Chapter 5: Facing Her Fear

Rihelah clung to her perch near the top of the green grass, observing as much as her eyes could take in while hoping she might witness another bright flash.

The air above the meadow hummed with a dissonant chorus of tiny wings. Massive swarms of unfamiliar insects performed a seemingly endless ballet of travel, courtship displays, hunting, and ducking away from larger predators.

Blue-winged birds formed squadrons and dive-bombed the swarms to catch their fill.

Movement caught Rihelah's compound eyes from below. A column of dark, honey-colored ants with jet black legs, eyes, and mandibles moved past the base of the plant she now stood upon.

Many of them carried slain insects, while others hefted the dissected parts of vertebrates.

Rihelah froze in place, shaking with terror when she realized how large they were.

More than ten times my size, and these are no average predators. They're ants! If one finds me and releases a chemical alarm...

Her fear increased when she noticed some of the carried prey and pieces of prey had been burned, and that fear became outright horror after one of their victims twitched a little.

The front portion of the ant carrying that mostly-charred insect exploded with bright flames, immolating its captive, while somehow leaving the ant itself unscathed.

How?!

The locust-like victim's legs curled tightly inward and it ceased its struggles, its antennae now burned completely away from its elongated head.

The ants never stopped marching during the entire process, and the one that had caught fire disappeared beyond her vision within seconds.

What the hell just happened?! Did that ant's head just catch fire? Did it breathe fire? Did its victim spontaneously combust? Is this some species of monstrous dragon-ant?!

She shook her head slightly.

How can that even work? Ignition requires sufficient heat, along with a source of fuel and oxygen.

How can a biological life-form possibly endure such temperatures, even in the unlikely event that its physiology proved capable of producing flame?

So many unanswered questions!

She kept her eyes focused upon the single-file march of ants.

Well, curiosity will have to wait.

There's no fucking chance I could survive an attack by ants that can throw fire around! Even if they didn’t have a weapon like that, they’d still tear me limb from limb!

Probably while I'm still alive and struggling...

She shuddered a bit at the thought.

I need to survive and grow, first. Answers will come with time. Gotta put in the work… and stay the fuck away from monster ants!

The last of the ants passed out of view, but Rihelah remained vigilant for a few minutes before she turned her attention back to her surroundings.

When she felt certain the ants were gone, her sensitive eyes scanned carefully over the nearby stems and leaves.

Hmm. Still nothing. I should probably seek out a proper hunting ground so I can grind some more levels!

Must follow proper procedure! Now, what sort of prey could this mantis body handle with relative ease?

I've taken down a wasp, though that was more of a struggle than I would've liked.

I probably need to move around until I spot something. Slow and steady, Rihelah!

For nearly two hours she trekked through the grasses at a snail's pace while keeping as vigilant as her senses would allow.

Any time movement caught Rihelah’s eyes, her body would semi-autonomously move in a manner mimicking the surrounding foliage.

Unfamiliar insects with iridescent chitin and beetle-like features, various large flies, wasps, enormous caterpillars that dwarfed her, pairs of mating flies, spiders within many types of webs as well as those that hunted actively like her; all of these caught her attention at times while the sky above continued to hum and sing with the movements and calls of other insects and birds.

Most of the activity seemed to congregate in and around various brightly-colored patches of flowers found upon many of the plants within the meadow.

But nothing drew close enough for her to attack, nor to attack her, as far as she could tell. She dared not approach the flowers, for fear of becoming a meal herself.

No place seemed fitting as a hunting ground until she glimpsed a somewhat-irregular bush whose leaves, stems, flowers and thorns reminded her quite a lot of roses.

More than any other locale she had visited thus far, this bush positively teemed with activity. Hundreds of tiny arthropod predators crawled over and flew around it with impunity, while seeming to ignore one another entirely.

After more than a half-hour of creeping toward the strange insect-metropolis, she finally found the reason so many had gathered. Thousands upon thousands of tiny, limpet-like creatures covered the majority of its leaves, and those were apparently the food of choice for local predators.

So plentiful were the prey creatures on hand, that none of the hunters present seemed interested in squabbling over territory.

Many of them seemed to fit the profile of solitary hunters, yet these elected to hunt and eat side-by-side.

A strange, sparse hail of little pellets cascaded down from above, making a soft pattering sound against the foliage as they bounced away toward the soil below.

