Tribe of the Chosen

[Speedyscout]

The Tribe of the Chosen

Basically, I've decided to make a story based playthrough in Niche. I don't know how often I'll update this, but whatever. I also want to add more gods to my Niche "pantheon" of gods that I personally have so... this is how I'm doing it! Let's get started.

Prologue

"Are you sure this is wise?"

"Yes, I believe it is the best thing to do."

"Maybe you're right."

"Please, just trust me. We will watch over them and keep them safe, as much as it is within our powers."

"Are you not afraid of them... outgrowing us? Becoming stronger? How do you know this will even work?"

"I'm not afraid. Even if they do, I... listen, just believe me. We can do this, we'll work something out whatever happens. Look, they're stirring."

Four young Nichelings awake on a grassy jut of land, surrounded by ocean.

"Ow.... My head aches... Wait, where... What?.."

"Woah, what's this place? Why am I all groggy? EEP! Who are you?"

The little grey and yellow Nicheling, seeing the dark red one, jumped backwards, knocking over the beige Nicheling who had spoken earlier. They both tumbled to the ground. The little Nicheling who'd knocked him over jumped up, like she couldn't stay still.

"Aah, sorry, did I knock you over? Who are you? Wow, what IS this place?" She jumped up onto the raised piece of ground and started looking around, wide-eyed.

Meanwhile, the other female, a fairly plain-looking beige Nicheling, hadn't said anything. She looked around nervously and slowly began edging away from the others. The large red Nicheling, who seemed slightly older then the others, looked around, confused. "Where are we? Who are you?" He looked at the other male, who was rubbing his head and groaning as if someone had kicked him in the forehead - which, in fact, the yellow one had.

"Uhh... Huh.. Oh, me?" The beige male sat up, blinking groggily. "Uh... I'm Almond, actaully..." He seemed embarrassed. He stared around. "I... I was somewhere else. Not so long ago... I don't know... Why'm I here?"

The dark red one frowned. "Well, Almond, that I don't know... I don't remember much either." He blinked. "I'm... Rust... Is that right?.. Yeah, I think so. Okay, I'm Rust, and... You are?" He turned towards the yellow Nicheling, who was still standing, wide-eyed, atop of the little hillock.

"What, me?" she chirruped cheerfully. "I'm Sunny! Nice to meet you Rust and Almond and what's your name?" she said in one breath, before turning to the other female.

"Oh... My name?" The Nicheling spoke hesitantly in a soft voice. "I... I think my name is Shelly. It's... It's okay to meet you, I guess." She turned away quietly and stared at the water.

"Cool name! It's a lot like Sunny but not much like Almond or Rust so that's cool and by the way-" she stopped abruptly to take a breath and spring off her hillock, then continued rapidly - "where even are we because I've never EVER seen somewhere even at all like this before so can someone explain?"

Almond said nothing, staring at her with a bit of awe in his gaze, apparently impressed by how fast she could talk. Rust blinked, apparently trying to figure out what she'd said, then got the message.

"Uh. Yeah," he said. "So... I've got no idea."

[Speedyscout]

Almond groaned. Shelly said nothing. Sunny rolled around in the grasses.

"Ooh, sounds fun! I'm starving, let's get food."

Rust sighed. His dramatic statement, ruined. But he was hungry too... "Ok, yeah, let's find food. Get to work guys."

Shelly gave him a surprisingly hostile glare. "You can't order me around," she snapped, her voice still quiet. "I'll do what I want." She turned and stormed off, except she seemed more upset then angry. Rust winced.

"No, I-" he tried to call after her, then stopped. "Whatever. Ok, everyone else, do what you want to, but I suggest finding food." He sighed.

Sunny blinked, then went over to the water edge. "Fish!" she declared. "If only I could go into the water." She sounded disappointed for all of two seconds and then bounded off to find something else to do.

Almond, meanwhile, had said nothing. He looked around silently and then started moving over towards the middle of their tiny strip of land. "Hey!" he called suddenly. "Berries! Rust! Rust!"

Rust turned and bounded over. "Thanks," he said as he began to grab the berries. "We can eat these and get more later." Almond didn't reply as he was too busy eating the berries as fast as Rust could harvest them. He sighed happily.

