On how Lorem got their host. Warnings for animal death and parasitic creatures.

The first thing it remembered was a forest. A very dark forest, with only little dots and a sliver of light in the sky illuminating the world around it. Those had to be stars, and the other thing had to be the moon... It knew to find a host. It needed to find a carcass if it wanted to survive. It knew that much, it knew that it needed some nonhuman corpse. A human corpse would lead to death. It knew a lot of things, it had its connection to the hivemind to thank for that. Over the course of the next few days it would be subtly fed all the information it would need to survive and be a functional member of society.

It clumsily slithered forward, snaking between tree roots and plants and rocks. It's long worm body was more like an arm carrying a disconnected head, it would need some time getting used to piloting this thing. It's eye is what functioned as its brain, after all.

Things were a little intimidating, loud animal calls rang out around it, but the darkness covered up where it was and kept it safe. It traveled like this for quite some time, until the colors of the world changed. The calming glitter in the sky was slowly being replaced by a great bright ball of fire. The sun was warm, but it exposed the wormling to the dangers of the world.

There was some noise up ahead, but hopefully it would be alright. The noise wasn't too loud. It suddenly burst from the bushes and onto an open trail of dirt.

"Oh, shit!"

"I-Is that a wormling?"

"Yeah, I think it is! Shit! What do we do?"

"Just leave it, I think? Gotta let it find a host on its own with no, like, outside interference, right?"

"Yeah, yeah you're right. Let's just, just let it have it's space."

As the one figure said that, they both backed away with their hands held up near their chests. They stayed quiet after that, hoping the wormling would get the idea and move off on its own. It was taboo for crooks and cccats to mess with wormlings.

There were no complaints to be had from the frightened wormling. It turned and dashed away, trying to put distance between itself and the clear area where those two skireans were.

It would simply keep traveling until it found a dead body. The sun came and went two or three times as it traversed the forest. It didn't really keep count. It decided to hide while the orb was visible, locking itself safely within a cage of tree roots. It was quite beautiful in there, looking at the dark blue sky from behind the mess of roots.

On around the 3rd or 4th night, it eventually noticed that something strang  was in the distance. The magic felt... Different? Lighter? And the dark sky seemed almost lighter up ahead. It continued on.

It came upon a clearing, it was a straight line made of rock. A road? The bright lights ahead of it pierced the darkness, but it stayed dark even with those bright lights shining in it. Sharp lines of many different colors swirling and connecting into each other to spell out messages and advertisements.

It slithered closer, its glassy eye reflecting a dazzling array of lights and colors right back at the great city. It was beautiful, really. This would be the perfect place to find a host.

Approaching the city, it kept to the shadows to avoid being seen. There were a lot of people here, mostly humans with a few crooks and cccats here and there.

It took around 20 minutes of being in the city to finally find something promising. A metal box filled with garbage sat in an alleyway, and surrounding it were rodents around one-foot long. Their short scruffy furs were shades of browns and grays. As the wormling approached, they turned their eyes towards it, some running, some simply twitching their noses in confusion. It figured those that ran assumed it was a snake here to swallow them whole. Jokes on them, as they were the ones who were going to swallow it whole.

The largest of the rodents stood in the middle of the path on its hind legs, baring its large front teeth.

Fine, it thought. You'll do just fine.

The wormling coiled up, then struck. It leaped at the rodent and wrapped its body around it. The rest of them ran off, shrieking out alarm calls to warn any that couldn't see the chaos that just erupted. The individual the wormling was fighting shrieked as well, its small nails clawing at the wormling's rubbery abody. The wormling grabbed its eye and shifted the size of it down so that it could fit inside the rodents mouth. Once the eye was small, it tried to jam it into the rodents mouth, using the other end of its body to constrict its neck. The rodent will have to open its mouth to gasp for breath eventually. And that's when it will receive its host.

And eventually, it did. But when the eye was pushed into the rodents mouth, it bit down. Hard. The wormling panicked and pulled away, uncoiling its long body and allowing the rodent to turn and run. Its teeth had pierced through the wormlings skin, and it was afraid its eye could have been cracked with such a tremendous force.

Well, whatever. It'll find another.

Its body had already finished regenerating by the time it found its true host. This rodent wasn't too far off, and it was already dead too. Surrounding it were little glass bottles or various shapes and sizes. Beakers and other science-y things, where did those come from?

It once against shifted its eye down and shoved it into the rodents mouth, this time with the wormlings entire body following close behind it. It wasn't very roomy at the moment, but that didn't matter. Soon its current body will become a tongue, and the rest of the rat will become its new body.

It sat still and quiet, allowing its old body to fuse with its new one. Its consciousness and feeling spread as it slowly gained control of its new limbs. The former rodents body shifted in size and shape.

The wormling had some control over what its new coat would look like. It reflected on the near week it took to get to this point. The comforting blanket of darkness, the safety of the tree roots, the beautiful shining lights of the city... All of those elements would be reflected in its new physical appearance, it decided.

It took several days of lying motionless in the alley until it finally could stand up. It lifted itself onto all fours, lifting its head and flicking its crowns inquisitively. It was finally time to get out into the world.

It took a few shakey steps forward, before shifting into anthro form and standing up straight. It held a hand against the brick wall as it slowly shuffled out of the alley.

When it emerged into the street, it was once again dazzled by bright lights, this time the city was illuminated by the sun and lights of various intensities. It sighed and leaned further onto the wall, wondering where to go from here. There were so many places to see and things to do, where would it even begin?