It's late, I'm tired, and I ain't got much to say, but I hope this chapter was worth the wait. Enjoy!
Edit: One of you left a very sweet comment last chapter, and I just want to say I'm supremely thankful for all of you guys. I hope you're all doing well during this pandemic time, and staying healthy and happy. If my story can brighten your guys' day, there's nothing more fulfilling.
The road we end up on on the way out of town is just a stretch of land raised with little dips dug into the side, but the farther we get from the collection of buildings, the more the dips shallow out until there really isn't anything distinguishing a road from the rest of the ground. We pass an outlying little hut with a little stable and a horse, and from then on it's just lifeless, tan ground. What little plants there are aren't even green. I wouldn't think they were even alive if there weren't some tiny flowers on a few of them.
Unfortunately that means there aren't any animals for me to consume, either, so the hunger in my stomach only grows as we walk. But rather than food, the lackluster complaints that slip out of Alluka have to do entirely with the heat. She's begun to stink of sweat.
"How come you're fine?" she pouts with a stink eye.
Bored of walking, I stretch my arms out above my head. "Unlike you fragile humans, I can take a little abuse."
She puffs out her cheeks. "I wonder how much farther it is. Can we take a break?" She points to outcrop a ways off the basically nonexistent road, and I roll my eyes. She gives me an imploring look I'm much more used to giving than receiving. "Just a little? You didn't want to catch up to Brother and Naii, right? So it's fine if we take a break?"
"I'm hungry, and there's nothing around to eat unless I eat you, so unless you want that happening let's go find the ants. Even if they taste disgusting they're still a meal. And I bet your brother would be super happy if we got rid of them for him."
She thrusts out her open palm. "Five minutes! Then we'll keep going!"
I groan. "But WHY? Do you want to tag along with Killua or not?"
"Yes! After five minutes!"
I stare at the girl who's stopped walking. It'd be too easy to pick her up or drag her. She'd weigh nothing. But her complaining'd just get worse, and I don't wanna bother forcing a struggling, maybe screaming human child along for who knows how long. I stab the toe of my shoe into the ground and scowl, "Fine, since you're so weak, we'll stop for five minutes. You'd better keep track of the time."
"Don't worry, everyone in our family is taught when we're little to tell time without a clock."
The outcropping runs a ways into the distance, and isn't much taller than me. Killua's head would probably reach the top of it. I follow Alluka as she trails its length until she comes to a dip in the stretch. When she crouches, I peer over her to find she's found what looks like a medium sized animal den in the side of the rock. After a few seconds of searching it, she looks up over her shoulder and says, "I think we can fit, do you think it'll be cooler inside?"
"Probably," I sigh. Why wouldn't it be? It's out of the sun. "So I'll be out here."
"Okay." She doesn't argue, but gets on her knees and starts crawling inside. Her long skirt will probably be absolutely filthy by the time she comes out. Her feet disappear, and I lean against the outcropping and run my tongue over my teeth, hunger driving my irritation. The heat may be satisfactory, but right about now, I'd be willing to chop off the head of someone to have a river or something nearby that had fish to eat. Those ants will have to do. Hopefully there'll only be a few beefy ants with plenty of meat and little fight. Unlikely, but I'll hope as I like.
Alluka pokes her head back out like a mouse. Even her eyes are wide like an innocent mouse. "Sera, come look! People have definitely been here, there's a ton of stuff in here!"
"And I care because…?"
She glances behind her. "It's a lot of weapons, but there's also giant jars. I think this place was man made."
"And after five minutes, we're leaving this man made place."
"Some of the jars might have food."
Arms crossed, I scratch my nails harmlessly on my skin and lick at my fangs as I see right through her pathetic attempt at manipulation. But as obvious as it is, food's exactly what I want right now. I grimace and give in, telling her to move back so I can get in. I know most snakes like enclosed spaces for hideouts, but for me, unless I'm sleeping, being in such a tight space twirls a lingering awfulness in my stomach.