Rust turned after harvesting a few more and began to move off the tiny strip of land, following Shelly. Almond glanced around one more time and then bolted after him. Sunny, meanwhile, stayed at the edge of the water, staring fixedly at some fish that swam always out of reach.

"Over here." It was Shelly, calling a little reluctantly to the other two. They hurried over and found a strange, yellowy-orange flower with extravagant green leaves. The other two peered at it dubiously. "It... Smells good," Almond ventured. He sniffed the air, then dived for the flower. 

Rust caught him. "Stop stop stop!" he yelped. "Don't you dare. I... I have this weird feeling..." He pressed his eyes shut as if concentrating. Then he opened them again. "I... thought I remembered something. But I forgot it now." He huffed and turned around, only to get a huge fright upon seeing a Crabbit directly behind him. 

Shelly choked a little, apparently on thin air, although she seemed to be strangely amused. Almond eyed the Crabbit nervously. "Is that thing safe?"

"If you leave it alone, it's fine," Shelly said quietly. The corners of her mouth were still turned up. She moved away from the Crabbit. "Just leave it be."

Then, there was a loud splash followed by lots of equally loud splashes. Sunny had fallen into the water and was apparently not an adept swimmer. Almond quickly plunged across the bay to her and dragged her into shallower water, she she flopped, coughing.

 "Urghh..." she grumbled between coughs. Finally she seemed to have gotten her breath back. "Stupid fish. I can swim fine but those stupid fish LURED ME IN to try and... Uh... Are fish that smart?" She was distracted by a strange-looking plant under the water. "OOOoo what's that? Almond do you know what's that?" And before he could answer she plunged back into the water.

"SUNNY!" Almond yelped, panicked. "Ohkelpohkelpohkelp she's going to drown-"

Sunny took a bite of the plant underwater and her eyes widened. She swam clumsily upwards and popped out. "It let me breathe in the water!" she declared triumphantly. "Now I'll catch those fish." And she ducked back under.

She did not catch any fish.

[Speedyscout]

The little group of Nichelings gradually began moving inland, off of the little jut of land where they'd found themselves. By now they were growing larger, Rust already being adult-sized with the other three not far behind. They were keen to explore their new home, as it had been several days and they had not yet moved inland.

Shelly lead the way, but Sunny soon caught up with her too. Rust, the slowest, stayed behind a little ways, and Almond was occupied with gathering berries from the bush they'd found earlier.

That night, while they were split up, they ran out of food. They quickly gathered more the next morning, but they were slightly weakened. They also saw a Nicheling in the waters. Sunny waved cheerfully to him, but he didn't seem to notice.

"Are those two gonna catch up?" Sunny asked Shelly, confused. "I mean red dude what's his name, Rust, him, he's like... So slow! So far back I can't even see him... is he even back there?"

"You... Can't see him?" Shelly said hesitantly. "He's... not that far away."

"Oh."

Soon Rust joined them, swimming through the water where he seemed at least double the speed he was on land. Almond had also arrived by now, skirting the shoreline, so the little group was now back together.

"Hey guys," Rust called. "I saw this weird red dude in the water."

"Him!" Sunny chirped cheerfully. "Yeah, I saw him too kinda but he didn't see us or here us or anything and anyway we don't have much food. Do you have food? I'm STARVING."

Almond groaned. "To be honest, so am I- BERRIES." He lunged at the berry bush and started stuffing his face. 

"Leave some for us!" complained Sunny. Almond blushed slightly, embarrassed. "Heh, sorry... Here, you can get those." He backed off from the stunted little bush he'd been gathering from.

But Sunny shook her head vigorously and sat down abruptly with a loud sigh. "Thing is, I can't. I can't harvest berries."

Almond stared at her. "Well... I'm not great at it either, but... You literally can't?"

"Yeah! What else?"

"Uh... Right. Here you go, then." A little awkwardly, Almond grabbed some for her and handed them over. With a muffled "thanks" Sunny began gulping them down. Finally, she was satisfied and sat back with a happy sigh, then began rolling around in the soft grasses.

