Chapter Five.

As a note for the future, making a 'loose facsimile' does not mean that you'll be copying abilities and knowledge beyond the shape. For while a centipede's many clawed feet make it easy to climb a wall, mimicking a bat's wings doesn't make it any easier to fly.

Imagine my dismay, if you will, discovering this after launching myself off the ledge of my new base. The idea seemed brilliant at the time- take the shape of my victims? Last victim was a bat? Bingo! Mobility problems solved.

The shape itself wasn't hard to copy, though it took pretty much all my biomass to make the 'shell' and left it fairly hollow. Once again I looked more like a clumsy 3d impression of a bat drawn in oil than the real thing, but I had wings! They were proportionate and everything. Even the fact that the shell was hollow seemed beneficial, lower weight = better flying right?

Once again, reality disagrees with my idealistic visions and I straight-up plummeted to the cave floor. The shell shattered painfully on impact and scattered shards of me like somebody had thrown a porcelain vase, which of course sent the [Blightlings] into a panic. They all raced down to me and helped to gather my liquifying pieces, with Skritter practically teleporting in an impressive display of raw speed.

After I’d pulled myself back together (ha!) I kept myself in puddle form while I debated on which shape would be best for the time being. The centipede from earlier was useful, my only concern was that I didn’t want my go-to form to be an exceptionally creepy giant bug. Admittedly any shape I took was probably going to look freaky based on my two previous attempts, but as a former mammal I had standards!

Maybe I could mix-and-match? Combining shapes was an intriguing prospect, and after I started testing the results were… interesting. We’ll go with that.

The first attempt resulted in a horrifying giant rat-ipede, and the less said about it the better. Afterwards followed an increasingly bizarre and esoteric mixup of the various bugs and rodents I’d encountered to date. None of these seemed particularly good for exploring the cavern (some would have made it worse than the puddle) and left me feeling dissatisfied.

Skritter, with his improved intelligence, quickly picked up on my frustration and came over to check on me. You need? His vocabulary was still basic, but much improved over the simpler impressions from a [Blightling]. It took some effort but I eventually got across that I wanted to change my shape better for exploring, and needed more biomass

He nodded once he understood, then pointed back up at the ledge. Yes, good grow. You stay, we hunt. My protests over the idea of being left behind were overridden by his simple rebuttal of, We die? Make more. You die? All die. This answer was technically correct (the worst kind of correct when not in my favor) but I didn’t approve of his stance on our relative importance.

What really took the wind out of my sails was the fierce loyalty and protectiveness underlying his words through the link. I knew he would keep the others safe as best he could, and given his recent upgrade was probably better than I would be at the job. It didn’t hurt that I would be able to observe everything through their senses either, so I’d know immediately if they were in trouble.

Grudgingly giving in I transformed back into the oily centipede and made my way back up the cave wall. I was joined a few moments later by Pollo and Gnaw, who’d evidently chosen (or more likely, been chosen) to be my vaunted bodyguards. The two were quickly distracted- Gnaw by the return of his favourite bone and Pollo by admiring his reflection in the ledge’s pool- so I turned my attention to the link following the scouting party.

The cavern was huge. Not in just overall height, since I’m pretty sure I’d seen similar caves on Earth in pictures, but in length/width? No contest. Massive natural stone columns separated the space every few hundred meters and broke off the view of any horizon, but glimpses through Skritter’s eyes just showed ever more columns stretching into the distance.

Now this is more like an underground fantasy cave! My earlier disappointment over my starting cave was quickly evaporating as the scouting party progressed. Small forests of oversize mushrooms illuminated by dense patches of glowing moss bordered streams flowing down the cave floor. Stalagmites covered in swirling patterns stretched up to the ceiling, the ground between interspersed by rocks and patches of crystal growing organically.

And everywhere they went, was life. Enough rats and bugs to grow an entire army of [Blightlings]. But spread between creatures that would’ve fit in naturally on Earth were the strange, weird, and otherworldly. Herds of eyeless deer with glowing mushroom polyps for antlers and rubbery-looking skin. A weird fusion between a squirrel and a jellyfish that set off tiny lightning bolts inside itself with every leap. Giant crab arms reaching from a nearby stream to grab-- oh.

Luckily for all involved (with the exception of the crab) Skritter was much better at using his senses to look for danger than me, instead of just admiring the view. His new lethality was put on display as he utterly dismantled the much larger crab.

Darting around its clacking claws with almost preternatural speed, his new pair of mantis claws slashed along the crab’s softer joints repeatedly. I thought the crab had him when it struck with both claws to try and pin him down, but Skritter nimbly hopped over the strike and sprung into the crab’s face. Twisting like a corkscrew in midair he ripped his way through the crab's jaws and deep into the shell.

It fell limp almost immediately, and Skritter burst from the top of the shell like a chestburster covered in slime and blue blood. The [Blightlings] (and myself, if I'm honest) could only stare in shock until Skritter's exultance came through the link.

