With the sunset and the moon hanging high in the sky, something slithers across the jungle floor. The slug-like thing that once inhabited Luka struggles to move forward. The light from the moon burns its flesh as the wind blowing against it causes aches and pains. It bleeds, scratching its stomach across the rough ground with the wounds from its battle from earlier in the day still hurting, even now. Only two things move this creature forward: its desire to survive and its desire for revenge.

  Human emotions were foreign objects to the creature. But its loss taught it one key: emotion, rage. A rage that was unknown to the being has now filled its entire being. It pushes itself forward with sheer anger, its internal rage driving it to move despite the pain and its broken body.

  “You look like crap.” A voice says from above.

  The thing that was Luka stops as a figure stands over it. “Talia?”

  Talia walks out from behind a tree and stands over the creature, looking down on it with a smile on her face. “You got your ass kicked, didn’t you!?”

  “Yes. But we have to hurry and flee this isnd. If we return soon enough, I can cim a new host and…”

  “Sorry, but the boat’s destroyed. No way off of this pce without going through those Pawns.”

  “You had one job, you useless….”

  She reaches down, snatching the creature off the ground and gring at it. “I don’t want to hear that from a loser.”

  “Talia?”

  “You lost. You know what that means, right? Losers have no pce among our kind. A loser has no right to exist.”

  “I didn’t lose. I made a retreat?”

  She smiles. “That’s the logic of humans. You’ve been living among the prey for too long. You’re almost starting to smell like them.”

  She tightens her grip on the slug as it panics in her grasp. “Hey, what’re you doing?”

  “Well, I’m hungry. And well, let’s just say you look like a tasty morsel to me right now.” She opens her mouth as something inside her mouth looks back at the slug. “Besides, as you are now, you’re useless as a loser. The best you can do for our goal now is to give me the boost I need to crush these fools who defy us.”

  It struggles, trying to break her grasp as she draws it closer to her mouth. “Wait. Wait. Sebastian will be pissed if you kill me.”

  “I didn’t kill you. You died to the, but I was able to use the st vestiges of your strength to power through and escape. That’s the story I’ll tell.”

  It tries to free itself as she tightens her grip. As she draws it closer, tendrils shoot out of her mouth, wrapping around the slug and dragging it inside of her maw.

  “Wait, please! Talia, please! We’re on the same side. We’re allies, aren’t we!? Please don’t do this, I beg you!” It cries and begs, putting in a useless struggle as whatever strength it had has long since left. “Please don’t. I don’t want to….”

  Talia’s mouth closes shut, cutting off the slug’s words as she swallows. “Even till the end, your words sounded oh so human. Pathetic.”

  She ughs as a surge of energy hits her body. She huddles over as a sharp pain spreads across her form. Her legs grow longer and her hands change shape. Her skin rips and tears at the seams as colpses to the ground from the pain. She rolls along the ground in pain but ughs.

  Her eyes roll into the back of her head as she continues ughing. “Yes, this is it! This is what I needed! I’m going to kill those Pawns and devour them whole!” She yells into the night. “Then I’ll eat the others. One by one until only I remain! I won’t let anyone get in my way. I’ll be the one to stand at the top above all others!”

  Her ughter fills the night alongside the sound of crunching bones and tearing muscles. “Let’s start the hunt for real this time.” She says, slinking into the shadows with a wide grin across her face. “I can’t wait to have a bite.”