Critique Needed for Paleo-flashbacks in Scifi Story WIP

[Papi-Anon]

So I'm working on a scifi story that has flashback scenes dealing with immortals in Earth's ancient past, and need some help in terms of scientific accuracies and guestimations. Just two sections for now.

This part is the Prologue:

(approx. 250mya)

Despite the natural smile sculpted upon his face, Cuga surveyed the vast ocean with pity as ashes drifted about the air in the aftermath of his final attack. The battle with the invasive, rival god that threatened the system, Cuga's system, set up over the many eons was finally over with and his own immortality had returned to its full strength. Staring intently at the crater from the air, Cuga watched as the sea plunged into the massive pit to fill the impact as a ring of tidal waves flowed outward in the distance. The would-be usurper nothing more than foreign cinders in the system now, Cuga felt the heavy burden of his fight for control lift from his pure white shoulders and rise to the heavens. Once more, only one god dwelled in the system, Cuga having proven himself worthy of his divinity.

The sensation of relief was was short-lived for the creator, though. Cuga sighed upon weighing the victory with the costs. Much of the central land on the supercontinent was vast desert, and the oceans were hypoxic with the majority of biodiversity snuffed out. Even the air itself was caustic with greenhouse gasses emitted from the volcanic activity and modified bacterium he personally set loose for his trap.

Life had ultimately been purged at a level like never before, but that did not matter to the god. Such sacrifices were necessary for his plan, and the god knew life itself would endure even these conditions to only prosper once more. What truly pained him was the loss of Sobca, his faithful hound. While that too was intentional, it was the only part he regretted. The mutual bond of the two immortals had brought much of Cuga's goals to fruition. But the foreign invader had shattered it all, including the vast genetic legacy that Sobca had accrued during his long service to Cuga.

'Even immortals can be vanquished,' the god thought to himself, recalling his first meeting with his hound: the day he chose the tiny, insignificant, aquatic creature to become his servant. It had been over a quarter of a billion years since that day, but for the god the memory was as clear as just a second prior. Every day was crystal clear in his memory, but the days training and coordinating with his companion were his most cherished. They were instrumental in his plans, and infinitely critical to the system's evolution of life. And now all that remained of his right hand of divine order were memories...and the persisting legacy that was uniquely Sobca's: the vertebrates.

Decentralizing his form Cuga searched the vast consciousnesses of life to locate one of his hound's many daughters far from the battleground. His first target located, he materialized above a hilltop of shrubs, gazing upon the herbivorous reptiles looking about in confusion. Their befuddlement was no doubt from the recent geological aftershock and thunderous boom of the massive meteorite Cuga had sent crashing into his enemy moments before.

As he stepped onto the dirt, the creatures before him took note of his presence with fear. The armored-skinned, rotund reptiles snorted and grunted as they turned away to flee with their back-swaying locomotion. But in their panic they only put themselves in far greater danger.

In their pathway down the hill were a pair of upright-legged, saber-toothed predators that were surprised to see the downhill stampede of the very prey they were going to ambush. The predators themselves had also experienced the earth shaking and clamorous explosion that rang across the land, thus were doubly off-guard at the stampede. With a bark from the female, her mate made a quick lunge into the herd with her and flanked the front row's members to strike at the unsuspecting middle inhabitants in the rush. The male missed his first target but found a younger herbivore pass ahead by a few steps, prompting him to leap at its scaly backside. The female already saw her mate's target as she galloped to face the scute-covered beast with her fangs open in a snarl.

The target skidding to a stop clumsily, the male predator managed to land his devastating bite into the youth, his dental weaponry tearing into the flesh of the creature's back leg. Its mouth issuing a baleful groan and squeal, it collapsed on its hind legs momentarily before attempting to run around the female predator. This proved to be a fruitless endeavor, as its limb had lost muscle connections and the pain only further hampered its strength and stamina. Both predators were alone with their quarry now, the herd gaining distance from them. Their sudden, improvised attack a success, the mated pair spared no time as they attacked other limbs in succession until the beast collapsed, exhausted from the shock of its sudden injuries and losing blood rapidly. In one quick lunge the female tore out the throat and its flesh, leaving the creature to exhale the long hiss of breath as life left the creature and it simply became food.

