Of Sentience and Predator

A8: Last Laugh

Hi, something I want to say real quick! A9: Side Effects will be posted on December 24 and A10: Secrets will be posted on December 31. Basically Friday and not Saturday. This is because I don't feel like posting on Christmas and I don't want to post on New Years Day, both of which are on a Saturday. So... yea. (Wait, why wasn't there a page break on the other chapters when I needed one!)

Selket, followed by a mutated Kevin, dashed up to the wooden pole, looking around the both naturally and unnaturally made fog. Selket's eye stocks looked in all directions while Kevin landed on the pole, letting his wings rest.

Selket suddenly dashed away as Bugcatcher pounced Kevin, bringing him to the ground. "Hey!" Kevin yelled before Bugcatcher spat a cloud of gas into Kevin's face. He coughed before becoming limp. Bugcatcher crawled off Kevin and back into the thick fog.

EightEight jumped down to Kevin tapped him with a metal stick, forcing Kevin awake. "Get up," EightEight gurgled as Kevin sat up.

"That is disguising," Kevin grimaced.

"What smells worse, Selket or that gas?" EightEight suggested. Kevin didn't answer as he stood up and flickered the bug wings. The Sotoraggian stepped back slightly as Kevin flew back into the air.

-()-

"Glad she's just dealing with the Wyrmlings and not all of us," Kacje commented, watching through the glass dome of the training ground. The tiny Nosedeenian was being held by them, its eyes focused on the fight.

"To be fair, being any species and being in a closed area with your natural predator would be scary," Jewir hummed, crossing his arms. An odd looking creature that appeared as a small, red armored humanoid with rocky cannon-like 'wings' and an electrical charge flowing through it stared at the field as well, its sapphire blue eyes shining more than usual. The sparkle seemed to have disappeared before a small, blue fish-like alien slapped it with its clothed tail.

"How long have they been at this?" the same fish alien asked, turning its tiny body towards the others.

"About... three minutes ago now," Kacje answered before a shrill screech was heard.

"Looks like... what did Cobra call the Lepidopterran form again?- well, whatever the pure Lepidopterran is called got caught," Jewir stated.

"I... believe Selket...?" Kacje said hesitantly. The Nosedeenian in their arms gave a chirp of approval.

"What does Selket mean?" the armored charged alien asked, only to let out a pained chirp as the fish-like slapped him again before falling into a silence.

"Thinking about it, why does Ani like Beu so much?" Kacje audibly wondered.

"No clue why the hybrids like each other," Jewir shrugged, lowering his arms.

"Hey! Not my fault Ani got his-" the armored charged alien started before snapping into silence.

"Oh yea, Ani is male. So are you. Weird," the fish-like alien hissed. Beu didn't reply.

"Isn't his name just the French word for beautiful, just masculine?" Jewir asked.

"That would be beau," the fish-like alien corrected.

"Bow...? And that means beautiful?" Kacje gawked.

"Don't look at me, I mostly only know English and Ickthyperatid," the fish alien replied. "I was originally going to grab French instead of English, so that's why I know about that."

"Ickthyperambuloids, I guess," Jewir shrugged when Kacje continued to stare at the fish alien.

...