It's not the first time I've considered this, but I really should pay more attention to others. I know who the dominant swarmlings are and how to avoid their attention, the general strengths of many of the others, but I don't know much about any. When we're hanging around, there is no need to communicate much. All of us just sharing the fact we're not alone here. Without the need to hunt or forage, none feel the need to engage in any interaction other than to affirm ones position within the group.

I don't want to disturb the older members and I'm sure the others of my age and size feel the same. On their part, the elders seem completely uninterested in anything but their own routines. The goal, then, is to find a willing lower middle-ranker. They seem the most approachable and useful for my purpose. The one who let me ride on him during my first feeding time here is my first target, if I can find him. There are always dozens of us in various summoning cells and not everyone hangs out at the same places. Again I repeat to myself, "pay more attention to others".

I hesitate in my steps. On the other hand, there is no rush. From everything I've learned I'll be down here for several years. It's an option to wait it out and, when it's time, to move on and away from this place. It's disheartening but I can see the attraction. There are no queens, there is no colony, there is nothing to drive us onwards, to drive me onwards. Before my motivation slips away, I grab on to my anger. Ara making me lose, Mari being cruel. The devils for looking down on all of us. A shiver starts at my head and moves down my back to end at my tail.

Quickly I start walking again, then I speed up to a trot. My destination is a smaller clearing with a big tree stump in the centre. Scamp-likes like to hang out in and under the trees at that clearing, with the bigger ones taking the tree stump at the centre to lounge on. I believe I've seen familiar figures there, so it's worth checking out.

At the clearing I find several dozen swarmlings relaxing in various places and positions. I'm in luck and the bigger one with the armored back is there too. At my careful approach he opens one lazy eye to regard me for a moment before ignoring me. It's as good as permission to approach. Carefully moving around him I start by inspecting his back. Back then I never took the chance to inspect them so this is a good opportunity. After all, every single one of us gets these aberrations because somehow part of us desires them.

It's an interesting thing to study. They're not large, massive plates as I originally thought but rather sections of tightly overlapping scales, much like a snake. They are thinner towards the edges where they rub over other plates and, as I soon find out, quite sharp. With one claw I try to lift one up, mindful of the sharp edge. It doesn't move much, but enough to take a peek underneath. A fresh looking scale, smaller in size, lies there. As I lift up one after another I see the size varies. Probably they grow until they displace the old scale.

On lifting the seventh scale I find what I had been looking for. A small blood sucking insect is nestled just below. It's flat enough so it is unlikely to be squished just by movement. With my tongue I reach out and snatch it up for a little snack. A soft, satisfied grunt lets me know the big guy noticed what I did. Taking a step back, I look at the task at hand. He is broader, taller and longer than I am. The scales mainly cover his shoulders, hips, spine and tail, but there is some slight scaling along the flanks too. This may take a while and is not really what I came here for. I still continue for a while. The insects taste good and there is no harm in the big guy liking me.

It takes some time before another swarmling joins me. It is of a similar size to me. Its proportions look similar to a canine or feline. It's quite a common shape and it would be easy to mistake them for the real thing, if it wasn't for the third pair of limbs halfway. They also smell different, but that may not be something everyone would notice. It's coming to assist in grooming our superior and gather some goodwill and I'm happy to let it.

During a small pause I lock eyes with it and yip playfully, twisting my tail left and right above me. At first it doesn't respond, so I crouch low, readying myself to jump. Now I get a reaction as it narrows its eyes and responds in kind. With a quick twist I turn around and whip my tail at it, striking it on the nose with the flat of my tail-blade. The tip still draws a bit of blood and the scampling looks shocked for a moment before jumping at me.

Jumping at where I was, as I've ran off already. The way my body developed has made me at least as fast and probably gives me as much stamina as that one. Only its extra set of limbs give it an advantage in mobility and stability. A quick rush up one tree with some of the smaller swarmlings, through the branches and down another tree similarly populated by smaller swarmlings and our group of two has become a group of five, then six of us running around, chasing and wrestling.

Me and my pursuer have returned to the scene of my strike, where the big scaled swarmling is looking on with some amusement. Not all the big ones seem amused, some are upset by something disturbing their rest. I don't care, not this time. As me and my adversary run around him the scaled one can't resist. As I pass by its face once again it casually lashes out and knocks me over with the back of one set of claws.

I take a tumble and the scampling that had been chasing me is on me before I recover. It quickly bites me on the rump before backing off with a smug attitude. My attention is on the bigger scampling, however. It's what I've been waiting for, trying to draw the older swarmlings into the games.. Crouching low again I slowly stalk my new target who eyes me warily. The smaller scampling catches on to my intention and starts his own stalking, circling around to attack from behind.

