They sprinted at me as I stood up and slammed my claw down on the head of the first one. Its head was crushed but the others simply continued sprinting at me. Two of them managed to get their mandibles around my two front legs and I let out a wail of pain as they crunched down on me.
I bit down on one, ripping it’s head off. However I began screaming once again as their blood burned against my tongue. I spat out the chunk I had been planning on eating. I glared at the insects around me and yelled. “Fuck you peasants! You think I’m letting you near my kids? I’ll kill you all and use your bodies as a doormat!”
I stomped on one of them to prove my point and stabbed my tail through another's head. I got to work and butchered them all in a minute. The slightly acidic blood didn’t really hurt my paws so I didn’t really care. After killing them all I checked my notifications and smiled
You have killed a level 10 Stone Ant Worker x 12
You have leveled up. You are now a level 30 Mud Skink War Queen
You have leveled up. You are now a level 31 Mud Skink War Queen
Finally! I had leveled up! Now all I need to do is kill more of these ants and I’ll get my third evolution! I’ll be the most powerful lizard this world has ever seen! After tossing the corpses away from the entrance I walked back inside to check on my eggs.
They all seemed healthy and after looking at all of them to make sure there weren’t any cracks I shrugged and walked back to the entrance. I plopped down and once again started planning. As I was just about to fall asleep I had a sudden thought. “Don’t ants work in colonies? And can’t they dig?”
I immediately got up, expecting the ants to burst out of my wall, summoned by my words. Fortunately that didn’t happen as that's not how the real world works. I smugly walked over to my eggs, checked on them one last time before falling asleep.
I woke up the next day still aching from the fight yesterday. I limped into the cave, making sure my kids were okay before making the fifty foot walk to the nearby stream. After drinking some water and wiping the blood off my feet I ate a zorkid and started walking towards the entrance.
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When I turned back to look at my cave I saw small little footprints that hadn’t been there before. I sprinted inside and stared at the three goblins who were standing over my hatchlings. They each had a knife aimed at the eggs and they seemed to be yelling something at me.
I stared at them in horror as they held three of my most important possessions. One of them motioned for the others to follow him as he brazenly began stomping out of the cave. However, he seemed to forget to hold his blade near the egg so I took the opportunity to slam my tail forward, knocking the egg into the air while I stomped on the goblin. I coiled my tail and caught the egg before gently lowering it to the ground.
The two goblins stared at me with horror and anger in their eyes. I stared at them and after a few seconds realized I had messed up. At once they both slammed their daggers down, smashing the eggs as they yelled triumphantly. My tail went through one’s eye and I ate the other one whole.
Tears streamed down my face as I stumbled towards the shattered remains of my eggs. I stared at them for a few minutes before quietly walking outside and sitting in the entrance. I would bury them soon. I just needed to wait a few more days. No more leaving the cave, no more letting enemies live.
But why had those goblins done that? I hadn’t hurt them at all. All I had done was kill a few peasants. How did they know where I live? I guess I haven't been very secretive. I also didn’t always kill the goblins I skewered so they probably heard the screams while I dragged them back.
The next few days passed peacefully. Nothing attacked and nothing happened. I also forced myself to get two drinks of water, as I couldn’t risk dying or collapsing in case of an attack. I also buried the remains of the two eggs.
Overall nothing else happened, which was exactly how I wanted it to be. I had already failed as a parent. It wasn’t going to happen again. Another three days passed with me only leaving the cave once a day to drink and toss out the bones of whatever corpse I had eaten.
Finally I heard a cracking sound from behind me and sprinted over to the eggs to watch the miraculous event. The largest egg broke first, the hatchling erupting out and landing on his face. He quickly stumbled to his feet and looked up at me. I smiled at him and said. “Welcome to the world Marlow. I’m your dad.”
He happily waddled up to me as I smiled and looked at him. His scales were almost entirely red except for a small white diamond on his forehead.I patted him on the head as he waddled around the sleeping area, exploring his new home.
I turned to the rest of the eggs and saw two more of my kids waddle over to me. They each had the exact same scale pattern except one had orange scales and the other had yellow. I named them Charlie and Chester.
Charlie and Chester ran up to Marlow and almost immediately tackled him to the ground. He yelped in confusion as I noticed that he was easily double the size of his siblings. Weird. I quickly separated them and looked at the rest of the hatchlings as they quickly sprinted towards me. The three remaining hatchlings had a very different color pattern than the others. Charlie, Chester and Marlow all had hot colors while these three seemed to have cool colors.
The first one to reach me was the smallest, he had bright green scales with a blue stripe going down his back. I named him James. The next two shared the same color. They were both a faded green for almost their entire body except for a single spot on their eye. Thankfully each of them had the spot on the other side of their face. I named them Tim and Tom before quickly embracing all of them.
Marlow let out a little squeal and Charlie barked out his defiance. I ignored them and just held them as close to me as possible. Tears streamed down my face as I said. “Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.” It felt so good to hug my kids.