The hornet’s sting hurts all the more if it finds a tender spot to plant it. The foolish creature doesn’t care that it will die immediately after, crushed by its larger foe. It only wants to hurt, to attack, to strike. Be better than this.
-From Aphorisms: 1:16-19
Her forked tongue flickered out. Her heart pounding.
Two.
She remained motionless. Camouflaged perfectly with the tall grasses in front of the door.
The clump of grass right next to her own was flattened by a pair of snarling males. The one was unarmed, the other-
Thwack!
-had a club.
The unarmed male was knocked to the ground by his foe, who jumped atop him and started raining blows down, snarling as the other male yelped in pain. The armed male was-
Thwack!
-winning.
Thwack thwack!
Clearly.
The tussle rolled towards her.
Gods damn it! They were going to bump into her. Or get so close as makes no difference.
Furiously, she unleashed the full potential of her camouflage, layer upon layer of complexity getting added to the pattern.
The neonate scrunched up the toes of one foot just in time for them to not roll on to her claws. Both were much bigger than her, and she didn’t want to be caught in the middle again.
Especially because it would drag her into the social posturing of the gathering, and she wanted to exclude herself from the lot of it, as her only way to do well in such an event was to reveal her greatest skill to them all. Let them forget me. At least until she had a better plan to counteract her size.
She clenched her teeth as the muscles in her skin strained to maintain her pattern.
Thwack! Thwa-Thwack thwack!
They rolled back away, to her relief.
The neonate inspected the weapon through slitted eyes. It was the stump of a sapling. Torn out by the roots which looked to have been hardened in the fire. She couldn’t tell what kind of tree though. Light tan, with darker grain. Nowhere near as pale as pillarwood.
Why that design?
The unarmed male squealed and hissed, sweeping the other with his tail before scrambling out and away towards a fresh call from the Provider. His one eye swollen shut.
One-Eye! Her Instinct screeched, and she almost leapt out at him to stab. With a titanic amount of effort, she stopped herself.
He’s dead! Dead… She was panting, and glad the two males were too focused with each other to notice. Dead…
The male with the club scrambled to his feet, dashing after the other, triumphant yellow flickering here and there in his pattern. He had to duck as the first male through a stone. It buzzed angrily through the air, zipping past the neonate’s head into the rest of the undergrowth. She barely noticed it in her panic. Short pained gasps. Eyes fully closed.
They were gone.
He is dead.
The quiet was sudden.
I killed him.
She sighed in relief, letting the door shut, peeling her other hand off of the handle of the dagger.
She didn’t waste any time, scrambling up into the canopy.
Twice dead. I killed him both times. The gods took him.
Her panic aside, the neonate didn’t want to stay on the ground with so many of them traveling this way. Countless squabbles raged below, and some entered the canopy, but only in the stouter lower branches from the sound.
Some of her peers were still nursing fresh wounds, snapping and snarling at anyone who got too close.
There isn’t one of us without scars. She thought of her own. More than she could easily remember.
Crimson blood spattered on green leaves. Yelps, hisses, and snarls drowned out the call of a cicada. She hissed in frustration.
SNAP!
Her eyes shot back the way she had come.
Biter!
Shit!
Her jaws were louder than ever, and the whole mass knew to make way for her as she strode forward. Only the barest limp visible.
She knocked several of the others down, snarling and displaying her black and red. The muscles in her neck and jowls were even bigger.
Direct approach. It suits her. The big female had the muscle to back up the display too.
The neonate was only partially paying attention to that. She had noticed something interesting.
Biter looked lean. Thin. And not just her, all of the Greenscales looked that way. For some she could see the vertebrae of their tails.
They are under strain.
Her Instinct rumbled contentedly. Plan. Working.
The neonate stayed in the canopy. She had applied the moss already, but this many of them all in one place was making her paranoid. She took a moment to apply more to herself.
I am glad I am not participating in this posturing. She was still flustered, too out of sorts to possibly get any of it right. Nor did she want to deal with the aftermath if she did do it correctly.
Another bellow.
The neonate rushed through the treetops as those on the ground sped up as well.
They were driven to gather. The biggest gathering of them all since the days right after their hatching. Tok sat in his old position, where he had instructed them all those months ago.
One day short of a year ago. Her Instinct hissed, simply knowing such things.
His massive jaws ripped into the flesh of one of their fallen peers, the bones crunching loudly.
He purposely was taking his time, as if to signal the end with the meal.
One less to deal with.