I grin at him and hiss, "Play", drawing out the vowel, then I ask a question. "What name?"

His only answer is a guffaw as he gets to his feet. "Torn. Name, Torn."

"Play with Gal, Torn." I've approached as close as I want to for now and start to circle in the opposite direction of the smaller scampling.

In answer he charges at me. In just a few steps he has already reached me, forcing me to jump away. The direction I jump in is forward. It worked fine with the big cat, but Torn has more limbs and one of the middle pair bowls me off to the side. I'm quickly followed by my former adversary. We disentangle and start again. Some others have taken notice and are joining in with small yips and hisses of excitement. Torn, for his part, raises his head high and growls. It's an actual growl, low and rolling around the clearing.

Since there is no actual threat in it, all it does is add to our enthusiasm. The six of us start to surround Torn and soon our part of the clearing is a mess of tumbling bodies, jumping and screeches. By unspoken consensus, our goal is to rip a scale off his body while Torn tries to knock us senseless enough to give up. This is what I wanted! The chaos of running, jumping and tumbling bodies, pushing myself to even touch a superior opponent! We duck, weave, dodge and collide. Our teamwork is bad, initially, but improves as we play.

Something feels right about this. This is normal for a swarm and for young swarmlings, to learn this way. Because I was taken when I was just a few weeks old it's something I never experienced. Neither did many, if any, of the others. My distraction almost costs me some bruises in a near-collision with another swarmling. Torn takes full advantage of this and swipes both of us away in one movement. Tumbling to a stop a few meters away I take a moment to observe.

Torn is in a loose encirclement with different swarmlings around him trying to draw his attention by feinting, hissing and other tricks. When he is distracted one or more will try to attack from his blind side. Sometimes it works and one of us gets a short hold on him and can try to remove a scale, but the older scamp is wise to this trick and more often than not, those trying to take advantage of the distraction provided by the others find themselves the target of a well placed counter. As a result, we've all become more cautious. Even if he doesn't actually use his claws, it still hurts. This hesitation plays further to his advantage as it makes us slow down in order to be able to dodge.

Something shifts in my mind. "This is how animals would fight, though maybe a bit better," I think to myself as another two of us collide. It's starting to dawn on me that those accidents may not be as accidental as I thought. Maybe Torn is provoking it in some way? Regardless, it's time to rejoin the fray! I charge right in, ignoring the usual bait tactics. Torn turns to face me, but instead of backing down I keep going. It seems to catch him off-guard for a moment and that hesitation is enough for me to get out unscathed. Meanwhile another swarmling makes a jump from behind successfully and lands half on the back and half on the flank of Torn. It's the best result so far.

Another small shift in how I view a fight. A distraction or a feint is better if it's close to the real thing. Making noise may work on something that is stupid, but me or Torn will know it for what it is. To be certain I do the same a few times more, until Torn figures it out. It does make the game more interesting, especially once the others start copying me. It also requires more coordination and the number of times we hinder one another increases too. It needs work, but there is a potential useful thing here too.

Some time later we've all collapsed in the centre of the small clearing. The others relaxing here have long made space for the snarling and screaming tumble of bodies that was us. It was a resounding win for Torn, his experience giving him a clear advantage over us on top of his greater strength and stamina. To my even greater amazement he even managed not to injure any of us. Well, not seriously at least. Our claws left some long scratches on him, but the blood has already stopped flowing.

While my body is resting, my mind is not. The greatest gain from all this is the way I think of a fight. It's not just action and reaction. It's also more than my plan when I trained first with Ara, which was 'get close and on her back'. This goes deeper, to actual moves that would help me and others gain an advantage. Moments from our game keep replaying themselves in my head and I start to think of what I could have done different or better. Mostly about how I can prevent running into my allies at the wrong time.

The whole process comes down to 'what if'. What if I had stepped this way? what if the scampling across from me had done something else? The slew of 'what-ifs' is rather daunting and I'm running into one of the hardest things to tackle. To be able to apply a what-if to someone else, I need to know more about them. Knowing the general traits of an animal may be enough, but it wouldn't do for devils, humans or even swarmlings. However, to even consider trying to understand others drains my energy and enthusiasm. With a sigh I decide everything will be better after a nap.

In the next few days I go looking for other cooperative swarmlings. A small squad of young imps, scamps and spawns starts to follow me around, as there is always something interesting going on. The small imp who followed me around earlier has joined up too, but seems to have found more than just me to hang out with. It's hard to find someone to play with. Torn refused to react when I went to him next day. Some of the older swarmlings just chase us off, others need a little pestering before they get into the right mood. It's only very rarely that one of them joins in our games voluntarily. With my new 'thinking about others' I reason it's because it's quite tiring to have a group of young swarmlings chase you. It doesn't matter as this isn't about them, this is about me.

