@hoovedrcyal | continued.
Matters of light and dark are entirely irrelevant for eyeless species, such as the various subspecies resultant of chemical A0-3959X.91-15, also known as Prometheus Fire. The ninth subject of its test group being one of those subspecies, the creature commonly referred to as Ix, in accordance with the roman numeral tattooed on its shoulder, thrived in the dark. It constructed its habitat from a resinous excretion, though the consistency was notably weaker than what one might observe in a true xenomorph.
Not that anyone of this world had likely seen one before.
Sensing vibration along the ridged, irregular grooves it had left on the walls and floor, the creature stirred from its slumber, wasting no time at all before becoming mobile. Like a beluga navigating pitch black waters, it dove effortlessly through a series of openings in the cave walls, finally stopping where it had sensed the movement.
From a wide crevice in the resin-encrusted rock wall, a long, thin, fleshy appendage reached out into the sliver of light that guided the prince's path.
At the end of the appendage, a bulb-like structure seemed to search for something before finally zeroing in on the prince. In the blink of an eye, the bulb opened -- star-shaped, with a tooth-ringed orifice in the center which audibly drew in air.
This long, strange appendage appeared to be sniffing him. To what it was attached, however, shadow obscured from view.
From the dark crevice, a curious, unoffensive whisper of a noise trilled out.
It had not the intelligence to grasp language. But it could understand tone, body language, and the subtleties of biology that cannot be avoided: stress, heart-rate, prey behavior. When the prince spoke to it through some telepathic conduit, the animal retracted its proboscis and made a clicking vocalization, startled.
It had never been addressed in such a way before!
From the crevice, its eyeless face, canted to an angle, peered out with grand curiosity.
What was this strange new thing? Where did it come from?
Satisfied that the individual that had wandered into its den was no serious threat, the neomorph labeled IX fully emerged, sniffing close circles around the prince.
Whatever he was, he wasn't human. And that was great start.
