Adon managed to recover his presence of mind even as the situation intensified.

The snake’s coils were wrapped around him so tightly now that he couldn’t even see sunlight. But as his mind raced through options, he realized the tight positioning of the coils gave him his best chance to escape. He was so thoroughly wrapped up that any attack he attempted could not fail to land.

Acting quickly, he poured Mana into his mandibles and chomped down on the nearest bit of scaly flesh. His mandibles immediately began inflicting punishing cuts.

The snake wriggled hard until it wrestled its coil out of his mouthparts’ grip, but that weakened the whole constriction effect. Adon was able to twist his body around and started chewing on a different part of the snake, one of the coils that it had wrapped around his small body.

It writhed in pain but redoubled its efforts to squeeze him at the same time, re-tightening its scaly grip.

I can do this longer than you can, snake…

For what felt like a long time, the two were locked in a slow, brutal death struggle. The snake slowly tightened its grip, even around Adon’s spines, though they did some damage to the snake’s flesh this time, since Adon had been able to partially stiffen them while the snake loosened its grip.

The effect of the constriction forced much of the air out of Adon’s body, but he was surprised to find the effect on his body was mostly just what he would expect if a human accidentally stepped on him—he felt like he was slowly being crushed. If his exoskeleton could bruise, he was certain it would have the mark of the snake all over it. He could hear creaky sounds, as if his body might give up the struggle at any moment. But he forced himself to ignore them.

Even as the snake slowly crushed his body, Adon continued chewing almost mechanically at the flesh he could reach. With Mana flowing through his mandibles, his bites cut great gouges out of the snake’s body with every chomp. The snake repeatedly tried to move away from the terrible chop of Adon’s mandibles, but every movement to escape damage weakened constriction for a key moment and allowed him to reposition and renew his attack again.

It took patience on the caterpillar's part, but he realized he was slowly dismantling the snake. The grip weakened with each successful bite, as the snake simply had less muscle attached to its body with which to crush him.

Several bites later, the snake’s grip loosened a great deal. The caterpillar had managed to keep the snake still long enough to do serious damage. Distantly, he was aware that he had chewed halfway through a segment of the snake’s body.

But Adon took little notice of this, even though it dramatically relaxed the pressure on his body. He kept chewing. He didn’t even consciously observe how the snake began trying to wriggle away on its broken, bleeding body. His mandibles just kept chewing, and as the snake tried to slither away, Adon would simply follow the trail of blood after him, eating bits and pieces of the snake as he went. He was in the zone, doing what a caterpillar was meant to do: eating.

He had slipped into a trance-like state…

Munch munch. Chomp chomp. Gobble gobble. Gulp.

Adon came back to himself some time later.

He realized as he emerged from his feeding trance that he wasn’t actually done eating. There was a slight visceral dissatisfaction that came with the realization. I want to eat more, he thought dimly. Why did I stop?

He looked around and saw that he was out in the open now. He had semi-consciously dismembered the snake. The python lay scattered in lifeless, bloody pieces around him. Adon could tell from its hazy eyes that he had killed it some time ago.

But he hadn’t eaten that much. He wasn’t full the way that his caterpillar body liked to be full. Stuffed, really, was this body’s preference. He didn’t know if it would be different when he was a butterfly.

So what pulled me out of it? he wondered dully.

And then he heard it.

A sound that was at the edge of his awareness, but slowly growing louder. Buzzing.

I heard it earlier, too. He remembered hearing it when he was on the palace rooftop. Distant buzzing. But it was closer now.

At this moment, when he was coming out of a sleep-like state, Adon also remembered that he had heard this same sound days ago, when he was between waking and sleep-like states, in Goldie’s web.

Is the garden infested with some kind of flying insect that I hadn’t seen before?

It was possible. Adon hadn’t spent a lot of time looking above him in the last several days, up until the point when he obtained his additional set of eyes that was always trained on the sky.

But somehow, his body had known that this sound was ominous. Some instinct had awakened him.

Whatever this is, it’s one of my natural predators, Adon thought grimly. His mind returned to the time when he’d thought he heard buzzing while he was in Goldie’s web. It had sounded like this. Wait. Do these things know where I live?

If they did, then he needed to be back at Goldie’s as quickly as he could get there, to protect her and Red. If they all fought together, they’d have a better chance.

He made as if to run but then stopped himself.

No, Adon, be smart! he told himself If they’ve been looking for you, because these things are your natural predators, they won’t be interested in Goldie and Red. Don’t lead them back to your friends!

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Adon tried to collect himself. First things first. Where are they? What are they?

He looked around, but wherever he looked, he couldn’t actually see the enemy, even as the sound of buzzing seemed to intensify by the second.

Where are you?! Damn it! Are they bees? Wasps? Hornets? Do dragonflies fly in groups sometimes?

