Kills after the first should test the neonate. Push them to new ways of thinking. If they cannot reach the next step, they deserve their failure.

-From Neonatum Provisae: 2:5-7

The neonate fought to suck in air, but it was a futile effort.

No!

She jerked and writhed, tail lashing, but the massive python just squeezed tighter, coiling around more of her body.

Air! I need air!

I need to attack! Her Instinct countered. Kill the marauder python.

It snarled as it too tried to help, acting in concert with her forebrain. Both halves struggling against the crushing might of the other reptile.

The hand ax clattered against her teeth, still inside her mouth, even as the world started to go red. It was just like when she was in the Provider’s grasp. She kept writhing, pulling, pushing, twisting, using her whole body like she did hatching from the egg.

Need a stone. Need… a point!

Getting a leg free, she planted it and dug her clawed toes into the bark of the tree, trying to find some leverage.

Live!

Her bones flexed painfully, making her snarl. She gripped the branch with the toes of her free foot, managing to get a firm grip, giving one last terrific wrench. The neonate felt her other leg slip free! She planted it next to the other.

Fight!

She strained, toes gripping, thighs burning. Feeling dizzy from lack of air. Lifting the marauder python up off of the branch.

Her muscles rippled, the veins in her calves standing out as she lifted the ever-tightening coils that encased her. The snake shifted, the three-foot-wide head coming closer, little bump on its snout gleaming in the rain, the branch bouncing beneath them.

Can’t be swallowed!

Something deep inside marveled at her own strength. But that was secondary to the need to win.

A point! Need a point! Something to gouge her foe with.

The neonate looked over the body to the branch, and through the red haze she saw what she needed. A hard knot in the branch.

Survive!

Thump!

She slammed the beast against the knot, heard it hiss in pain. The marauder’s grip slipped and she stole a breath of air and held it, straining to lift it again as it slipped down her rain slick body.

Slay the vermin! Consume its flesh! Fuel my growth!

It clamped down again and air hissed out of her lungs. Her eyes bulging. The huge head of the beast swiveled back into view, mouth open, big enough to take in her head and shoulders whole.

Slam harder!

She bent backwards, lifting higher. The serpent hissed and snapped at her head. She twisted away from the strike.

Not knowing how, only knowing she avoided the backwards facing teeth, neck getting a cramp in the process.

The neonate would have snapped at it, lighting flashing bright and blinding, but the hand ax was still in her mouth. Did she spit it out so she could bite?

Mine! No!

Need to get a hand free!

It pulled out of reach before she could figure out how to strike back at it, coiling again.

Earn this! Her Instinct snarled. Glorying in her fight. Trembling at the danger to her life.

Thunder crashed. A sonic calamity. She could smell its blood from the first slam. She hefted just a bit higher, then-

Thump!

She slammed it down again, and this time she managed to get an arm free, getting another gasp of fresh air in the process.

It hissed in rage.

The scent of blood got stronger.

Hope bloomed.

Digging her claws into the hide of the python the neonate tried to pull herself out, thick slick blood spurting in-between her fingers, but the serpent crushed her once again. Air whooshed out of her lungs, and the hand ax shot out of her mouth, slimy with her saliva.

No! She bared her teeth.

Her free hand reached out, claws pulling free of the snake’s flesh. Catching it with the very tips of her claws, jerking it into her palm like a heron eating a bullfrog.

Or a kingbill eating a hatchling.

Kill!

Lifting the hand axe high, she slammed it down as hard as she could into the snake’s coils. Dark blood gushed out and the python hissed in rage, trying to tighten further, to crush her.

Her bones ground. Her muscles knotted. She squealed in pain with what little air she had left.

Fight! Strength! Win! Her Instinct screamed at her, full of fear and rage and other primal things.

How dare this thing try to prove her unworthy!

She slammed the hand ax down again and again. Blood squirted out in thick spouts. Hacking into the marauder, through its scales, her body coated in its gore. It would either let her go or she would chop it in half. The only two options she would allow.

The snake chose a different tactic and unwound from her suddenly, and she nearly fell out of the tree, her vision spotty from lack of air as she struggled not to collapse.

Focus!

The world spun, making that a difficult task as she kept coughing and gasping. She shook her head in a vain attempt to rid her vision of the spots.

Danger!

