Chapter 497: Aris

CRK!

The sound of a cracking egg echoed throughout the surroundings. The egg was rather hard, and it proved to be rather difficult to break out of it. Yet, the small lizard did its best.

CRRK!

A tiny black and shiny arm broke out of the egg. The tiny arm aimlessly tried to grab something but didn't find anything.

Bonk!

The egg fell over onto its side as the weight inside the egg shifted. The egg fell onto the arm, giving the small thing its first experience with surprise.

CRR!

The claws on the tiny arm created some scratch marks in the soft earth beneath it as it tried to salvage the situation. After a while, the arm retracted, and a small black snout came out of the egg as it took its first breath of fresh air.

Whoop!

The snout retreated as two tiny hands grabbed the edges of the hole.

CRRRRRK!

The power of the arms was quite surprising as they widened the hole in the egg. After seeing that this approach worked, the tiny black thing did its best to free itself from its prison.

CRK!

Half of the egg got destroyed as the small thing felt light for the first time on its face. It had an elongated black snout with some small teeth poking out of its sides. The tiny thing looked into the sun and quickly closed its eyes due to the blinding light. Out of reflex, it held its small hands in front of its eyes.

After waiting for some seconds, the tiny thing looked around, but it didn't dare to look up again. By now, the tiny being could be fully seen.

It was only around ten-centimeters-tall and had black, glowing scales encasing its entire body. The scales were so black that it looked like they absorbed all the light. Reptilian eyes looked around their surroundings as the small beast took the world in with interest and curiosity.

What was this soft stuff below it? Why did this soft stuff rise further away? Why did it hurt to look up? What was this strange feeling around its own body? Was this earth? Was this temperature? Was this light?

The tiny being knew nothing about these concepts, and all of them felt foreign to it. It had no knowledge of anything and simply tried to make sense of its surroundings.

Sniff, sniff!

Yet, all of this was forgotten as it smelled something enticing. It turned around and looked at the broken eggshells, the pieces of its former prison. For some reason, it had the urge to eat them.

Following its instincts, the tiny being started crunching on the eggshells. It proved rather easy to eat the eggshells, and the tiny being almost couldn't believe that something this fragile and delicious had been able to suppress it until now.

For some reason, the tiny being got angry at the broken eggshells. These eggshells had kept it away from experiencing this world!

BANG! BANG! BANG!

It started to scratch and bite the eggshells. After a while, it also started using its legs and tail to throw the eggshells away. It didn't know why, but it hated the fact that it had been held prisoner by these weak things.

After some minutes, the tiny being felt proud of its accomplishments as small shards of egg were strewn all around its small enclosure.

Grumble!

Yet, the tiny being felt hungry again. It looked at the small pieces of eggshells with regret. They had all become dirty, and many pieces were so small that they couldn't even properly be eaten anymore.

This was the tiny being's first encounter with regret.

It shouldn't have destroyed the shells. Now, it would become much harder to eat. The tiny being did its best to gather the pieces again and proceeded to eat them. It didn't like the taste of earth, but there was nothing it could do. It simply found no solution to this problem.

Sadly, the tiny being wasn't developed enough to realize that it could simply clean the eggshells. To it, it felt like it had to eat the eggshells as they were.

However, all of this had been quickly forgotten as it finished its meal. It finally didn't have this urge to eat anymore. Yet, another urge appeared. The tiny being opened its mouth widely as it felt its eyes starting to close by themselves. It felt groggy and didn't want to look at the world anymore.

In no time at all, it laid down and started sleeping.

Suddenly, the tiny being opened its eyes as it looked around again. It felt like no time had passed, but in truth, it had slept for multiple hours. Additionally, it looked around in confusion as it realized that everything had become smaller.

What the tiny being didn't know was that, with the nourishment of the egg, it had become a Demonic Beast. It had grown to be a full meter long. In just a couple of hours, the tiny being had become not-so-tiny anymore.

Now, a human would tremble in fear in front of this black lizard. In human standards, it couldn't be called cute anymore. In just a couple of hours, it had transformed from a tiny, helpless baby into a predator.

For some reason, the beast also knew what it was called. For some reason, its mind told it that it was called Aris. It, no he, was Aris.

Aris had no idea why he knew his own name, but it felt right. For some reason, Aris was sure that his name was Aris. Aris also knew that what he was feeling right now was called hunger. It wanted and needed food!

Aris growled a bit as he used his vocal cords for the first time in his life. His frustration guided him into releasing it with a growl. Aris looked around and saw the walls enclosing him.

When he saw these walls, Aris became enraged again. Was this another prison!? Aris hated prisons!

BANG!

Aris jumped forward but fell over as he misjudged his movements. Yet, that only made him angrier. He started scrambling forward with all his limbs as he charged at the walls.

CRR! CRR! CRR! CRRR!

He scratched the walls with all his power, but these walls proved to be much harder than the fragile egg. The walls were quite powerful, but Aris saw progress as chunks of the wall fell to the side.

After around a minute of digging, Aris suddenly got a brilliant idea. He looked upward again and saw the black sky. For some reason, there was no more light falling onto him anymore. Aris hesitated for a second but then started digging his claws and feet into the wall. Then, he started climbing upward.

Why dig through this hard wall when he could simply climb over it? Aris felt proud of his genius as he ascended the wall.

After some seconds, he managed to reach the top. The walls were only three meters tall, and it didn't prove hard for Aris to climb over them. Yet, as soon as Aris reached the top, he looked with widened and curious eyes at the world.

It was so big!

What were these brown and green, tall things? What was this green stuff on the ground? Why was everything so dark? What was this shining half-circle above him? Why were there small lights above him?

Aris stretched his claws to the sky as he tried to grab the shining crescent in the sky. Yet, he wasn't able to reach it. He tried a couple of more times, but he gave up when he realized that he nearly fell back into his prison. One day, this small crescent would be grabbed by him!

Aris looked towards the ground outside but felt some fear due to the height. This was way too high, and for some reason, he was afraid of falling down. Something inside of him told him that falling would be bad.

Aris tried to climb down at the other side, but it was challenging to find any hold with his current position atop the wall. Several hours passed in which Aris hesitated on how to climb down. Was climbing up a good idea? Would he be stuck here forever?

Yet, Aris smelled something.

It was an enticing smell. This smell was awakening something in him. This was the smell of food!

Aris looked towards the origin of the smell, and he saw something. It was a one-meter-tall lion, and it looked rather intimidating and muscular.

At least, that's what a human would think.

BANG! BANG!

Guided by instinct, Aris jumped off the wall and landed on the ground without any issues. Surprisingly, the fall didn't hurt Aris even a little bit. Additionally, he had jumped over ten meters just now.

"RAAAAAH!" Aris shouted with all his power as he charged at the lion. He charged with all fours, but after feeling this position to be awkward, he righted himself and only ran on two legs.

This lion was not an intimidating foe.

This was food!