I wake up in the cave I was tossed into by the imp who carried me here. I slept, but fitfully, startling at any sound. Instead of brooding over what happened I have convinced myself it was not real. I was scared and surprised by the weird creature and ran. Maybe I saw some things that weren't there, but I can easily forget about it.

There are a few spawn with me in the cave now, keeping their distance from me. One of them is still awake and guarding the entrance, the others are sleeping. We are at such a low cave something could really attack us here and the thought makes me stiffen for a moment.

It is light outside, almost as light as when the red sun is out. Part of me wants to call the other sun a 'moon', but the notion is rejected. It is as much a sun as the other although the light is not as comfortable. It will get stronger as time goes by while the red sun will weaken. Then, the white sun will weaken and the red sun will get stronger. This I know. I move to the exit of the cave, staying as far from the spawn there as I can. Walking I notice an additional body part starting to grow. My tail is beginning to show! Only imps have real tails, the stump of a scamp doesn't count and I'm rightfully proud of mine. Or will be, when it's finished growing.

The Swarm Hunts together, forages together, fights together and sleeps together so the queens and the males thrive. Those too weak to contribute are killed. So are troublemakers. I have not contributed and didn't cause trouble as far as I know, but that doesn't mean much. The spawn ignores me and I ignore it. The white sun is about to set when I feel like I can sleep again. Looking at the distant horizon it will still be some time before the red sun rises. I should rest.

This time I climb the wall of the little cave to hang from the ceiling like an imp should. I'll happily leave the dirt to the spawns and scamps, imps belong above the ground.

I wake the next real morning as normal. I'm brought to a different place to eat by a different scamp. I think we are with the same group of hatchlings and I certainly get some Looks. It's quickly forgotten as today we trek for far longer than yesterday. We can all keep up, our kind grows fast, very fast. We visit all kind of places with fruits, plants, nuts and other things to eat. This time we are told to carry some with us when we leave.

And so the days go by. Every day learning more about the giant trees and the lively canopy, the foods, the dangers. We visit the forest floor, a place of moss, fungi and decay. It's dangerous there, with a lot of opportunistic scavengers who wouldn't mind snacking on a lost and lonely imp. We all feel this and stay closer together than normal. There is no hunting and not much gathering to do here. The mushrooms are good, but not good enough to die for.

Every day I can feel myself growing stronger and bigger and I can see the same happening with the other hatchlings around me. By the end of the second week, most of us are recognizably a spawn, scamp or imp at one third the size. After this, growth will slow down. My memory does not say how long an imp can live and grow, but I feel it is mostly because we don't usually live that long. Looking at all the creatures happy to eat us, I can see why.

Despite how much each and every one of us likes to eat meat, the hunting is mostly opportunistic. I learn about this as we tag along behind one of the food gathering groups. Imps scout ahead, scamps do the work and spawn haul the spoils back home.

My tail has grown out. It is nearly as long as I am and has a small, sharp tip, about as sharp as my claws. As great as this is, as it is truly the beginning of a magnificent tail, I am worried. Where my wings are supposed to be are merely two spikes jutting out of my back. What is an imp without wings? I am not the only disfigured one. There is a spawnling whose third set of limbs have grown to be as big and thick as the first two sets. His body is also shaped differently to accomodate this. Then there is another impling whose face has changed. We all have big eyes, but this one has really big eyes! I remember what happened when I had just hatched, the little thing with the badly formed arm, and I worry.

It is fourteen days after my hatching when I first see the queens. Most of the colony is doing what it does, gathering or hunting food or being busy keeping our home in good shape. I've seen some species on the forest floor happily living in their own filth in a nest that is barely more than some half rotten pile of leaves, but not the Swarm.

Today all the others went out with a team to contribute to the Swarm, except for me and the others who look different. There are ten of us in total, though we're not all as obviously different. We are made to wait on the open ground betwen the forest edge and the cliff face. When the sun is at its zenith the queens come out. There are two imp queens, beautifully proportioned and worthy of any and all praise! Their wings are strong and their mottled, wrinkled skin has the most intricate pattern one can imagine. There is also a scamp queen, but no spawn queen. It makes sense. In this Swarm, the spawn are the least in numbers. The forest favors scamps and imps so those are the ones who are queen here.

