Prologue

Your sneak preview of the exclusive Prologue of the upcoming book: OGGY The Secret Of Life.

I am Cetora.
That is my species name, and also my personal name.
I really do not know what I am, or how I came into being. I am here, and that is unexplainable for now. All the other creatures in this world have partners, yet I, alone, do not. I have wandered through this strange and daunting segment of this world and found nothing to provide me with the answers to my endless questions.

Why am I here? What brought me into existence? What does my life mean? I knew I could find an answer here, in a world I didn't feel I belonged in, but when I slept, I suddenly had a whole world I had created in my own mind. This was a world where I finally felt I belonged. This is what I wished for. And my dream came true. In one of my dreams I came across a place where the earth and trees and sound and everything around was twisted and distorted until it was all completely white, no sound whatsoever. And in my dream I stepped into this place, void of life, and looked back. There was nothing to be seen, but a faint image of the world I had just been in. It was very cold, like ice, but all at the same time my skin was burning. I now knew I was dreaming, for my mind was starting to wake from its sleep, yet I did not want to awaken to find my life the same as it was before, wandering all over this strange world, so I tried to stay in this dream world I had created. And the more I tried, the less my eyes would open, until I was unable to open them at all. The dream had actually taken me over, and I was now fully awake, standing inside my dream.

I don't know what really happened, as life was still the same with everyone else, but I somehow had made my dream come to life, and I was the only one changed by this. I had also noticed that my imagination created real things inside this whiteness, and I decided to create a world in which I was not alone. I would also create creatures to inhabit the new land I was to generate from my imagination.

I created my world. I now knew I was not completely all powerful in this world, and I could not create living beings from my mind, but I was able to create things such as hills, trees and grass, most of the things from the world I was first within, as these things were pretty to behold.
My world I had created was only a valley. A stream runs through a line of forest that is surrounded by hills, that get larger, changing to cliffs, as they got closer to what I call the 'limit'. This is where my world ends, and gives way to the blank whiteness that this world was, before I had dreamed it into existence. I had tried to create more of my new world beyond this line, but it seemed my power would not extend to that area.
So instead I started to create my new friends, from a skill I had learned, without realising. It just was in my head, and I had no idea how it got there.
I created an egg, using cloning techniques. I also created a time for the egg to hatch. I waited many months. It didn't hatch. And still I waited. I was worried. The egg stayed unchanged, though it was due years ago.

My efforts had failed.

And then I tried one last thing.
Through recent visits to the other world, I had discovered another species.
A species smart enough to build amazing structures, build shelters, and create things never dreamed of. This was a species whose minds grew with their creations, and grew in population at the same time.
They had called themselves 'Humans'.
I would open up a small hole between the two worlds, and link the eggs to a human of their own. This would enable them to think the same way as these humans, and the humans would protect the creatures from harm -without knowing it.
I created a hole through time and space. It lead straight to this human world I had originated from. And I was able to start my work.

The first egg hatched, and I knew my work was done. I had created them to finish up looking much like the legendary creature of the humans, the Dragon. This -out of the many human legends- was my favourite. But dragons were fierce mean creatures, and I was creating a gentle friend.
So I softened the dragon's fierce features, took away its sharp, clawed limbs and added sweet, soft hands. As for its legs -I completely removed them, and replaced them with a smooth 'slide'. This would enable the creatures to move quickly over this world's bumpy surface.
I left the dragon's wings and tail as they were, but miniaturised them to fit the perspective of the body. This way, as the creature grew, its wings would grow as well.
The dragon's eyes were mean, nasty looking things -able to show only cruelness and spite.
These had to be changed. The creatures had to be capable of showing many emotions -as then I would be able to see if I had made it happy or sad, and from there I could record what made them joyous or angry, and so on.
In the human world a creature existed called an owl. An owl's eyes were quite large, enabling it to see quite well, even in the black of night. An owl is not the most intelligent of birds, but still its eyes sparkled with emotions.
An owl's eyes would be perfectly fitting for my young friends-to-be.
All this was put into the creature I called 'Oggy,' meaning friend, or companion.

But the creature I have described is not what is going to hatch out of the egg, although that is what it will become. Much like a creature in the human world -a caterpillar- a much different looking creature will hatch from the egg, and, after a while, will go and spin itself a 'cocoon,' and the humans call it, and change into an Oggy. The first creature I have named 'Goi' meaning miniature, or undeveloped.

My newly created eggs hatched. And for the first time in my life, I spoke. A language different to those in the world I had once lived in. A language inside my head, thought, not spoken.
[Hello,] I said to them.
I taught these young ones almost all I know, though I did not tell them of how they were created, or their creator.
As they developed, I noticed they were spending time with each other, and not so much time with me, as I wanted them to. Time went on, and all of my creation transformed into their fully-grown Oggy stage.

