The Mimic Becomes a Merchant King

Coin did not sail for too long after sunset. While his eyes were sharper in the dark than those of a normal human, he knew it was risky to sail in such conditions. And, given that this was his first attempt at sailing and that he had only the one ship, he decided it was best to avoid risk if he could help it.

The sea was oddly quiet and tranquil, and he had gradually adapted to the slow rocking of the boat as he lay in his cot. But sleep evaded him.

Now that he was on the sea, he could sense Colony's looming presence much more firmly in his mind. The island pulsed distantly, a guiding star that pointed him in the right direction.

And then, as he lay still, that alien voice reached out to him.

Coin.

"I'm here," he replied, lazing on his thin bedding.

You are finally coming to me, then.

"Yeah," he replied, his voice low and sleepy. "Took a little bit of time, but I found the right way."

This is good. I was starting to worry, Colony said. Though, as ever, it spoke with a dull, toneless voice.

"So... you really wanted to meet solely out of curiosity?" he asked, staring into the darkness of his cabin. "I know we're two of a kind but... were you really waiting all this time, in case someone like you showed up?"

Colony seemed to contemplate this for some time. I was... alone for many, many years, it eventually replied. I did not dwell on this at the time. But sensing you, that spark of animus that resonated through reality, it made me aware of my solitude. The more I dwelled on that, the more I knew I did not wish to be alone.

"You don't have to just make friends with other mimics," Coin said. "Humans can be nice. Not all of them, but... some."

Friends with humans? Is that why you wear the skin of one? And walk arond in their society?

"Yeah. I wanted... I wanted to be more than what I was. And acting like a human was the best way to make that happen."

Strange. With that power of yours, you are limiting yourself by playing things their way.

Coin sighed. He supposed to Colony, his choice of life must have seemed silly. "How did you become the way you are?" he asked. A mimic getting transformed in the same way he had already seemed strange enough. One left adrift at sea, growing gargantuan in size, was even crazier.

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Perhaps I could show you. At this range, our minds can entwine easier.

"Yeah, I don't see why not." Coin yawned and closed his eyes. "I was about to rest anyway."

The images filtered into his mind soon after he fell asleep. Distant and hazy, like a watercolour painting that had been brought to life. He watched the chaotic jumble of shapes and colours growing sharper and more defined, until he could tell he was inside some manner of tunnel.

A mimic crawled weakly from the darkness of the cavern, shaky and uneasy on its gangly limbs. Even at a glance, Coin could tell the poor thing was starving. Food had grown so scarce that it was abandoning its lair outright.

The sunlight of the surface was near blinding for the creature, who clung to the shadows and scuttled from its hiding space only when the sun had set. It subsisted on wildlife, gorging on deer and forest lizards, and allowed the taste of nature to guide it along until it reached the coast.

There, with the briny scent of saltwater fresh on its nose, the mimic saw a sailing vessel for the first time. It, along with many smaller boats, sat moored at a busy port that the creature could see from its raised vantage point. Animal fascination gripped the mimic, watching the humans of the port scuttling too and fro.

The language they spoke was Arcadian, but spoken with an accent Coin had never heard. The buildings were smaller and rougher in construction. And the clothing the people were consisted of roughspun tunics and flowing robes. Clearly Colony had been 'born' in a time period many centuries ago, but it was doubtful the other Mimic could recall the exact period.

At some point, as it crept through the port tow and snacked upon the homeless and destitute on a nightly basis, it eventually found itself close to the docks proper. And, disguised as a treasure chest, it found itself hoisted onto a boat along with an assortment of other cargo.

Darkness and the rocking of the ship seemed to assail the mimic from the depths of the cargo hold as the boat took to the sea, sailing to parts unknown. At night it slithered about, picking off any of the crew it could find.

And then, one night, a great storm rocked the ship. The wind howled, the waves surged, and it seemed that, at any moment, the ship could have gone under.

Coin watched the murky haze of Colony's memories, the other mimic scrambling about in the bowels of the ship. It understood, inherently, that it could die at any moment in this strange situation. In that moment, gripped by blind animal panic, the mimic didn't care for subterfuge or stealth. All it wanted was to eat and feast, anything to distract itself from the turbulent rocking of the vessel.

In that chaos it barged into one cabin, and found itself face to face with a panicked wizard in flowing red robes, trying to secure his trunk of magical wares. The old man faced the incoming mimic head-on, unleashing torrents of magical power.

Ordinarily, the wizard was strong enough to kill a mimic easily. Indeed, his blasts of power shredded chunks of Colony's flesh away. But the ship was rocked by a colossal wave, knocking him off balance. And, in those fleeting seconds as he tried to right himself, the wizard was engulfed in a flailing, burning wall of tongues and teeth.

Colony's enraged mass thrashed about, sweeping up everything in the area, including the wizard's trunk. Glass shattered in Colony's body, the noise almost drowned out entirely by the capsizing of the ship. Colony shrieked, it's mind overwhelmed by the sudden rush of Animus... and then all went black.

Coin blinked back to reality. "Whoa," he murmured. "So... you really are like me. A crazy freak of chance."

So it seems.

"Well... what happened after that?"

I... do not recall, Colony said eventually. My mind is a blur in this period. Hazy and ill-formed. I remember chaos. Panic. I thrashed in the ocean, devouring anything in reach. Eventually I ate a school of fish, changing my body to breathe underwater as they did.

Coin nodded to himself. There were times where he forgot how adaptive his people could be.

Some time passed. The seas grew calm, and so did I. And I knew I was alone, far from whatever world I had known. I had solitude, and the capacity to understand that solitude. I ate, as all mimics do. Fish, sharks, whales, maturei... when human sailors or pirates came near me, I ate them too. With each human eaten, my mind grew larger and wiser.

"And eventually you became as big as you are now." Coin shuddered. If he let all his biomass unfold, he was sure he could cover a lot of ground. And he was willing to bet that Colony would be larger still if it chose to unfold.

A worrying thought.

I did not think there would ever be another like me in existence, said the massive presence. But I am pleased to be proven wrong.