The ants made for a crunchy, but somehow still slimy meal. I couldn’t say why it was that the texture of a giant ant wasn’t to my liking, but it wasn’t. Fortunately enough, plenty of the rest of the swarm were happy and willing to eat whatever was put in front of them. A couple of the unprepared found a chunk of chitin slicing uncomfortably into the soft parts of their mouths, but, for the most part, the swarm enjoyed the entirely edible creatures.

“If we are to hunt those things reliably, we’ll need to have Solia, Ytte, or yourself with us.” stated Foire. “There needs to be some protective measure that the hunters can take for the hunters to disengage.”

“What is this new prey?” interjected Took, who had returned from her hunt with another of the large furry things that looked like a nanuk. Her scouting had returned news of several things that could be potential prey, but she’d held herself and her hunters back from hunting them. Her rationale had been that there was no need to upset the balance of the current inhabitants of this land. Her instincts, or my own fears, had rubbed off on her, and she’d ensured that only a peak, or nearly peak predator had been hunted. The prey animals could flourish that way, and provide more plentiful hunting grounds for us. With that said, she poked curiously at one of the more intact corpses in front of us.

“It’s a giant ant.” Foire responded. “Did you ever notice them in the jungles where we were born? Or in our travels through the land until we reached here?”

The massive Huntmaster merely flicked her tail. “I don’t observe little creatures like that. They serve no purpose for the hunt.”

“Now they do.” Foire replied. “There were hundreds of them there, and though their bites posed some little threat, they’re only about as threatening as one of the weakest keelish we’ve ever interacted with. Even the least impressive still in the swarm now are stronger than they were.”

“They’re bitey, but fun!” Trai literally jumped in between them. “We needed to keep moving, cause they’re pretty quick and there’s so many of them. Hard to make sure they’re dead, because once I cut through a head and it still tried to bite me a couple times!”

“And there were hundreds of them?” Took asked, her eyes searching the peak of the mountain as if she could lay eye on a new hunting ground.

“That we saw.” I confirmed. “I could feel hundreds more underground, so with a prepared force, there could be a good hunt brought back to the swarm.”

Took flared her frills appreciatively and bent down to take a bite. With a resounding crunch and crack, she tore the bottommost segment of the ant’s body free and, with three quick snaps of her jaws, she swallowed it down.

“I prefer it to going hungry.” She responded.

“True enough.” I laughed.

“We’ll take note of their den. We’ll return to this place and see if there are any more places where we can find more prey like this near to where we make our home.”

I flared my frills in agreement and rolled my shoulders. After having made him heal me and others so many times today already, I’d denied Vefir’s ministrations. Though my knee ached, it was far from wounded, and I instead walked with a slight falter. The suns were setting behind us, and I’d already given the order for the Kou’Tal shepherds to lead the herds to a safe location where they could drink. In the savannahs of the indlovu lands, water had been difficult to find, while the Shandise were green with nearly omnipresent water, though it wasn’t always easy to find in a drinkable state.

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Even so, it wasn’t long before a steady stream was found, and the oxfiends, oryx, hyenas, and axebeaks were drinking deeply. Downhill, the water noticeably flowed more slowly, but I couldn’t consider this to be contrary to the natural order of the lands. If a stream couldn’t feed the lands downstream after a single herd drank from them, then I would need to learn a lot more about how keeping a land alive worked. Admittedly, I knew next to nothing, but I couldn’t imagine that drinking our fill would kill everything nearby.

I shook my head, and from it all my idle concerns about drinking too much water. The oxfiends, oryx, and axebeaks settled down to feast happily, but the hyenas grew antsy as prey creatures laid down nearby while they were still hungry. When I was about to acknowledge the still flashing [System] notifications, I saw a khatif approach the hyenas. The Kou’Tal forced the predators as well as the nervous prey to calm themselves while the Kha’Tal strode throughout the keelish and the rest of the swarm. This “lowest” caste of khatif were the most industrious of the whole species, and I quickly realized that my categorization of them was wildly incorrect.

Though the Kha’Tal were the weakest and least specialized of all the castes, they seemed to have some measure of inborn desire to take care of much of the minutiae of the swarm. When an oxfiend member of the herd was merely upset but didn’t need the firm hand of a Kou’Tal, a Kha’Tal khatif would spend time with him and rub his ears or play with it enough to calm it entirely. When a Sik’Tal hunter returned from the hunt and didn’t need a magical healer’s ministrations, a Kha’Tal khatif would take over the additional duties of the Sik’Tal to allow them that necessary extra rest. If one of my Hak’Tal warrior guards remained guarding an objective for the whole day, a Kha’Tal would ensure that they were brought a meal.

When one of the Kha’Tal, one whose name I couldn’t remember, walked past, I called out to her. She perked up and approached me, her head bowed respectfully but her steps steady.

“Yes, Swarm Alpha?”

“Who guides you Kha’Tal?”

“You do, of course…?” She cocked her head at my question.

“Of course. However, who coordinates all of your actions? How do you know where to go and when? Who decides who is assigned which task?”

“We simply work together.” She answered. “Just as the Sik’Tal hunt and the Kou’Tal guide the herds, just as the Hak’Tal protect and the Sou’Tal lead, we support. When we see that there is something that needs to be done, we do it. We cannot do what you all can, so we do what you do not.”

I flared my frills in acknowledgement of the sentiment. “Thank you. What’s your name?”

“I am Basit.” She replied with another bow of her head. How fitting that her name meant “simple”. Unassuming, and powerful.

“Thank you, Basit. I can’t believe that it’s taken me this long to realize how important you and those of your caste are.” I refused to apologize, but the sentiment was there.

“Our place isn’t in your eyes. It’s wherever we need to be, and seen isn’t one of those.” She smiled and bowed her head. Even so, she waited for my dismissal. When I gave it, whatever she was going to do was apparently already being taken care of by another of her caste, and instead she walked in another direction, her steps purposeful and energetic. As I watched her go, I felt a certain sense of understanding flow through me. It wasn’t too far off of the divine presence of Speaking of the Nievtala’s Phrases, but it instead informed me somewhat of how the Words of Power influenced my people.

While I mused over the meaning of the enlightenment I’d received, I heard Arwa’s approach. She snarled much more than usual, and I stood tall to watch her approach, my thoughts somewhat confused as I noted the change in her pack. Joral flicked his tail in a certain resignation as dozens of wolfstags nervously walked towards the swarm.