I hope the apparent truce I'm witnessing will last if I attempt to join their banquet. If these things they are eating will give experience, it should be worth the relatively-low risk. I hope.

She hesitated.

Come on! There's no way to know until I try! So why am I standing here frozen to this spot, while I’m mere centimeters away from my goal?

Try as she might, she found herself unable to breach the fear of possibly becoming prey for the other arthropods that already occupied the populous bush.

Fuck... Spiders, wasps, predatory beetles, and so many others I don't recognize!

What if one or more of these views mantids as an easy source of protein? Will I reincarnate again if I die? Can I even afford to test that?

She felt a pang of dread and anguish at the memory of her recent death as a human.

No. If I’m killed again, it might be permanent. How can I safely learn the secrets of those ants, or the dragonfly? I can't risk losing this new life so soon after it’s begun!

While she stood in place and weighed her options, movement came from behind her, and when the approaching creature came into full view, Rihelah nearly shat herself in terror.

Towering above like some biological version of an alien walker out of science fiction, a creature with a mushroom-bell shaped body and twelve flexible legs that curled slightly around plant stems climbed over and past her onto the bush.

Dozens of tiny dark spots upon flexible stalks ringed its main body. They looked like the eyes of a snail.

To her amazement, while the walker's size far eclipsed her own, and despite more than a few of those eyes focusing in her direction while it passed overhead, it ignored her and the other small predators entirely as it began using four of its long tentacle-like appendages to suction up the terrestrial limpets.

The tip of each limb deformed to cover the prey creatures, spreading out to engulf them entirely before they were drawn up into the center of each leg, through which they traveled while struggling feebly.

The process occurred quickly, making Rihelah think of how a snake might consume a small egg whole. But this creature was doing it with four appendages at once, and rather than enveloping one prey item at a time with each, the tentacles immediately attacked again when the previous victim had passed far enough into the limb to allow space for another to be absorbed.

The impressive and unusual spectacle both fascinated and horrified her.

The strange leviathan fed quickly, only remaining for about one minute. Rihelah lost count of how many creatures it had consumed.

Then, as quickly as it had begun, the creature’s feast ended and it returned from whence it came. Those emotionless snail-eyes within their stalks looked directly down at Rihelah for another brief moment, and it filled her with dread.

Once the tentacled terror had gone, the other predators returned and resumed their previous activity.

Even after that thing vacuumed up so many, it seems there are still plenty to go around.

Her stomach complained loudly while digesting her previous meal, and she recalled her goal.

Hmmmm. Might as well risk it. I need to keep in mind how nature works. Since they seem unwilling to attack one another, I’ll probably be okay. Maybe?

She looked around once more to commit the locations of possible escape routes to memory.

I can always retreat if anything turns aggressive, and there is so much prey it, wouldn’t make logical sense for these creatures to expend more energy than necessary to gain the nourishment they seek.

Nature loves efficiency, after all!

With no small amount of trepidation tempering her resolve, she began inching forward toward the massive, bush-borne buffet.

While moving, Rihelah noticed something fascinating.

Despite having legs reminiscent of a crab’s, the tiny creatures upon which everything else feasted exhibited a wholly-unexpected trait.

Before her eyes, one of the larger examples began to pull itself apart. Within twenty seconds, it had divided cleanly into two halves, each an identical copy of the other.

How? Single-celled reproductive behavior, yet these things appear to have proper limbs and organs!? This world's so fascinating!

While she finished that thought, the farther of the two prey creatures that had previously been one was set upon by a predator.

A slender, well-camouflaged bug stabbed its sharp rostrum down into its hapless victim from above.

The predator hauled its squirming prey into the air, where its impotent attempts at escape quickly ceased.

Only a few erratic and strained leg-twitches gave any indication that mere seconds ago, the limpet-thing had been very much alive and healthy.

The shower of tiny, unidentified pellets continued to rain down from above. One bounced off Rihelah’s abdomen, but she paid it little mind as she kept her vision focused upon the numerous potential threats all around her.

Wasps carried one or two of the tiny creatures away with them upon every trip. Curiously, they didn’t bother to sting or otherwise properly subdue their prey.

Huh. That's odd. On Earth, a wasp almost always disables its prey by stinging or chewing it into submission. Maybe these are only able to bother plants, and aren't threat to other arthropods?

She considered the limpet-creatures for a second.

