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Leviathan Chapter One:

Landfall

By Shalion

Leviathan spent an unknown eternity drifting through the void, asleep since conception and wrapped in a stiff, opaque cocoon. There was no sense of time or movement, no dreams, only the infinite waiting.

The waiting came at last to an abrupt end. Leviathan felt a small disturbance, light as a kiss of breath at first, but slowly growing more and more violent. Leviathan tumbled inside the black of her shell, but she did not feel fear. Rather instead she was elated, for she was about to be born. The turbulence was extreme, but the small body of Leviathan was held in place by the thick internal membranes of the cocoon. At the peak of the violence, heat began to wash gently upon her skin for the first time and Leviathan could feel the outer pieces of her protective cocoon being blasted away. Triggered by the heat and ablative process, the inner layers of the cocoon began to unfold and Leviathan was aware of sound for the first time in her life, a rushing noise that filled her head and made her want to rub her face and ears against the sides of the cocoon. But she could not move, not yet as it was not yet time.

Leviathan became next aware of the weight of her body as the cocoon unfolded and slowed down, but not enough. Leviathan was able to sense the electromagnetic fields that stretched far beyond the cocoon and through them became aware of a vast solid plane fast approaching. 'I'm going to crash!' was one of Leviathan's first conscious thoughts. And crash she did, but it was all as intended. The cocoon had unfolded many layers to slow in the thick embrace of the atmosphere and the remaining layers had cushioned the tiny body of Leviathan against the impact. Leviathan bounced, once then twice, each time was a vicious impact and Leviathan tore partly loose from her protective membrane deep inside the deteriorating cocoon. When at last she seemed to come to a stop, Leviathan was sore and limp inside the remnants of the shattered cocoon. But Leviathan did not feel at all like resting.

By instinct, she tore her head free from the membrane shrouding her and began to chew free the rest of herself, devouring the soft stuff which had prevented her from being liquidized on contact with this new place. She was thoroughly entombed, but as she ate, the empty space became larger and larger. Leviathan filled her belly and the job was not yet done. During the second course of eating, Leviathan became aware of a new sense, there was a tiny bit of light entering the cocoon from where she had torn a big chunk away. Curiously, Leviathan nosed at the tiny hole, making it wider. The soft inner material of the cocoon gave way, revealing a large crack through the outer husk. Leviathan sniffed cautiously with still untried lungs, and could smell mostly charred cocoon, still cooling, but also an entirely new breath of air, alien and with it the allure of a new world.

Leviathan wriggled and squirmed, breaking her four legs and tail free from their webbing and cushioning, though there was more to be eaten yet. Using the clawed hands of her forelegs, she broke free through the widened hole and slipped through the large crack of the broken husk which was just large enough to admit her tiny body.

Leviathan gasped in shock at the enormity of the world in which she now found herself, especially the piercing blue infinity of the sky above. It seemed ready to swallow her in its vastness. Leviathan shrunk back into the shelter of her cocoon, but not for long.

Despite being newly born on a new, untouched world, Leviathan found that she already knew a great many things. Even from the brief glimpse outside, frightening though it was, Leviathan knew that she was on the surface of a planet, and one with a thick and hospitable atmosphere rich with nitrogen and oxygen. The taste of the air alone was enough to tell that there was a substantial amount of water nearby as well and her nose was able to perceive organic molecules floating in abundance on the wind, already infiltrating the formerly sterile confines of her cocoon. There was life here, and this was a rich world. And Leviathan had her second coherent thought, 'I can make use of this place.'

Leviathan emerged from the cocoon after another rotation of the planet's surface, belly full and bulging and already having grown enough so that the crack in the husk was a tight fit across her distended midsection; it would not have been impossible for her to break through the now brittle, cool material though. There was nothing left for her in the dead husk that had been her crib and womb for the longest time, Leviathan crawled fearlessly away from the broken shell without a second look back.

Climbing up the side of the shallow pit where the shell had landed, Leviathan was able to see for the first time the impact her arrival had made on her new home. Leviathan immediately picked up the two additional pits of tossed earth and blackened vegetation, one nearby and the other, larger one at a fair distance, and made the connection. 'I fell...' thought the small, leather skinned quadruped and with it came realization and understanding of her transit through the void beyond. Leviathan paused for a moment as her place in the universe came into greater focus, but soon her reverie was interrupted by a stronger urge, the need to feed.

Though her belly was currently distended by the contents of her cocoon, Leviathan knew that the meal would not keep long. Already her metabolism was grinding into higher gears after the long hibernation, stimulated by the oxygen in the atmosphere and energized by the sunlight falling on her dark green, almost black skin. Her body was willing itself to grow and it was her responsibility to see that she obtained the necessary ingredients to ensure that it proceeded without any complications.

Leviathan could taste the nitrogen, oxygen and to a lesser extent the carbon dioxide that composed the atmosphere surrounding her. With even these simple ingredients and the energy of the sunlight falling on her skin, her tissues could increase her size, though painfully slowly. What Leviathan desired more, however was biomass, the stuff chock full of energy rich, complex molecules with which she could begin building her body. As Leviathan meandered down the slope of the loose dirt kicked up by her arrival and felt how slow her progress was due to the shortness of her stature, she thought that she had quite a lot of growing to do indeed before she would feel comfortable.

