Calypso so positively giddy, she was dribbling from the sides of her maw. Which was odd, given that’s she was driven both by her instable hunger and her endless self-loathing. It created a ravenous gnawing that was pleasing to her, Calypso found.

This was the first time that she was on a hunt—rather actively and not being totally impaired in judgement. Until now, Calypso elected to “play prey”—don the mask of the innocent girl that walked at night when she shouldn’t have, playing up her very real feelings of fright and unease with the Subsumed that came her way. Which made the immediate rush of turning all the more pleasurable.

The monster girl jumped from tree to tree, only targeting the trunks of each, so she can still be relatively close to the ground. With each landing, her twitching head scanned the locale, for something, anything at this point. They were at this… For 15 or so minutes? But it didn’t matter, as every second that wasn’t killing something dragged for eons.

“Maaaan, Cal… You’re like. So into this thing…”

Calypso perked up and turned her head. She nearly forgot that Gale was there, and this was supposed to be a partnership for a night.

Gale simply walked, despite being a girl made of goo with a mushroom-flower on her head.

Calypso arched her magenta eyebrow, “It’s interesting that you’re not.”

Gale blinked, her eyes still so expressive despite being dark with only the smallest violet light emanating from them.

“Aw man, am I doing this wrong then--?”

Calypso jumped from the tree, landing on all fours. “So… You don’t feel different? Anything at all?”

Gale glanced down at her cyan, vine embedded hands. Flexing her fingers, as they gently disappeared into themselves and created a set of massive mud wads in the process.

“I mean. Aside from the hunger and the relief of the transformation being over… Iunno. I still feel like me.”

She flashed a very toothy grin, still somehow conveying the same despite the rows of fangs, laidback and airy feeling. “It was one of the… Signs, y’know? That maybe this wasn’t all so bad? At least I’m… Still me. Still in control.”

Calypso gave a very curt hum. “Interesting.”

Gale motioned to rub the back of her neck, but instantly caught herself, which gave Calypso pause. “I’m guessing it’s super different for you…?”

Calypso smiled deliriously, “It’s like all of my inhibitions were torn away and I’ve finally given into the darkest well that existed in my very being. The result giving me such a high, I don’t know what to do with these wasted years I’ve suddenly been granted back, but only dedicating them in indulging these amazingly terrible urges that were stupidly warded away.”

“…Yeahokaythatscoolhappyforyaman—"

Calypso pursed her lips, against the very familiar rumbling of her foundations being rocked. Only to quickly pout and turn on a huff.

“Alice would’ve thought it was cool…” she said in a grumbled, pained whisper.

“What was that, Cal…? Did I touch a nerve agai--?”

Calypso simply turned her gaze back, and Gale froze. “We need to focus, or we’ll lose out on the hunt. Our lives are on the line, as well as others, here.”

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“Right—right, right, right,” Gale was but a voice to Calypso now.

Calypso shook her head to herself, psychosomatically clearing her raging thoughts, “Now I don’t know the exact location—if there is one—but they gather together… Almost like a chorus of sorts. But even if we don’t manage to find them, the weaker vermin will try to seek us out anyways to prove themselves…”

“I seeeee… Well, we’re good for the night regardless, that’s cool!”

Calypso sighed, “But quantity can only do so much for upkeep… We need quality right now, Gale.”

Her super sensitive ears twitched at Gale’s downtrodden hums. Causing Calypso to dig her claws into the soil. It wasn’t like Calypso was suddenly this master—like Mrs. Moses, but Gale was hitting so many buttons that… The monster girl not only wanted to leave alone, but purposefully became this to run from such.

“But wait, you said you don’t know where they are and you know the way…?”

Calypso glowered, her expression tightening.

“I can’t forget what they sounded like, since that day. I admit, most of this is self-preservation… The other is just simple vengeance.”

Calypso’s eyes sparked to life, as she settled into an assured grin.

Her new vision gave Calypso the ability to cut through the darkness, easily peering through what could be pitch black. But, due to that terrible night, she knew that the presence of the Subsumed always left a very tangible shadow in their wake.

And a sizable, moving streak was ways before her. A fading line that was thinning before it snaked across.

Calypso licked her lips, “Try to keep up, dear.”

With an evil chuckle, Calypso sprinted her way towards the looming shadow, immediately turning to the right once she made it to the place she saw it in.

There were instant mad swipes, Calypso not taking a chance in the slightest. She chased the shadow like a cat rushing towards a laser pointer. It was to the point that she fell into the ground and dragged herself forward before getting up right again, slashing towards the tail end of her prize.

But there was something to the Subsumed’s movements. As if they were at a lower speed, but still nimble, getting out of Calypso’s grasp in precious seconds. Offbeat, but with purpose. Discordant, but even step in their movements.

And these were the stragglers and hangers-on. It enraged Calypso that on very level, the dregs she conquered were complete outcasts and washouts.

It was a thought that proved detrimental, as the monster girl tumbled, thus losing her momentum as the trail left her in the dust.

Grumbling, slamming her claws in frustration. She rose up on her feet, jaw clenched, as she turned towards Gale, who was so far behind that it seemed like she didn’t leave.

“What the hell’s wrong with--?!”

Calypso was appalled, as Gale simply rose a finger to her lips.

But before the pink monster could sprint over in rage, it clicked for Calypso once the swamp monster girl then used her other hand to point at a tree nearby. With her eyes closed.

The grim girl put her claws onto the ground once more, shifting carefully into all fours, darting her inquisitive eyes back to the tree and to the other monster.

Calypso pouted, figured that it’s a matter of trust at this point.

Rearing back, Calypso bounded behind this tree, slamming her heavy body onto whatever was there.

To her surprise, a groundling Subsumed that was a tube-shaped mite, struggling against her pressed claws.

“Holy…” Calypso’s eyebrows rose in shock.

Jumping in her skeleton armor, as Gale landed behind her. “Oh, thank God—I was hoping like, you’d figure out my signal and we didn’t talk about that and—”

“Wait…” Calypso craned her head towards the girl. “Did you… ‘Talk’ with the plants?”

“That I did! I need to stand in place, or still really, and… I can hear them, commune and stuff, right? I’m so connected that the whole place sorta becomes like my body. I felt the gnat on my arm and told my buddy to hit it for me~!”

“…Wow,” Calypso just looked up and down at Gale. “Just wow. You’re… Well, a force of nature now.”

Gale giggled, letting the spores lightly fall down from her mushroom-flower, “Well, more like a… Force of nature in training. I can only do around me and I have to stand still… So cool, but kinda useless on my own.”

“Fair…” Calypso turned her gaze down, onto the Subsumed.

Only to see it not struggle anymore. It’s bug eyes, on the tips of its pincers, staring up at Calypso.

“Let’s streamline the process here, dreg~” Calypso radiated smug confidence. “Tell me where your ilk is going to, and maybe, we’ll let you catch up.”

“Can they talk…?” Gale chimed in quizzically.

And before Calypso could answer, the thing did for them.

“Terror… tide…”

“Oh—” Gale backed up a smudge. “Uh—”

“Terrortide… Terrortide… Terrortide!”

“Hey, little guy… I’m afraid we don’t know what you mea—”

Calypso cut Gale off, by stuffing her face with the creature, munching messily on its body.