Food! The little ones let out a squeaky cheer at this announcement and set about dismembering the corpse with disquieting enthusiasm. At Skritter's discretion, the three [Blightlings] gathered up as much crab meat and chitin as they could hold before setting off back to the ledge. Skritter kept his own claws free, maintaining watch over the travelling group.

My observation of the scouting party was interrupted by angry snarling from the ledge that jerked back my attention in a panic. Focusing in on Gnaw and Pollo I saw them fighting… each other? I dived over and separated the two, grabbing them securely with my tendrils before trying to figure out what caused them to fight.

Both of them gave sullen glares to each other and through the link I managed to understand what happened. Pollo had grown bored of admiring himself and started on building a ‘totem’ out of various debris on the ledge, binding everything together with a tarry residue from his tongue that looked similar to my own makeup. It was actually a neat (if vaguely disturbing) little piece, the problem had come about when he’d inattentively scavenged one of Gnaw’s bones for the totem.

Gnaw had gone looking for the bone after chewing through his current toy, and seeing it on Pollo’s project thought ‘neat, tasty!’ and started chewing away. Pollo took extreme exception to his work being a chew toy, and thus the fight. Sending them both my disapproval through the link had them quailing with remorse to the point where suddenly I felt like the bad guy, but I had to make sure they knew fighting each other would not be tolerated.

It took a while to get the whole point across through the link (man I couldn’t wait until they evolved and got smarter like Skritter) but eventually I got them to understand the fate of #2, and how careless noise could result in death for them or their siblings. My somber feelings came through enough that they both shrank in on themselves in shame, but thinking of #2 gave me an idea for Pollo’s totem.

Forming a larger tendril, I reached out and picked up the totem to examine it more closely. Pollo had managed to form a simple tripod out of some larger rib pieces about 15cm tall, with a small stone held at the top. Using more tar he’d then bound bits of jagged bone together, forming two branches almost like asymmetrical antlers jutting out another few cm. Other than some fresh teeth marks along the bottom it was still in good shape and perfect for what I had in mind, so I carried it over to the grave of #2.

Skritter and I had done our best to gather the remains of the fallen [Blightling] and bury him under a small pile of loose stone towards the back of the ledge. The other [Blightlings] were a bit… immature to understand the significance of the spot before now and this was the perfect opportunity to drive home to the little guys that this place was not safe. I set the totem firmly onto the rocks, trying to wedge it into position for a moment before both [Blightlings] noticed and scurried over.

Using their saliva they made more tar and solidified the totem in place. Kinda wish I’d known about that little ability sooner, as the implications were incredible but now wasn’t the time. Reaching out with a sharpened tendril I carved a crude #2 into the stone at the center of the totem and brought the two forward.

Remember. That was all I sent them, and it was enough.

Noise from the ledge alerted us to the presence of Skritter, whose eyes were locked on the new totem above the grave. Agreement came through the link from him as he slunk forwards, followed by him briefly chastising the [Blightlings] for failing to properly ‘guard’ me. Not that the two would do much at our current difference in size, but I appreciated the sentiment. Skritter looked back after finishing his mental admonishment.

Food here. We eat?

Sending my approval immediately improved the attitude for Pollo and Gnaw who rushed down the cave wall to join their brethren below. Skritter did his best to project the new ‘stoic, cool older brother’ attitude as we followed them down (me returning to centipede for now) but I could still see he was excited for more food. There was quite the pile gathered up, the vast majority being remnants of crab but they’d also managed to snag a number of bugs and a couple mice on their way back.

Gnaw’s reaction to the pieces of crab shell was one of almost immediate worship, an animal made of chew toy was the embodiment of perfection as far as he was concerned. His pleading gaze had me laughing internally as I portioned out the pile and gave permission to dig in. Everyone ate with gusto (including me) but the overall size of the pile had me thinking.

Eating everything here, most of the [Blightlings] should be about half way to evolution based on how much Skritter had to eat before. I knew from watching the scouting party that they’d only managed to bring back about a fifth of the crab and still leave Skritter free to play defense. If we all went… we might be able to bring most of it back in one go.

I felt more confident than earlier for two reasons, number one? Skritter. He had demonstrated a scary level of competence keeping the party safe on the last expedition, which segways nicely into reason number two- the earlier scouting.

I knew where we would be going and with a known route back to at least marginal safety I felt it would be better for us all to go rather than risk sending a smaller group on multiple trips. Especially since we'd now be dealing with the scent of fresh meat attracting predators.

Eating the crab meat put me at 340 biomass (rounding down a bit, it was getting tough to tell with my increased size) and while I briefly considered using the crab's form it ultimately made more sense to stick with the familiar centipede for a risky mission. With 340 biomass the centipede body was huge at nearly 4 meters long, and the more practice I got made me pretty damn fast on the ground too. This gave me another idea to speed things up a bit.