Atop the mossy hill, Cuga sauntered along towards the two ravenous predators as they ate to their hearts' content. Perking up, the male took notice of the strange bipedal creature walking over to him and his mate, the sparse bristles upon his neck and spine stiffening as he galloped to defend his mate who dined unawares.

It was the hissing snarls of her mate that did direct her attention away from her feast, as the female first assumed a defensive pose and readied to fight back.

Cuga's eternally smiling snout smirked more as he neared the pair. Rumbling bark-like calls made by the male echoed in the distance as he jounced forward a few steps to display his mouth's set of saber fangs to try and ward off the strange being that was nearly within striking distance.

Preparing to launch his attack, the male startled when his mate casually walked past him to the off-white stranger, her cooing sounds to it the same that she gave to him on occasion after mating. Puzzled, he crept towards the entity and noted his mate rubbing her muzzle against the lithe shin of the odd creature as she cooed more.

"Master," the female spoke slowly. Her mate looked at her with hesitation, the strange sounds she had just yipped foreign to his ears. Looking up to the three-horned being with anticipation and worry, she then bowed her head in submission. Unsure, her mate copied her on instinct. Cuga petted the glandular-skinned cranium of the female tenderly, the predator purring back in response.

"Master. Big noise and big earth-shake now. What was it?" She inquired uneasily. "It scared mate and I."

"Great battle," Cuga replied in a remorseful tone comprised of three voices in perfect unison. One voice was high and scratchy, one low and throaty, and the third a rumbling bass. Despite the trio of different pitches, the female still understood the grave tones and words. "Other god and I battled. Other god dead now," he spoke in the level of grammar she was limited to understanding.

"Other god?" The female tilted her head in surprise. "There other god?"

"Yes. From other world. Other god tried to destroy life. Other god tied to kill me."

Her thin tail tucking down slightly, the female shuddered as she slowly comprehended the situation that she had been oblivious to. She was one of the few privileged creatures on the planet that inherited sapience from her father Sobca, though like her sisters of various species her intellectual capacities were still limited in contrast to her father's.

It was terrifying to think of anything else as powerful as her father's master, let alone with an intent to wipe out all life and her own master too.

It was after her realization that the god then broke the tragic news to her.

"Your father fought alongside me, helped me. Your father wounded other god, made other god mortal."

Her eyes widening, the female asked with trepidation,

"What happened to Father...?"

"Your father turned mortal when he turned other god mortal. But other god was more powerful...and killed your father."

The female gave a throaty whimper as she looked down, her mate still confused at the complicated sounds the two were making, yet could comprehend that his mate was upset over something as he approached her, nestling his snout to her flank.

"Be proud," Cuga warmly caressed the thinly haired scalp of the female. "Because your father weakened other god, I could finally kill other god. Your father saved not just me, but saved all life. Your father saved all world." As the female looked up, Cuga then remarked tenderly, "Most important, your father saved his daughters and daughters' families."

Looking up to the eyeless face of the god, the female sniffed through her moist nostrils and nodded.

"Let m-me become new hound of Master!" The female proposed. "I will continue work of Father for Master!" Her synapsid visage was an eager determination that matched her tone.

"No," Cuga shook his head.

"W-Why?" The female blinked.

"I need new hound from different beast family," the god explained. "Change needed for world."

Frustrated and confused, the female protested. "Then what use of me? Father teach me to speak, to think, and many other things! Father trusted me to make our beast family rulers! What my purpose now?!"

Grinning madly, Cuga opened his arms as he proclaimed, "Your purpose whatever you wish! Survive, and maybe distant child of yours will rule planet! But to be certain, you must bear many children, and make many children of different beast families, just like your father did. Understand?"

Her stare intense again, the female took a sharp inhale. "Yes, Master!" She barked, startling her mate as she turned away to return to her meal. Bounding behind, her mate had no idea what had transpired, nor would he ever. The strange white being that made bewildering noises back and forth with his mate would never appear to either of them again, but the effect of that moment would forever change their lives as well as their kind's future.

