I walked back to the cave entrance. Even from a distance away, I could see Octavia, who had apparently seen me before I had seen her, judging from the way she was waving at me with three of her legs. As I approached, I saw what looked like the tattered bits of spider web.

"Little dragon!" she said. "What took you so long? Did you get a lot done?"

"I spent a lot of time waiting for a meal," I said. "Playing ambush predator can take awhile, something I'm sure you know a lot about."

"Yes," she said, plucking at the remains of a tattered web. "Though, I don't think I'll be ambushing anyone outside tonight. Conditions are bad for outdoor webs right now. Too much wind."

"Really?" I said. "I guess your web is more sensitive to wind than I thought. It doesn't seem that breezy to me."

"Maybe you're the one who's under-sensitive to wind," she said.

I looked down at my claws, and the scaly legs they were attached to. "Maybe you're right. One thing I don't have in common with mammals is my lack of hairs anywhere on my body. I guess scales aren't as sensitive. I can still feel the wind, but I'm probably less-attuned to slight changes. Spider biology probably also lends itself to that: your body has lots of tiny hairs, right? Or…something that's the insectile equivalent of hairs. I forget what it's called."

"You can just call them hairs," she said. "So, did your hunt pay off?"

"It did! Though, not in the way I had planned. I went hunting rabbits, and ended up dining on hyena meat instead. Turns out they're easy to beat when I can face them in a fair fight. Or, well, actually it was kind of an unfair fight, in my favor. I had the element of surprise."

"I'm surprised it didn't smell you," she said.

"Is that a comment on my odor, or the sensitivity of hyena noses?" I asked.

"The latter," she said. "Hyenas hunt by sense of smell, don't they?"

I nodded. "I suppose the winds just happened to be blowing in my favor."

"So," she said, looking back toward the cave. "Are you done for tonight?"

"I've still got plenty of energy left," I said. "My goal for tonight was to make progress toward leveling up. That's still on the table. I was planning on going after the ants again."

"Good," she said. "Do what you do best. I'll keep an eye on the entrance. From inside, if you don't mind."

"Sure," I said. "Any reason you don't want to be outside? Does the wind bother you?"

"It isn't pleasant," she said. "I try to avoid it where possible."

"Very well," I said. Apparently, the subterranean cave beckoned to Octavia in much the same way that the wide outdoors beckoned to me. I bid her adieu, wagging my tail, and went off to find the ant nest.

As I approached the nest, I saw that I wasn't alone: fire ants dotted the horizon. Were they here to defend their nest? Or did they have some other business? Rather than approaching further, I decided to wait and observe them. I felt the wind on my face, and my thoughts went back to the hyena, and my conversation with Octavia. Were ants, like hyenas, also dependent on their sense of smell? Probably, it was the best way that they had to locate food. I also recalled something about them relying on smelling pheromones for communication, that being the explanation for why they always walked in lines and had a knack for following paths laid by other ants. Could they see me under the moonlight? They seemed oblivious to my presence as I watched from perhaps fifty yards away.

I watched the ants, trying to get an idea for where it was they were going, or where it was they were coming from. After several moments, it became clear that the majority of the ants were entering, not exiting the nest, but the dozens of ants I observed seemed to approach from a variety of directions: most came from the direction of the plateau, but some came from the opposite direction. They weren't exactly a swarm, but the ants seemed to be approaching the nest in clusters. Perhaps, once they all finished returning home, it would be an opportune time to strike: my previous nest attack had resulted in fewer casualties than I might have expected, but if they were all clustering here for some reason, returning from all directions…

I felt a bite on my tail, and wheeled around, knocking the biter aside, and suddenly saw a swarm of ants approaching me. Of course. The wind had been at my face. That meant I was downwind of the ant nest, making them seemingly oblivious to my presence, but I had been upwind of any ants that might try to approach me from behind. Behind the first ant that had gotten close enough to bite me, dozens of ants marched toward me. Well, no matter. I exhaled [noxious breath].

For a sickening moment, I heard the screech of ants as they scattered, but their chaotic dispersal lasted only a moment before they continued their advance. A row of five ants advanced on me, and I again exhaled [noxious breath]. The ants flinched, then a moment later, resumed their advance. I swiped with my foreclaws, goring one of the ants and sending another aside as two others bit my leg.

Fire ant defeated! Earned 1% experience toward next level.

I spun in place, trying to shake the ants free, and opened my mouth to let out [paralyzing breath]. The ants flinched for a moment and released their grip, allowing me only a moment of reprieve before they resumed their attack, only momentarily phased by the gas. Why?

The answer hit me as I felt a gust at my back. The wind. My breath attacks didn't take effect instantly: their effects intensified over time, and the time of exposure was brief when any gas I exhaled was immediately carried away by the wind. By now, a dozen more ants had reached me, and I swiped at them, failing to connect as several of them dodged while others simply grabbed onto my leg. I felt the crawling sensation of ants on my scales, opened my mouth, and let out a bellowing [roar], feeling the ground shake beneath me.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

The ants released their grip, and I immediately began sprinting in the direction of the cave. I took only a moment to glance behind me, just long enough to see that the ants were already in pursuit, dozens more. I burned stamina, doing my best to stay ahead of them.

SP: 6/16

As I bounded toward the cave, I saw the familiar shape of the ironhide hyena from behind, with two smaller hyenas flanking it on the sides.

The ironhide hyena approached the cave entrance, and a spider claw emerged, poised defensively. Thanks, Octavia.