They now spent very little time with me. It was almost as if they were ignoring me, for some unknown reason. And then, one day, I found out why.
One of the females -Tiora by name (coming from the word Tiara, meaning crown or headdress, as this young Oggy had a circle of light spots around her head)- had given birth to a baby of it's own. I was amazed, but at the same time extremely saddened, as I realised I was no longer needed in the breeding of these creatures.
So I made a decision to realise these generations of Oggy into the world I had created. I never saw any of this group again.
None of them stopped by my cave to greet me; none of them remembered how I had been their only friend, and companion, other than the other Oggy.
None of them even came near my cave. They were purposely avoiding me. I wished to be able to watch them grow up in front of me again, to see them change to become the dragon-like Oggy, and I wished to be able to talk to them.
I decided to try again.

I created a new batch of eggs, attached to a new group of randomly picked humans. And yet again I did not tell them of their birth circumstances. And for a second time I was disappointed.
These left me, to join a colony away from the first ones. Soon there would be many colonies. For I wouldn't give up creating the creatures I had grown to love so much. I had a glimmer of hope that some day, at least one of them would stay with me.
It never happened.

So I gave up creating the Oggy. I had created thousands, and there were hundreds of colonies.
They were also multiplying quickly. Each Oggy was hatched to have it's own human, as always.
I made a decision one day, no matter what happens to the Oggy, their creator will never be revealed to them.
So I created an additional creature to those thousands of Oggy.
I created a 'monster,' a guardian for my cave.
I named it Bubbles, as this new creature had bubbles that 'floated' across its stomach area. I made it to be a good swimmer, as I had a great lake flowing through my cave, and it may enjoy a swim. I gave it oversized ears, to double as fins while underwater. I placed small fin-like wings and tail on its back, and weighty feet to make it possible for Bubbles to stay underwater without floating to the surface regularly. Standing in the entrance of my cave, the sweet Bubbles would be quite a sight to any creature outside the cave, as on a dark night, the leaf shaped lights I gave Bubbles on its ears (to have the ability to see underwater at great depths) would look like hideous glowing eyes, deterring any outsider to enter my cave. But I did not give Bubbles my intelligence, as I didn't want it finding out how it was created.
This Bubbles I had created would never get a taste of freedom, as I could not have this creation running from me.
Also, I created it alone -like myself.

Bubbles served me well for many a time. But it eventually betrayed its creator.
It had caught a glimpse of a floating Goi outside, and after some time, it came to a realisation that it was captive, a slave, to a master of the strangest kind.
And it tried to escape from me.
I retrieved this now lonely creature, and brought it back to the cave. I was forced to create more unnaturally created creatures. I did not name these beasts, as they were made for one purpose. Bubbles was always tried to escape. And that had to cease.

These strange creatures did not have a set shape, as I did not create them from cloning. These, somehow, were created but my imagination. The monsters were mainly black, but like an unsteady image, they shifted, never really staying as a definable shape, but pieces always continued to appear and disappear. It was quite disturbing to behold.
I gave these new creatures no free will, no conscience, no heart.
Once again Bubbles tried to escape from me. The creature caught it.
That night my sweet guardian received it's first scars.
That night the first blood was drawn in this different world. And I was to blame. After that I guessed Bubbles would give up trying to escape.
But it did not.
Time and time again Bubbles tried to escape, and my monsters wounded it, uncaring. Of course, as that it how I had created them.

One day I returned to my cave, and found bubbles had destroyed my cloning equipment. All my stuff was gone. I would never be able to create creatures anymore. But among my things, I found an egg. This was the original egg I had created. It had never hatched, yet I had given this one my intelligence. I then remembered I had never linked this one to a human. I found a young female who was about to be born. Inside her mind, she seemed to be a good companion for my last Oggy created, but really, my first. She was creative, brave and had a great mind. But one thing set her apart from everyone else. She was like me. Almost alone, within her own species. I linked them, and then placed this egg in a nest made by two Oggy that were never able to have their own children. The egg hatched, and the parents were amazed by this Oggy's intelligence. The named him 'Ceilok', the Power of Dreams. Such a perfect name. This Oggy grew, and set himself apart from the others. He dedicated his life to finding out the secret of life. It surprised me how much he was like me.
Now, I am just watching him grow.

For now my work is done.

I know I cannot hide forever, for I know there is one coming to change everything I have worked for. But not just yet. For now I can hide.

< BACK to Book Info

^ top of the page

Please Note: this extract is subject to change before publication date. You may not reproduce any part of this text without strict written permission from Carole Whitehead (see Contact Info).