Chapter 2: Feast
Eating your way through a corpse is never easy, especially one hundreds of times bigger than one self. I would know. But that was the mountain of a task that our aväk friend had embarked upon. One bite at a time the larvae ate its way through poor Leon's brain. Every bite imparting knowledge on the little aväk.
For example that the center for motor control way tastiest while the portion that stored memories was disconcerting. Also that bone and blood went extremely well together. Anything that would be useful was withheld until the aväk was ready. It ate bits of everything it could get near. It ate and ate and ate. Until the larvae found itself in an empty cavern that was Leon's chest cavity. Empty is a bit of a lie because there something already in there just nothing that should have been there.
The Lost Woods is a peculiar place, my dear friends. It gathers oddities and things thought to be dead and gone like a magpie, be it forgotten relics or future technology stay in the woods long enough and you will find something. The thing our small mutual friend found is known as a Marg.
Looking like a pale rope with teeth, it was used by mages of a bygone era to make themselves more physically adapt. It was a way for them to expel their weakness by feeding their extremities to the marg. The replaced augmented limbs quite literally had a mind of their own. Only those with iron wills would even attempt it, otherwise they might have a bit more eaten than they would like.
The Marg currently nestled in Leon's abdomen had hollowed it out hoping to use this body like a meat puppet. Unfortunately it's feast had made it rather sleepy so it was resting. Which is fortunate for our little aväk who was still starving. Unwittingly hitting the jackpot, the small black aväk sunk it's four magic teeth into the sturdy flesh of it's elder cousin. It was like watching a house cat eat a sleeping tiger. Almost exactly like that actually.
The only reason that the tiger in this scenario didn't wake up was because of the terrifyingly potent numbing toxic on the house cats fangs. Realizing with the first bite that this thing was much tastier than humans, the aväk began to devour the marg with gusto. Aväk usually try and avoid filling up on one part of the body in particular. It's in their instincts and their best interests to try and eat every part of the body, so they have a more diverse gene pool.
[Warning. Three separate gene pool detected. The variation of these pools may result in an undesirable outcome.
Progenitor Consumed Genes
Aväk (Adult) Human (Adolescent)
Marg (Time-Worn)]
Being an Aväk larvae our worm-like friend didn't know any of this, it stuffed its maw happily. The tiny blue prompts didn't concern the aväk. After all it did not knowing how to read, or for that matter understand even a notion of what communication might be. So our wriggly little aväk larvae tried to eat the boxes. Which effectively dismissed them, our small friends continued on his tiny gluttony filled rampage. After 2 full days of slow eating the bloated black aväk made its way slowly back to the skull. The once small black larvae was now about the size and shape of a human eye, burrowed in for a long nap.However, in this case it was less good. Aväk's are a high adaptable race which can vary drastically from generation to generation depending upon their needs. This ability for easy mutation is a holdover from the days where aväk's were monsters. They were lead out of their dark age and into the light of reason, but their monstrous side still remained. This was both their greatest strength and weakness, which is why most aväk's only consume the genes of their progenitors. To prevent disastrous mutations that could cripple them. So they cripple their evolution instead. This was the part of their teaching that their glorious leader instilled in them. If one deviated from the normal path then they would become something twisted.
Aväk, are one of the more peculiar species that I have seen in my long life. The life cycle of the aväk usually begin with the death of their progenitors, and then the subsequent feast on them. Most would consider such a birth monstrous in nature and not part of a rational race. For the most part the young are treated as monsters, but the adolescent and adults are hailed as the swiftest merchants in all the land. Dealing in both actual goods and death. This is probably the sole reason that aväk are even tolerated. While a fairly docile species on the whole, nearly all who have met an aväk usually describe them as being pleasant enough, as long as you don't give them a chance to open their mouths.
*Crack*
You see my dear friends, aväk's have a disconcerting habit of chattering their jaws. Quite frequently. And loudly. That coupled with their boisterous bragging about their chitin, or heritage, makes them rather annoying. In fact, it has been the sole source for three separate wars on the aväk people. If it wasn't for their intimate knowledge of The Ways, then they would surely have gone extinct. The Ways are a vast series of interconnected tunnels that span most of the globe, that nearly all aväk's grow up in. All, except deviations of course.