She saw Slash sidle up, inspecting how he was displaying his dominance. He let the crowd shift around him, instead of the other way around. Casually scratching his chin with a gleaming elongated claw. His unique black and red seemed to almost be lazily held, but she could tell by the meticulousness of his nonchalance it was very intentional.
He acts like we should know he is an apex.
It was a different kind of confidence than Biter. She wasn’t sure how well it worked. She caught it, but she wondered if that was because she was smarter than most of them.
As if that’s a question.
Hubris. Idiot.
She watched in mild amusement as he and Biter spotted each other, snarling and flashing their black and red across the gathering. A rivalry she had stoked. Another silent victory.
----------------------------------------
Kiddo… You are pushing it. Ease up.
Mmmm… So proud and confident. Shit, He’s smug. I looked into what he had planned, peeking over his shoulder. I didn’t like what I saw. This was going to be tough for the Kiddo. I started to reach out to change some-
Back away thief! This is MY domain now.
What did he mean by that?
----------------------------------------
The hatchlings near the two rival apexes stepped back from them, not wanting to get caught amongst anything.
Might just kill each other yet.
She hissed softly under the clamor of all of them, shifting around the circle through the trees. She took her time, continuing to hide, scanning, making sure none of the others had spotted her. So far it appeared she was undetected.
The neonate counted them, curious to know how many were left.
Fifty-six. She wasn’t sure that was enough to end the trial.
No. Too many. Her Instinct snarled from her yellow eyes. She would have to make more fail before the trial would end. Not an altogether unpleasant prospect.
She remained in the canopy, blending in with the shadows as she stared down at them all. She spotted one that she hadn’t seen for quite some time now.
Design.
He had grown, not as big as Slash, who was still glaring at Biter, but certainly more than the neonate had. What was more he was scanning the canopy. Searching. Searching for-
Me?
She knew she was right the instant the wonder of it entered her mind.
But why me?
Same niche. Wonders if he has the best camouflage now. Her Instinct determined. Which was all the more reason to stay hidden. It did feel good to have him expect her to be alive though.
Conceal. Compete. Her Instinct agreed.
She was surprised to see Trapmaker. He was haggard. She could see the slight tremor in his hands.
The herb. That had worked well. He had destroyed his own, but clearly he was getting more from elsewhere.
Why is he talking to Fisher?
He leaned close to her, whispering something. At first the big female snarled, knocking him down with her slightly flattened tail, following it with a kick. He cringed, the saturation of his scales lowering.
All the Greenscales turned, flickering some form of black and red.
Weakling. In front of all of us. He had just ceded any credibility to his apex status with the entire brood. Idiot should have postured at the very least!
Her Instinct grunted.
He continued to speak, standing, still cringing. Fisher cocked her head.
What is happening there?
She noticed Bowmaker join the circle, pushing to the front like the other Apex competitors, and Axmaker lurking close-by as well.
“Enough!” The Provider boomed, silencing the Greenscales with his growling words, “Join the circle.”
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I’ve got a bad feeling about this…
Can’t be hidden, last daughter. Not for this.
Da- I mean, shucks.
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He looked around at the group. A cicada hummed next to the neonate’s ear, and she twitched. She didn’t think any of her rivals had noticed.
The Provider’s bright blue tongue slid out, eyes narrowing. He murmured something, voice resonant, but too low to make out, waving his hand, fingers moving into crisp shapes for just a moment.
If she hadn’t been so well versed in hues and colors, she would have missed the soft flash of light behind the Provider’s eyes. They swiveled, and Tok stared right at her, unblinking.
The neonate shifted uncomfortably from her hiding spot. Shrinking a bit farther into the shadows.
Magic? To see though camouflage? Would they all learn it now? As a final test before they were named? Ivory dread filled her, she couldn’t have that!
“All will join the circle.” He hissed with impatient crimson tones and prefixes, still staring right at her.
A Kingbill rattled in the distance. Every Greenscale shifted, facing the sound of the threat, even Biter and Slash glanced away from each other for a moment. Several shifted slightly to blend with their surroundings. All of their hues were off.
When she looked back the Provider was still staring at her.
Reluctantly, the neonate shifted allowed her natural coloring to show through.
She felt their eyes all shift to her, felt her hackles rise.
Don’t make the same mistake. Her Instinct gnashed as she looked down at Trapmaker. He was still talking to Fisher, who glared up at her. His scales were still desaturated. He noticed her, and he flashed his own black and red, eyes full of hate. Then Fisher growled and he cringed again, desaturating and talking again.
