Chapter 124 (Patreon)

Sorry for the delay today. It's just been a low productivity day--can't get my mind to work how it should, but still got the chapter done, so there! Hope you enjoy!

What is truth? The absolute, the will of the forgotten.
What is power? The presence, that of the divines.
When will they come? The past, they never have ceased.
Where is the tower? The entirety, stretches from below to sky.

-The first known record mentioning the Tower within the Blackened Sanctuary.

As I stepped into the den, I could hear the first high pitched squeaks and cries of excitement. Looking across the space, I couldn’t see where the eggs were hatching due to the thronging excited keelish until my pack felt my arrival. I didn’t know if they had seen me or if it was a subconscious feeling and understanding coming from [Dominance], but I had to hold back a grin as the pack parted before me without so much as a word. 

With an open path through my pack, I could see the little creatures sprawled across the ground before them. They were still wet from the egg, and squalled at each other unintelligibly. I continued to wait for the others to hatch, the first of the brood laying on the ground, exhausted from the effort of hatching. Though nearly the entire pack watched the hatching, not a single hand was extended to help the struggling hatchlings. We all understood, even without being told, that this was the first struggle of any keelish, and the first test of the grit and tenacity for our kind. 

It did not take long before the floor was fully covered with recovering and rising hatchlings. While they couldn’t speak, every noise they made screamed of hunger and desire for attention. I was reminded of my own hatching, of trying to understand this new existence as my brood began to cry out around me. I could remember the confusion and hunger that filled them, so with a brief sign, I gestured for one of the terrorbird bodies to be brought forward. As the hatchlings caught the scent, they began to cry out for their meal, for the food that we had to offer.

Once the skinned body was placed before them, they clambered over each other as they fought to fill their bellies. Initially, I thought that the presence of so many adult keelish nearby was different from my own hatching experience, but thinking back, it could have been that we were surrounded and I simply didn’t notice that there were adult keelish preparing and bringing food for us as we’d hatched. My mind had been much less… complex at that time, more focused on rage and vengeance and slaughter. 

The hatchlings continued biting into the meat that was prepared before them, snapping at each other when one came too close to biting where its fellow broodmate wished to,, and I found myself smiling at the gory sight. Not from taking pleasure in the view, but instead thinking that the little things were cute. Their mewling cries demanded that their neighbors provide them better and easier access to another bite of food, and I could see their little bellies begin to distend from their ravening feeding. Before long, the hatchlings began to fall where they laid, too stuffed to continue the feast. As they slowed, I took in the full measure of them.

Sixty three successful hatches. Even more than Vefir had predicted, and they had all eaten their fills. I couldn’t remember how quickly we had grown those first days, but it was amazingly quickly. The hatchlings were tiny, maybe eight inches long from snout to tip of the tail, but I could remember being maybe a dozen inches tall by the time I hit my first growth spurt. That meant… they might triple in size? In six days? The thought took me by surprise, and only then did I realize that these babies had eaten almost their own weight in meat, each. 

I turned to Took, who stood watching the little ones collapse into an unconsciousness deeper and simply more than sleep. She seemed to sense when my attention came upon her, and immediately tore her eyes from the hatchlings.

“Did you find a good hunting ground for them? Or good prey?”

She flared her frills. “Small, fuzzy, safer than frogs.”

I nodded in gratitude, and wracked my mind to try to figure out what it could be. Not dulgar, those had leathery scales, and she knew what they were, besides that. Maybe… quoll? “Four legs, thick, not bushy tail, but otherwise like a wolfstag cub without the horns?” Took flared her frills. I quietly laughed to myself before telling her, “They’re more dangerous than the frogs. Faster, meaner. Plus, they like to hunt the Martanimis Python’s eggs, and do it without getting caught. They’re clever. They’ll be something the babies hunt eventually, but they’re not a good first hunt.”

At my words, Took seemed to deflate, but immediately turned to gather a pack to begin scouting. A thought crossed my mind, and before she could immediately stalk out of the den, I caught Took. “There’s something about the same size as the quolls, the ones you found, but they don’t have tails. Smaller mouths too. Look like scaled deer, but without the scales and fuzzy instead. The quolls eat them too, so maybe there’s some nearby.”

Took flared her frills and began to lead the pack out. For my part, I disregarded my exhaustion and everything else, instead opting to keep an eye on the little ones as they slept. They twitched and whined in their sleep, and I couldn’t help but smile at them. Vefir approached me as I looked at the happily bloated babies and waited for me to acknowledge him before speaking. Again, I took pleasure in the respect that was coming more and more naturally to the whole pack.

“Yes, Vefir?”

“I can’t be sure, because I can’t remember those days well, but I think that this brood is less… advanced than ours was. I think that they are smaller and less developed than we were at hatching. I will only be able to tell as time goes on, but I’m as near to sure as I could be.”

I flicked my tail, half in assent, half in disinterest. “They don’t need to be as advanced as we were. We aren’t going to treat them the way we were. We’re going to raise them to follow me. And, as they follow my guidance, they’ll get near to our level, even if they never truly grow to the level of our excellence.”

Vefir bowed. “As you command, Alpha. Do you have anything you would like us to do for now?”

“Keep them fed for the next day, then we should have their first hunt prepared, and I’ll truly introduce myself at that point. For now, I’m going to see what I can find about our mystery hunters back near our territory.”