It was a stressful hour or so, but in the end, Took came out of unconsciousness long enough to mention how hungry she was, so I wasn’t overly concerned.

When I finally shook myself out of the worried stupor brought about by Took’s uncertain state, I began to feel the agony of my roasted hand. I wanted to let myself sink into some sort of philosophical contemplation on the continuous damaging of my arms and hands, but, frankly speaking, my mind was consumed with the mind-breaking waves of suffering that shot continuously up my arm. A flashing [System] notification tried to get my attention, but completely failed to do so over the still surging pain that caused me to involuntarily groan.

“Ashlani? What’s wrong?” Vefir looked quizzically at me, initially confused. His eyes quickly found my hand. “Dulvroc t-take you, you alw-ways do something stupid like this-s.” With a soft whistle, Vefir called over the resting Alaster, and they both inspected my hand disapprovingly.

“You who will be Zaaktif… You are brave. And foolish.” Alaster looked down at me with hooded eyes, the disapproval dripping down so thick it seemed physical. I wanted to make some snarky remark, but couldn’t muster it through the literally blistering pain. “Now, let us attend to the fruits of your foolishness.”

With a grunt of effort, the two healers mustered the dregs of their magic to begin alleviating my injury. I could see the faintly vibrant light shimmering as it traveled from their hands into my own, and as soon as the light made contact, it surged like a wave through me, cooling and healing my scorched flesh. With a shudder, I slowly calmed myself and let the healing wash over me, settling more comfortably into the keelish squat my legs were well suited for.

“So what boneheaded idea led to this potential disfigurement?” Alaster’s disapproving gaze hadn’t faltered throughout the healing, and now he turned its full focus on me.

My mind had cleared enough to begin formulating excuses, reasons, and so on, but I recognized the reality of his concern, and instead spoke humbly, “I wanted to make sure Took survived. Tried to burn her worst wounds closed… I should have used a tool instead of my hand, but wasn’t thinking clearly. I’m sorry I made that misjudgement.”

Alaster’s mouth dropped open, surprised. Then, he closed it consciously and chuckled simply. “If you’re that way about it, then I have nothing else to say. You’re a great leader, and your swarm appreciates that you care for individuals as well as the collective, so make sure to take care of yourself individually so you can keep taking care of the swarm.”

I nodded in agreement and acceptance, then stood up, rolling my shoulders. “Then. Let’s get going, we have several trips ahead of us, and I’d like to be done before dark.”

Vefir chuckled. “And w-where are you going?”

“Our hunt was successful, and I’ll be a fangless friisht ifI let the meat of that beast expire before the swarm gets their turn at it.”

“You must have been h-hurting more th-than I thought…” Vefir gestured at Joral coming down the mountain above us. He and his pack were carrying quite a few of the goats down the slope, busily hauling the prey back to the swarm.

“How many trips left, Joral?”

“Last one, Alpha.” Joral’s tone was serious but his face only barely concealed a self-satisfied smile. “Anything else we should do up there?”

“You brought down the Nanuk?” I couldn’t quite hide the disbelief in my tone.

The smile spread, infecting Joral’s tone, “It took six of us, but yes. It’s waiting for you to begin the feast back with the swarm.”

“Good job Joral. You’re growing well.” I patted him on the shoulder as he grunted, smiled, and resumed his journey with a spring in his step. I realized I truly meant the words—Joral had truly begun to grow into the role that I’d imagined for him when I first met him. Now, though, a worry began to sprout in me—what would happen years down the road, when my children came to age fully, and there were three of them, Joral, and whoever else had joined what should become a nation of keelish, or even Keel? Would Keel be twisted to arrogance and ambition like khatif to superiority? Was there anything I could do to ensure that an empire created by me ended up a dynasty, not a splintering facade…?

I realized and consciously forced myself to focus on the now, since there wasn’t anything I could do right this moment to fix or order that future. Instead, I accompanied my pack back, supporting Took, and looked forward to the taste of the peak predator, the Nanuk.

…

It was about ten minutes worth of travel to get back to the swarm. As we approached, Took forcefully stood up straight, shrugged off my support, and walked herself back into the… camp, for no better way to call it. It wasn’t quite organized enough for me to be happy to call it a camp, but there wasn’t any other way to describe the conglomeration of creatures before me.

Around the edges were the least civilized, the least changed by Took and Sybil’s ministrations over the past weeks. They numbered about 100, which, considering how many of the slavering beasts we had absorbed into our own numbers, was a respectable decrease. These fringe members generally stuck to themselves, but were willing to follow instructions to go on the hunt. They were sullen most of the time, seemingly because of the command not to rut, since we couldn’t bring the eggs with us and I didn’t want to simply abandon them. It was interesting to note that while some of the keelish from Farahlia’s swarm had evolved into khatif (herself included), none from this fringe group had.

Moving further inward were the rest of the keelish who had come from Farahlia’s swarm. There were a couple dozen of fledgling khatif here, primarily of the Kha’Tal (civilian) and Sik’Tal (hunter) castes, with a single Hak’Tal (warrior) standing head and shoulders among the rest. These keelish moved easily among themselves, but had established packs, those they hunted with regularly, or those with whom they worked at whatever they needed to do.

Finally, there was the literal inner circle. There, the original swarm stayed. Foire, Silf, Sybil, and the rest milled about in this section, awaiting Took, Vefir, and my arrival. Strewn about within this inner circle were various stacks of meat, all piled high with the massive corpses of the goats we had successfully hunted, and the wolfstags circled around, keeping an eye on the piles of meat and inhibiting any overeager members of the swarm from approaching before it “was time”.

Upon seeing Took approach under her own power, the members of the inner circle visibly stood taller, and the members of the general body cheered, some more excitedly than others. Took raised a hand in acceptance of the congratulations and cheers, and then deferred to me. With a smile I stepped forward and spoke:

“I’ll be brief. We encountered a powerful foe, fought it, and slew it! Feast to victory! Feast to the blood spilled by friend and foe! Feast to Nievtala!!”

At my words, the swarm cheered and the feast began. Finally, as I turned to my personal meal of Nanuk flesh, I acknowledged the flashing [System] message:

[New [Skill: Pain Tolerance] acquired. Quest progress achieved.]