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I am born. That was the first thought I ever had, and it was wrong. The story of my life. "You are conceived." The only time Krosa showed me the error of my ways peacefully. The voice had seemed to come from all around me, even from within me. That wasn't really difficult at the time; I had no body, no sight and no concept of either. "You are born of my strength and my growth will give you form. Now you will be born, my child Silvos." With that I was thrust out of all I had ever known, violently and abruptly. The story of my life.

I was born of strength and growth, in the worst way possible. It began at my back; I felt the restricting contours of my form. Compared to the freedom of nonexistence it was almost claustrophobic as my body formed around me. I rose from the depths of infinite darkness; my arms and legs extended out, and tapered off at my feet and vine-like fingers. I had a head, but no face, strength has no features. But my creation was not done there, my back bristled and foot-long vines emerged like a bird's feathers spreading wide. Longer vines extended from my shoulders and thighs, and then it stopped. I looked around, I had no eyes, but I could see all around me. I had no ears, but I could hear even the leaves falling to the ground. I had no nose, but I could smell the fragrance of the smallest flowers. "You are born of growth, of strength, of nature, you do not see, or smell or hear. You know what nature knows."

"I am born?" I could think of nothing else to say, it never even occurred to me how I spoke without a mouth.

"You are. Go. Live. My son, Silvos."

The voice of my mother was soothing; proud. You can imagine how that only made it more confusing for me, when suddenly a giant creature burst through the trees around me. The thing was just below the towering canopy, scraping the branches with its back. Bone spurs jutted from just behind its head and all along the length of its forelimbs. The thing could have swallowed me whole, with its gaping maw and oddly formed jaw bone. A baloth. As my mother had said, I didn't see, I knew. But this was much larger than any normally should be, why?

I didn't have time to think any more about it as the thing saw me and bent forward to devour me, not that it could have considered me anything more than a snack. Like a reaction I extended my arms and the vines over my body whipped into action. My fingers wrapped around two fangs and my vines did the same to easily a dozen more, and to my surprise the thing stopped. "You must kill it Silvos, or it will destroy you." My mother was commanding me to destroy a part of her, but why? Before I could ask, the creature tried to close its jaw around me, I pushed back, but rather than simply keeping its mouth open, I felt something give, and something snapped. There must have been a bird in the treetops, because I was able to look down as its eyes roll back in its head as the baloth went limp.

"Mother-!"

"Do not worry Silvos. Though I am this forest, and am composed of all its parts, I am not one of them alone. The cycle of nature is to be born, to live, and to die. The way of the forest is to be predator or prey. You have taken your first step to being worthy of my strength."

To kill something did not hurt my mother...indeed, it was part of existence. I had no idea how little I knew of the world. I set out to explore this forest that was now my home. I noticed more huge beasts between the trees, but unlike the baloth, they didn't seem so intent on attacking something less than a quarter their size. I didn't realize I had been following a rough path, but I came to a sort of arch, grown from two small saplings by the forest. But what could it be for? As I stepped through it to examine it more thoroughly, I felt something leave me. It wasn't something that I needed, but it was obvious when it was gone, and it worried me. Once again, I didn't have time to consider my situation before I was set upon. This time my assailants weren't so immediately threatening. Two large insectoid creatures leapt down from the branches above and hissed at me. They were Nantuko, mantis people. They had four insectoid legs coming out of a thorax, just before a long abdomen, and their forearms had a serrated edge on one side that could easily be used as weapons.

I understood their high pitched, chittering language. They kept repeating "corruption" and "evil" as they feigned at me with their arm blades. "I am a child of this forest, as you are," I would have smiled if I could. Their response was not what I expected. They chittered louder, and added Mirari to the words they repeated.

After a moment one of them finally managed a full sentence through what appeared to be panic, "Mirari, you are a child of the Mirari."

"What is the...Mirari?" even with all nature's knowledge, I couldn't place the name.

"Cancer. Corruption. The Mirari is corruption upon the forest. Its children are not welcome in Krosa."

"That is not Krosa?" I gestured to the forest behind me.

"Gorgon mound. Cancer on the forest." Those words stunned me. I was born in the middle of this...gorgon mound; I was born of what these creatures called a cancer. Krosa had blessed me, given me its strength, borne me of its growth...its unnatural growth, its cancer. That is what had left me when I had passed that threshold, what must have been the influence of the Mirari, what was causing the mutation to the forest. I was no son of the forest, I was an insult to the natural order. The baloth I had killed...it had been mutated by the Mirari until it had grown to extents beyond nature. Was it the Mirari itself which had told me to kill the creature?

I was still so young, by almost any standards and I had just realized my existence was a lie. I looked from one of the Nantuko to the other, "Please, I am not evil, if I am not welcome in this forest let me leave."

The two looked at each other, then at me, and then their spokesman began chittering again, "You are the first from the gorgon mound that spoke. The first that was not mindless with power," He paused as if waiting for me to soak it in.

"I was not changed by the mound, I was born of it."

"Yess..." it hissed thoughtfully, then paused, "you are made of this corruption, yet you are less corrupted than all otherss..." another thoughtful hiss and a pause, "We will escort you from the forest, with your promise never to return."

The offer stunned me, return to the confines of what may be raw mutation, or be banished from my mother forest forever..."Very well."

The two Nantuko chittered to each other, then one ran off through the trees. "Come," was all the other said before it turned and slowly began walking away. I followed it silently, observing the life around me. I called out to the forest, but it was suddenly silent to me. The Nantuko must have either thought I was insane after all, or that I was receiving answers, because he didn't react to my words.

Finally we reached the edge of the forest, a barren desert stretched before me. Wordlessly the Nantuko turned and began to leave, when he was behind me he stopped. "Do not return. Or we shall see how much of a 'child of Krosa' you truly are," with that he left. I had to find a purpose in the world. If I was shunned in the forest from which I was born, I had to find purpose elsewhere.

I journeyed over the desert, through light and dark, hot and cold. All around me there was nothing but sand, and I began to wonder if the Krosan was all there was to the world. It was on the third day that I saw the city. On the horizon there was a strange distortion. I had seen many like it on my journey, but rather than dissipating as I approached, it grew bigger, until it was a huge city, rising up from a canyon and descending into it, the city was larger than it seemed and deeper than even the forest. Perhaps I could find purpose here.