The sneaky creature crawled unnoticed towards the centipedes' burrow. At many points, the monsters walked very close to the insect, even waving their antennae over it. Yet at no point did they seem to think that this greyish beast was anything more than a mere rock.

Red was surprised. He knew most of the monsters in these caves had poor eyesight, so they relied on their other senses to hunt. In fact, some of them didn't even have eyes. They relied on their sense of smell and used their antennae to hunt for prey.

The fact they weren't able to distinguish this little creature from a normal rock was not surprising - even the boy had to pay very close attention to notice it. However, for the beast's scent to also go completely unnoticed was a far more shocking matter.

This could prove itself to be an invaluable opportunity for Red.

Making sure not to lose track of the thief, the youth started to move in its direction, sticking to the edges of the chamber. His bare feet made no sound against the coarse rock floor as he ducked from cover to cover in an attempt to go unnoticed. Red managed to get within 30 meters of the little creature but had to stop moving as he risked getting discovered if he got any closer.

The egg-stealer was still crawling ever so slowly towards the entrance of a burrow. At some point, centipedes even started to crawl over its body, but the home invader remained completely still and undetected. After five minutes of slow but constant progress, it reached one of the holes, diving inside in search of its prey.

Red had the time, then, to elaborate a strategy. The boy was unaware of how often the creature came into this nest to search for food. He couldn't afford to wait for the next opportunity to make his move.

His plan was rather simple. Get the insect noticed and when the centipedes went into high alert chasing after it, run through the chamber towards his destination. A few things needed to go well for his idea to work, though.

First of all, he had to remain undetected - there was no point to any of this if the centipedes started chasing after him anyways.

Secondly, he needed the bigger monster out of the way too. Perhaps if only a few of the beasts noticed him then Red would still have a chance to lose or kill them in the tunnels. But if their alpha was the one who saw the boy, then he would most likely die.

There was no way for the youth to guarantee that he would be able to secure either of those conditions, however at that point he was reminded of Viran's words. The most important part of any plan was being able to adapt it. Red couldn't account for any unforeseen occurrences, but he could do his best to be ready for them.

In preparation, the boy started gathering up a large pile of rocks. After getting sufficient ammunition, he started tossing them next to the centipedes to see what kind of reaction he could garner. The monsters were very quick to react, turning towards the direction of the sudden sound and menacingly waving their antennae, ready to strike. However, as soon as they noticed no strange smells and saw no movement, they would shortly return to their task at hand.

Red tried throwing the stones farther away from the creatures, but even if they turned towards the sound, they wouldn't go out of their way to investigate it. The boy thought this made sense. The nest was surprisingly active, so the centipedes didn't have the time to investigate every loud noise of falling rocks that happened around them. It would be hard to draw their attention.

Red came to this conclusion after three or so minutes of testing. Looking over at the burrow the egg-thief had disappeared into, the youth saw no sign of it anymore. The underground was probably even more crowded with centipedes, so it made sense that the creature would take longer to sneak around, in an attempt at not getting noticed.

The boy's only worry was that the monster could choose a completely different burrow to leave through. In which case, perhaps he wouldn't have enough time to enact his plan.

Suddenly, having come up with a different idea, Red picked up another rock. Tearing off a piece of his slightly bloody bandage, the youth proceeded to tie the cloth into a knot around the stone. Making sure his aim was true, Red hurled it over next to a centipede wandering about 30 meters or so in front of him.

The stone landed right by its side, and the monster turned around to investigate it. This time though, its antennae seemed to have picked up a strange smell. It touched the cloth tied to the rock, investigating it curiously. The creature waved its antennae in the area and looked around for movement. It did not find anything, though, but that didn't discourage the centipede. It seemed to be more alert and it began to search its general surroundings.

Its behavior even started to affect some of its siblings, who also joined it in hunting for a possible intruder. At one point, Red wondered whether he had made a mistake as one centipede got closer to his hiding place, but the boy let out a sigh of relief as it passed by without noticing him. After scanning the area a bit longer with no success, though, the centipedes soon gave up and returned to their normal routine.

'It seemed to work.'

Red was glad to see the results of his experiment. Over the next few minutes, a few other centipedes also examined the unfamiliar smell that seemed to have appeared near the small rock, but they too gave up after long. The boy found this tactic wasn't enough to put the nest on high alert, but it would make the centipedes in the surrounding area more attentive to intruders. It was going to be a vital part of his plan.