There isn't long to wait after that. From above, way above at the top of the cliff, I hear sounds. Then ropes are lowered and figures come down carrying various things, and cages. When they come closer I recognize them as similar to the creatures I saw at the lake, except these have weapons and armor. They speak with the queens. I can't hear what they are saying, but the creatures gestures towards the little group I'm part of and holds up six claws. Fingers. I look at the cages. I'm starting to feel nervous and I can tell the others with me are too. It's infectious, jumping from one to the other and increasing in intensity. I can barely stand still. It won't be long before one of us tries to run.

Behind me is a low rumbling sound, one I recognize. The older scamp from my second day is standing behind us. There are others, scamps and imps, who are clearly watching us. My mind goes slowly blank and a strange feeling settles in my stomach. I am absolutely not hungry right now. The scamp speaks. No, fight. The same words, but with a different meaning: Don't fight, surrender, there is nothing to do. The six of us who are the most different from how we should look are separated and put in two cages. I obey without thinking.

The cages fit three of us each. Ropes are attached to them and we are hoisted up, bumping against the cliff wall, turning round and round. We're all on edge, nervous and afraid. When a particular nasty lurch unbalances all three of us in this cage we stumble against one another and the spawnling with the big arms stands on my tail. I spin around, swinging my tail out to slash the end on anyone I can reach. There isn't any room to build up a proper swing and I don't even draw blood. By now three of us are hissing, screeching and posturing. The Swarmlings in the other cage are quiet, staring at us. Somehow that annoys me even more.

Suddenly, a thump. There was a creature here too, a little lower on the rope. Focused only on my cage-mates, I had completely forgotten about it. I consider swiping at it with my tail, I could hit the head, but don't. I have grown a lot, but I still only reach less than halfway up this creatures knees. I am not afraid, I am just not stupid. The three of us are now staring at this man, and it's having an effect. He says something I don't understand, "Damned tree-buggers giving me the creeps", and keeps pace with us going up.

At the top of these cliffs are more of the men in armor and with weapons, mostly spears. They talk among one another, a lot. I think they are warriors. I had expected the fighting ones to have bigger horns than the one I saw but they all seem almost the same. With so many of them here it is hard to recognize any of them individually, so I don't try. The cage I am in is put on a cart with other cages. There are other spawnlings and some creatures I remember eating, but also creatures I don't recognize. None of them are acting like the ones I saw during the daily treks did, but then again, neither am I acting like a normal impling. All of us are too calm and watching too closely. I remember. I am the same, but not the same. One of the first thoughts I had.

We travel in the cart, always staying in the cages. They never let us out and my limbs start to complain. I always want to stretch, just like the other two I share the cage with, but it's too full in here. The journey goes along the edge of a cliff from where I can look over the endless trees. Up on the cliff barely anything grows, just some shrubbery of three men tall. The men who put us in the cages are always talking. Members of the Swarm communicate too, but this constant assault of sound is wearing me out. They are loud.

After a few days we stop for a while and two more cages are added. Each holds a large serpent. I'm a little upset they get a cage each. Every morning and evening we get fed and watered. Not the delicious water from the lake, but something which tastes like nothing. We are traveling mostly by the light of the white sun. It's a bit uncomfortable to be out underneath it and I have trouble sleeping when the red sun is in the sky. It takes time, but I get used to it. The men are still talking all the time.

One more stop, this time more swarmlings. I note there are more spawn in this group, for some reason.

The wagons keep going and it's becoming hard to pay attention to anything or to even move. I feel lethargic, tired. Looking around at the land around me has lost all attraction, there is nothing to do, I can't move and now I can't care. Many of the others are in the same condition, the ones who were on the wagon before me obviously the worst off. Only the serpents seem fine, but it's hard to tell. The rocking and bumping of the wagon that used to startle me now lulls me into a trance. When the wagon stops I rouse enough to eat and drink. I don't know how long this goes on.

The trance ends for a final time when we reach the strangest place I have seen so far. It is like someone chose to live in a cliff like I do, like I did, then put wood in front of all the cave openings and built extra caves on the plateau. The wagons go to a place that reeks of all kind of creatures, but I see none. Our cage is unloaded and carried... somewhere. A bigger cage is the only way I can describe it. Once inside the door, which had been closed all this time is opened. The three of us sit and stare at the open door to our cage and don't move. It is only towards evening, when food and water are put at the far end of our new cage, that we move. When we return to the first cage, we find it gone. A small voice rages at me for not even noticing when they took it away.

At least, this night, I can climb up the wall of this cage, a solid wall instead of bars, and sleep from the ceiling again. My tail twines itself around a nearby handhold, I'm not entirely confident I'll be able to hold on the whole night. I feel so weak. Tomorrow I'll feel better. I'm more certain of that than I have been of anything before.