01: The Beginning of the End

  Hundreds of thousands of miles away...

  For hundreds of millions of years...

  ...an asteroid has floated merrily through the lifeless vacuum of space. At a temperature of less than -400 degrees Fahrenheit, outer space is not the most hospitable environment. But this asteroid has a passenger.

  If you squinted your eyes as the ball of alien rock zipped by at speeds faster than lightning, you would not notice a green speck. The asteroid's passenger is smaller than a blade of grass, but if you somehow looked close enough, you would think it resembled moss.

  For hundreds of millions of years, this green speck has slept on the asteroid.

  For hundreds of millions of years, this green speck has waited...

  ...for the Beginning of the End.

  The Beginning of the End started with celebrations. The asteroid's million-year journey came to an abrupt end as it barreled towards a lonely blue planet. The ball of alien rock quickly burned up and disintegrated in the planet's atmosphere. A [Witchdoktor] in the Troll Kingdom claimed that the resulting bright lights were a favorable omen. A well-known human [Warlock] claimed that it was the glittering smile of his Dark God.

  By the time the asteroid broke through the planet's atmosphere, little more than dust remained. Nothing could survive the heat of atmospheric entry. Nothing but the small green speck.

  Had that insignificant dot landed in the middle of an ocean, hundreds of millions of lives may have been spared.

  But it did not land in the ocean.

  Had that insignificant dot landed atop the peak of a snow-capped mountain, the world may have survived for a couple more decades.

  But it did not land atop a snow-capped mountain.

  The small green speck fell lazily, mindlessly, towards the earth below. The ticklish heat of atmospheric entry had woken the asteroid's passenger, but it was still just a speck. There was not much room in its head for thoughts.

  Like the first snowflake of winter, the small green speck danced weightlessly towards the annihilation of all life on the planet below. It knew nothing of its grandiose fate, however. It did not know anything as it finally settled atop a leaf.

  It was fall in the Ogre Kingdoms, so the leaf was blood red. The green speck did not know anything, but instinctually it started to eat. There had been nothing to snack on in all the millions of years it had ridden atop the asteroid, but this leaf! It was relatively massive!

  An odd thing happened when the speck of moss started to eat, however. When you chow down, for instance, the food tends to disappear. If you took a bite out of a sandwich and swallowed, you would be rather alarmed to find the sandwich untouched!

  But the red leaf remained whole. It did not remain unchanged, however.

  As the green speck instinctually chowed down, the red leaf slowly turned green. But it was more than just the color. The leaf's brittle surface slowly became mossy. It was almost as if...

  And the green speck's meal was interrupted by a hungry caterpillar. With its relatively razor-sharp mandibles, the fuzzy little herbivore was the first to do battle with humanity's doom. It ripped and tore with every fiber of its stringy body!

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  The green speck was no match for this intrepid little insect. The battle raged for several hours, but by the end of it, both the red leaf and the green speck found themselves trapped within the caterpillar's belly.

  Digestive acids and enzymes shot out like cauldrons of molten magma. The red leaf was soon reduced to mush inside the insect's belly. But the green speck...

  The green speck did not have thoughts.

  It would be too generous to say that it had a sudden realization.

  But somehow...

  For whatever reason...

  The green speck realized that the caterpillar was food.

  It started to eat.

  The transformation was slow, but the fuzzy black caterpillar started to turn a mossy green. It fell from the tree in a defensive ball. Some instinct kicked in, and the caterpillar dimly realized that it was in danger. It lay on the ground and released a pungent odor.

  And in a cruel twist of fate, the green speck's second meal was also interrupted.

  A dingo mouse no larger than two human fingers scurried across the leafy forest floor and found the caterpillar. At any other time, this dingo mouse would have ignored the fuzzy insect. The little rodent's little belly would have been full of seeds and grains and fruits.

  But at that moment it was hungry.

  Humanity's first defender was quickly eviscerated by the dingo mouse's relatively razor-sharp incisors. The caterpillar thrashed in frightened confusion, but the rodent was too powerful.

  The dingo mouse began to chew on the soft flesh of the caterpillar's belly. It did not notice the strangeness of its mossy green texture. Never had there been a happier mouse in all the Ogre Kingdoms as it finally banished its hunger!

  The unfortunate rodent was so focused on its snacking, however, that it never noticed the shadow overhead.

  A red-breasted hawk fell on the dingo mouse with talons of actual razor-sharp death. The rodent died instantly... but the green moss remained very much alive inside its belly. It would no longer be appropriate to call it a speck, however. In the very short while since it had woken up, it had grown.

  Both the red-breasted hawk and the green moss started to devour the dingo mouse. The bird thought little of the meal, but everything changed for the green moss.

  Instinct had driven it from meal to meal, but as the green moss spread across the ruined meat of the dingo mouse, a spark of intelligence appeared.

  The green moss did not think to eat the bird. It was trapped inside its belly, and it was scared. Danger. This was dangerous. The green moss knew that this red-breasted hawk meant death.

  The bird, oblivious to the horror within its belly, soared merrily over the blood-red forest below. The hawk was the king of the woods, after all, and it knew no fear!

  It quickly learned fear, however, when an arrow impaled its chest.

  The king of the woods fell from the sky like a stone. It heard a violent cheer and then the loud baying of dogs. Very quickly, the red-breasted hawk became an expert on the subject of fear as it crashed into the ground.

  The first of the dogs exploded into sight. Death followed within moments.

  Sharp fangs clamped shut around the bird's neck and then the dog shook. The red-breasted hawk died instantly as its neck was snapped. Other dogs soon arrived and made happy noises over their master's prize.

  The green speck heard the commotion outside and trembled in the cramped darkness of the dead bird's belly. It was terrified, but the dingo mouse had taught it that cramped dark places were safe.

  The three dogs turned towards a veritable rumble of the earth. The ogre's laughter announced its arrival as it pushed past tree branches and puffy shrubs.

  "Geheheh! Them some good doggies!"

  The ogre's name was Bo Bo, and he set into motion the world's doom with his next sentence.

  "Gobble her up, my goodies!" Bo Bo shouted with riotous laughter. "You's all earned it! Gobble up the birdie!"

  The dogs were slow to understand their master's command. They understood his excitement, however, and could smell the blood in the air.

  "Go on!" Bo Bo was all smiles as he reached out and tore off the hawk's head as if it were paper. He tossed it to one of the dogs who immediately started to chew and gnaw. "Gobble, gobble!"

  The dogs finally understood after that. The bird's wings were unpleasant, so they tore them off in a violent puff of feathers. Lances of light assaulted the green moss's sanctuary as the dogs continued their feast.

  The green moss had grown, but it was still smaller than a human thumb. As the dogs explored the hawk's belly, one of them unknowingly chomped down on and swallowed the green moss in one excited bite.

  Moss-eared Bo Bo and his hounds could never have known what they brought back to their small hovel later that day. They lived on the outskirts of their village and the outskirts of ogre society. They were ignored by most, and so nobody would realize anything was wrong until it was too late.

  Some would later say the Beginning of the End started with Bo Bo and his transformation.

  Others would say it began with the Unification War that rocked the many ogre tribes and then spread to the Dragon Kingdom beside them.

  Nobody could have ever known the Beginning of the End began hundreds of millions of years ago... on a lonely asteroid in outer space.