She sensed it, knowing it would come.

She ducked under the strike of the python, most of its body lashing out above her. Aiming for her head once more. She saw the glinting hooked teeth and nose bump in a fresh flash of lightning.

An egg tooth?

Her Instinct grunted.

She needed it to pull back for a moment, so she slashed with her empty hand, claws foremost. They tore some scales free and the marauder python snarled at her.

Backing away along the branch, she moved away from her foe, getting farther from the trunk in the process. The neonate’s scales shifted to vivid reds, yellows, and oranges that undulated and warped in a multitude of harsh geometric patterns against a black background.

Bright colors like poisonous things, bright colors like dominance, bright colors to show her resolve to whoever could see her.

A display of her determination as much as an attempt to dazzle the dumb brute of a beast, hiding the pain of her entire body as it throbbed.

It hissed like a raging waterfall, evil looking teal eyes glaring at her as it moved closer.

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Not working, saw me before the display.

No, too smart. Her Instinct hissed.

It lashed forward, maw gaping.

She sidestepped, the whole tree limb still bouncing with their sudden movements.

The coils started to encircle her again and she dug her claws into the branch, swinging over the side to avoid them.

Got to head back to the trunk. Gonna snap this branch at this rate.

She stuck the bloody hand axe in her mouth once more, scrambling upside down towards the trunk and firmer ground. Also wanting more places to maneuver, fear filling her as she frantically tried to plan out a strategy.

Kill! Her Instinct snarled inside. Ever helpful.

The neonate was barely back on top of the branch when the serpent lashed out once more. Teeth bared.

She hissed, falling backward to avoid the strike. It struck again and again, acting like a viper now! Her fear manifested in her desaturated pattern, betraying how unnerved she was.

She had to scramble awkwardly to keep out of range. The beast had the upper hand! She couldn’t try to fight this thing! It was too dangerous, she had to run!

I always have to run. From the brood, from the other predators, from…

Difficult choices.

She snarled, knowing it was partly true. But then she remembered the mawfrog, remembered leading the charge.

Her fear turned into something else.

Resolve.

Leaping to her feet she once again found her roar, no longer a pitiful squeaky thing but a true bellow. She swung with the hand axe, snarling defiance once more.

Cathunk!

Vermillion blood spun through the air like glimmering gems of fire as the lightning caromed through the clouds. The sharp edge of the split stone had caught the creature once more, missing the head but ripping the flesh spectacularly.

The marauder python hissed, pulling back, and her latest strike filled the neonate with anger no longer tethered by worry.

The snapping wrath of an apex gnashing in her heart. Even if it was just a figment, she would end this.

I am the predator here.

Yes! Her Instinct was exultant.

It snapped at her again, trying to coil after, but she lept down to a lower branch. Hissing. The claws of her free hand dragged against the trunk, slowing her fall so she didn’t break her legs.

It crashed through the canopy after her, goaded by her retreat. She sprung over it, toe claws digging into its hide as she ran back up. It was long enough that she got two levels higher, despite being newly hatched if the spike on its snout was an egg tooth. She leaped off of it and landed on a branch that was dangerously thin, using it as a springboard to launch herself into the next tree.

She might not want to contest her fellows, but she would be damned if she kept fearing a beast like this. An unplanning, unthinking, thumbless idiot.

Falsescaled! Yes! Kill!

She grabbed the far branch, knowing it would snap.

Use it to angle in to the branch below!

Crack!

She held on, and it swung down and dropped faster than she expected.

Shit!

She grabbed a vine, slowing herself further, landing in a roll with a thump. She spun to face her foe, roaring again as it slithered forward.

Sees me as prey!

Fool that it was.

Something deep inside her, deeper down than her Instinct, wanted, no, demanded the python’s death. It was an insult to the natural order of things!

She charged!

Slashing with claw and ax.

Hacking, spinning, slicing, biting.

It tried to snap at her only to be thwacked in its snout by the stone ax, slashed by claws, thumped by her tail.

The python hissed and backed away, clearly confused by this turn of events.

It coiled, trying to bunch up so it could do a full strike again.

But she wouldn’t let it, she couldn’t let it, so she kept pushing forward. Closing the distance, hand ax lifted. It whistled through the air as she brought it down.

Thonk!

Missing by inches, sinking deep into the wood. The marauder had jerked back out of the way, almost falling out of the tree.