Are these arthropods, or massive single-celled organisms that followed an evolutionary path unheard of by modern science?

Ahh! I have so many questions!

Her palps twitched on their own, reminding her of her stomach’s discomfort.

Ahem. I wonder if they’re tasty like that wasp? Ugh. Too full to really eat anything right now. I just need the experience. Well, here’s hoping...

Reaching the edge of the field of limpets, she struck out with her forelegs and caught the edge of one, yoinking it away from the plant while slightly surprised at the tiny prey animal's strength. She adjusted her grip and clamped down firmly to prevent its escape.

Before she'd taken a single a bite, the crushing power of her forelegs had already killed her tiny captive.

You have defeated Drake's Scale Aphid Level 2. Experience Gained.

Wait a second. This is a kind of aphid?! How does that even work? Aphids don't reproduce by cellular division! They give birth to tiny aphids through their cloaca, at least on Earth!

So much to observe and learn! Well, now what do I do? I killed one, and now... do I simply waste this source of protein?

My stomach's complaining, and my palps won't stop trembling and reaching toward it. I guess I might as well try a bite.

Her antennae swept backward in anticipation. When her mandibles bit into the aphid, a sweetness reminiscent of lobster and crab flooded the tips of her palps. If mantids had eyebrows, hers would have flown upward in surprise and elation.

Aahhh! This is so tasty! Why must the world of life be so delicious?? I hope mantids are incapable of growing too far sideways! Need to watch my figure, after all!

She chewed for a few more seconds...

Pfah! Who am I kidding? I'm doomed to chew on these until I can't take another bite!

And so Rihelah gorged herself upon the tastiest bits of each aphid, which happened to be the heads and legs.

She discarded the remaining portions of each before scooping up another. Again and again, she ate. While she was eating, an unexpected feeling bubbled up and started to churn within her abdomen.

Oh crap! Literally! What are these things made of? 90% lobster and 10% laxative? Hah! Oh boy... I hope the effect goes away after I finish eating. I don't wanna leave a trail of “bread crumbs” behind me when I leave!

Her digestive system went into overdrive, and little mantis-pellets soon littered the leaf behind her.

All the while, she noticed the Drake's Scale Aphids were reproducing almost fast enough to maintain their incredible numbers despite the horde of hunters. To her chagrin, she also noticed the aphids were having a similar effect upon the other predators, whose backsides evacuated just as frequently as her own. She shuddered a little.

Okay. Think about anything but the fact that this is one giant, orgiastic arthropod party in which every creature is behaving in a gluttonous fashion, while one half is reproducing constantly, all are shitting themselves silly, and-

Another pellet from above bounced off her. This one struck her right compound eye and it left a slight smear across her vision.

Realization hit home and Rihelah lost her shit. Because of shit.

She leaped away from the bush, plummeted halfway to the ground, then clung to a nearby stand of grass in abject horror. The offending substance remained, a stroke of horrid paint that some generous sphincter had bestowed upon her vision.

Nooo! My eye! Tainted! Defiled! Ruined! I need water! Soap! Facial wipes! I’ve been shat upon! Gross!

I know I had brown eyes before, but this is fucking ridiculous... No! Not okay! Nope!

A memory of Michael singing “Brown Eyed Girl” to her when they were kids chose precisely that moment to take center stage within her consciousness.

No! How dare you? You are not allowed to taint that memory! He sang that just for me! Shit!!

Her right foreleg came up in frustration to wipe the offending substance away with the tiny, soft brush of bristles upon the femur near its primary clamping joint. Feeling indignant while working to repair that treasured memory, she lost herself in thought. Before she knew what was happening, her vision had been restored and she started cleaning the bristles with her mouth-

Bleeaaagghh!! What am I doing?! Blecchh! I just cleaned shit off my eye and then LICKED IT!! What the actual fuck is wrong with you, Rihelah Starjibi?? Are you trying to give yourself Dysentery?!

Fuck! This brings new meaning to the term; bottom-feeder…

Shuddering in abhorrence while her stomach emptied its contents in earnest, she looked around for something she could clean her mouth with.

The glint of reflected sunlight hit her eyes from below, and she saw that it was water.

Disgust and revulsion coupled with the awful tang of fresh excrement on her palps got the better of Rihelah, and she threw caution to the wind while streaking toward the ground in absolute shock and attracting far more attention than she would have liked.