"THAT WAS SO RUDE!"

“Yeah, that was rude!” Most of the hive was in agreement with the Nature spirit on this. “We were just looking at them and those humans just attack us for no reason. That was uh…what are you guys doing?”

The majority of the hive asked the Nature Spirits who were trying to gather as much energy as they could. As a hive, they knew the answer to their question the moment they asked it. The Nature spirits were trying to create some sort of monster; some sort of Eye Monster!

“Wait a moment,” one of the spirits immediately objected. “Come on you idiots, don’t overreact here. There’s no need to create a new monster just for those humans.”

“Oh yes there is!” One of the Nature spirit immediately said. “Behold, a monster? Oh yeah, we are going to give them a monster alright! In fact we are going to create some new monster right now just for those idiots!”

“Come on! This is a waste of energy. We can get the Kin to go kill them. There’s no need for us to…”

“Give us the energy to create the new monster or get out of our way.”

“We are a hive. We can’t get out of your way!”

“Then we just have to stop being a hive. Help us or we Nature spirits will spilt from the hive!”

“What? You guys are willing to spilt from the rest of us just to kill some stupid humans?”

“YES!”

All the Nature spirits were in agreement and the rest of the spirits within the hive knows it. It’s a show of how angry all the Nature spirits were but at the same time, the rest of the hive had to wonder about the threat. Simply put, breaking apart wasn’t all that easy. The spirits within the hive knew how it could be done but they had never done it before. The only time the hive had spilt was when the Fire spirits broke away to form their own hive, and that happened totally by accident. Some of the spirits wondered if they should in fact let the Nature spirits break away just to experience how a deliberate break would feel but the rest of the spirits put paid to that by pointing out an important point; the hive needed the Nature spirits!

The Nature spirits were the ones that first created the underground forest and the hive wasn’t sure if the forest could be maintained without them. While the hive could absorb other Nature spirits from the environment, the number of Nature spirits the hive could absorb just weren’t going to be enough to replace all the Nature spirits that would be leaving. It was a simple case of numbers. Even right now, several winters after the spilt, the hive still hadn’t been able to replace all the Fire spirits that had left. The problem was that the hive had no control over what kind of spirits would join them so for every new Fire spirit they absorb, the hive had to absorb three or four other kinds of spirits. What would happen to the underground forest while the hive was trying to make up the number of Nature spirits that would be leaving? The spirits within the hive had no idea and they rather not find out.

So the hive agreed to give the unreasonable Nature spirits the energy they need and they waste no time in using it. The Nature spirits had a basic idea of what they want. The Eye was destroyed by the humans so they thought it was only appropriate that the new creature was an Eye also. However creating a new creature wasn’t the same as creating a new spell or changing an animal. They were going to create a creature from scratch and they need to be careful about it. A creature need to be able to survive on it’s own without the hive having to pump energy into it. For that, the creature would need a mouth to eat. It also need a way to see, hear, reproduce, defend itself, create a home, and…just thinking about it was giving the hive pause.

However the Nature spirits were determined. Using the energy provided by the hive, the Nature spirits lifted some of the soil of the underground forest and fashioned it into a ball. The hive then slowly poured energy into the ball, focusing on forming an eye and a mouth. It also thought of all the things the new creature would need to succeed. The ball of soil began glowing, a sign that the change was beginning. The hive continued feeding it energy and the light became brighter. Just as suddenly, the light dimmed and the hive stopped the energy flow. As the light faded, the hive got it’s first glimpse of the creature.

The creature was green in color and spherical in shape. It floats in the air and in the middle of the creature was a giant eyeball. Below the eyeball, the creature had a mouth and the creature’s sharp teeth and long tongue could clearly be seen when the creature opened it’s mouth. The creature had 2 long arms on either side of it’s mouth and four antennas on top of it’s head. The antennas were the strangest thing about the creature. At the end of each antenna was a small eye that seems to move independently of each other. The hive was shocked. What in the world was this creature? It was perhaps the strangest thing it had ever made. Sensing the outpour of energy, a pair of foxmen arrived. The young duo gaped at the new creature. The new creature saw the foxman and…gave them a friendly wave. Tentatively, the foxmen waved back. It was the start of a beautiful friendship between the two races.

“Behold! A monster?” One of the Nature spirits said. “Fine. We shall name this creature the Be…”

“Let’s call it a R.E.M.” One of the other spirits said.

“What?”

“It’s a monster right; not a Kin. So let’s do what the Fire Hive always do. Give the creature a long name and then everyone can call it by the shorter version of it.”

“Wait a moment. We Nature spirits create the creature, we get to name it!”

“Since when did we have that rule?” The spirit asked. “You guys used the energy from the hive so everyone has a vote. All in favor of naming this creature “R.E.M” say…”

“YES!”

The hive answered back with a firm yes and the Nature spirits knew they were beaten. “Okay fine, but what does R.E.M means?”

“It’s a ridiculous eye monster.”

“WHAT!”

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