Satisfied with the outcome of his meeting, Cuga disappeared again and sifted through the consciousnesses to relay the same information to the remaining daughters of Sobca in person. Once that was completed he planned to then find a suitable vessel to imbue with his divinity to become his new hound.

As he located the next target, materializing above the environment, he descended this time into a lusher part of the world in the outskirts of the vast central desert of the supercontinent. As he stepped onto the mossy ground though, he felt the all too familiar flicker of weakness in his immortality, that his power waned just ever so slightly from full potency for a moment. The split-second of the decrease in his power sent a terrifying chill up his spine. As he quickly decentralized his form again, he peeked into the consciousness of every organism from the simplest archea to the most complex synapsids. The sensation could only result from one being, but as he felt about, no evidence of the rival god could be found. Cuga pondered the possibility of another rival having come to the system, or that it might have been there all along, waiting.

Yet evidence of any other divine being remained undetectable. The energy of divinity itself was never on this planet prior to the rival god arriving millions of years ago, that was something Cuga knew all too well. Searching for the energy personally was too risky, he would need a new hound to hunt it down just as before. But that would require time to train and imprint on the new servant, and then the arduous process of purging the corruption of his new enemy's tampering with the system.

Then there were Sobca's remaining daughters. They too needed to be informed of their father's sacrifice and encouragement to be fruitful and multiply. That in itself was even more important than deputizing a new hound. It took but a nanosecond to decide, yet Cuga gingerly accepted that the best option was to proceed as planned and to simply keep close watch over the system.

His plans otherwise unchanged, Cuga returned to spurring evolution through his hound's surviving heiresses, after which he would locate a suitable replacement for Sobca. As for this new hound, he'd already decided on a particular group of creatures: a clade of saurians that had adapted to the devastating conditions brought on over the ages quite well.

Second part is the beginning of Chapter 2.

(approx. 150mya)

The past hundred million years had been rewarding for Cuga. While nearly one-third of the initial span of that time had been torpid with life struggling to recover from his battle with the long-dead god, the remainder of it had been a reassurance that life was just as resilient as he had designed it to be.

Walking along a riverbank in his centralized form he took in the scenery with great satisfaction. Coniferous plants had spread around the planet thanks to the breakup of the massive supercontinent. Marshlands, forests, swamps, even rainforests were in abundance and the fauna of the land, sea, and even air had radiated tremendously. Food webs had rebuilt with newer, complex life forms and already there was a group of the ruling taxon speciating to something new and potentially revolutionary.

Across the river, large herbivorous reptiles drank in a herd together, their elongated necks stretching out several meters towards the cold water to quench their thirst. On Cuga's side of the river, a lone predator ignored the plant-eaters as it proceeded towards the god. Over 14 meters in length, it was the largest super-predator to walk the land and possessed numerous dagger-like teeth in its wide-opening jaws. Even from across the deep waterway the titanic plant-eaters stayed alert and close together in a defensive clustering, the forests on the predator's end growing deathly silent.

As it came to the 2.5 meter god, the beast kneeled in submission as it spoke in a rumbling voice.

"It is good to see you again, Master," the mighty reptile responded in a polite growl.

"The feeling is mutual, Sobca," Cuga caressed his second-generation servant's upper snout in a warm gesture. "What news do you bring me of your efforts?" As his eternal smile opened to reveal his beak-like set of teeth, Cuga walked past his hound.

Standing up again, the carnivore followed close behind, speaking in the intricate tongue he had developed based on the first language his master had taught him long ago. "Several of the large long-necks have been culled to keep their maximum sizes in check on this and other continents, Master. Their dietary needs are preventing other herbivores from being able to compete over the same resources, therefore I felt it necessary to end bloodlines of the largest members."

As the two walked, other creatures kept their distances in fear of the predator and its complex, staccato growls. In their footsteps mosses and other dead or dormant bits of various life below their feet sprang up instantaneously to leave green tracks of a massive three-toed carnivore and a unique cloven-toed being.

