edacity
\ ih-DAS-i-tee \ , noun;
1. the state of being edacious; voraciousness; appetite.
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Jill
stood behind a stalagmite, trying not to laugh as the glowing butterflies
crawled across her hands and forearms, tickling her with their tiny feet and
gossamer wings. She was observing
another new discovery in the vast underground cave system. It was her first in over an hour, and was, so
far, the most active.
The
creature was either amphibious or reptilian; it was hard to tell which though. It stood on four squat legs, and had a short
face with a small beak-like mouth. The
most curious thing about it though was its back. There was an elastic sack protruding from the
rear of it. As far as Jill could tell,
it was some kind of stomach, or at least something that held and stored food.
She was
able to tell that much because of its actions.
It was busy eating another of her discoveries, in this case, a small
purple lizard that crawled along the similarly colored ground. The creature tore into its meal voraciously,
seemingly oblivious to anything else as it ate.
As it consumed the lizard’s flesh, the sack on the creatures rear
expanded slightly, which was how she knew it stored food. It seemed like a terrible thing to have
though, since it would slow the small creature down, as well as advertising how
well fed it was. In her mind, the thing
was basically a walking target to any predators.
From
off in the distance, she heard a quiet whistle.
She recognized the sound as coming from Kyle. She whistled back, so he could find her. It was a little signal they had worked out
years ago in case they got separated in complex cave systems. Soon, the two had joined up with each
other. Kyle was proudly holding up what
looked to be a bunch of berries that gave off the same bluish light as the
butterflies did. He held the berries up
to his shoulder, where a bird was busy pecking at them.
“Meet
my new friend.” He said, nodding his
head at the bird. It was slightly
smaller than a common crow, but that was the only real similarity. Its plumage was purple, with a bright blue
beak and feet. Its wings were quite long
for its small size, extending well past its tail, even while folded up.
“Neat. I didn’t think birds would be able to fly
inside a cave.” Jill said, looking at
it. “So, what’s it eating anyway? They look kind of like berries. They edible?”
“Well,
obviously they are, but probably not for us.
I thought they were berries to at first, until I saw this guy and a few
of his friends nibbling at them. Then I
saw one of them doing what all birds do best, and what came out.”
“Err,
should I be worried?” Jill asked. The idea of glowing bird droppings in her
hair was not a pleasant one.
“Not
really. Well, maybe. These things weren’t hung very high up, so I’m
guessing the birds aren’t built for high altitudes. Makes sense, considering where they
live. Anyway, back to what I was
saying. When I saw the mass of
droppings, I saw something moving it them.
Little caterpillars. These are
butterfly eggs, not berries. I’m no
biologist, but I guess the eggs need a warm, wet, safe environment to hatch,
and inside a bird must be the perfect place.
I guess the birds sort of incubate the eggs and then digest the shells
once they hatch.”
“Wow. I’ve heard of animals laying their eggs
inside another animal, but I’ve never heard of something like that.”
“I
know, right. This place is a biologists’
dream.”
“Yeah. Oh man, I can’t wait to tell people about
this place.”
“It’ll
certainly be something for the history books.
Anyway, how about you? You find
anything cool?”
“I
think I found this place’s first real predatory species. Take a look.”
She said, motioning around the pillar.
“Heh,
cute little guy, but how do you know it’s a predator?” Kyle asked.
Jill
looked around at the creature she had found.
When she saw it, she was more than a little confused. There was no sign at all of the lizard it had
been eating. There wasn’t so much as a
drop of blood to show it had even existed.
Not only that, but the creature itself had undergone a few changes. Its body was quite a bit bigger, and the
elastic sack was gone. Or rather, it had
shrunk. She could still see it, only now
it was more like a thin membrane covering its back.
“Well,
it was eating. I guess it finished. But this is weird.” She said.
“What
is?” He replied. Jill told him what it looked like before, and
the changes it had undergone. “Huh. That is kinda weird.” He said.
Suddenly,
the bird on his shoulder stopped pecking as the eggs, and turned to stare at
the creature. It immediately took flight,
its long wings beating furiously at the air.
As soon as it began to move, the creature took notice. It dashed with surprising speed towards the
bird, who was desperately trying to get away.
The creature opened its mouth, and something shot out of it, striking
the bird on the back. The bird fell,
bouncing on the soft moss. The creature
pounced immediately, tearing into its flesh as if it hadn’t eaten in days.
“What
just happened?” Jill asked.
“No
idea. I couldn’t see it too well.”
As the
creature ate, the membrane once again expanded.
Only once did the creature stop eating, and that was when it came it the
back, and whatever it had launched at the bird.
It spat the thing out, far enough that it landed a few feet in front of
Kyle. He slowly and carefully reached
and picked it up. The thing looked like
a needle at first glance. It was a bit
thicker though, and had a slight curve at the end. The base had two notches, one on each
side. It made it look like a thin sharks
tooth. Both Jill and Kyle came to the
same conclusion when they saw it.
“It
shoots its own teeth? My god, what the
hell is that thing?” Kyle asked. Just then, the sounds of the creature eating
died down. Both of them turned to
look. “Oh dear.” He said.
The sack was slowly getting smaller.
As the sack diminished though, the main body grew larger.
“Well,
now we know why it looked so different the second time.” Jill said, suddenly growing very nervous.
“Yeah. Um, so, how big do you think that thing’ll
get?”
“No
idea. Maybe we shouldn’t stick around to
find out though.”
“Yeah. That sounds like a plan.” Neither of them wanted to deal with something
like that if it got any bigger. It didn’t
seem to care what it ate, as long as it ate something, and the fact that it had
an arsenal of sharp, fast projectiles made it down-right dangerous. If it got big enough, it would probably go
after them.
They
slowly crept away from the creature, doing their best to move on the unsteady
ground. Then their worst fear came
along. Another of the creatures emerged
from the shadows, and this one was huge.
It stood at least five feet tall, even with the sack at its rear showing
that it hadn’t eaten recently. It opened
its mouth and revealed a row of teeth that looked to be two inches long. The smaller one opened its mouth in response.
The two
creatures looked at each other a moment, each baring their teeth at the
other. Then, in a swift, sudden
movement, the larger one swallowed the smaller one whole. The sack protruded slightly, but quickly receded,
giving a small growth spurt to the large beast.
“Well,
now we know how big those things get.
So, what say we run now? Before
it sees us.” Kyle said.
“Yeah, sounds
good, except for the fact that this moss isn’t exactly good for running.”
“Sure
it is. It’s just like a bouncy castle,
you know? Just get a good solid bounce
forward, and then sort of start hopping, like you see the astronauts do in
those videos and stuff.” He said
quietly. Jill nodded, but waited for him
to get started first. Kyle did just as
he said, quickly bouncing off in the other direction. Jill took one last look at the large
creature, which seemed to be occupied with something on the far wall, and took
off in the same way after him.
**********************************
And now we have danger lurking in the shadows. They got lucky this time, but will they the next? Muahaha and all that.
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