11: Progress

"Alright, I think today is finally the day."

Nem glared towards the ceiling with a sudden conviction, the crack of dawn peeking in through the opening in the wooden shack. Tossing off the single worn jacket that served as a blanket, he immediately marched down to the bottom of the wooden structure, taking a deep whiff the morning forest air at the bottom of the ramp.

"It's time to bring some people together. It's time to make peace and harmony. It's time to… do stuff."

Doing his best to speak his ambitions into reality, he stretched out his arms as he paced around the wooden structure, immediately lost on what to do. Quietly in thought, he made a few laps around the clearing in the forest before spotting a small group of furry creatures hiding around a tree unsuccessfully. The creatures had brown fur and had a body in the shape of a sphere, with four legs sprouting from the side, short but spiderlike. They huddled in a group, barely visible in the grass they hovered over, completely still and motionless.

Almost immediately, Nem turned back around and began to semi-sprint back to the structure, grabbing the tentacled arm of the closest friend he had and dragging them towards where the furred creatures stood like an overexcited child at an amusement park. Victor quietly pushed Nem back with a tentacle as it took the few paces forward it needed to close the gap, looking down onto the creatures as if it was anticipating something. For almost five minutes, Victor simply sat there, with Nem looking on barely able to hold his excitement as the furred creatures simply stood there.

Finally, Victor broke the silence with one commanding croak, seemingly awakening the furred creatures out of a slumber. The first to react was the closest to the tree, a large slit opening in the top of the creature to reveal a set of uneven, gangly teeth. Within seconds, the creatures all had slight openings along the top of their heads, leaving only tiny gaps between their teeth, tilting their bodies to look around for danger. Once each turned towards Victor, their mouths widened to reveal a single veiny, grotesque red eye sitting in the middle of their mouths, each locked onto the flame that emanated from Victor's mass. After another croak from Victor, they lined up in a plus like formation, beginning to open and close their mouths in a pattern Nem couldn't quite understand. Between the gnashing of teeth, however, he could make out the sounds of Victor's clicks and groans and before being asked, he jumped into action. Making his way back to the wooden structure, he sprinted over towards the shack where they dried out the bodies, randomly grabbing the corpse of a hunter with wild hair and proceeding to rip and tear at their hair until he had a sizable clump in his hands. Next, he sprinted over towards the edge of the clearing, picking out five moderately straight sticks and picking out some long strands of grass. He immediately jumped into action, piecing together the ingredients he had harvested to make some brush-like objects, giving some extra care to make sure the hair was securely fastened onto the sticks.

"Alright, perfect."

Giving himself some self-confidence, Nem quickly made his way back to the structure where the furred creatures now stood alongside five tentacled figures, paired up and positioned in a manner where it was almost like a gathering among young single parents. Nem quickly handed each of the flacara a brush before taking a few steps back to look on at his handiwork.

It was a true picture of unity. The five members of his family cleaned the inside of the furred creatures with their newly acquired brushes. Nem looked on proudly for a few minutes, before a nagging sensation began to tickle his brain, almost as if he had forgotten something. He turned away from the picture of unity to pace up and down one of the bridges, wondering what was missing. After three laps, what had slipped his mind moments before surged back to him and he returned with a new wave of motivation and conviction.

"I need to go get flowers."

Without a moment's hesitation he began to jog into the forest, maintaining a good pace for about thirty minutes south until he managed to make it to his destination; a small flower field surrounded by trees that seemed to approach inwards, draping the colourful flowers in shadow. In the centre of the flowers was a sunflower, standing taller and larger than the rest and on top of that was a small light. The light came from a creature, small and blue frog-like with the light emanating from two lumps on its head. It quietly looked towards Nem who looked back cautiously, making sure to lock eyes with the creature as he crouched down to pick a flower from the ground.

As the plant was separated from the earth, the light from the creature's head intensified, going from a warm glow to an intense glare. Without heeding the warning, Nem picked another, with the light now partially obscuring his vision even when looking away from it. With the third, Nem was almost completely blinded, vaguely able to make out the shapes of the plants at his feet but nothing else. With the fourth, he began to hear whispers in his head calling out his name; from the various voices he could make out the sound of his mother's voice, but the rest were a mystery. With the fifth, they began to speak words other than his name, but in incomplete sentences.

Muttering under his breath, Nem began to keep count of how many flowers he had picked.

With the sixth and seventh, the words that were whispers became more coherent. With the eighth and ninth, the theme became apparent; the voices wanted to meet him. With the tenth, the voices became speaking in complete sentences, their volume reaching shouting. With the eleventh, their voices became screams and with the twelfth they echoed through his head to the point where Nem was unable to have more than a half seconds worth of though, quickly drowned out by torrent of voices asking for him to come to the other side. Struggling to think, he placed his hand on the stem of a thirteenth flower before releasing his grip and pulling his whole body back on instinct, the voices immediately dissipating as he left the area where he could reach the flowers. He looked back up at the frog as he stepped away, his eyes glaring cautiously and unwavering from the warm glow of it's body.

By the time he returned, about twelve hours had passed, with the orange glow of the sunset peeking above the treeline and the light of the moon approaching from the other side. He quickly sprinted over to the edge of forest where he had spotted the creatures that morning, where his family looked into the trees waving their tentacles in silence. Quickly sprinting past them, he made his way into the forest, carefully scanning the forest floor as he zoomed past trees. Within a minute, he managed to catch up to them; with their tiny legs scuttling along the dirt, they were easy to catch up to. Nem came to a stop slightly ahead of them and began wheezing, one hand placed up with palm facing forward to signal them to stop. About one step away the creature came to a halt, their slits open just enough to tell who was standing in front of them. Without warning, Nem dropped onto the group a flower crown, which landed onto the bodies of the creatures flaccidly. For a few moments the creatures froze, seemingly unsure of how to react, with Nem doing the same until he realised his arm was still raised. The moment he lowered it, the creatures quickly began devouring the flowers, shredding it into pieces within seconds and consuming the petals as if it was their first meal in a week. Once they were finished, they continued their march into the forest, their mouths open and releasing a bird song to the world around them.

"It was nice seeing you too."

Nem turned back towards the clearing, making his way back to the wooden structure humming the tune which had been presented to him by his new friends. With a spring in his step, he made his way up the ramp, across the bridges and to his hut where he lay down, placed the jacket onto his stomach and closed his eyes, satisfied with a day well spent.