"And what of their culled genes?" Cuga inquired with an interested tone. "Were there no traits you felt worth preserving the giants' bloodlines for?"

"I considered it for a few, but I felt it was wiser to let such advantages die out.," the apex predator sniffed the air while maintaining his pace. His body reacted to the pheromones of a small female of a different clade of carnivore nearby. "Excuse me, Master," he apologized with a bow of his reptilian head as the hound's body compressed and crackled, shrinking in form. The scales of his diminishing body extended and became whispy, blanketing his body in the new features his small arboreal descendants had developed but a few million years ago. His powerful claws and arms contorted, their range of motion transforming to a greater expanse while the quills grew even longer upon his lower arms to form wings.

The inner toe of each foot raised and attained dexterity as their claws became sickle-shaped and proportionally larger than the other toes. Smaller than most predators now, the hound was now reduced to fraction of his previous form with claws and teeth better at eating small creatures than the large herbivores they were capable of dispatching moments before.

His transformation completed by the surge of coloration typical of this new form's sexual dimorphism, the hound fluttered over to the trees nearby and called out for the female.

With a similar chirp and squawk, a rival male landed near the hound and puffed his own plumage. Confident, the rival began scratching against the dirt with his unique ululating call to the nearby female as he hopped over to nearby twigs and conifer needles.

Not wasting any time, the male built his mock nest with gusto and complete focus. The tweets of the female landing near him told him to stop for inspection. Peering at the upstart, he became crestfallen at the more intricate nesting the hound had easily created having bewitched the female.

Defeated, the male sulked off to find another mate, calling out for any nearby.

For the hound, the victory was merely another notch to the countless number of successful courtships he had engaged in. Mounting her, the hound instantly found that this new mate was in good genetic health through his special power. Seeding her quickly, he took note of her precise scent and plumage to find her again after he finished his report to Cuga. Heading to the trees together, the hound found that she had made a nest already, the scent of another male lingering in the twigs. His act of coitus had given him a full review of his new mate's memories, including the fact that her previous partner had been eaten by one of the ground-dwelling carnivores before she could be fertilized.

The behaviors of this species' mating habits were more or less monogamous, but it wasn't uncommon for males to leave the nest for periods of time to feed when their mates were brooding. Taking advantage of this instinctive behavior, the hound nuzzled his mate before fluttering away from the forest.

Returning to the riverbank, the hound swelled and expanded as his form returned to its super-predatory design, though adding new coloration to the scales akin to the genetic pattern of his new mate he had absorbed into his vast bank of genes.

Sighting his master, the hound bowed apologetically to him, only to have Cuga waive the gesture with a chuckle.

"Continue, Sobca," the god stood next to his servant this time as they walked further by the river.

"Thank you, Master. I have also introduced new genetic material to the archipelago fauna in the east, increasing the rate of island mutations considerably."

"And? What sort of new genetic material have you introduced?" The god's smile smirked just a bit more.

"A plethora of traits to certain groups, really. Dwarfism to larger organisms while gigantism to smaller ones, recessive genes ranging from heterodonty to fusing of certain limb bones, and even a trend towards further encephalization in my feathered descendants."

Cuga said nothing, his smile in its natural shape. The eeriness of his master's silence gave Sobca a worried pitting in his deep gut.

"But I suppose that is not what you wanted to know of my exploits, yes?" He finally asked.

"It seems your instincts are getting sharper, Sobca," Cuga finally replied in a faint praise, then asked in an ice-cold tone, "Where is the abomination?"

With a sigh, the mighty theropod answered. "I last sensed the monster in the southernmost area of land. It took notice of me and fled to the sea not long after."

"How long?" Cuga pressed with an Arctic tone that betrayed the smile upon his snout.

"Roughly...An hour." The beast felt his heart pound as he feared when, not if, his master would extract the truth from him.

"And why such a long time, my friend?" The god stopped, his hound ceasing his walk immediately too.