She flared her black and red at him for a moment, and he flinched away. She clambered down, leaping from branch to branch, springing to a vine and sliding the rest of the way, landing close to the front.
They all were taller than her.
Act like they aren’t there. Her Instinct hissed.
She didn’t have time to prove they were beneath her notice. She had gone toe to toe with the best of them and survived. She would not waste her time with them if she didn’t have to.
One started to move to block her path and she sprung forward, snarling and he staggered back, falling down as he bumped into the others next to him.
Snapping her jaws once in satisfaction, she took her place at the very front of the group, where the apex predators stood. She took in the reactions of the rest of the brood.
She spotted Fisher’s scales shift blue with surprise for a moment, Trapmaker still whispering in her ear.
Axmaker was next to Fisher, and snarled when she saw the neonate looking.
Design looked satisfied, and flashed black and red at her.
He wants a rematch.
SNAP-AP!
She managed not to flinch, doing her best to copy the Provider’s lazy half lidded look as she turned to look up at Biter as she shoved her way over.
Shit.
The neonate only then realized that her display had been the best. Hidden, revealed only when the Provider addressed her out loud. That and her black and red was the most complex of all of them. She didn’t have to look to see. She knew.
Such things couldn’t be unchallenged, and now that she had done her display, they also couldn’t go undefended.
“What do you think you are doing up here runt?” Biter hissed, turning her deeply scarred face and hateful yellow eyes in her direction.
She snarled, rage boiling inside. Before she realized she had turned to face the much larger female.
Kill! Example!
She could do it. She just needed to be quick enough. And what an interesting test that would be…
----------------------------------------
I expected Maruc to push her to do it, I had already started to yell to distract Him, but He stood there, waiting. I had no idea what He was waiting for.
----------------------------------------
“Enough.” Tok said, loudly, deep growl, the voice of command that had them all standing a little straighter.
She was sure that all of their Instincts were trembling in their spines at that moment.
She glanced over and saw Bowmaker snarling at her. His tongue flickering, and the others noticed his glare, the glare of the other apexes. Curiosity made them look as well, and other tongues joined his, tasting the air in her direction.
Several of the others had also started to glare, recognizing her scent, and began to mutter.
Shit.
Scent.
It was clear that the moss had only worked at helping her lose them in the rain. Some trace of her scent must have been left behind in enough of their shelters to be recognizable.
----------------------------------------
Shit! And He still didn’t pounce. How had He hidden this side of Himself?
War.
That was it. Strategy. Taught through osmosis and the conquest of the Empire.
----------------------------------------
The neonate thought about moving farther back and her Instinct locked her legs in place.
No! Compete! Her Instinct hissed. Too late now. Too many have seen.
If she did back down, she would be doomed to be fodder for the brood. Barely worth more than the meat on her bones. Never able to do what she wanted with her life. Never able to continue her bloodline even.
“Enough.” Tok repeated.
She let red flicker across her scales, and stared at Tok, ignoring the rest of them. She would live, she would have a name, and there was nothing that they could do to stop it. She started to turn away from Biter. The Provider had given her an out.
“I asked you a question, runt!” Biter snarled, grabbing her shoulder painfully in a clawed hand.
Anger surged, and she struggled to fight it down.
Tok hissed.
Don’t give in. Listen to the Provider…
Biter’s claws didn’t break the skin, which was surprising. The big female leaned down, baring her teeth. They snapped on thin air. “Should have hunted prey like you long ago.” Her words were quiet, echoing in the tense silence.
Something inside the neonate broke. Her Instinct frothed at the mouth.
Show them! Show them all!
Kill!
Quick as blinking, she had the point of her knife pressed hard against the other female’s throat. Biter blinked and started to pull back, and she pressed hard enough that a small trickle of blood flowed from the tip, stepping with her. The muscles in her arm coiled like a viper, ready to strike.
Force them to listen.
“Try it. Go on.” She whispered, “Then we both die…”
She wanted it. She wanted the fight.
She hissed, the sibilance of her words sliding across the clearing to all of them. She locked in her black and red, her true black and red. She held none of the complexity back, shifting it constantly. It pleased her to see the bright blue colors of shock flicker here and there amongst the remaining brood out of the corner of her eye.
She pressed a bit harder with the knife. “Maybe I cull you? So stupid, worthless. Not even enough brains to make a simple tool, no, let’s just bite everything! Like a snapping turtle!”
She slapped Biter across the mouth with the flat of the blade before she could react, planting the point back and forcing her to step back. Her words too were sharp, prefixed with scorn. Shouting the last so that they echoed.