A short distance away, Leviathan found green growing things that had not been burned or buried by cascading dirt. The small creature waded into the stands of the upright plants which reached well past her withers when standing among them. As Leviathan sniffed and tasted the nearest plant, her gut automatically began rearranging and compartmentalizing itself to accommodate a diet of such material, mostly cellulose she could tell by the small samples she had already ingested. Inside the space of an hour, her gut had begun producing the required enzymes to break down the plants into useable fuel for her tiny self. Leviathan began to rip away the fronds sprouting from the ground and fill herself with them. Sometime later, the creature lifted her head up from the small area she had cleared to take a better view of her surroundings. Now that the four chambers of her modified stomach were full, she could better concentrate on higher mental faculties, though already her insides were expanding to accommodate a greater intake of similar fare. Around her expanded a veritable sea of the small plants, the winds creating swirls and waves among the blades as they bent and caught the light. Leviathan swallowed. It seemed that she had already secured a plentiful source of biomass. 'At least for now...' she thought before bending her head once again to tear up another mouthful.

---

Many rotations of the planet about its axis passed with hardly any major events pressing themselves on the mind of Leviathan. She was content to feed and rest as her body needed, mostly the former, and leave her mind idle for long stretches of time, though in the background, she was constantly assimilating observations of her new environment and adjusting her outlook and strategies accordingly. Food was plentiful now, but it definitely would not always be. Leviathan was aware that her observations now would determine her plan of action later, when the status quo could no longer be sustained.

Leviathan saw many other inhabitants of the world as she devoured the plants growing on the plain. Many were quite small, much smaller than even she had been originally, about the size of her hand then, or of a single claw. Most crawled upon the ground, but some could take to the air and support themselves. Whenever Leviathan encountered these inhabitants, she saw them for what they were, dense packets of biomass, much denser, in fact, than the fare she was subsiding on currently. Thus she would stretch her neck out to draw the new inhabitants into her eager maw. Leviathan learned quickly that while a few species did not seem to mind very much to be pulled in and made part of her, most of them attempted to avoid her jaws and darted away. This behavior puzzled Leviathan and she thought that they must not be aware of her great desire to make them a part of herself. Thus she learned to dart her head and tongue more quickly to catch the tantalizing packets of biomass, though many still escaped her.

Leviathan saw also other creatures. The most obvious were the large ones which stood high over the grass on long legs with thick, rounded bodies similar to her own, though covered in fur. Leviathan thought that the fur must not help much with photosynthesis and though she greatly desired to add their biomass to her own, Leviathan knew that she must first build out her body to make use of such a massive meal. So she avoided the large creatures for now and hid from them when they walked nearby, aware of their sharp hooves which certainly looked capable of doing her small self great harm. There were other furred creatures as well, but they were quite skittish and like as not to take flight as soon as they saw her ambling close. Leviathan thought that she would have to modify the muscles and bones of her legs greatly in order to move fast enough to catch them, but she could not see the use in doing so, not with the endless supply of plants ready for the taking surrounding her from horizon to horizon. So Leviathan moved on.

Leviathan's midsection had distended greatly into a large round mass she carried between her four short, stout legs. Much of it was filled with a fermenting broth of liquidized plant material which took some time to break down, even with her specialized enzymes. Leviathan could tell that the other ungulates around her broke down the grass in a similar way, but with a massive byproduct of gas and other compounds. Leviathan could not condone such waste within herself. Inside her gut, the grass was truly digested, and in fact, leviathan did not produce any solid waste at all. All of the available biomass was broken down and assimilated to increase the mass of her own body. If any extra energy was needed to reconfigure some awkward molecules, the sun was more than enough to satisfy that need. There was a tiny amount of inorganic material and excess minerals that accumulated, but Leviathan stored these into an easily expandable sack inside of herself which she could expel if needed. But Leviathan was happier to keep everything she had gathered inside of herself for the time being

By eating constantly and resting only as needed, Leviathan increased her mass at an astounding speed. She built up the great sac of her digestive system so she could process more and more, but as her great round flanks began to feel heavy both with the weight of food contained therein and the weight of herself, Leviathan began to build the muscles and bones of her legs and her frame as a whole. She began minimally, focusing more on building her digestive abilities and so her legs were neither long or particularly thick with muscle and she could not move very quickly or gracefully. Further, her teeth and jaws became flattened and broad, the better to grab large mouthfuls of the rich grass sustaining her. So it was, that when Leviathan first encountered a less than friendly native of her new home, she was nearly slain.

Leviathan stood with solar plexus just at the level of the swaying grass when she first became aware of the visitor by way of disturbance of the electromagnetic field surrounding her. Leviathan lifted her head to look towards it, but saw nothing. Nevertheless it paused in its approach. Leviathan cocked her head at the animal's behavior in confusion. It was acting unlike either the large ungulates or the small, fleet grass eaters, but she could not sense the danger yet. Leviathan's belly was quite large and descended into the grass down near the level of her ankles on her hind legs, giving her a bow legged stance, though her ribs were just outlined against her dark green hide. The grass-eater flicked ears which had grown larger and more sensitive to sound in the recent days to match the quiet of the landscape and heard the newcomer renew their approach through the grass. It was smaller by nearly half of Leviathan's newly formed bulk, but it was strangely bold for that. Normally smaller creatures avoided her.

Leviathan took a few steps towards the creature, thinking perhaps that she would like to get to know this inhabitant, and if possible, introduce it to the confines of her empty feeling stomach. It paused again and again, and Leviathan paused, unsure of what was happening. The grass-eater peered into the grass and willed her eyes to better perceive the contrast between the swaying blades. She met golden eyes, forward facing like her own and staring intently. Then, they moved with blinding speed.