Sobca tried his best to calm his breathing. He had long suspected his master was capable of reading his own mind like any other life form on the planet, wondering if these meetings were really of any importance to Cuga, that his master already knew the answers and that he was merely toying with him. Did his predecessor, (and distant ancestor) he heard so much about go through the same fears and insecurities? The original Sobca whom he carried the name of with pride was described as loyal, intelligent, and above all else the standard that Cuga judged all life by, and thus the massive predator was always living in the shadow of his predecessor.

With trepidation, the second Sobca finally answered truthfully. "The abomination and I spoke during that hour," he tensed, expecting a form of physical punishment, but only heard a chilling chuckle.

"So you fraternized with it, eh?" Cuga asked in a jovial tone. "Whatever could it have to say to the likes of you?"

"It...It said- claimed that it felt no desire to wipe out-"

Sobca's explanation ended abruptly with a searing white-hot slicing of his maxilla and front half off his lower jaw as he recoiled from a pain beyond comprehension shooting through his head and body. Whimpering loudly in his deep, roaring voice he cradled his excessively bleeding snout. To his horror, his regenerative abilities did not repair and replace his lost flesh and bone, and the pain and blood only welled more and more. Before him he saw his master had summoned and wielded his great scythe used to inflict devastating wounds. The weapon, according to his master, would bring damage that would never heal, and only Cuga could use it in any way. His master was laughing now, his unnatural trio of voices cruelly cackling as the air around Sobca grew thinner in that one area, choking him as his body was puppetted to stand statuesque against his wishes as his lungs began to burn, forcing his body to adapt to the unbreathable thin air. Yet just as he was able to utilize the air more effectively, it grew thinner and thinner, continuing to choke Sobca.

"You have lost my trust, Sobca," Cuga grinned maniacally. He approached the frozen, gasping beast and placed his three clawed palm upon the pebbly flank of the carnosaur. The beast wheezed and shuddered as his body felt a draining sensation throughout every fiber. His flesh felt cold and heavy, his bones light yet strained, and his mind began to slow in its thought processes due to the lack of oxygen.

At last Cuga willed the last of the divine energy he had given to the beast 100 million years prior to return to his own body, rendering Sobca mortal once more.

"There. You are relieved of your title and duties now, creature," the god sneered once he relinquished his hand. "I shall let your descendants go on without you uninterrupted," he proclaimed with insidious glee as the ex-hound failed to achieve any proper breathing. "But make no mistake, they will not last forever. I shall purge them eventually, and then I will find a more suitable replacement to serve me."

The former hound began blacking out, his body convulsing in his asphyxiation but still standing tall by the will of his master. In the agonizing final seconds before his consciousness ended he thought back to his master's enemy. The abomination was right all along, yet the fact that the ex-hound had bought the creature some time with his own life felt...oddly pleasing as he slipped into oblivion and ceased to be.

With a release of his binds, Cuga watched the fresh reptilian corpse collapse onto the ground, residual air rushing out its severed nasal cavity and slacked jaws while its saurian eyes became glazed and hollow.

Decentralizing his form, Cuga began a long intake of life's living conditions, from the simplest archaea to the ruling saurians, calculating the likely scenarios of time elapsing and the patterns of the system before the ruling reptiles would be snuffed out. It would take close to ten years to properly plan the scenario, he guessed, but he would certainly find a proper solution to meet his needs. The abomination was still loose and needed to be located, a new clade of vertebrates would need to succeed the late second hound's descendants, corruption of the system would need to be purged from it, and all of this needed to happen in a natural flow of events for life to persevere. It was daunting, but doable nonetheless. In a mere decade or so he'd work out the perfect scenario that would solve all of his pressing issues.

Ten years to plan out several million years in the future: not a bad trade.

[Derek.McManus]

Nothing particularly jumps out at me but I'm no expert! Good luck with your project!

[DinoLord]

Looks like an interesting story; keep us posted!

In terms of accuracy I don't notice any glaring errors. In the Permian section, the only thing you may want to consider is that if the herbivores you mention are intended to be dicynodonts, these may have actually had hair instead of being completely scaly. I find it quite fitting you have the gorgonopsids being left to fend for themselves while the archosaurs begin their rise.

For the Jurassic section, a few things catch my attention.

