The adolescent, Bloated Garabula Interstellar Beast, as he eventually and derisively came to be referred to by Garabulas and non-Garabulas alike, had gradually become exceedingly obese. Why? Simple. Twas because this particular Garabula Interstellar Beast, constantly loved to feast.

No, the love of feasting was not unusual for his species. The shockingly enormous Garabulas, who were non-material, semi-amorphous creatures who seemed to dwell, or else frequented the inhospitable regions of space between stars, were well-known for being constant feasters due to always being ravenously hungry.

So it is of no surprise that this obese Garabula's mother, also enjoyed feasting. Yet, in contrast with him, she and others of his kind always remained physically within the parameters of the normal. In contrast, he was thrice their size.

The Bloated interstellar Garabula beast, had always wondered why. Finally, after enduring the criticism of other Garabulas for millennia, he decided to ask.

“Mother, why am I bloated while all the others are not?" the Garabula, Bloated Interstellar Beast inquired of his slim mum from a distance of several light years.

After gazing at him with motherly, Garabula-Mother-Beast tender compassion for the equivalent of several Earth centuries, the Garabula Interstellar Beast mum, responded in the following way.

“The secret is in the kind of food that you are constantly choosing to voraciously consume, my son," she said with a patient smile as broad as our solar system, and which partially revealed her crimson, anti-matter, serrated front teeth.

“You see," she continued, “you are hungrily devouring everything in sight, while we other Garabulas eat only the choicest!"

“The choicest?" the Interstellar Bloated Garabula-Beast son asked, while suffering deliriously from a sudden and profound confusion.

“Yes! Yes! Only the choicest my son!" she responded with an intensely infinite, maternal Garabula Interstellar Beast compassion.

“Watch me very carefully!" she then carefully exclaimed, as her Garabula son, the Interstellar Bloated Beast, watched in utter wordless, silence as she delicately approached one of the Andromeda Galaxy's spiral arms, and commenced to feed only on its red dwarfs, the least energetic of stars.

He meticulously observed, with an intense interest, as she very slowly extended herself, and then slowly enveloped each one. Noticed how she gradually began to glow, and how the enveloped red-dwarf stars began to slowly fade, and then, to finally flicker out.  He also noticed how their orbiting planets slowly became dark, frozen worlds, that had been suddenly gravitationally released, and were speeding away into interstellar space as if suddenly shot from a catapult.

“You see! You have to be picky!" she finally uttered after several more red-dwarf stars also began to gradually disappear within her.

“Otherwise, if I imitated you by carelessly feeding on blue and red giant and supergiant suns, then I would also be known as an Interstellar Bloated Garabula Beast, my son".

Her son, the Interstellar Garabula Bloated Beast, watched attentively as she then slowly began approaching a globular cluster which was accelerating in her direction from below the Andromeda's galactic plane due to her enormous gravitational pull which her massive presence produced. But it was far more than just gravity. Garabulas could actually move matter easily in order to make it more accessible for consumption. It was an inborn ability that enhanced their survival and prevented starvation. It was an ability only acquired at adulthood, and the Bloated Garabula Beast dreamed of the day when he too would be able to manipulate food in that manner. So he watched mesmerized, and a bit envious, of just how easily she was drawing that globular cluster towards herself.

“Notice too just how I very carefully refrain from devouring stars with populated planets," she added almost as an afterthought, as she once more converged on red dwarfs, and commenced the same feeding process as before, but much quicker. This time, certain planets collided as they were released from their orbits. Oh if only he could move in and munch, but that would only serve to anger his mum who was trying to provide him with a lesson. He was brought back to attention by his mother's next words.

“So you see, that is the reason why we remain looking normal, and you are obese, because you have been seen ravenously engulfing both stars and their satellites. You have also even been observed attaching yourself to black holes, and ingesting the in-falling matter for eons on end, my son."

The Bloated Garabula beast whimpered self-consciously in shame. It had been a feeding-activity he had assumed had been a personal secret. After all, he had travelled to the farthest reaches of the universe in order to avoid detection. Yet, somehow, his feeding in that manner had been known all along.

“The last star-system that you devoured,” the Garabula mother continued ignoring his self-conscious discomfort, “included ten gas-giant planets and five ice-giant ones, along with dozens of their moons and millions of asteroids within the star system’s asteroid belt. That, my son, is a meal which you as yet have not fully digested. Yet you are seeking more?" she said, while giving him a stern accusatory look from across the dozens of light-years that separated them.

“Do you want to look normal?" she added sternly.

"Yes mother, I do!"

“Then you must be very selective and control your urge to devour. That is the only way you will finally resemble a normal Garabula Beast."

After a silence that lasted the equivalent of a few Earth centuries, the Garbula son finally responded.

“I perceive the wisdom of it all mother!" the extremely Bloated Garabula Beast bellowed in gratitude. That bellowed expression was something that was perceived on Earth as a totally unexplainable perturbation in the Background Cosmic Radiation.

The succeeding centuries were not easy for this Garabula Beast, as he struggled to control his appetite and modify his diet. It was difficult at first. After having consumed and absorbed one star, the others that were easily within his reach seemed to beckon enticingly, and he often trembled with the effort to resist while emitting gravity waves in all directions as a consequence.

So now, after several Earth millennia, this Garabula Beast is finally no longer referred to as the Bloated Interstellar Garabula Beast. Instead, he is now universally known as the Cadaverous Interstellar Garabula Beast to his mother’s infinite delight, but to his displeasure since it still describes him as different all other Garabulas.

Last Edit: Jan 18, 2023 at 8:44am by Radrook Admin

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