgers Evolution with my own direct hand.

 

However, what I could personally do was little, as I knew far too little about genetics and how to manually fuck with genetics. 

 

But why bother with manual driving when you can go automatic if speed and excitement are not the keys?

 

During the pregnancy, and from the point I noticed the difference, I began investing in the future of Honey Badgers again.

My instructions were two-pronged in their effort. 

 

One part was for the mother, and one part was for the children. 

 

The mother part was to prolong the gestation period. 

 

That would give the children more time to develop. It had the unfortunate side effect of prolonging the inability of the mother to seek her own food, but Maximus existed for that part.

 

The second part was for the children to grow in size. Not big enough to discomfort the mother or the children, but enough time for a perfect ratio of the mother and the child to be achieved.

In all honesty, I could have done this without Goldy, but its Observation of Truth made the process marginally faster and safer for all involved.

 

Otherwise, it would have taken me genuine experimentation to reach the same results. And casualties would have been a given fact of that experimentation.

 

Now at this moment, though? Perfectly healthy, probably, children slipped outside the mother with the help of muscle contractions.

 

One male and one female were born at this moment.

After both were born, Magi licked off the placenta gunk. And moments later, the tiny cubs cried and searched for the titty to suck on.

 

Watching them for a moment, I wondered if I should name them. 

 

However, ultimately the decision got rejected. 

 

Best I don't get attached to them in case of complications arising.

After watching and checking on them long enough and seeing no apparent faults, but natural faults of the blindness of all naturally smaller mammalian species born, I retreated from Goldy.

 

Yet, just before I vanished, Goldy spoke.

 

“Master, what about the Truth? It's building up again.” 

 

“Ignore it.” I replied. “Best to go through a few more cycles before using it.”

 

“Yes. Master.” Goldy replied.

That said, I vanished from the observation platform and returned to the third building currently being built.

 

The Administrative Center.

 

Or at least that is the current name, as the plan was for it to become the center for issued Rewards.

 

Appearing in the main hall, I stared at the giant sphere made out of Auril in the center of the hall.

 

It has yet to be finished. There was a lot of stuff to program into its functions, but once done, the Sphere would become the Central Intelligence of the Reward System.

 

It is basically an AI, only without being a real AI. 

My inherited programming skills were not even close to that level. Neither did they have to be. 

 

CIRSY - for short, would achieve self-recognition by being a part of my Consciousness. 

 

At least it would be so, as soon as the major flaws got fixed and CIRSY booted up. The best part was I did not need to fear its rebellious nature or anything close to it, as it would be a part of me, just like Goldy had become.

Speak… Thinking of Goldy in this department, I think it's about time I define its procreation method. 

 

I am in need of more minions doing my bidding.