The hyena lowered its head to try and enter through the short cave entrance, then I heard the sound of a claw strike. The hyena withdrew with a yelp, blood dripping from behind its ear.

Octavia could successfully play defense, but where did that leave me? With the ants still at my back, I rushed the entrance of the cave, hoping to catch the hyenas while they were still off guard and focused on Octavia. No such luck: as I approached, one of the smaller hyenas turned toward me and snarled, catching the attention of the other two hyenas just as I opened my mouth to let out a another roar.

As my roar filled the air, one of the smaller hyenas flinched just long enough for me to slam into it, knocking it aside. I dashed past the other hyenas, crouching when I got to the low-hanging cave entrance, but felt the crushing bite of fangs on my tail. I roared again, the sound echoing against the cave walls, and the grip on my tail loosened just long enough for me to shake free and squirm inside. I bounded forward over Octavia's web floor, and she spat some sort of gooey sludge that covered the ground behind me, some of it splashing and hitting the face of the hyena that had bit my tail. The hyena cried out in pain, and Octavia scuttled behind me, dropping one of her web barriers down behind us as we escaped further into the tunnel.

I turned to face her, but she kept walking toward me, further into the tunnel. "Keep going," she said. I did as she said, crawling forward I reached the end of the tunnel that overlooked the central chasm. I glanced behind me and saw Octavia erecting several more web barriers behind us.

"Get to the lower tunnels," she said.

I latched onto the wall and began climbing downward. "Any one in particular?"

"Doesn't matter. Little Dip is closest," she said.

I climbed downward, and heard the whooping cry of the hyenas in the tunnel overhead. Several minutes later, Octavia began descending beside me, going on ahead to the tunnel below.

"Did the hyenas get inside?" I asked

"Probably," she said. "Hopefully, they're ensnared in the webs I left behind. But that ironhide might be big and heavy enough to tear through my net. That's why we need to get…here." She entered the Little Dip tunnel, and I followed after her.

"We should be safe from the hyenas down here," she said. "Unless they have some climbing ability I don't know about."

My mind went back to the many times during my first week when I'd escaped from hyenas by scaling the plateau. "I don't think I'd be alive if they were capable of climbing," I said. "But they're above us."

"If they jump off from the top, they'll get caught in my web," she said.

"Just like what happened to me," I said, recalling our first encounter.

"Yes."

The high-pitched cackling of the hyenas echoed from up above.

"I always knew hyenas were famous for laughing," I said, glancing upward. "But I didn't expect it to sound quite so much like that uncanny cackling. Why were they so desperate to follow us in?"

"I'm not sure," she said. "They were trying to enter the cave even before you got there."

"You're right," I said. "They weren't even paying attention to me when I first returned. It seemed like they wanted to get in. Maybe they weren't trying to chase you or me in. Maybe…they were running from something."

"Running from what?"

"I saw the ants doing the same thing," I said. "Swarms of them, re-entering their nest from all over. Until a gang of them started chasing me, that is. They were all headed back underground. Maybe the hyenas wanted to get underground too, for the same reason. You laid down all sorts of web covering, you even layered the cave entrance with toxic sludge, and yet they wanted to get inside so badly that they pushed past all that. I don't think they'd do that if they were just after a meal."

A minute passed, and the cackling died down, replaced with the gentle sounds of whining and whimpers.

Octavia walked to the edge. "I'm going to go check on them."

"Can I come with you?"

"After I confirm that it's safe," she said, climbing up. I didn't want Octavia to leave, but I couldn't think of a good reason to ask her to stay, so I said nothing as she disappeared. A minute of tense silence followed as I waited for her return.

"It's safe," she said. "You can come back up."

I climbed to the upper tunnel. The first thing I saw was the ironhide hyena, which had managed to become completely ensnared in Octavia's web, but not before making it nearly to the end of the entrance tunnel. As I approach it, it snarled, and I took a step back. It struggled against the restraint of the several layers of web that covered it, but it was stuck.

Octavia raised a claw. "Not much left to do here, except to put it out of its misery." She raised a claw.

"Wait," I said. "May I do the honors? If you don't mind me stealing your kill, that is."

"Oh," she said. "Of course. You're close to leveling up, right?"

"Yes, I said. "But also, I'd like a chance to experiment. I want to see if there are any spots where I can damage it."

"Okay," she said.

I walked past the snarling ironhide hyena and, from behind, tried stabbing it several times with my claw. No strike seemed to penetrate its thick hide. Then, I tried the same thing with its skull, which was immobile enough for me to poke and prod. The hyena growled, but couldn't move its head more than an inch.

"This could get graphic," I said. "Are you sure you want to watch?"

Octavia sighed. "Do you intend to torture this poor thing to death?"

"Not longer than is necessary to get the information that I need."

"Okay," she said, turning away.

With one claw, I held the hyena's head in place as I attempted to stab the hyena in the eye. To my surprise, my claw bounced off its eyelid. I did my best to grab its forehead and force its eyelid open, but I lacked the dexterity, and its eyelid remained fiercely shut.

I went back to the hyena's hindquarters, this time attempting a bite. My teeth succeeded where my claws had failed, shattering the hyena's bones with a sickening crunch. It howled in pain as blood leaked from the wound. I moved to the hyena's neck, and put it out of its misery, opening a gaping wound. Blood gushed, staining the web crimson.

Ironhide Hyena defeated! Level up! You are now level 10. Cap reached for current class Exp toward class ascension: 0%

My eyes widened. "Octavia."

She turned back to face me. "What is it, little dragon?"

"I'm not exactly sure. But I don't think I'm going to be a 'little dragon' for much longer."