Luckily it isn't very tight for long. Turns out the hollow fills the outcropping top to bottom, with maybe the size of a small sleeping room of space. Only the entrance itself is smaller than a regular room. And because of the glaring lighting outside, the small entrance lets in enough light to see the basic silhouette of the things inside. And Alluka's description is right. Various weapons ranging from simple to mechanical lean against the walls and in piles, and grouped in a corner is in fact a collection of jars that reach my thigh in height. I head straight for them and pry off the lid of one.
The inside of the container is too dark to see anything in, but smell tells me it isn't food inside. Whatever. I reach in, and when my hand touches scentless liquid, I take a handful to my face and cup it into my mouth. If it's not food, at least it's water. This place needs a little of that.
Hearing the dripping and sloshing, Alluka asks, "It's water?"
In response, I flick some droplets her way. She comes over and also takes a drink, then wonders, "Why are they storing water way out here? Wouldn't they have to walk like we did every time they wanted to drink? And is it okay that we're drinking their water?" she worries. Her voice echoes softly.
"Their fault for not guarding it." I take another drink before flinging my hand to get the leftover water off, then look over at the weapons. This girl really is naive. If she's really worried about what this cave is, she should wonder about those before anything. For humans without Nen, those are their fangs and claws, and those should always be the priority for concern.
"...Should we be doing this?" she suddenly asks, and I turn back to look at her. I can't make out her face in the darkness. "Brother must have had a good reason to tell us to stay behind. Maybe we shouldn't have followed him."
"We're already here, why are you complaining? If you're just gonna whine then we'll keep moving so you can waste your breath walking instead of being annoying."
"Mm." After a bit of contemplation, she absently starts looking through the jars. "Do you think all of these are…"
Her voice fades when a quiet sound like a billion bugs buzzing at once at an unreal speed appears out of nowhere. She freezes, then takes a slow step back. I come up next to her to ask, "What is that?"
She points at the shadow between two of the jars. I bend down to try to see better, but she grabs my shirt for some reason to try to stop me. Still, I lean in close enough to make out that something's there. The hectic noise emanates from it, too.
"I think it's a rattlesnake." She speaks quieter than before. "We should leave it alone."
A snake, huh? It's been awhile since I've seen any kin from that side of my genetics. What's it doing in here when it's sunny and hot out? Whatever the reason, it works for me.
I snap out my hand and the creature lunges out to meet it, but I twist and grab the side of its head. I stand, and the length of the thing stretches almost to the floor, delightfully long and meaty. I give the hissing, buzzing thing a kiss on the nose before grabbing part of it with my other hand and sinking my fangs into a vein flowing towards its heart. The tube of muscle reacts violently and futilely, but with my magnificent skills and venom, it stops moving not long after I start ripping into its tail.
"Isn't that...is it okay for you to eat a snake? Or is it not weird, because you're a chimera ant, and not a snake?" Alluka gawks, peering at my catch from beside me.
The tip of its tail proves to me completely inedible, but the rest of it is leagues better than I was expecting to eat off of the ants we're heading to see. I don't bother to answer and go on with my meal, making sure not to let any juices make a mess outside of my fingers.
I'm about halfway through the snake when there's a presence nearby. Then a second. I pause, and Alluka also looks towards the entrance. A couple seconds later, something that makes a shuffling sound blocks most of the light. Keeping my eye fixed on the entrance, I take another bite and turn the meat in my mouth to mush.
The first human through goes as still as death when he lifts his head to see two figures in the hollow. Then in the next second he's launched himself all the way in and leapt to his feet, a nearby mechanical contraption now in his hand and pointed our way.
I swallow.
His companion scrambles inside when he realizes something's wrong, and is soon on his feet backing the other with a long spear in hand.
"Who are you!" the first one demands.
Answering his friend's question, the second one cleverly observes, "It looks like a couple of teenagers?"
"Um, I'm Alluka," Alluka pipes. Her head bows, her hands clasped before her. "We drank some of your water. Sorry." I roll my eyes and sink my teeth back into the second half of the snake.
"What're you doing?" The point of the thing in the first one's hands shifts entirely onto me, and I finally lower the hand with the snake in it.
The memory of Killua scolding me for eating messily pops into my head, and I wipe my mouth with the side of my thumb. "What's it look like?"
