An Accidental Quest (Second draft, Pt. 1)

Once there was a bacterium.

            He was set apart from the rest of his kind, by his own choice, which is strange, for bacteria are social creatures who live in constantly growing (or diminishing) colonies.

           

            This bacterium very much wanted to know the purpose of life, and very much questioned the answer he was given every time he asked any of his own kind. He suspected that he might be given a different answer if he ever asked something else besides his own kind, but he had never really come across anything but another bacterium just like him. He was also terrified to venture out of his usual rounds in the small, soupy world he lived and swam in.

            He didn’t know much about what else was or could be out there. Even though this made him terrified, he was also desperately curious about the world outside his own.

            One day, (if you could call it a day, maybe it was more a fraction of the many cycles that dictated our bacterium’s life,) as he was wrestling back and forth between his morbid fear and avid curiosity for the unknown world that lurked the edges of his lonely routine, something much larger than him appeared on the edges of his consciousness. He thoughtlessly fled, uncaring as to whether the thing might be possibly friendly or definitely predatory.

            He was heading straight for the edge of all he knew, and would have stopped, fleeing for his life or not, if he only would have noticed, but he was too busy fleeing the unknown thing behind him to have any thought for the unknown ahead.

            Still unaware, the bacterium quickly overtook his carefully accepted boundary and left it far behind, along with his pursuer, who had stopped stock-still, curiously, at the border of the bacterium’s familiar world.

            But he was once again unaware. Numbed by terror, and a little bit oblivious by nature, he raced onwards still, on and on, everything a blur to his frantic consciousness.

           

Completely spent, he finally directed his attention behind, the good news: he was no longer being chased, and the bad; he had no idea where he was.

            If bacterium could hyperventilate, this one would have at that very moment of realization. Instead, he swam in rapid circles, faster and faster until instead of being small and rod-shaped, he was rather large and oblong and hollow in his middle, like a dog chasing its tail. Eventually, he came to a stop, and returned to his normal size and shape.

            Finally calming down, he noticed a steady, pulsating glow, as if another bacterium was trying to get his attention, but the thing emanating this glow seemed nothing like any bacterium he’d ever encountered, which, granted, hadn’t been very many.

            “Who are you?” The bacterium cautiously communicated with a dim light from his own body. He would have fled, as before with the other unknown entity, but he was too exhausted, and intriguingly, this new thing made him feel calm and peaceful. He had no idea why.

            “I am” The thing simply emanated, and drew closer to the bacterium.