• There's mention of the largest sauropod lineages being culled. The only sauropod lineage I can think of that went completely extinct around that time was Mamenchisauridae, which didn't contain the largest sauropods. Diplodocids did seem to phase out around 150 mya, but Leikupal shows that they were still kicking around in at least the early Cretaceous. However they were replaced by the titanosaurs, which if anything were even larger and still around until the very end of the Cretaceous.
• The exact evolutionary history of feathers is still in contention, but finds like Kulindadromeus suggest protofeathers may be more basal in dinosaurs as a whole than just coelurosaurs. At the very least, the instance of genera like Anchiornis and Epidexipteryx with more complex feathers suggests such structures began evolving more than just a 'few' million years before 150 mya.
• Europe was indeed largely an island chain at this time, but the more concrete examples of insular dwarfism in dinosaurs are known from Hateg Island in the late Cretaceous. The only late Jurassic example that comes to mind is Europasaurus. WWD showed Eustreptospondylus as a case of insular dwarfism but neglected to realize the holotype was a subadult specimen.

Once again, please keep us updated, and feel free to have us check accuracy on any more sections you may have!

[Papi-Anon]

Thanks!

Permian:
The herbivores are actually meant to be paraeisaurs, I wanted to leave the genera unspecified.

Jurassic:
1) Sobca II merely says he's culled the genes of the largest sauropods, and had he not been prematurely terminated by his master his long-term plan was to have sauropods actually become smaller in overall size to let other smaller herbivores to diversify and ultimately reverse their roles in the ecological systems. I wanted Sobca II's untimely death to imply that dinosaurs were initially destined for even greater things, but without Sobca II they would eventually go into decline down the road and Cuga ended up wiping them out to start anew in the Paleocene with the third Sobca.
2) Duely noted on the feather evolution timeline. I'll adjust what's written.
3) Without giving anything major away, Sobca II merely introduced such traits into the various fauna. Again, his untimely death is supposed to suggest that the timeframe of changes was muddled and thus it took longer for such traits to catch on (if not die out and then re-appear later by chance parallel to the original failed introduction) without his shepherding of the various sauropsids.


The main body of what I've written thus far takes place in 2015 CE (Chapter 1) and is about the main character (a human college girl). That portion is more fantasy-like in its scenes and events but does tie-in to the flashbacks as the story progresses.

[DinoLord]

Ah, those details clear things up a bit. One of the most challenging aspects of writing is making sure your intentions come through without being too overt. I interpreted the phrase 'end bloodlines' as a complete extinction, but I don't think this was what you had in mind. Regarding your response to the third Jurassic point, that explanation makes a lot more sense. If other sections help explain that to the reader then I think you're good to go.

[Papi-Anon]

Tiny excerpt here from the beginning of Chapter 3. The initial half has few things paleo-related other than the moment right after the bollide impact of the K-Pg extinction event. It gets kinda weird here too.

(approx. 66mya)

The hound's betrayal long ago infuriated Cuga for ages since then, but, he wondered for the first time what good would come of the betrayal if Sobca knew that it was unforgivable? Why would the beast purposefully disobey?

The answer hit Cuga with a soft but sudden smack to his consciousness.

His second-generation companion had considered what the god stubbornly refused to ever accept: corruption of some sort was needed in the system. The energies of the affront to his power had been imbedded into the immense network of life even if in a comparatively small amount.

'Purity can never really occur in the system again, can it?' He mused to himself in melancholy.

Furthermore, the last 84 million years had surprised Cuga despite the admixture of opposing divine energies. Could the tumultuous combining of energies be the final key to his grand plan's success? It was something he had yet to consider, but now the god had become too interested to leave it alone. It took tremendous time to naturally progress life from the ancestral archaea to the synapsids that merely plateaued when he put greater pressure on them when wiping out the long-dead god. Meanwhile the unchecked corruption by the abomination may very well have been what had kept the second hound's children around so long without his shepherding. It was beginning to make an eerie amount of sense to the god as he rubbed his perpetually smiling jaw.

Conflict had long been the catalyst Cuga and his past two hounds utilized to jumpstart evolution, thus it made at least some sense to apply that same concept at a far more intrinsic level, hypothetically anyways.

