The Beast Inside

by M E Wolf

  They were being taught to manipulate things with science, whereas they used to just use brute strength. This is the time when many Dochani died due to being experimented on by these Fenshians. It is also when a few Dochani born from many other Dochani that were experimented on developed an ability to heal or use the elements of a world to throw fireballs, or defend against anything tossed, or fired upon them.

  CHAPTER THREE

  The Fenshians started gaining size to such an enormous extent that they had to eat nearly every moment of the day to maintain their health. They continued this for many years, so many years that they were stripping the world of everything and they could not just eat meat anymore as it would not have been enough.

  But they began to eat rocks, minerals, steel and strip the world of nearly every living, and non-living thing that existed on that world. Its natural resources were being depleted every day that the Fenshians had to eat. Since they had to consume at least seventy-five thousand tons of food per Fenshian each day and there was always more than three million Fenshians living at one time, two hundred and twenty-five billion tons would be consumed by the entire population each and every day.

  It would not be long before the planet could not maintain itself and it would most certainly die. This was time for the Dochani to separate from the Fenshians. They had no tools, no science, and only the natural ability through their many years of being bombarded with the science of the Fenshians. Only about one thousand of them could travel with the use of their mind, but only a few of those had the map of the universe infused upon their minds at birth.

  The vortex, and the map would help them travel, but not everyone ended up in the vortex. In a circle of one hundred they were unstoppable. Only one hundred thousand could go because of the limitations of travel being that a traveler could bring only themselves and ninety-nine others with them.

  With the map of the universe they were all linked to the same location, which became the Dochani home world. Fenshian means ‘the devourers’ in the draconic language, but the word is also common in the Dochani language and it means the same thing as it does in the draconic language. Devourer of worlds is what the Fenshians are.

  It took them over two billion years to devour their own world, or the world that they were on before they were known as the devourers. Most of the Dochani that were left on the old world were devoured as well, which was more than five hundred thousand of them as very little of the Dochani race produced those who could travel, and even fewer could actually see the map of the universe let alone enter the vortex.

  Thus only fifty thousand of the one hundred thousand Dochani actually survived the trip to their new home. The Fenshians were upset and spent millions of years wasting their time destroying many worlds in the process of looking for those Dochani that had escaped their unquenchable appetites. At the time that the Fenshians were looking for the Dochani, they began to rebuild their empire, or start building their empire since they never really had an empire.

  Considering the fact that they never really knew any type of construction it took some time for them to build and continue their advancements. At first they struggled with mud-brick baked in the sun or even carving buildings out of the side of the mountains. Because of the very tall trees that stood to about one hundred feet tall and the fact that the only places on this new world were on cliffs, the Dochani race began to develop wings and feathers for flight.

  Flight had to eventually take place due to the ferocious animals that existed on this planet that supplied their main source of meat in their diet. Fruit trees were plentiful even though some Dochani died from various fruits on the island that produced a toxin that mimicked the same aspects as the metal silver, which happened to be an allergen to any Dochani that somehow got it introduced into their blood stream.

  After one hundred million years had passed since their exodus from the original world there were more than two billion Dochani on this planet. Since there were more than two billion minds available to work the planet some would eventually migrate to other parts of the world, and settle, and build. It was not long before there were great libraries, pyramids, cities, and skyscrapers.

  The skyscrapers reached far into the clouds, and were designed for a bird's style, and view point, and not for those that were predominantly walkers. All Dochani could fly so there was no need for any mechanical contraptions that pertained to flight except for maybe runways for the Dochani to land. Even cranes were not developed due to the great resilience of the Dochani, and their ability to carry heavy loads in flight. Silver was never used in their construction due to the fact that most Dochani were allergic to it.

  They used mostly concrete and steel by this time. Most buildings were designed so that you could land on your balcony from a long flight to enter your apartment, or the office that you worked in. Computers were in the height of their creation even though most Dochani preferred to be able to fly in the open sky instead of sit down at an uncomfortable desk in doors all day.

  With only about two billion or more Dochani on the planet there was room for growth to at least twenty billion, without causing too much discomfort. That large of a population could hunt as much as they wanted, and prey on the animals that lived on the other half of the planet. They needed to keep half the planet free and wild in order to have a perfect ecosystem where each Dochani could hunt as much as they needed to feed their families.

  The animals on the planet were not domesticated, and there was no slavery. No wars, and no starvation was anywhere on the planet either. Everything on the planet was in perfect harmony, or so it seemed to be this way. Of course there would be a squabble once in a while, but it never escalated to where anyone got seriously injured, or wanted to exact revenge, and harm on a neighbour.