*Craaack*
Deviations are not born from their progenitor and start life in some other living thing. Aväk being as prideful as they are call such aberrations Deväks. The reason they are so despised is because aväks take on characteristics of the body they feast on as larvae. Meaning the larvae that worked its way through Leon's brainstem and had cocooned itself in the jelly of his eye was quite the rarity. Then again it was also rare for even deviations to be born alone, but with a cracked crystalisk it was lucky that there was even one hatchling.
*CRACK*
As the larvae feasts, its small body is analyzing the makeup of the food and preparing to metamorphose into something else. A mix of original genes with information from the Aväks were once the most adaptable and diverse species, but they slowly became obsessed with unity and then tradition. Leading to the aväks hiding away in their city afraid of the other rational races, and branding the outsider as a new species entirely. This offshoot was rebellious and many wish for the demise of pure aväk's. Which was fair no one liked to be looked down upon for having a different birth, but the issue was only exacerbated by the fact that the deväk's were treated little better than animals.
*CRACK CRACK*
The newest member of said species was finally breaking out of its cocoon. After feasting for two days on blood, bone, and brain it spent nearly a week inside it's cocoon.
*CRACK*
With a final kick the hatchling deväk was free. Standing at just over 4 centimeters tall it wasn't much to look at; with a rounded back reminiscent of beetle, four arms, and two legs that looked like three entwined segments of rope. Of the two sets of arms there was obviously a main pair and an auxiliary pair. The main pair had six digits on each hand, including two thumbs on each side of the hand. The second set of hands was smaller and they were tucked in as though hugging its chest. These each had 3 digit hands, but claws instead of normal fingers. Its eyes were a radiant blue, but other than that it really didn't look like anything special the inside however, was a different story. Normally aväks only had an exoskeleton, but our little deviation had both the internal framing of a human and the plating of its species. Yet it's third "parent" made the most surprising change.
Aväk's are usually lightweight and hatchlings will almost always have the ability to fly. Unless said aväk, is bigger and bulky than any normal hatchling. Where the wings would normally fold up in the back shell were two separate limbs that looks like miniature black margs. Each one had a maw filled with needle shaped teeth, which would explain why our deväk hatchling had no mouth on it's head. Unlike the real things these were not independent, but rather mutated limbs. It also had one other advantage over the deväk's other mutations.
[Malleable Tendrils
Margs are more than just minor shapeshifters, but your twisted form and unbalanced gene pools have prevented you from acessing their full skill. However, you have still inherited their genes, which allows you to modify your your tendrils slightly. Grants the compainion skill Minor Shapeshift as well as increase abilities with tendrils.]
Granted both skeletal structures were considerably weakering then a pure bred of either species, but this was still highly useful. However, the real benefits of the union of human and aväk brain structures. In its current state the deväk's brain was a mess, but It allowed the small deväk to think and be aware of itself. Admittedly this was at the level of a child who had a severe concussion, but it allowed to process information that might save its life one day.
[Warning. Instability with genetic code will cause rapid death if not remedied in; 323:59:52.]
Which was in fact sooner than it expected. Unfortunately for the insect imbecile, reading was still way beyond it. Considering its first reaction was to try and run away from the floating screen. It spent the next while running, climbing, and jumping, not to escape the transparent monster that was definitely going to eat it, but to test out it's own limits. Obviously.
Not knowing what else to do, the young deväk curled up into the fetal position and buried its face into the corpse of the once Leon. Hoping that the screen would lose interest and go away, it suddenly seemed to swell in the deväk's mind's eye and then it popped. Information flooded the idiotic insectoids mind and it understood what was happening. While the message it received was more like, 'Danger! Bad things happening and bad things will get badder in small while. Fix if living is to continuing.'
Like I said, dear friends, it was not the brightest knife in the shoe box.
[Name Physical Modifier Attributes
(Blank) Strength: +1.7% Str: 2
Age Agility: +1.5%. Agi: 1
2 weeks Dexterity: +2.0% Dex: 2
Species Mentality: +0.1% Mnt: 1
Deväk Perception: -0.5%. Per: 1
(Hatchling) Endurance: -0.1%. End: 1
Constitution: -0.0% Con: 1
Abilities. Skills
Malleable Tendrils Minor Shapeshift
Parasitical Growth
Combat Level 1
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
PseudoPsyde
PseudoPsyde I originally posted this on Royal Road, it easier to post it there, and I can't do the prompts justice here. Also there are more chapters. So if you're interested go check it out, and I'd appreciate it.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone