Dustin was ready to leave. He was exhausted because the bug gore in the hole kept him awake. It was fucking stupid, but he just couldn’t seem to get over it.

  “You seem to be agitated…” observed the prince, after several hours of pacing. He had been hoping to tire himself out, and thus sleep, but it hadn’t worked.

  “I have got to get out of this hell hole!” he snarled, eyeing the entrance.

  “It hasn’t been seven days yet, and you could still be seen by the drones.”

  The stick girl had brought several creatures, but none of them were the camouflaged sloth. He had tried to acquire genetic material from them, but nothing was giving him anything good. It had helped with his hunger, but now he was also thirsty.

  “What kept the drones from finding you, when you went missing?” asked Dustin, grasping at anything to stay sane.

  “I went underwater. The drones can’t submerge themselves.”

  Dustin stopped. He had gills, and with his bite, nothing could really stand up to him anymore. Staying in the water would be infinitely better than this hole.

  “That’s a wonderful idea. You stay here, and keep teaching this stick girl how to hunt, and I’ll see you in a week.”

  He started to climb out, when the prince laughed.

  “I don’t give a skadfhg about teaching that walking stick how to hunt. That’s your pet project. And if you think I’m just going to stay here, you are mistaken. Either take me with you, or I’m going to start heading for the shuttle port station. If they find out about you, it sure will be interesting to watch the hunt for you.”

  Dustin had never wanted to kill someone so bad, as he did right now. At least, not that he remembered… Stepping forward, he kicked the little bastard as hard as he could, with his over protected crystal foot. He flew up, hitting the ceiling hard, and then fell to the floor. He lay there, coughing, then passed out.

  Dustin froze. If he killed the prince, there was little chance of getting off this planet. He needed to calm down, which meant getting out of this hole. Picking up the crystal prince, he moved towards the entrance again.

  “Initiate evolution, I want to look different. Give me crystals that are spiky, with wings that are non-functioning. Remove the extra crystal around my feet, and make them be clawed like the dragon’s feet.”

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  (EVOLUTION INITIATED.)

  His skin felt tight for a moment, as the scales became sharp and pointed, including the oversized scale over the PED. He noticed a similar scale grew on his opposite arm, so that they matched. Grinning, he knew he looked completely different. Grabbing one of the roots with his knew clawed feet, he held himself in place while he reached up to the hatch and waited.

  (EVOLUTION COMPLETE)

  As he focused on the hatch, he could feel slight vibrations traveling through the soil. Nothing big was around the hatch, so, he threw it open and climbed outside. Curled around the entire tree was a huge snake. This thing could easily have wrapped around Godzilla’s throat as a scarf, plus some. Its white scales gleamed in the moonlight, making the dark eyespots on its hood stand out even more, as it raised up and hissed. Each fang was easily twice as long as he was tall.

  Crouching on the edge of the hole, he waited until its muscles tensed, signaling a strike, before jumping to the side. As the fangs missed him by inches, due to the size of the snake, he twisted and caught the edge of its hood, biting down hard enough to draw blood.

  It lurched back, as he dropped back to the ground, and ran. He could hear it writhing in pain behind him. Trees crashed to the ground, and the tail smacked into the ground just to his right. He didn’t stop running, aiming for the open water he could barely glimpse through the trees. It should have been immune to venom, except he didn’t have normal venom anymore.

  A heat signature to his left, drew him up short. The crashing behind him had all but stopped by this point. Darting towards it, he grabbed the damn sloth as it tried to slink higher into the tree. The section he grabbed seemed rubbery and stiff, but still sheered off when he bit it.

  Spitting the flesh into the port, he left the thing twitching on the ground. As it uncloaked, he saw the most hideous thing ever. It had no eyes, but the mouth on this thing was huge. The tongue that sucked out blood from its victims, started huge, filling its mouth, and came down to a thin needle like tube at the end.

  (GENETIC MATERIAL ACQUIRED. ANALYZING. POSSIBLE EVOLUTION OPTIONS: CAMOUFLAGE, LEAF DANCE, NUMBING TOUCH, HEMATOPHAGY, PERFECT CLIMB.)

  “Ooooh! Give me everything except the hema-whatever. I don’t care to drink blood.”

  (INITIATING EVOLUTION)

  (EVOLUTION COMPLETE)

  The prince started to move, beginning to wake up. Setting him down, Dustin moved up against the tree and activated his camouflage. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see himself suddenly looking like a mossy section of the tree.

  “Ugh,” groaned the prince, rubbing his head. He sat up and looked around, obviously not seeing him.

  “Skadfhg! That brat left me,” he cursed, climbing to his feet and looking all around.

  Dustin was very amused, and was just about to reveal himself, when he saw the prince act odd.

  “Base, I’ve lost the target, do you have eyes on it?” He spoke quietly, as if he didn’t want anyone to overhear him. Listening to a voice, he turned slowly and looked in his general direction.

  “Negative, I do not see anything.” He moved forward slowly, reaching out to touch the edges of his arm.

  Dustin used the leaf dance ability to move his arm slightly. It looked weird out of the corner of his eye, but he refused to move his head.

  “It’s just some moss. I don’t see any difference. Affirmative, heading in now.”

  What the hell was this?