Snarling she flipped over her hand, lashing out with her toe claws. Gouging its face as she wrenched on the stone to pull it free. Making the serpent reel back.

The branch shook as it did.

The neonate spun like a whirlpool. Claws glinting, slashing into the snake’s underbelly before slamming the stone tool home once again. The python writhed now, hissing in agony. She tore it free and slammed it back in. Over and over. Searching for the organs. Meaning to kill it there and then.

Kill kill kill!

Die!

The branch groaned as it continued to oscillate.

Blood fountained, coating her. Thick and sweet on her tongue.

The beast tried to sweep her legs with its tail, but she managed to jump over it. Landing on its coils, the head within reach. Her toes sunk in deep as it writhed, trying and failing to shake her free.

She lifted the ax in both hands now, glaring down in the fear filled teal eyes of her prey.

Victory! Both halves of her mind snarled, triumphant as she brought the hand ax down.

Crack!

The branch snapped and she was weightless.

Shit!

Desperate, she stuffed the ax into her mouth and reached with both hands, just barely catching a branch below. She slid to the underside and blended in with the bark. Her body still aching slightly.

Damn that serpent! She had been robbed of her kill by dumb luck!

Hunt!

She looked, following her Instinct’s urgings.

There!

It was above her, searching, its tongue sliding out to try and smell for her. It didn’t look in her direction.

Lost me.

Strike where it is least expected. Her Instinct hissed, caressing the hand axe with her tongue, savoring the rich taste of blood.

Something glinted in the marauder python’s teal eyes, a strange unnatural light. An intelligent light. A hateful light. It stoked her rage.

Falsescaled.

Slowly, sliently, she moved to the side of the limb. Waiting and letting the rain wash the blood from her scales as lightning flashed.

She wouldn’t just slink away, the snake would die.

Calmly she pulled free some moss, scrubbing a fresh layer of it over her scales. Watching, waiting, letting it move past. She was the ambusher now.

With all the care she could, she waited, seeing if it would check lower.

Come on, we were falling. Go lower.

Its head swayed back and forth, tongue still searching for her scent, and an idea filled her mind.

One-eye, chasing that rock wrapped in her skin.

She spat on the branch below.

It took a moment, but then, slowly, the beast turned, angling down. Moving lower.

She moved into position. Watching it as it reached the small splatter of her saliva.

She sprung at it, pulling the ax from her mouth in both hands. Grabbing its snout with her feet. Bringing down the murderstroke!

Crunch!

The beasts skull buckled, blood and brains spraying out. Coating her and running down her body in the downpour. She saw one eye burst, the other popping clean out of the socket and sailing off into the night.

The neonate panted, staggering off of the skull and catching herself.

I… I did it…

Bright sunrise yellow pride filled her, and she planted a foot on her kill’s gorey corpse, lungs filling full as they could before she roared into the storm, the heavens themselves joining her as thunder bellowed in return. Ax held high in triumph. Standing over the surging river.

Tok had been right. She was dangerous!

The corpse shifted, coiling into itself, starting to slide out of the tree towards the water below.

Wait! No! The meat!

She grabbed the flesh, and she thought she saw something leave the body, something… unnatural, just before it hit the water of the flooded island below with a great splash.

Had that been a shadow? Smoke?

She jerked away and let go, hissing as she kicked it off of the branch, not trusting it. Whatever it was, it made the meat bad, surely.

Her Instinct grunted.

The corpse washed down the river, and she wasn’t sure if it was a trick of the lightning, but it looked like it was rotting away already. Either white bones or splashing water stark against the scales of the slain beast.

She sat down in the branch, and sighed. She looked at the hand ax.

Dangerous. Different kinds of strength.

She turned it, thoughtful.

Needs leverage. Reach. A handle. She would have to figure that out, but maybe with Ropemaker’s skill she could attach the stone to something? She thought of the pillarwood pole she had at home. Maybe there was a way to use that. She’d look into it.

I… I can do this… She realized. I can compete! She would have to work harder than the others, plan ahead, but that just meant that she was more worthy than they were. Right?

It was with that uplifting feeling that she headed towards the Providers campsite, planning to, if only a little bit, compete with him as well as the other hatchlings.

Hopefully he wouldn’t kill her when she did.