Biter snarled, her own black and red snapping into place even as she snapped again in her rage. “You-”
“Snap, snap! At least the turtle has a brain. And I bet one would have a better comeback.” The neonate snarled back, if only to keep from urinating in fear. She was petrified.
“Do you even think at all? Or are you run by your Instinct alone? That would explain why you haven’t managed to starve me out. Why none of you have managed to starve me out!” It was like a flood, she couldn’t stop it now.
Her Instinct growled inside, and she accepted that fear, making a place for it in her mind. It would not control her now.
“And yet, I easily manage it. Every day. None of your possessions are safe! I even took more than half of the provisions for weeks before we stopped getting them!” She ignored the muttering and growls around her.
She was done with being bullied, picked on, thought of as some weakling prey that was easy meat.
Kill! She felt her muscles tense, readying her thrust. She saw Biter do the same.
The neonate was a predator. The best one on the whole of the island.
They both lunged at once!
A pair of huge, black-scaled hands, one for each female, snatched them from the ground. They squeezed, she felt her eyes bulge as all the air was forced out of her lungs.
SNAP!
Biter had snapped down on the Provider’s finger. Pure reflex, most likely. It hadn’t even broken through the thick scales. The neonate saw glittering ivory fall. Biter had chipped a tooth.
Tok threw them back down, and they tumbled in a pile for an instant before they scrambled away from each other. Snarling.
The neonate hissed. My knife! She looked for it.
Biter growled, smug orange fluttering through her black and red as she took a slow step forward. She had noticed too.
The neonate stepped back and circled slightly right. She had to find her weapon.
“I said enough!” Tok bellowed, glaring at each of them, the bright flash of his crimson neck blazing like the fire of his eyes as he lifted his head. He towered over them all, and he used every fraction of that height now.
Tok held the silence. He scanned the group, as if waiting to see if there were any others that were foolish enough to interrupt him again.
Even the cicadas muted themselves, the only sound the flowing of the river, the wind in the trees, their quiet breathing. None dared defy the Providers will.
----------------------------------------
In the silence, the tension, the quiet, I watched Maruc smile, and extend his little finger.
There… The surge of influence shot into the Provider. Just a tiny little crackle.
Fuck.
----------------------------------------
“Listen. Do not fight while I speak. Any who do before I finish will be devoured.”
Blood dripped from his one hand. The matte black blade was stuck in the center of his scaly palm.
She opened her mouth to ask for it and his blazing eyes shifted to regard her to the exclusion of everything else. Wide open. Daring her.
Her Instinct cringed.
She closed her jaw, staring sullenly at her knife. Itching to get it back.
She could feel the hateful glances of the others, feel them distracted by their anger at her. She forced herself to keep looking at Tok.
I need to disappear as soon as he is done speaking.
She knew if she didn’t, a brutal beating would be the least of what she received.
The Provider pulled her blade from his palm and tossed it to the ground with a clang, making them all look back at him. She silently slunk forward and snatched the blade before any of the others could. She had to. That was her knife. The Provider’s eyes shifted to her again. She swallowed nervously.
The neonate sheathed the blade, stepping back into the circle, opposite Biter, a gap forming around her. She kept her eyes down, but maintained her black and red. She purposely dipped the saturation once, grunting to Tok.
Good! The only one to show deference to.
He didn’t grunt and she cringed inside.
“The rains have ended. The final phase begins tonight. The brood will cull the weak from its ranks.”
Everything went still.
----------------------------------------
“Maruc! You absolute piece of Damned shit!” I stuck my lips through the bars so that my pitiful curse slapped him on the side of the head.
BE SILENT, THIEF!
The underworld quaked with His wrath and I smashed into the back of my cell.
I will not be QUESTIONED or INSULTED by a CRIMINAL. This is MY challenge now. And since it is mine… He grinned, black gums oozing. I will have blood spilt in my honor.
My cell reformed back into its regular shape, pushing my body out of the me shaped dent it had made. Everything hurt, and… It was already done.
Sigh.
I’d just have to do my best to help, which probably meant waiting for the right moment to call in that boon.
----------------------------------------
“You now may ask questions.” The Provider said into the silence.
Cull? They could hunt who they thought was prey? The gaps around her started to close. Shit.
Danger… Instinct hissed, sending prickles along her spine.
“Any members?” It was Slash who asked, glaring at Biter. She didn’t even notice, glaring at the neonate instead.
Stupid idiot! Of course this happens!
“Any members that you can justify as not being what is needed for the brood.” Tok clarified.
Fear began to pour into her belly.
