"Dammit Joral, you better not be thinking that I won't come down there and beat some sense into your thick skull."

While my words may have conveyed some sort of real anger with Joral, I was, in fact, pleased with his progress.

Joral was one of the newest additions to my little swarm, and, had I not interfered, would almost certainly have become the alpha of his clutch. He was built like Tieran had been, big and strong, but wasn't quite so unhinged as my broodmate. Joral listened to what he was told, and made improvements immediately... I wished I had that same quality.

Speaking of "listening to what he was told", Joral called back to me, in the midst of battle, "But, Leader... I'm winning 1v3..." There was a wry grin on his face, and something told me that he had caught on to my little trick of acting like I actually knew better than him. He was fighting to a nonlethal conclusion against 3 of his broodmates, and was maintaining a solid advantage on them. Solid enough to spare a moment to turn and sass me. I grinned in return and made a signal for the fight to finish. The four young ones gathered around me.

"Ok, you three. He outclasses you physically, in basically every way--but that's ok. Keelish are successful hunters because we leverage our numbers and coordination. That's why you're disappointing. Three brains and three keelish can't even get a hit in on this guy, so get your crap together or I'll be dissolving your subgroup." The three losers' heads drooped, and their leader, a promising female who needed to learn communication, spoke up, "Yes, Alpha." I gestured for them to leave, and they did.

Joral rolled his neck and spoke up, "I don't have any challenges here with the babies. I need to fight some of yours to grow." He wasn't wrong, he was about 70cm tall at this point, and only 2 weeks old. Given that he'd never had the opportunity to become an alpha, I couldn't imagine what kind of a beast he could grow into if I figured out how to give him the opportunity...

I left the idea on the backburner as I not so gently smacked him with my tail. "They're your broodmates, and you'll be working with them for as long as I say so, so don't be an ass, and work with them, not against them." I walked away, "Good work today. Good luck on your hunt, stay close today."

A cheery cry of "Yes, Leader!" echoed behind me as I continued walking, and a rueful grin covered my face. Joral knew how much potential he had, and also knew that I had no intention of snuffing that out for some petty reason, so he could get away with more than most. Yet, he was never insubordinate or disrespectful, so the sentiment was friendlier than what I had with most of my subordinates, especially those of his brood.

Since I had watched them hatch, many of the brood had some sort of an idol worship towards me, and, given that I had continuously proven my own power, as well as that of my subordinates, that idol worship was strengthened in most.

As I walked away, I mused over my newly updated [Status].

[Status:

Name: Ashlani

Race: Sonic Magicblood Sub-Swarm Alpha

Current quests:

—Sire a brood. Rewards: Constitution +4, Intelligence +3

--Kill 5 humans. Progress: 0/5. Rewards: Constitution, Strength, Agility, Intelligence, Magic +5.

—Usurp control of the entire swarm. Progress: 5%. Rewards: Intelligence +9.

Stats:

-Constitution: 16+13=29

-Strength: 22+16=38

-Agility: 19+20=39

-Intelligence: 15+15=30

-Magic: 14+13=27

Skills:

Innate Leadership—cannot evolve

Pack Tactics—current evolutionary progress: 0/10

Improved Bloodlust—current evolutionary progress: 0/3

Dominance—current evolutionary progress: 87/100

Improved Vision--current evolutionary progress: 0/18

Sonilphon—current evolutionary progress: 21/50

Evolutionary foresight

-Sonic Magicblood Swarm Beta—Requirements: Acknowledgement of the Swarm's Alpha.

-Sonic Magicblood Swarm Alpha—Requirements: Deposing the current Swarm Alpha. Acquiring the approval of 75% of the total swarm.

Other evolutions possible, but not currently foreseen.]

I had just evolved to adulthood last night, and I appreciated the increase in stats. I could feel the increase in my physical strength, and it was more than welcome. However, it had also brought with it an additional quest, one didn't make anything any easier on me. My last two evolutions had provided with me additional [Status] information, in the form of bonus quests, but I wasn't too happy with the ones that had been provided to me.

I had yet to see a single human, and I wasn't sure if I was capable of killing one that I saw, in the off chance I was able to see them before I was slain. Furthermore, I was nowhere near being able to begin actively campaigning against Redael, nor defeat him in 1 on 1 combat, which I was sure would be necessary.

Finally... I couldn't bring myself to honestly consider the first quest.

Other members of the brood had been shacking up in all sorts of ways for a while now, and I didn't much care, it was just... I couldn't bring myself to think about actually siring children... with a keelish. The thought sent shivers down my spine, all the way to the tip of my tail, but the looks that Sybil had been shooting me recently did so as well. And I wasn't sure how I felt about that in general, so I decided to, once again, put that on the backburner.

As I walked out of the training area, I was greeted by the sight of a dozen keelish working on a dozen different projects. Whenever I was noticed, the worker would quickly bow, saying "Morning, Alpha." before scuttling back to work. I made my way to the main room and began getting my bearings on what was going on today. Sybil approached me and was about to speak when a familiar voice boomed into the room,

"Hey! You're a big boy now, ain'tcha? Now you need an introduction to true keelish society."

Rulac was here, and he had an announcement to make.