Rust pushed through some grasses. "WHA- ...Oh." He glared at the spiky plant that had given him such a fright, resisting the urge to slash it or bite it - he'd just get thorns in his pads. "Stupid cactus... Not even scary... Wait, that's a cactus." He blinked. "I've seen plants like that before, just... If only I could remember where..." He sighed miserably.

Shelly, meanwhile, was alone, pushing on further through the grasses. Rust began to follow more slowly, pausing to pick some more berries from the bushes. Sunny, done with rolling on the grasses, hopped up and chased after Shelly. And so the little makeshift tribe continued their exploration through their new island home.

[Speedyscout]

As the Nichelings continued exploring, they continually had issues with food. Some nights they even went without. Finally, however, they came to a place lush with berry bushes, and replenishing rain fell upon them. While Almond picked berries slowly, Shelly destroyed an entire bush and got a lot of berries from the leftovers. Almond blinked at her as she gathered up what she could.

Later that day, Sunny leapt into the sea and managed to catch some fish. Much to the relief of everyone, they now had a decent supply of food, and continued their travels.

They soon came to a place where two trees grew alongside each other and berries were plentiful. Shelly found a tree stump in the grasses and leapt on top, calling out for everyone to gather. They came together and stood around, a bit confused.

"Look," Shelly said, straight to the point. "If we want this Tribe of ours to last, we're going to need to have more nichelings. That means children, and that means becoming mates. And I, personally, do not feel like becoming mates with anyone." At this point she glared slightly at Rust. "It's up to you lot, though. That's all." And with that, she sprang off the log and stalked off into the grasses after a Rabbil.

Everyone stared at eachother, and at Shelly's vanishing form. Almond blushed slightly. Sunny looked at him. "What?"

"Uh- Er- Nothing," he mumbled. Sunny blinked at him. "What?" she said again. "D'you want to be Shelly's, uh, 'mate'?"

"No!" he yelped quickly. Rust, who was quietly gathering berries nearby, tried to suppress a snicker. "No. Um. Not really, no." Almond became increasingly embarrassed. 

"Oh. Do you want to be my mate then?"

Almond stared hard at the ground. "Uh...."

"I wouldn't mind! But it's up to you."

"Um. Well... Maybe..." he mumbled, very quietly, blushing hard.

Sunny perked up. "Cool! I'd like that."

"Oh. Um... I'm glad... Thanks."

Sunny grinned and began tugging him away happily, chattering on about a nest she'd found in the grasses. Rust smiled as he watched them go, happy for them, but his smile soon faded. What about himself? Shelly would refuse to become his mate, no doubt. And no other Nichelings seemed to be around.

He sighed and went back to picking berries.

[Speedyscout]

A few days later, Sunny gave birth... to twins!

Almond hovered nearby, looking lovingly at the little ones every chance he could. "They're so cute!" he kept saying.

They were both boys, and they named the paler one Cloud and the yellow one Firefly. Shelly and Rust came over to check them out. Shelly wondered if becoming someone's mate was fine if she could just have children that cute.

The little ones continued to grow. Cloud seemed to be a bit shy and often stuck close to Sunny or Almond, while Firefly was more adventurous and outgoing. "Hi!" he twittered to everyone he met. Cloud just mumbled, "Hey." 

The little group stayed at the plentiful place where the two young ones had been born. After all, there were berries, coconuts, and Rabbils enough to feed them for a long while.

The twins grew older and a bit bigger, and had more energy. Firefly darted around, splashing through the bay, while Cloud followed shyly after Shelly as the latter stalked Rabbils. Cloud was delighted when he found the tree stump.

The little tribe continued hanging out and watching as the first two Nichelings of the next generation grew. Sunny and Firefly explored a bit on the other side of the bay, Sunny showing him all sorts of crazy tricks as he laughed. Meanwhile, Cloud sat on top of his tree stump and watched Shelly hunt, then jumped down to try and help.

Rust just gathered berries and grasses, wondering if he'd ever find a mate. And Almond watched happily over his mate and offspring, delighted by them.

And then, a rogue male got Sunny pregnant but we'll just pretend that it's Almond's child. STUPID ROGUE MALES-