Cuga watched the blast waves continue, enshrouding more and more of the surface with ash and heat. Already life was being purged just as he did before nearly 200 million years prior, albeit not as severe comparatively speaking. Burrowing animals and small creatures which required comparatively minute amounts of oxygen for breathing would have the greatest advantage from the sudden increase in carbon bonding with the atmospheric oxygen. Such advantages could very well have been from the corruption Cuga had devoted himself to removing. If so, what could be achieved with the survivors? The possibilities were great, perhaps even limitless if exploited properly. For the first time, he now hoped the abomination persisted, and thus decentralized to track down a location far from ground-zero but still brimming with life, particularly where any mammalians resided. They would be the new clade to inherit the world, Cuga decided.

While the saurians and their avian offshoots descended from the late second Sobca were supposed to be the new rulers of the planet in place of the synapsids, they failed to bring about the now mammalian creatures' extinction even without the late hound to guide their evolution to far greater forms than they had to date. The mammalians' endurance, while not impossible to fathom, still surprised Cuga, and that alone piqued his interest in the former heirs of the first Sobca. There was even an ancient group of synapsids that had survived the previous mass-extinction up until several million years ago. Truly the synapsids were unrelenting in their survival as a clade, and now the god considered the possibility that the saurians and avians were not the right candidates for his plans.

While this persistence despite all odds was nothing new for life forms to possess, there was something about the synapsids' case that seemed...odd. It was as if there was an intrinsic trait to their kind not naturally-occurring for a taxon. If the mammals were the likely survivors of this extinction, then Cuga needed to find one of them to be his new hound...and quick.

Finding a target at the best spot to afford Cuga the maximum amount of time, he appeared above a lone male creature scurrying away from a rather cunning avian-like saurian. The large-eyed predator was smaller than the god, nimble, and calculating in its pursuit of the far punier prey.

'How ironic,' Cuga felt his sense of humor return as he commanded loudly, "Stop."

All creatures, all life, froze in their places within a quarter of a kilometer, causing even flying animals to plummet to the forested floor (many to their deaths).

The near-petrified predator and prey had fallen over thanks to their running poses being ill-equipped to balance their statuesque forms. Only their ribs rose and fell as the creatures breathed steadily and calmly.

Descending, Cuga neared the mammal, peering at the creature with interest. It was two dozen centimeters long, its earthy coloration of fur possessing bands of dark at the tail and limbs. It's snout tapered to a moist set of nostrils with a mouth brimming with several types of teeth for its omnivorous diet.

Cuga looked back to see the horizon darkening bit by bit, estimating that he had probably a quarter of an hour at best before the blast wave arrived, but he still had enough time to study the lucky creature. Disappearing to look into its memories would not sufficiently help him in this important moment. He needed to probe further than the living consciousness of the mammal...into its GENETIC memories.

Extending his three-clawed hand as he knelt on the ground, the god's razor-sharp points of his fingers slowly pierced into the furry flesh, the creature's blood drizzling out as its breathing became strained and it coughed the scarlet fluid into its throat. Removing his hand, Cuga allowed the crimson liquid to seep into his claws as they became a radiant white once more.

Instantly the events of countless generations' lives flooded his mind. Unlike the assault on his consciousness earlier, his immortality had allowed the reversed events to be controlled and orderly. Seconds in reality yielded millennia of memories and traits both genetic and physical of the creature's ancestry and evolution. Mammals became more basal until they became mammaliamorphs, then became more basal until they returned to that of advanced cynodonts. Cuga noted the lessening of more advanced synapsid traits receding to become more ancestral. Dozens of millions of years had now passed in the genetics and the creature's precursors looked significantly different.

Further and further, the biological and physical memories intrinsically bonded to life's genetic coding revealed forms and worlds of over a hundred million years...and then returning to a single point where the line broke into two distinctly different groups intermingling that should not have been capable of doing so.