The days pass by quickly with my new training, sleeping, eating and just hanging out with the others. I've learned a bit about them, but I'm the only one with a name. If anything sets me apart from them, it's Ara. I'm sure the dungeon with Mari wouldn't have given me a name, or as much to learn. I still won't forgive her, but at least I should give her the chance to explain herself. It would be a shame to give up all the advantages she brings me.

It's time for the next summon before I know it. Harijia is waiting for me when I return from feeding and waves me over. As I head over to her the few young swarmlings who had been walking after me already break off to find their own entertainment. Harijia follows them with her gaze while I wait for her attention.

"That could turn into a troublesome thing if you push it too far, see that you don't," she says as she locks eyes with me.

I have no clue what she means but nod anyway.

This time, when the world turns white and I feel the summon take hold, a small spot on my back starts to burn cold. Dread and anticipation fill me, I've been looking forward to this.

The moment I feel I can move my body, I crouch, ready to spring into action. When my vision returns I look for the target. She is hovering a few meters away, a little up in the air with a smug look on her face. Either I'm bigger than last time, or she's smaller. I'm guessing I grew again.

Kicking off I launch myself forwards. One, two, three bounds then I leap up. I can see Mari's face change from smug to surprised to alarmed before she gets out of the way. As I sail past I snap out with one of the spikes on my back, a bit higher than she was before. Even while they're quite limber now, they don't have much strength yet. There is no need for strength here. There is no sensation of hitting anything, but a yelp tells me I hit a wing. I was right in guessing she would try to gain height. After landing it is one, two steps to slow down and hook in a front claw on he ground as a pivot point to turn.

Mari is on the ground, but already standing up. One wing looks a little damaged and she looks very upset when she turns to face me. Crouching back again I push off once more to try and get her. As fragile as she is, I don't need to pierce her skin to kill her. I can smash her, rip her head off or choke her. Fear enters her eyes. A scream and a wave of her hand means a push with that force thing of her. Before my next stride I bring my rear limbs underneath me and jump. My tail gets hit by the force which pushes me off-balance in mid air, but most of me dodges the attack. Below me I see Mari flying up and backwards, slightly hindered by the injured wing.

"Stay away from me, beast!" She screams at me.

A twist of my back at the zenith of my jump turns me right again. Mari has now gotten out of my range and is preparing to cast something again. This time when I land I turn to face her and brace myself, hunching over instinctively. A crackling noise warns me the lightning is coming. Instead of hitting me like before it hits me right where my back-spikes are. As it travels through them to my front limbs and down into the ground I'm completely immobile. Once it leaves me I'm left in full control, no trembling and twitching like last time. As I raise my head and look into Mari's eyes, I feel like I can sense her shock.

Again I run towards her and jump. When my claws reach her there is an explosion throwing me back and bouncing me off the floor. Last time that took my tail off. Mari is desperately trying for height while preparing another spell. yet again I take a running leap. This time there is nothing blowing me back. My claws clamp down on her waist. This allows me to bite down on her leg. There is no blood, but something inside breaks. Mari screams as together we fall back to the ground. Surprise attacks are the best option against magic throwing enemies.

I still have a hold on Mari's leg as we land and another crack informs me of something else than her leg breaking too. Her cries are now just of pain and fear. She throws one of the force attacks at me, but it only sends us both tumbling across the floor as I refuse to release her leg. Her being the lighter of us two makes her take the tumble much harder as she is flung around by my greater weight.

I take the gamble that she will be stunned for a moment and release her leg to try and get at her head. She only moans in pain when I let go, which I take as a good sign. There is blood in the air now. As my summoner, I can't pierce her skin, but the rocks still can. The devil last time showed it to me: killing your summoner, one way or another, is an option. As I gaze down on her squirming body and prepare to end her life a voice interrupts me.

"Well done," followed by a clapping noise. The old elf mage Tarvinder is standing in the entrance to the room and smiling at me. I take a quick look around it dawns on me this is a new room, one I had not seen before.

"Unfortunately, I have made an agreement with the dungeon and this fairy that I'd protect them somewhat." He seems to think for a moment. "Yes, so this will have to end here. Let it be a lesson to her and leave it at that."

I glance between him and Mari, who still hasn't regained her senses yet. Taking a step I place one claw on Mari's chest and look at Tarvinder. Taking care to pronounce carefully I hiss my question at him. "Why would I?"