That last thought formed a pit in his stomach. If he was being hunted by dragonflies, then he had really flown too close to the sun. And all before he ever grew a pair of wings.

Focus up, Adon, he told himself. If you can’t see them, then listen and try to pinpoint where they are.

As he concentrated on his senses, he first confirmed that the buzzing really was growing louder, and then that there were multiple sources. On some level, he had realized before from the volume of the sound. But now he could track by sound the distinct locations the buzzing was coming from.

It’s there. The palace roof!

So that was why he couldn’t see them. The building was concealing them.

If I can’t see them, they probably can’t see me. Maybe they’re not after me…

But he instantly knew that wasn’t likely to be true. If his instinct told him this was a natural predator of his, then they were probably looking for him—and maybe everything else they could find in the garden. There were clearly a lot of these things. They would need a large quantity of food.

Maybe I can get away on foot. If they couldn’t see him yet, he should have a chance, right?

He made a snap decision. He would try making a run for it.

He looked down at the dead python. It’s a shame I have to leave you behind. He had already obtained most of the benefit of consuming it while he was in the midst of his feeding trance. His Stats had received the largest boost since the first time he’d eaten a higher species, and his Evolution Points were insane.

But he had wanted to take most of what was left for Goldie and Red. He still had hopes he could boost Red’s Intelligence enough for basic information, a simple vocabulary, to take root there.

I’ll hunt something else for you guys, Adon thought. I promise.

He started running, looking out for a place that would provide solid protection from flying insects of whatever kind.

Bushes? No. Tree? No. Obviously can’t go back up onto the palace roof again…

He saw the hole the snake had dug to get the vole out, and he considered diving in there.

The Midnight Garden Vole had scared him once, but Adon had now established that he was clearly higher up on the food chain. If the vole and any others of its kind were unwilling to share their burrow, Adon could always blow through them with one of his Mana balls.

Adon rushed into the opening the python had left earlier, and he was immediately greeted by the sound of a low-pitched growl. His eyes were able to see through the darkness well now, and it took him only a moment to realize that he had miscalculated slightly. There was more than just one or two voles.

He saw two of the very large voles that had frightened him earlier, and there were twenty to thirty much smaller voles with them.

It looked to be a very small burrow he was in with them, too.

Is there enough room for all of us in here? Adon was much larger than the baby voles at this point, almost as big as the parents. He thought it was possible he had grown larger than any other caterpillar had ever managed. Most would have purchased their Evolution by now, he imagined.

Most would not continue risking the natural world’s dangers without the advantage of wings.

He pictured what would happen if he tried to make the voles leave so that he could stay. Either they would resist, and he would have to kill the parents, or they would give in, and he would probably have to listen as the colony of flying insects caught them and butchered them.

I don’t want to force them out of their home, he thought. I don’t want to kill so many babies. That’s too much cruelty, even for me.

The parents were still growling, he noticed, but they weren’t moving closer to Adon. They were staying with their children.

This could work, he thought. Kind of a tense stalemate, but as long as it remains stable while the bugs outside are looking for me…

He heard the distant sound of buzzing again, and he realized the flying insects were on the prowl now. They had finally left the safety of the palace rooftop, and they were moving in their swarm through the garden.

All right. I’m going to try peaceful coexistence. Let’s be friends!

Adon activated Telepathy.

I come in peace, he sent to each parent in turn. Do not want to hurt you.

The voles did not respond with verbalized thoughts of their own. They hissed, and one of them gestured at the opening Adon had just entered through with its claws.

Universal language for, Get out, then!

Adon sent them a video he created in his mind of a horde of dragonflies, rampaging and killing insects that looked like him. Then he sent an image of him hiding underground next to the voles.

Their body language softened.

The male vole stepped forward a few inches and tapped a place by the dirt tunnel wall, far from where his children were—but also further in.

He’s trying to give me a place so I won’t be by the entrance, where they’d see me, Adon thought. He wanted to cry. That’s so kind. Oh my Goddess. Thank you so much. He wished they understood words, so he could gush his thanks.

Adon rushed over to the spot the vole had tapped, and he bowed his head at the vole parents in thanks.

Then the sound of buzzing grew closer. Adon and the voles grew very still as they waited for it to pass.

Instead, the sound intensified.

Oh please, no, Adon prayed. Goddess, don’t let me have led the monsters here…

Adon and the voles froze. The sound of the buzzing was right outside now.

And then they saw it. The head of a huge bug poking down into the tunnel. It was a dark reddish triangle with the sun behind it. Adon found himself absurdly relieved for a moment.

It’s not a dragonfly at least, he thought.

Then again, dragonflies typically weren’t dangerous to animals as large as voles. And whatever this thing was, Adon saw a glint in its eye as it spotted him, the voles, and the vole family.

He thought to Identify it, but as he tried it, the insect moved back.

Adon was left staring out at the sunlight, waiting for the other shoe to drop.