Day 17

When you woke up, it was to the feeling of your back touching the roof of the burrow.

Fortunately, you were flexible enough to squeeze through the burrow enough to reach the entrance, which ended up requiring a bit of widening before you could squeeze through.

It was when you did so that you realised, after comparing yourself to the entrance, exactly how big you were.

About half again your previous size to be exact, and with new, thicker and shinier, scales too.


Once you were finished with the shell-stick you realised that you were still feeling a craving for more.

Only to then remember that place you'd found recently, the same one that had been filled with, what you assume to be, the same material as the two legs shell.

No sooner had you remembered that you blurred through the trees and found yourself at the very place, looking for the silvery outcroppings.

And as it turns out, while it's harder than the shells of the two-legs it's still just as delicious.


Then, with your stomach heavy with the shell material, you find a nearby cliff. Something which was relatively easy to find in the ash forest, meaning you found it within moments thanks to your speed.

Then you jump off.

And then you climb up and do it again and again.

It had, after all, been quite a while since you improved your scales and now was as good a time as any. Especially with how they've recently changed for the better.


It was without a doubt that your burrow den was beginning to get too small for you, to the point that you were now struggling to even get through the entrance.

Which meant you needed to hunt for a new den, one more suited for your current and possible future size.

And it is in the fertile forest that you find it, in the side of a hill behind an entrance blocked by fallen trees and boulders. But with just enough space for you get in.

You'll move the stuff blocking the entrance when you grow, at least that's what you think before you lie down to sleep.


Day 18

You woke up in your new den feeling oddly… energetic.

But you ignored that in favour of exiting the cave to go investigate the massive explosion that had actually awoken you.


The first thing you do for the day is, much like you always, go and investigate the loud noise, speeding off at a casual pace through the forest.

Eventually, when you did reach the source you were surprised by the literal horde of shell covered two legs swarming over similar to one of the giants you saw, back when you were still small.

Except this one was less smoky, larger and had a different shaped stick in it's hand.

A part of you wanted to stay, it really did.

After all, the delicious shells of the two legs were right there… but you still remembered how even getting close to the fight had turned out last time and so you turned and immediately beat a hasty retreat.

Instead of sticking around long enough to get hurt, you had decided that you'd rather go to the gore pit instead.

And the moment you entered you found yourself suddenly chasing many a delicious scents with a sudden fervour. Only to find nothing each time you arrived at the source.

Which is how time passed for a while, with you finding nothing repeatedly and getting more frustrated as time passed. At least until you do find something.

Only this time it's about to be eaten by something.

For a mere moment, you contemplated not attacking the obviously bigger creature.

But that moment passed quickly and you had already leapt at it with boiling black mist leaking from your maw as it sank into it's exposed neck. At least you tried to.

Because instead of tearing through it's neck, you found your fangs barely piercing it. Which meant that, when the thing began standing up, you had no choice but to hop off it to avoid being hit.

Then it was just a tense moment as you stared into the empty eyes of the, now turned, creature. A moment that got tenser as it began to be wreathed in an aura of green swirling mist.

Another moment.

Then it leapt at you, it's many limbs outstretched as you prepared your tai-

It just slid in front of you, it's head planted firmly into the ground.

You honestly felt that you were doing it a mercy when you shattered it's head into a green mush, the thing was clearly too dumb to survive for long.

The only problem now was that you had the two meals in front of you and you were sure the one you left would be eaten…

… you could eat the small one fast enough…


Eventually the temptation wins out and you begin to tear into the smaller meal.

And when you did, you hauled the dumb creatures corpse over your back and bolted for the closing entrance.

Climbing over literal piles of flesh that had come crashing down from the roof of the cavern, where it had somehow gotten stuck on, you found your lungs burning with exertion, but it paid off as you finally made it to the opening and bolted through it just as it was closing.

And now you were barely able to stay awake, the exertion draining you completely.

So completely that you barely got into the cave before collapsing into a heap and shutting down for the day.


Day 19

When you woke up, you still felt quite tired, but still managed to force yourself out of your cave and look around.

… only to find the massive clearing a, relatively short distance away.


You had no idea how this happened, but you were glad you hadn't decided to stay here to watch the fight yesterday.

Something you were even more glad about when you found, by following the perimeter of the new biome, the actual magnitude of the change in the forest. But one thing that turned out to be quite a shame was the fact that you found what used to be the entrance of the caves.

Used to be because, instead of crystal caves, it could now only be called the ash pools since that's what it was.


When you returned to your cave it was with the intention to get ready to move away from this place.

Which was why you began to gorge on the only food you currently had, the body of the dumb creature.

And, much like with its intelligence, it was a disappointment, only barely offering any sustenance compared to it's impressive size. What it did provide, tasted absolutely rancid.