  Anything to do with transportation was not needed due to everyone wanting to fly. When it snowed, however, the Dochani stayed wherever they happened to be since getting ice on their wings could send them to their deaths. Snow only happened one month out of the year, whereas the rest of the year was mild spring to sweltering summer.

  Progression of the Dochani race continued to rise while some of the Dochani, the ones gifted with far sight, and the ability to travel, were gathering together to develop a defense system for their home world because they believed that the Fenshians were on their way towards them. It could be any time that they would arrive so the Dochani began to look for other worlds that would be suitable for themselves.

  In this time, which happened to be eight hundred million years ago, they grew beyond the twenty billion that was estimated for them to have an ecosystem on their planet. Their planet became known as Dochani Beta because their race had been there for at least a billion years now, and it was not their original planet thus it could not be Alpha.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Eight hundred million years ago they had no strife, no wars, no despair, no poverty, and no starvation but now they had all of those things, and more. Many animals went extinct from constant over hunting, and the favouring of one animal to eat over another. The animals that were their main diet of course went extinct, and many more that became their diet after the extinction of a previous animal also went extinct.

  Their population rose to well above the twenty billion to over sixty-two trillion and their planet’s resources were being depleted far faster than they could be replaced, but no one thought to implement a replacement plan so needed resources obviously were lost very quickly. Some of them moving to the four moons orbiting Dochani Beta did not stop the depletion of resources on the planet, and four moons.

  Even some of the Dochani took to living in the deepest depths of the seas and oceans. Because of this the Dochani ended up developing an organ to filter substances into oxygen, even though it took place in more Dochani above the age of twenty thousand than those younger than that. At this time with such an over population problem there were Dochani living on the streets of the cities where before they would be in at least a moderately set
up house.

  Some were crippled from the many civil wars and others were crippled from flying into things after not having enough food to sustain their health. At first the civil wars were small, and did not do too much damage, but it did not take long in Dochani standards of time to escalate. A million or two million years is not long for a Dochani. The Dochani race began to develop more damaging offensive abilities, which were offset by greater defensive abilities.

  After some time, roughly a few hundred million years, many of their construction marvels were destroyed, and the rubble left to sit where it fell with no intention or energy to rebuild. Many Dochani children were orphaned, and many parents lost many children, and many more would be lost. The civil war may have resulted in many deaths, but it was nothing compared to the ravenous hunger of the Fenshians.

  The heralds of their arrival would be evident in the destruction of the Dochani cities, which would be far sooner than later. The civil wars made the civilization of the Dochani less civilized, and more of a war society where different groups would train their Dochani civilians into soldiers. These soldiers were made hard by what they would experience when the Fenshians arrived. After hundreds of millions of years in civil wars, some of the Dochani were bread into soldiers from birth.

  They were trained to fight in the air, on the ground, in the sea, and in the ocean. More and more Dochani were brought into the war, and no one was drafted because all Dochani were of the war. The strongest of the Dochani males and females were bread, and mates were picked for everyone. This would eventually lead to very low morale, and ultimately the downfall of all on Dochani Beta.

  Love was secondary, or even non existent compared to war. War was life for all and death to most whether they were part of the soldiery or not. With one hundred and twenty-four million groups, and five hundred thousand Dochani in each group no one really knew who was in what group. Or which group to attack first, and eventually there would be only half a million groups with only about one hundred thousand Dochani in each.

  As a result of these attacks the population went from sixty two trillion Dochani to only about fifty billion Dochani. Mass graves were dug, and many Dochani were placed in them that had died in some way during the civil wars. Most of these graves were shallow so when the Fenshians came, some of them were reopened, and exposed fully, or half exposed to the elements, and to the vermin.

  The smell of decay once smelled would never leave the burial sites, and it is all that any Dochani would remember. These dead were disrespected, and none of us were able to go back, and fix this sacrilege of the buried being disturbed. Some of these Dochani were damaged far beyond recognition. Whether they lost their life in flight far into the sky, or were hit hard by some sort of fireball.

  Or they were hit with some other projectile used in the war, and it was hard to tell by looking at them what did them in. There were far more Dochani dead than there were Dochani alive. The wars that followed overpopulation were devastating to both the Dochani, and to the land. Soon, the Fenshians would come, and then the Dochani would go through the most devastating war ever.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  It was these wars that started the search for another world suitable for the Dochani to live out their long lives. This seems to always take place with us Dochani, but when the threat to our very existence is at its greatest the Dochani must move to somewhere more favorable.

  Well, many of the Dochani gifted ones traveled to many other worlds during the time of the civil wars that spanned from eight hundred million years ago till now. In this time they visited numerous worlds that would seem viable at first, and then not viable later. As egg laying mammals the Dochani could lay eggs on the prospective worlds, and have Dochani begin lives without the trouble of the Fenshians eating their young, at least for the time being.

