Keelish, as a rule, are subterranean dwellers. Of course, their prey can be found primarily above ground. Thus, they remain not as an unseen and uncared for creature, but instead were the focus of the Great Purge 150 years ago and are hunted to the last when found now. The effect they had on the Gran Verat’s childhood notwithstanding, keelish are voracious, and barring the presence of regular culling or native predators, the keelish will devastate entire ecosystems through their relentless reproduction and predation on the native wildlife. Thus, regular hunts are scheduled within the Veratocracy’s lands, and if a den is found, Earthspeakers are sent within the den until every individual is confirmed dead.

-Excerpt taken from the High Academy’s reference book, “Wildlife: Which to Respect, and Which to Exterminate”.

My pack and I woke to squalling and the scuffles of controlled conflict. Quickly, I jumped to my feet and looked to see what was happening. In the center of the room, two spawnlings, larger than any I’d seen before, were grappling each other, their jaws wide open and their hands grasping wildly.

I couldn’t tell what the reason for the fight was, but the two spawnlings more resembled adult keelish than the rest of us had. They had the long neck and tail and scaled bodies, but they had begun to fill out more than the rest of us newly hatched specimens. Our shoulders were narrow, the claws on our fingers not yet at their full length, and we were, in general, much more petite than an adult keelish would be. These two, however, looked to be several weeks more developed than the members of our brood. Their shoulders, arms, and claws were on their way to being laden with muscle, still lean but obviously packing more power than our much younger bodies.

The two combatants, however, were obviously underfed. I could count their ribs below their scales, their knees were more knobbly than a simple joint should be, and their tails lacked the thickness that a well-fed body would provide.

It didn’t take long before the fight was concluded by one of the two being able to catch a good hold of the other’s arm and yank it downward before catching the base of his opponent’s skull in his jaws. Wait… that was what I had done to that other pack leader yesterday. Was that a common attack? Or…

Before I could finish the thought, the winner roughly shook the loser’s head once, then twice, and threw him down onto the ground with a thud.

“What is left… is… Tieran’s!” The victor’s call of his superiority was met with replying cries of support from two dozen voices, but I knew before I heard the number of supporters for the victor. I recognized his voice. The winner of the impromptu duel was none other than the leader of the largest pack in our brood. The fight had been over the scant leftovers that my pack had left the night before that hadn’t been fully picked over by the other keelish spawnlings. Maybe they’d been at too much of an impasse last night to decide who would have the right to our leftovers. I couldn’t really bring myself to care, since the small bits of dried flesh were scrawny and unremarkable in general. My pack had eaten at least twice as well as the rest of the brood yesterday, and I didn’t think we’d been able to sleep off our second gorging session quite yet.

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But how were these two suddenly so much bigger? Just yesterday, the one that won, Tieran I supposed, had been markedly smaller than I was, which was unsurprising considering I was among the largest of the brood. But now, he stood at least a head above me, and definitely outweighed me by nearly two times. What had changed? Had he and the other evolved overnight?

[The System cannot give you Status-related information on beings that are not your immediate subordinates. To receive the qualification to access others’ Status or stats, you must first acquire total leadership over them.]

Suns burn this damnable [System] and its unwillingness to answer any questions. Regardless of its nonanswer, the other four pack leaders, now that I saw them, had all evolved to be much larger and well developed than the rest of their packs. Based off his little victory speech, their ability to speak had probably also improved markedly, which was another leg up over me. A part of me definitely felt the burn of envy within my guts, but the greater part of me instead welcomed that reality and what it meant for my future–a greater focus on combative capability. So what if these Alphas were bigger than me? They wouldn’t be stronger, tougher, or better than me.

Turning my snout up at them, I settled onto my haunches, waiting for the next opportunity to hunt that I was sure was coming before too long. I’d come to understand some things about the keelish way, and now that we had proven ourselves capable, we would be allowed and forced to take the opportunity to continue to provide for ourselves. I idly wondered if it would be another “arena battle” of sorts like yesterday, or if we were to take the next step in learning to hunt already. I figured it would still be the first option, though I did hope to be turned loose soon.

It didn’t take long before I received my answer, that we did have another curated “hunt” within the same arena as the day before, but this time with ten of the Toothy Bullfrogs. We were instructed to hunt two per pack, and again my pack was selected to be the first.

Now well-practiced, we leapt into the arena and, without ado or much excitement, we dispatched two of the present frogs. While I again triggered my [Bloodlust] skill as we began and finished our hunt, I was more capable of self control, if only slightly. I led our pack in dragging both bodies out of the arena and into the “stands” before we set to filling our bellies. There was nothing left of the first by the time the second pack’s hunt had been concluded.

It was the start of a good day, I was confident.