He fell, squishing into a rocky floor and bouncing back up as if he were a toy. He might as well be, as he was operating by touch alone. He didn't have any appendages. Or eyes.

He braced himself for what was probably going to be his siblings trying to eat him, but that moment never came. In fact, the many blobs he had originally been jettisoned along with him had retreated from his touch. ' Unusual for a spawning species ' He thought. Not that he knew much more then that, again, no eyes.

Of all the starts he could have had. Of all the places he could have been.

He mentally steeled himself. This wasn't going to be a smooth ride.

Taking stock of the situation : He was basically a liquid. He was subconsciously holding himself together in a ' ball '. That much he knew. What else did he know? He could detect temperature. And - food? At least this body came with instructions. Not good ones, but only being reduced to acting on instinct, given the situation, is something he felt grateful for.

He was hot. The outside world was cold. Relatively speaking. He had no idea just how extreme the temperature difference was, and wasn't about to test how long it took for those to equalize.

Speaking of not starving to death as a mere spawn, he wondered if he could 'ball' and 'unball' himself to get towards the 'Food' near his mother. Perhaps she was willing to share?

He manged to slink his way towards his new mom. Progress!

Ah.

So that's how the 'Danger Detection' perk works.

'Perk' was a strong word for the overwhelming sense of dread he felt when he touched her. He felt her gaze shift upon him. His mind went blank.

His body curled up into a flat disk, gained a protrusion growing up from the center, and then slammed it down into the ground; Propelling himself away. Kind of like a toy.

Once he realized what he had done, he tried spreading himself out to slow his velocity. Images of a splattered... himself via falling off a cliff shot to the forefront of his mind.

He managed to safely land on more rough stone. And per his newfound, incredible, near-gyroscope sense of direction; a higher elevation. He started 'slinking' immediately.

After a moment or two of feeling the lay of the land he stopped for a moment, and let himself pool in a small crevasse to conserve energy. He gathered his thoughts :

He was, almost certainly, in a cave. His siblings were much, much cooler to the touch then he was. And, to spite only ~5 or so minutes passing, he was hungry.

After all his consideration, he realized that he had been moving inefficiently all this time. He had been wobbling up and down a like a 90's bean toy when he could have been moving like a snake.

' STUPID STUPID STUPID ' He called himself as he pulled himself up from his small crack. ' I need food and I need it now I NEED FOOD AND I NEED IT NOW ' was pushed to the forefront of his mind, to spite not actually starving yet. Fear? A sense of urgency? He didn't know what compelled him, but It was something primal. No sense on dwelling on it.

The others seemed to know what to do after they were born. Why didn't he? He hadn't bumped into one of them for awhile now. Had they gone somewhere? Statically speaking, my best chance at survival is doing exactly what they do but - wait. They likely don't have brains as large as mine. If they even have brains. If I even have a 'brain'.

The survival rates for these types of species is abysmal anyway.

If he wanted to live, he was going to have to THINK.

But, what was there to think about? He wasn't given the necessary hardware; the necessary ' stuff ' to make use of his 'big' brain. Of course.

HE was put into another species body, not the other way around. He wasn't fit for this environment. He was going to die.

...

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Or.

Since he had nothing left to loose.

He got up. He slithered away from his mother, who was now starting to get annoyed at his presence per his danger sense. There was little time to think. Hopefully more to act.

He tried every trick in the book to get some vision. Tremor sense. Echolocation. Anything. He needed more to work with then just ' food here '.

But then -

A big, oval shaped 'food' approached mother. Almost outside of his 'vision'. It bobbed up and down slightly on approach. It then stopped a fair distance away, as if scared.

After approaching a little bit more, he felt a small vibration in the air and in the ground as mother jumped at the thing. Apparently she was storing all that food inside her. No wonder she didn't want to share.

The ovular 'food' was then sucked, quite rapidly, into mother. It didn't take a rocket scientist to deduce what happened here. He was a predator. Or, at least he eat other creatures.

Also... He could have sworn he could see outlines when he hyper focused on mother's food. But only when he had been startled. He was left to wonder if his siblings could see, but he couldn't somehow. Maybe that treasured big brain of his wasn't so great after all.

But his state of shock and awe wasn't long. 2 more oval-shaped food-beasts were dancing around the location the first one got got. They were purposely avoiding his mother's location, who either wasn't, or couldn't, give chase.