Crawling alongside my minions I gave a quick 'All aboard!' command through the link. They all stared in confusion for a bit until Skritter figured it out and directed the others to perch on my back.

Hang on tight guys, let's do this quick!

Darting through the twisted maze of fungi and stone, I mostly followed Skritter's directions as he perched behind the 'head' of the centipede. The [Blightlings] were enormously excited about our speed, though Skritter's exasperation kept them mostly quiet during the trip. I couldn't really blame them for their excitement though- the cavern was just amazing. New lights, sounds and smells passed by in a blur as we sped along. It was a struggle not to stop and investigate every new thing.

Arriving at the crab's body, the [Blightlings] hopped off and got to work dismantling the corpse. Skritter started his own job, namely murdering the various bugs that had shown interest in 'our' kill. I did my best to help cut the body apart with my sharpened claws and (favorite word coming up) toxicognaths.

We'd gotten about half the remains cut up and balanced rather precariously on my back when Skritter started getting nervous.

Danger coming. Not sure, should leave now.

I stopped loading food and focused on my link through his senses. The ecosystem around us had gotten eerily quiet, even the roaches had abruptly made themselves scarce.

Well that can't be a good sign. Time to go!

Reluctant as I was to leave food behind, I'd already paid the price for overconfidence once today and was in no hurry to repeat the lesson. Skritter and I herded the [Blightlings] onto my back again as quickly as possible and took off back towards the ledge. Not a moment too soon as it turns out.

As we left the clearing with the body behind I felt as much as heard a deep, powerful growl come from behind a nearby column. Panicking a little I ducked behinda large mushroom cap fallen on its side and curled around my group, urging them all to be as quiet as possible.

Skritter’s upgraded senses proved -for the first time- unpleasantly adequate to the task of showing me the true monster that slithered its way around the column. My anxiety ratcheted upwards as it just kept coming, a massive draconid wyrm. Easily twenty meters long it dwarfed anything I’d ever seen alive before. A pair of lumbering forelegs dragged its scaly bulk across the cave floor with a rasp like sandpaper, while an enormous wedge-shaped head hung close to the ground as it snuffed towards the crab’s remains.

I eyeballed the food on my back worryingly, the poor [Blightlings] huddled down doing their best not to shiver in outright terror. Firming my resolve, I made a choice.

Ditch the food. Then we’re out of here.

There was no way in hell I was ready to take on a mythical monster more than seven times my size, and trying to bring back the food at this point would only lead it right back to our ledge. They carefully lowered the stacked meat into a pile on the ground behind the mushroom as the sound of the wyrm crunching through crab shell filled the air. All too soon though, the crab was gone. The heavy snuffling of the wyrm resumed, drawing quickly closer to our hiding place.

Forget it, grab on now!

The [Blightlings] latched on to my carapace and we bolted away from the pile of crab meat. Skritter (brave idiot) sprinted away perpendicular to my course while screeching loudly, trying to draw the wyrm’s attention. A flash of worry for my first minion was obliterated by the wyrm starting at Skritter’s sudden noise before releasing a torrential blast of flame between us in reaction.

For a brief moment, fire filled all my senses. The heat, light, sound- the sheer rushing power was all I could feel. And I… recoiled. Utter terror filled me like nothing I’d ever experienced and the world went completely black except for the flame and the all-consuming need to get away.

The next thing I knew, I was back on the ledge. No longer in centipede form, I was curled into the tightest space as far from the edge as I could be, squeezed in behind one of the larger stalagmites. For a second I panicked looking for my minions, nothing coming from any of their senses until I noticed something weird.

I couldn’t feel their senses, but I could still feel them. Reaching out with the link I could feel them all -even Skritter to my relief- floating somewhere. Floating in… Me!? Horror flashed through my mind as I considered I might have eaten my [Blightling] family in my earlier terror but was quickly erased by further searching through the link.

Reaching out to them, they each felt mostly ok but something was making it difficult to tell for sure until Skritter once again came to the rescue- in a way.

Tired, sleeping. Need?

His mental voice had the same obscured feeling I got from the rest of the [Blightlings] and I realized with a start that it was simply tiredness. They were all asleep! Relief flooded me and I mentally waved him off sheepishly.

No, go back to sleep buddy. I’m glad you’re all ok.

A tired acknowledgement was all I got before he was out again, and I took brief stock of my situation; mostly normal, with no idea how I got here and my minions apparently returning to me to sleep.

Well… as long as they’re ok I guess questions can wait until they’re all awake.

My external senses were back to grey blobbiness without the minions so playing lookout was useless. Doing my best to form a hardened shell was the best I could do to protect us while we slept, for now. My thoughts turned back to the encounter with the wyrm as I started to drift into something like torpor. Guess fire’s my weakness… what a crazy first day.