A booming whisper. [colour=lightskyblue]'Open.'[/colour] The tiny water sprite had not understood the word's meaning, nor the meaning of what followed. In a literal flash, the sprite no longer lorded over its little stream in some unnamed realm. It was cast into a tunnel of blinding light and endless darkness; of raging flames and petrifying frost. The glaring light distorted its shape, its role, its mind, and before the creature could make sense of the chaos, a thunderous command rung out through the cosmos. [colour=lightskyblue][centre][h2]'CLOSE!'[/h2][/centre][/colour] The flash gave way to dim graytones and stone walls. It had passed like a leaf on the river. Rivers... Nowhere to be seen. Where was he? The sprite pondered the situation in its head. Wait, head? A surge of confusion and panic flushed through the creature's body - further reinforced by its understanding that it now controlled a body. Smooth, leathery skin stretched across his surface, but as he turned and twisted, he found that the beige skin gave way to hard, crimson scales. A strain on its abdomen, it felt, further supported by an unfamiliar pressure on what it reasoned was its tail - it curled up underneath to bear the body's weight and tilted the torso into an upright position. A deafening voice cracked across the unfamiliar halls and beyond, but the creature paid it no heed. With panic having given way to curiousity, it instead surveyed its form, its scales, its skin. It plucked at the stiff, yet silky hair; it picked at the borders where humanoid and reptilian fused; it felt, it saw, it smelt- [colour=lightskyblue]'You know what must be done.'[/colour] He heard. His curiousity brought his eyes to his creator. A mind formed within the creature's elongated skull. A calm mind, a peaceful mind, a mind thirsting for a reason for its existence. Another flash, but one of clarity, dawned on him. A mission - nay, a purpose. A word came to mind - a goal, he reasoned. A complex word, a powerful word, one which meaning perhaps would change over time. A word nonetheless, though. Prosperity. Yes, yes... A goal had been decided. An ending to his newborn tale - the perfect finale to mirror the miracle of his creation. Yet a tale is so much more. This perplexed the creature. How would he bestow this prosperity upon creation? What tool could possibly let him unite life under-...? Life? A memory flickered. His form was foreign, yet familiar - fashioned into a shape, yet not. A surface of water ran in a glistening streak underneath him. The water sprite gazed to the borders of the stream. Life, abloom in colours more numerous than the pebbles in a river, all drinking deep in the transparent honeymilk that carved its way through the dirt. The flow, the flow was the path. An unending flow, bringing life to all that tapped into it. An unyielding source for all of creation to drink from. Yes, yes... A path. The memory faded, but its lesson remained. The tale lastly needed a protagonist. Would it be him? He hardly knew himself as he was now, and yet, he was the one whose purpose he was most familiar with. Perhaps it would be one of his peers, then? He surveyed the surrounding shapes. He pondered their motivations as he had pondered his own - perhaps all sought a utopian ending for this cosmos? If that was the case, he thought, then he naturally had to aid them in their quest. Another thought flickered: Why not find out? Perhaps this was not a story with a -single- hero. Afterall, prosperity for oneself is not prosperity - his goal was to be shared among all of creation! The serpentine creature took a moment to temper his breathing, still quickened from his panicked realisation of his existence. He once more gazed at his peers. Yes, yes... Allies, he had to make, for what is a hero with no companions? What is a host without guests? The serpentine creature gazed upwards as the mammoth cyclops boomed his final order, and some of his peers flew off. Those that remained encouraged the creature, for he knew now that he perhaps could find those who shared his mindset. How would he introduce himself, though? He thought of his name from his previous life, but he realised he had had none. This left the creature wondering: Who was he? As he slithered across the stone hall, he could think of only one name. One that would always remind him of his goal; one that rolled off his forked tongue; one that he could proudly present to his fellow gods. His mind settled on the word. He was Shengshi, and his purpose was clear.