The god paused. This was somewhat surprising given the estimated point in the past it occurred. He felt the presence of his own power through the maternal line of that point, and thus refocused his rewinding slowly. A lone female predator of 184 million years ago came into view. Her legs were powerful and upright, her skin sebaceous but barely possessing hair follicles compared to her descendants. Her mouth bore two long, curved fangs typical of the top predatory clade of her time, but this was not the most remarkable of her traits.

The vast genetic memories of the line of ascent leading back to her were simplistic in thought-processing and intelligence. But the matriarch of this line was...radically different.

Memories of words both spoken and thought, cognitive processes of a sapient creature, and (most importantly) the concept of self that ruled her personality: she was one of the last daughters of the first Sobca. Carefully peeling back the genetic imprinting of memories, the god finally looked upon himself, arms stretched out and ginning maniacally to her as he declared,

"Your purpose whatever you wish! Survive, and maybe distant child of yours will rule planet! But to be certain, you must bear many children, and make many children of different beast families, just like your father did. Understand?"

Exiting the stream of inherited experiences and consciousnesses, Cuga chuckled.

Then laughed.

And then roared in a thunderous cackling that echoed in the forest for minutes.

"Most amusing!" He guffawed, returning to the mammal as it lay on its side, dead from its lethal wounds. "To think that female would be successful in preserving her lineage," the eternal smile of Cuga's snout smirked evilly. "Even going so far as to conceive from the smaller synapsids to mix into their bloodlines. She truly understood the ramifications of being Sobca's daughter," he mused to himself. A warmth enveloped the god that he had not felt in eons as he gazed at the lifeless furred creature. It was as though he had been reunited with his old companion. While this animal upon the ground was but a lowly part of the food-web, it was a distant heir to a truly persistent bloodline. Sobca the First would be most proud to know one of his last daughters' lineages managed to survive  for so long.

Kneeling again, Cuga's glowing hand hovered above the dead mammal and warmed its form with the divine power of life. Wounds healed, flesh and tissue regenerating back to the exact moment before the injuries. The tiny heart within the creature thumped rapidly, blood coughing out as it wheezed to breathe once again.

And then, Cuga placed his palm upon the creature tenderly, the small mammal cooing in comfort as its body became enveloped in a blindingly white glow. It tingled, an energetic feeling seeping into its form as it felt lighter than ever, yet its strength had directly increased as this occurred. It barely needed to breathe as the air smelled and tasted more nourishing than it could ever conceive, and then it felt an indescribably wondrous warmth permeate to every fiber of its being. As the luminosity faded, the small creature moved about and was released from his bond. Looking up at the god, it peered quizzically at him.

"Greetings," the god began warmly. "I am Cuga, master of all life of this world," he introduced himself to his new hound. Just as when he commanded all life to freeze, the god spoke in the eloquent, absolute tongue all living forms would comprehend, from the simplest archaea to the most advanced animals. The new hound, simple-minded as he was at that moment, could still grasp the meanings of the intricate sounds the white, tall being uttered.

As could all living things about the effective radius of the divine language's power.

In the distance, a titanic wall of dust with the force of countless hurricanes loomed closer and closer each second, the air in the forest picking up speed. Cuga looked back and then smiled more, returning to the tiny hound. "You are Sobca, my hound and companion, dear friend...and your training to become my hound begins right now. Your first task is to survive and stay by my side."

The young hound looked around the god to see the oncoming blast waves, his heart beating faster in fright as he fidgeted, squeaking uneasily.

"Be not afraid, Sobca," the god smiled more so as he knelt to the mammal and picked him up, holding him to his chest for safety. With a turn, the two immortals now faced the looming destruction. "You are about to experience one of the greatest purges of life this world has ever seen, but we shall endure every second of its might only to rise victorious."

The hound gulped as the darkness that blanketed the horizon neared, the monstrous winds whipping about his whiskers and forcing his beady eyes shut from the stinging dryness they felt.

To the side of the two, the statuesque, feathered predator breathed harder and more raggedly in terror at the god's words. It too could comprehend the absolute language's meanings...and thus was overcome with a sickening sensation at what the god had dictated:

The two immortals would survive...but nothing was said of lesser beings such as itself.

And in a deafening howl, the forest was swallowed into the dust and cataclysmic forces.