  On many of the worlds there were primitive life that were savage and relatively hostile towards anyone, and some Dochani were even tortured because of their differences in appearance. The reports of what had happened to some Dochani on those worlds were so gruesome that the hair on the back of my neck stood up, and did not rest for weeks.

  Rapes, beatings, and being eaten, or worse were in those reports. Out of the over two hundred million planets that the Dochani had checked out, only forty million worlds had a Dochani representative return. Out of those reports gathered on those planets only eight hundred thousand were considered viable habitats for the Dochani to live in.

  The criteria that they looked for was amount of mountain ranges, flora, and fauna, game animals present, and of course if there was any humanoid inhabitants living on the planets already. Also hostilities of the incumbent populations were a major factor in the choice of whether to live there, or not.

  Numerous eggs were laid upon the planets that were at least viable for a few Dochani as opposed to the entire Dochani population. Since it takes nearly fourteen years to lay one egg, this project took numerous years to complete. A plan was set for a Dochani of at least twenty thousand years old to arrive at the nesting sites, a female, and a male Dochani for each site.

  However, due to the war, some nesting sites would end up being without at least foster parents of the Dochani children that would hatch from those eggs that were laid on those worlds. Each nesting site was placed in a large cave usually crafted by a Dochani craftsman that was near the top of the highest peak on a given planet.

  A thousand eggs per nesting site was decided as the best choice among many choices, and food was left near the eggs which had been specially treated to last at least eight hundred years due to the incubation period being close to five hundred years. Numerous plants were also planted in, and outside of the cave. If a Dochani adult was not present for the Dochani young, then there would be a perfect ecosystem of tunnels, and labyrinths that would provide water, meat, and editable plants.

  With over two hundred million worlds visited and news from over forty million worlds received in the last eight hundred million years, over forty billion eggs were laid in one thousand egg batches bringing the total Dochani on other worlds to six hundred. and twenty-one thousand Dochani on each world, and twenty-four trillion, and eight hundred billion Dochani on forty million worlds.

  Initially, fifty billion Dochani left on Dochani Beta does not seem so bad when the reports started coming in regarding the colonization project with forty million colonies being successful on forty million different worlds throughout the universe within an eight hundred million year period of time, but the reports would get worse regarding the status of all Dochani. We did not know that when we traveled we left a residual trace, or tracks to each colony from the main world.

  Thus making gates to and from Dochani Beta, and to and from the many forty million worlds that we have colonies. Likewise the worlds that we did not get any reports from, one could go to and from them as well before minor gates were made for those as well. At least this would confuse the Fenshians a bit because a gifted Dochani could tell how many times a world was visited, and we were not sure if the Fenshians had this ability or not.

  A major danger would be if those worlds with no reports were in fact inhabited by vicious beings that may have rendered the Dochani that visited them inoperable or maybe the atmosphere was somewhat hostile, even to a Dochani that can breath in pretty much any type of atmosphere given enough time to do so.

  An example of a hostile atmosphere would be if those planets had a very high silver content in their atmosphere it would have some effect upon the Dochani. Some effects of silver are not even documented and no one knows what reaction a Dochani will have coming into contact with silver.

  The defense perimeter of Dochani Beta has been set up in anticipation of the Fenshians arrival. They are due to arrive in a few days, and soon a devastating war will begin. It is not necessarily considered a war considering the magnitude of the destruction caused at the hands of the Fenshians. Thus, it will last some time but not long compared to our three billion years of history, and the last bi
llion of it on the planet now known as Dochani Beta.

  Most of the buildings have already been destroyed by the civil wars that plagued Dochani Beta for about a billion years already and many of the marvels were destroyed as well, which has been pointed out already by me.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Our libraries, museums of art, museums of history and many of our other knowledge banks did survive the civil wars but the buildings would not survive the long war with the Fenshians. The only buildings that would most likely survive were the ones far beneath the seas and oceans. These the Fenshians most likely would not be able to get to unless they also had ships that could travel under water because as far as I know they could not swim or even breath under water, at least not as well as the Dochani can.

  One hundred and sixty million bundles were made of the most prized collections in the libraries, and museums, and four were taken each to the forty million colonies where they would set up a library, and a museum in each location. Each bundle weighed more than forty thousand tons, thus forty Dochani were needed to carry each bundle to its new location.

  Once the evacuation procedures were completed the first sighting of a Fenshian ship was reported. All of the Dochani that could fight remained on Dochani Beta. This included those that could fight with fireballs, and such, and those that would be fighting with spears, rifles, various artillery, and various other articles of warfare.