Cataclysm

There you are, wandering the world, when all of a sudden you stumble across a nice place to live. A warm place, with lots of food and enough water. A calm, cosy place. Uncrowded. You settle down, meet others of your kind, reproduce.

Generations pass, and your by now large family prospers. Food remains plentiful, as does water. The climate stays stable.

One of your descendants carries a new mutation - which who knows, may lead to an entire new species with wondrous new capabilities.

And then, out of the blue, a random event wipes it all out, leaving nothing behind but a barren wasteland. Whatever possibility that descendant with the new mutation held - gone. It's all gone.

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This is what I was thinking the other day when, for the first time ever, I cleared out the gunk from Lukan's earfolds.