“This includes when you are attacked. Defenders may only kill now it they too can justify the death as being good for the brood.”
She could feel the eyes of the brood upon her. She managed to keep her eyes half-lidded. As if it didn’t bother her. Like the Provider.
“What if we accidentally kill someone?”
She didn’t see who asked, but she looked at Tok as he replied “Then I will cull you. No brood needs clumsy fools. No brood needs individuals who cannot follow directives when explicitly told.”
His eyes slid to regard her then. “And the same goes for any who kills with an unworthy reason.”
A fresh test. She needed to think about the rules. Who among us isn’t worthy?
She knew her justification couldn’t just be that she had managed to kill them. Her Instinct made it clear that that was the wrong way to think about it.
“When, at most, only twenty-eight remain. One eighth of the original hatching. That or the sun rises. That is when this is over.”
One last night! She knew she had to kill someone, but who? She could have killed any of the Apexes, but they were the best of them. There was no good reason for her to do that.
She looked at the smug orange on Biter’s face.
‘She was small and weak’ is all they will need to say for me.
It wasn’t fair!
“If more than twenty-eight live, I will cull the group down to that many myself with the help of the new Initiates.” For once, something the Provider had said made the others look away from her and at each other.
She glanced at the Apexes. Slash still was glaring at Biter, who had finally taken notice and was glaring at him now. Fisher had her teeth bared, Trapmaker again, whispering in her ear. Bowmaker and Axmaker were taking turns to glare at her and then each other.
Design though, Design was just looking at the neonate. Again, he flashed his black and red. A projected challenge.
It was as if he was saying that they might as well try their best in this last stage. He sees me as a competitor?
She… she didn’t know what to think of that.
She flashed her own back with a hint of yellow, just around her eyes. Gratitude for his respect.
His head bobbed at her, yellow flash around the eyes.
Her insides felt like a fistful of nightcrawlers.
“That is all,” his sanguine eyes shifted to regard her one last time, full of meaning, “prove yourselves.” He hissed.
She was already moving before he had finished the final statement, dropping low and flexing her skin to meld into the surroundings, cloaking herself with the fog. The look he had given… She would have to kill one of the others that night, not just survive.
SNAP! SNAP! “Runt! Get back here! Coward!” Biter bellowed over the rest of the din.
The neonate didn’t stop. She needed a plan.
She lost most of them almost immediately just by shifting to the same color as the fog and speeding away. It gave her time to more properly disappear. And she had to. Bravado or not, she was the smallest, making her a target for the lower ranked hatchlings.
And I can’t kill them if I am defending myself. Why? It didn’t make sense.
Her Instinct growled.
Fine, some sense, but-
Become victory.
Then what is the lesson? There was always a lesson.
She snapped her teeth before she realized, the sound drawing the others. The neonate started running again, leaping onto a vine and climbing up it.
The vine jerked. Several times!
She looked down, and no less than eight of the others were also climbing, all fighting and squabbling to get to her.
Hissing she climbed to the top, pulling her knife. The blade sliced through the vine like it wasn’t there, and her pursuers fell back to the ground, landing in a biting, snarling, slashing heap below. The neonate didn’t watch, instead melting into the fog even as squeals and yelps started to echo through the shrouded trees.
No time for this!
She needed to return to her nest. It would be night soon, and she needed more supplies.
She could hear the pack chasing after her, gaining. They were smaller, like herself, and the canopy was still fully available to them.
Shit! Faster! Her Instinct hissed, and she pushed herself. Legs pumping.
The neonate spotted a log hung up on the branch of another tree and doubling back. She heard the others following her continue on the path she had taken, one getting kicked out of the tree and catching herself on a vine with a roar.
The little warrior moved slowly, keeping to the shadows. Using them like armor.
She looked below, and saw there were still more rivals running off into the woods on the ground. She narrowed her eyes, trying to think as she started scrubbing scentmoss over herself again.
As she checked for others in the canopy. She spotted Bowmaker, searching quite a ways off.
What do I do? She needed time more than anything.
Her Instinct grunted.
That could work! She needed to get back to her nest right away.
Fire.
Chaos.
Force them to deal with something else while she thought about the…
“No brood needs clumsy fools.”
She hissed.
Damn, that won’t work! Accidents too must be justified. She clearly wasn’t thinking of it the right way.
A precise kill. A calculated kill. Always, there was a lesson.
Just one. But who?
She would still need supplies from her nest, and the run back would give her time to think. She slunk away, getting to the log entrance, triple checking that none of the others were around before slipping inside.