Surprisingly enough, Frieda picked up on Tic Tac Toe relatively quickly. There were a few times where I struggled to convey the reasons why I was winning, but after a while, she managed to get me to consistently draw.

I could feel the sassy confidence in her gaze. And I almost felt her saying, Gorlen’s got skills, you big dumb lizard!

So we switched to Pick Up Sticks after that, which was more entertaining, given that the game only became more challenging without opposable thumbs.

Anyway, eventually the rain stopped, so once again, my thoughts turned back toward evolution. It was time for me to find a corpse to evolve inside. I eyed the gorlen who seemed to be watching me as I moved around the cave. She seemed satisfied as I moved without trouble, though.

Then I remembered. There were beetle corpses filled with delicious blood not too far away! And with the way my stomach was rumbling, I could do with a bit of the syrupy fluid. Yeah, ready made food, first, then the energy-draining process of evolution. I knew what form I wanted next, so all that was left was the necessary preparations, a great deal of caution, and some delicious bug juice.

In a to-go cup, please!

My butler followed me as I proceeded to the back of the cave, shoving my beetle blockade out of the way when my face touched him.

Almost immediately, he started sprinting away, his stubby legs scraping against the stone. Then, the light went on and he stopped, staring straight up at it. I managed to pull myself through the hole and tackle him, picking him up and carrying him back towards the furball, who was sitting in the entrance with a wary gaze.

It was probably a pretty scary sight to see all those legs kicking and squirming towards you. Which is why it made sense when Frieda squealed, retreating back into the hole. I put the beetle down on his back away from the hole, letting him struggle to right himself, and approached the gorlen.

Her shining eyes gazed back at me with fear, and it touched my heart. I didn’t want to scare her. I turned around, and backed up, sliding my nubby tail into the hole with her.

Her clawed hand grasped it, and I slowly moved forward. Frieda followed, I guess reassured by my actions. That was the goal, after all. When she was out of the hole, and the beetle was still rocking himself back and forth, I motioned for her to move back with my head, then jammed the bug back into the hole, resealing the entrance, his butt facing outwards.

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I chuckled as I imagined how frustrated he must’ve been.

Agh! I just got out of that hole, and now I’m in it again, but headfirst!

With a satisfied nod, I clapped my claws together in a poor attempt to do the old, “dust off the hands then put them on your waist” move.

I’ve got to get a real door back here soon…

Though, when I evolved, there was a chance I would then be too big to fit through, anyway. If that was the case, I was going to need to level up my skills so I could widen the hole. And if that didn’t work, I really needed to find another way in.

Glancing down the stairs toward the dark chasm below, I realized that, just maybe, there was a path down there.

At this point, the bug wasn’t even wriggling to escape his trap. I felt like if he could sigh in exasperation, he would.

But, he didn’t. He was just a bug, after all. An aggressive, killer bug. Who’d now been handily defanged.

I sniffed the air.

Phew… And he’s a stinky bug!

I wondered if beetles had a good enough memory for him to remember what happened last time he was facing this way. I turned to the furball, and she was inspecting the other corpses, sniffing them and pulling away, her nose raised.

I pointed to the beetle when she looked at me, confusion evident in her features.

Punch it, I thought, slamming one fist into another, hoping my meaning would get across.

She tilted her head at me in confusion.

I sighed. This was gonna be done the hard way, I could see. I walked around behind her, and shoved her towards the beetle, against her struggling and whining. Then, as she stood before it, cowering, I grabbed one of her hands with both of mine (it was hard to hold things like this), and led her through a scratching motion on the beetle’s now fully-healed shell.

With a little hesitation, she duplicated the motion, looking to me. I nodded, grinning again.

A bit more confidence went into her next “strike”, and then more, and more, until she was slicing at the beetle with all of her strength, grunting little high-pitched sounds as she did so.

It kind of reminded me of the sound a guinea pig makes.

While she worked, I turned to the dead bugs laying around.

Bleh! I vant to drink your blood!

Hungrily, I drained the beetle corpses of their– now cold– bug juice. It wasn’t bad, but it was definitely better when it was hot. Never in a million years would I have thought that I would have thought that… about what I thought that about…

I watched my butler’s slices scratch at the beetle’s shell, barely doing any damage. I could see the determination creeping into her eyes. Perhaps she was thinking about Ki Grenzer, and whatever revenge her little gorlen heart could hold within.

Don’t worry, Frieda. We’ll get you there.

I kept her at it until the little scavenger seemed too tired to continue. My appetite sated, and my butler all warmed up, we made our way back to the main Dino Cave.

I wasn’t tired at all and so, even though it was a very dark night, I followed Frieda out into the wilderness.