Bah-dump, bah-dump, bah-dump.

I could hear a beat, a steady beat.

Bah-dump, bah-dump, bah-dump.

Amidst all the blackness that surrounded me.

Bah-dump, bah-dump, bah-dump.

It is warm here, safe. But I want out. How do I leave the blackness that is everywhere, that has no start or end? I can feel several prickling and slight movements in the blackness, or maybe it is in myself. It is soft and gentle, it wants to be heard.

'There is a way'

What is the way? I ask the gentle sound

'Move, panic, burst, and reach for outside the darkness.'

How do you reach for outside of something that has no ending?

'MOVE!'

The sound is startling, I move, squirm. I hear crackling, creaking and something crumbling, flashes of brightness crack into the darkness. The darkness has an ending. I reach for it. More brightness crackles into the black, the blackness is disappearing. Then suddenly, the blackness is gone. Brightness of many things I cannot explain comes rushing in.

'That’s it.'

The voice is gentle again, safe.

My eyes take in many things. I am small, she is big. I am in a warm place, which is not darkness but not brightness either. This is Dimness. Below me there are cracked pieces of shells. They crumple under my weight. I look up as she moves her vast head down towards me and speaks softly.

'Welcome to this world. A long life awaits you.'

I look at the immense creature before me. I know she is not different from me. She feels similar to me. She is not a predator. She has always been here, beside me. She has many different brightness and darkness’ to her. She has four limbs that support her, and two long appendages protruding from her shoulders, that comport a thin membrane between four fingers. Her head is large, but not small. Many interesting shapes jut from her. They look sharp. Something you do not touch. The covering of her body is sleek, and impenetrable. Her eyes are the most beautiful. They are intelligent, and they have seen several occurrences that have come before me.

I try to see myself; I can only get as far as the talons of my four limbs, and the other appendages that lay across my back. They are several times smaller than the Immense One’s. They are as luminous as the brightness I first experienced coming into this world. I pace in a circle, unsteady, but capable. I see a moving scaled being that is the same effulgent as myself. I grab for it, and maul it. I feel something terrible in the back of me. I let go of the object I mauled. The terrible is gone, but a small feeling of the terrible still remains. I am perplexed. I maul the object again, and I feel the terrible once more at full force. I come to the conclusion that this is a part of me, and I should not maul it.

What am I?

The soft whisper, from the Immense One, returns.

‘You are a Xinyon, a newly born creature of seeming immortality. You will learn of several things in the day following this. I suggest you rest. I will prepare the feeding you require. For I am Ketsuen Yue Izumi, the existence who has given you life.’

I let myself sit on the ground, and lay my meager bulk in the scuffs of dirt and pieces of pulpous bedding. The bedding makes me sway. I am exhausted; my eyes are intent on converging slowly, and my mind starts to drift off into a deep slumber.