One of the man's hands shifts back and forward on the device, and a loud ka-chick rings out in the space. When he speaks again, if it were possible, his tone is even grimmer than before. "No human eats like that."
"Apt observation," I sneer.
BANG
My breath chokes before the feeling pierces my arm that's suddenly raised in front of me in defense, something buried deep enough to hit bone. A second later Alluka cries out in shock. The snake's leftovers flop to the ground as agony shoots up from the buried thing into the crevices of my hand, and my entire arm shakes.
My lips twitch.
"Why did you do that?" Alluka gasps. Her head whips between me and the filthy humans, hands lifted, lost.
BANG
This time I avoid it, and a cloud of debris puffs out of the wall behind me. Another ka-chink.
BANG BANG
I once again sidestep and Alluka half screeches before the sound catches in her throat when the newest puff of debris erupts close to her, and suddenly her aura spikes.
At the next BANG, something ricochets off Alluka and another puff explodes out from a small part of the wall to her left. The explosions stop, and I bare my fangs with a snarl. With my other hand, I force the round thing buried in my arm back out of my skin, and it lands on the floor with a dull klink, the faint smell of blood following it.
My. Fucking. Blood.
Bang ka-chick BANG BANG ka—
I rip the thing out of the guy's hands and throw it full force at the other. Immediately the human tries to swing out his elbow into my face, but I slip up a hand, grab him by the hair and yank. He loses his balance and tumbles forward, and I instead drive a knee up into his face, and what sounds is a gratifying crunch as his nose and cheek bones shatter on my knee. I throw him to the ground and finish directly with my foot...shoe...through his skull.
When I look up to find the other one, all I catch is his shadow disappearing from the entrance.
Alluka scrambles up to me and blurts, "Are you okay? The first one, that one hit you didn't it? Your arm? Is it...does it hurt?"
"Fuck yes!" I hiss. I remove my shoe and scrape the blood and whatever else got on them on the ground. My eyes glare at the entrance, daring that weasel to return so I can mash him to a corpse, too. Like hell these humans are strong enough to hurt me! How dare they! When they're just squirming maggots that only eat the prey they hatch and fatten themselves! Lazy! Disgusting! Garbage! Like hell I'll let them hurt me when they're lower on the food chain!
"Um, maybe Nanika…? But Brother said I shouldn't...but this is an emergency! O-Or is it? Is your life in danger if it just hit your arm? But whether you're in danger or not you're still hurt, and that's bad! What do I do?"
"The fuck are you rambling about?" I twist my arm and lap up the bit of blood that's come out of the wound, and grimace. Despite all the wonderful things about me, one thing I can't claim is to taste better than any of the other ants. Still, for some reason, the memory of Killua complaining about me being messy still nags at me, so I lick up the disgusting liquid until my arm is clean. "You didn't even need me to 'protect' you. They couldn't touch you! So stop being annoying and shut up."
"B-But maybe I should've protected you…"
"You say that again and I'll shove a rock in your mouth. I don't need something like you 'protecting' me." As far as relying on someone else to do that, Killua would be sufficient...if he's willing. Gah, just thinking about him and his impossible behavior is adding fresh fire to my irritation!
"But—"
"I said shut up. Just be glad you weren't injured. Even if it hurts, I'm not so weak that this tiny injury will actually hinder me, got it?
"...Okay. But we should treat it."
"Sure, whatever," if it'll make the pain go away, "but can we get moving already? Don't lie and say it hasn't been five minutes."
"Huh? You still want to go?"
"You're the one who wanted to go."
"But you're hurt...we should go back."
I press my tongue against my teeth in irritation. "Yeah, it hurts, and I'm in the mood to hurt some others, so let's go grind those damn ants to dust!" When she still doesn't seem convinced, I add with a bite, "Don't whine about being a problem when you can defend yourself just fine. We're going."
I grab a hold of her wrist with my decent arm and drag her to the exit. Humans are seriously a pain when you can't force them under threat of death.
This scene went down a little differently than I originally intended, but with Sera as lead, that's usually how it turns out. Next chapter we continue onto the oasis, and who knows what they'll run into there? Stay tuned~