He sprinted, as fast as a retarded little snake could.

' Is this the closest path to them? No. Wall. Ok. Moving alongside it now. ' He adapted quick as his thoughts continued to race. He got within jumping distance. He didn't take the chance. He was still unsure just how much that first jump took out of him. But then food started to back away. Ok.

He flattened himself. He did his best impression of one of those toy poppers.

He flight through the air lasted for what felt like years. Time slowed down as he contemplated the gravity of his choice. But he made it. There was little he could do now That choice was already made.

And... SUCCESS!

He landed on a leg. He knew so due to feeling fur and skin. Hopefully this thing wasn't able to dispatch him before he climbed to it's torso. He assumed it was it's torso, as that's where the food was. He slinked up the creature, like the hostile liquid he was, and fashioned himself to it's underbelly. Now. Was it meat or, blood, or something else he has to eat?

Judging by what he saw enter mother it was certainly no solid. It likely wasn't a fluid either, so that just leaves some strange fantasy gas-type resource.

Assuming the 3 states of matter even applied here.

... Now what? How does he get the food?

' Suction cup, go! ' He thought, as he flattened out in preparation. Then he felt friction of rough rock passing back and forth over his body.

Aww. That's cute. You think you can scrape me off? I'm basically a liquid.

I'm not letting go until I sucked you dry.

After mentally facepalming at his one-liner, he completed his suction cup. No dice. But - the food did move.

THE FOOD MOVED. He was close. He could feel it. But he wasn't getting anywhere like this, and he was getting tired. Perhaps...

He let go of the outcome. And of his couscous mind. If only for just a moment.

His instincts led the way. He snapped back into reality. ' The back of the neck! Of course! ' Now he pretty much knew this things didn't have good countermeasures, and where to drill.

Well. Almost. Almost knowing is a far cry form knowing for certain. However, his short ~ 10 or so minute life history proved that good enough is good enough.

He slinked over to the top of the creature. Man. It certainly didn't like it when he moved. And... found it's neck.

He hesitated for a moment. ' What if this thing has two heads? What if it has a prehensile tail? What if it has some weird anime ability that completely one shots me and there's nothing I can do about it? '

Well.

If there was, he'd be dead.

There's nothing more to do about that.

He listened to himself, and his newfound instincts. Look how far it got him.

If it all goes belly up at the last possible moment, at least he'll die quickly. He can't imagine something so much more larger then he having to take more then one swing.

He inhaled. At least, that what he called it. The closest word would probably be something else, but the pure bliss of ' finally, food ' had overwritten any complex thought he had been hoping to accomplish. The food wasn't a lot, even in his limited state he knew that, but it did sate his hunger. He would be sitting pretty for awhile.

The thing had twitched slightly at his 'bite', and he was going to try more. Hopefully without killing - whatever this was. Probably a pig or similar. It felt like a pig. A very, very hairy pig.

After 3 or so 'mouthfuls' the creature finally relented. It seemed to give up completely, now ignoring the 1/40 tumorous mass on the back of its neck. That ratio used to be 1/50. Time to make it 1/10.

And... Was it him or was his metabolism... fast. Like, faster then a humming bird fast. Was he going to need to keep feeding like this his entire life? If so, then...

Wait. No. He wasn't going to go through death again. Not this time.

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It had been awhile. He certainly had grown, but not to 1 tenth the creature's size. He had figured out that if he intended to put his food into his 'mouth' he stores that energy in his body. So - that's what he's been doing for the last several hours. ' I bet if I could look at myself, I'd look like a smaller version of mother. ' He idly thought.

There wasn't much else to do but think and strategize. The 'pigs' have been walking together for awhile now, and mine was starting to slow. So I stopped feeding. Let's hope this works and I don't actually have to kill my host.

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It's been about 4 hours, and turns out I can take MUCH faster then they can give. Shame. I really wanted to play it safe. Who knows what they're capable of If I'm not currently on a unreachable part of their body.

The rate at which I'm expending my stored energy is not great either. Specialized cells and organs exist for a reason, and I have none of them. Oh? Whats this? More and more food coming into view?

It was a pack. These things were pack animals.

He hadn't internalized that fact even as they all had walked together for nearly 5 hours.

But now they were back to the pack. And with that, usually comes grooming. You know?

Removal and eating of the parasites?

Uh oh.