Tying a few additional rocks with pieces of his bloody bandage, Red prepared himself for the right moment and waited for the egg-thief to appear again. 10 more minutes passed, and the boy saw nothing.

'Did I miss it?'

It was possible. Maybe the insect had chosen another burrow to leave through, in which case Red would have most likely not noticed it. Still, the boy decided not to give up yet.

He waited...

And waited...

Just as his hopes were at about their lowest, he saw some movement. Near the burrow, the same strange rock-like creature appeared. Its movements seemed somehow slower this time around. It was only when the rest of its body crested over the edge of the hole that Red was able to see the cause.

Somehow its midsection had swollen to almost double the normal size. The insect's diminutive legs were spread apart even further as it dragged itself along much more carefully than it had on its way in.

'Did it... swallow the eggs?'

Red couldn't claim to know much about animal physiology, but he thought this kind of behavior was very absurd. The objective of the little thief was to get in and get out without being noticed. If it carried the egg out on its mouth, the centipedes would most likely see that something was wrong with the inconspicuous rock. This behavior made sense.

But how was it going to eat even the shell? From what Red had seen in its lair, it didn't consume that part. Did it simply use its stomach to store the egg and then barf it all out for later consumption? If that was the case, how would it even have such a high degree of control of its inner body? How could it fit something that big through its small mouth?

'This is... fascinating.'

And sure enough, its strategy seemed to be paying off. Even with its bigger size, the insect walked unnoticed by the centipedes. To them, it was only a slightly larger rock to walk over.

After being lost for the better part of a minute watching the creature, Red's senses suddenly returned to him. As interesting as observing the monster was, it still wasn't as important as escaping these caves. The boy grabbed one of his blood sprinkled rocks and threw it right by a centipede.

The creature's reaction was much the same as the one he had seen in his tests earlier. It immediately became alerted when it detected the sudden sound and unfamiliar smell that came along with it and started to search its surroundings. Red didn't stop there, though.

Grabbing the rest of his rocks, the youth threw them at every centipede surrounding the egg-thief. Soon enough, all the beasts in that area started to communicate with each other and scoured the surroundings in search of the origin of this smell. It started to even spread through some other parts of the nest, and more centipedes began to join them.

Red was somewhat impressed that this small action of his could catch their attention to such a degree. The boy moved back so as not to be discovered and continued to observe the camouflaged insect from farther away.

Much to his dismay though, the creature remained in the same place, completely still. A lot of centipedes even crawled over it repeatedly, but none of them seemed to give the rock a second glance. Red even started to question how come the beast had been getting chased through the tunnels earlier if it was this hard to detect. At that same moment, however, he saw movement near the center of the chamber.

The larger centipede was stirred from its rest by the sudden alarm in that section of the nest. For the first time since Red had entered the chamber, the monster moved. It didn't seem to be in a hurry, but it managed to cover a lot of ground in just a few seconds with its enormous body. Red stopped moving and hid behind a rock as the beast started to approach this part of the tunnel.

As the oppressive aura got closer, the boy felt cold sweat run down his back much like it had happened when he first saw the insectoid. The lesser centipedes scrambled to move out of the way of their bigger counterpart. One of them wasn't fast enough though and the monster walked over it, casually crushing its body and carapace under the weight of its legs.

The youth felt his breath become heavier as the creature walked forward. The enormous centipede stopped moving as it got near the area of the commotion and its antennae waved through the air as it detected the unfamiliar smell. Just as Red was wondering whether his plan would backfire though, the monster suddenly froze and shifted its head to stare in another direction.

The same place where the egg-thief was hiding.

A low grave hiss started to come out of the creature's mouth and the youth felt the vibrations of the sound shaking his entire body. All the other centipedes in the area froze. Just as soon as that happened though, the camouflaged beast seemed to notice something was wrong.

It shot forward at an incredible speed before anyone could react. The bigger centipede howled and dashed in pursuit. All its lesser siblings joined in its roar and followed behind it. Red felt as if he was about to go deaf and had to block his eardrums while the nest went into a frenzy.

Sneaking out of the way, the boy remained in hiding for a bit longer. Dozens of centipedes start to rush towards the tunnel the thief had just escaped into. It was only when the roaring was far enough that Red came out of hiding.

The nest which had been so full of life was now only occupied by a few centipedes and stragglers that remained behind to take care of the eggs.

The way forward was finally free.