Things started off uneventfully, but she immediately noticed differences in this expedition from all the others, and it wasn’t just because of the beautiful light. She was able to take so much more time to examine things than normal, which led to the thought of why she hadn’t taken more time before.

She’d always needed to keep up with the swarm.

But why did I have to?

She could have stopped, let the swarm move on and explored at any point. She also could have left the cave whenever she had wanted to. But she didn’t. It hadn’t even occurred to her. The only reason she had left this time was that she had desperately wanted to see things in the light and knew the swarm would just sleep through it.

It troubled her.

She’d never lost herself like she had on that first night again, but it was clear she was sometimes doing things, or not doing things, with no real thought or reason.

I will not be mindless!

She firmed her resolve, promising herself she would look for these thoughtless tendencies. She loved thinking, and twisting things every which way in her mind until the world started making sense. She loved the challenge and focus solving problems and understanding things took. She loved the joy and awe that came from finding beautiful and interesting new things.

As much as she thought she was the odd one out, she feared becoming like her siblings. All they ever did was eat and sleep and poop. They never did anything interesting, and she had failed repeatedly to involve them in her own activities.

It was like they lacked something that she had. They had no curiosity. No drive to do anything new.

But it was no matter. She was out here and exploring now! No need to think about sad stuff.

She took a deep breath and spun in a circle, amping herself up again for her adventure!

It was the only thing that saved her. The long scaled tube struck right as she turned and saw it. With a blast of adrenaline, she threw herself to the side, tumbling, and shot back to her feet. She stared at the thing in shock. It was a snake.

It had attacked her. Nothing attacked them. Sure some things would defend themselves while being swarmed but this snake had just gone on the offense. It was suicidal, her siblings would…

Oh. I’m swarmless.

She suddenly felt a lot more vulnerable. A small creature in a world where many things were quite large. But there was no time for doubt, the snake demanded her attention.

It was a striking blue color, with keeled scales giving it a spikey look. It was also about three times her length and about the same width as her torso.

It struck again. She dodged again while batting it with her claws. The strike was avoided with only a mildly painful bump into a root, but her claw attack didn’t do much more than score its scales.

She was thinking hard. The swarm’s normal method of combat was “throw bodies at it until it died”. She’d improved hers somewhat, learning to dodge out of the way when something tried to attack her, but it was always weight in numbers that brought down anything dangerous. She realized she had been depending on her siblings a lot more than she thought.

That wouldn’t work here because she was lacking siblings at the moment. She was the only one here. She needed to find a new way to fight this thing.

It struck again and she dodged back before jumping quickly forwards, just managing to grab it with her outstretched claws before it reset, but it was too strong. She let go quickly, realizing the precariousness of her situation, and just managed to twist out of the way as it bit forwards again.

She scrambled back, trembling at how close that strike had been. Trying to grapple it had been a stupid move, and she’d almost killed herself, just like her siblings.

But if she was going to win she needed to get her teeth on this thing. Her claws could hurt if she got a good hold on something, but it was her teeth that did real damage. More importantly, she needed to bite it without getting bitten in return. The long fangs in its mouth suggested a bad time if it managed to chomp her.

Their dance continued, with her focus mainly on dodging and keeping a safe distance. She noticed the snake’s actions were somewhat predictable. It would approach, and once it got close enough it would strike, before pulling back and resetting. It actually seemed pretty dull. The problem was that even knowing the attack was coming didn’t make it easy to dodge. It would try to adjust mid-strike as she dodged, which meant she couldn’t really do too much afterward. By the time she recovered enough from the movement to go on the offensive it was facing her again, and she had no plans to lay into the thing when it could do the same to her.

She needed to surprise it. She scanned her surroundings again and her eyes locked on a large tree.

She had an idea.

She jumped back, then backpedaled as it pursued her. It always kept its head high, eyes forward, locked on her. She did another quick jump back, spun around and darted towards the large tree she'd spotted, hearing the thing in pursuit. Glancing back she realized she could probably outrun it if she wanted to, and slowed down a bit so it wouldn’t lose her. She had a plan and was getting hungry at this point. Also... she didn’t want to lose to this thing that had ambushed her.

She dodged around the tree and broke line of sight, and then threw herself up on the bark, claws out and digging in. She got a couple more steps up the side of the tree before pulling her tail under her belly and turning her head to watch the edge of the tree.

She still felt pretty unstable latched on to the tree trunk as she’d only recently had the idea to try. She didn’t have much practice and being so far above the ground was nerve-wracking.

She tensed and readied herself. She saw the snake come round the corner, slowing as it looked around. It didn’t spot her. She gathered her nerves and lunged off the trunk, aiming for the back of her opponent's neck.

She crashed to the ground, not quite getting her feet in place but her jaws were on point. By the time the snake reacted she had it securely in her grip. Her teeth dug in, her acid making the task easier than it would have been, and with a snap, she cut its spine and carved out the majority of the meat there. It fell like a puppet with its strings cut.

She staggered to her feet, swallowed the meat and screeched in victory!

I am the superior hunter!

She considered her defeated foe and realized it was quite beautiful. Cobalt blue scales that changed from lighter to darker as they made their way down its back, and the keeled scales giving it a unique appearance.

Maybe she could keep them. She’d never had the chance with all her siblings around, but perhaps now she could take the scales off it now that she didn't have to worry about them eating everything? Perhaps she could just take the skin off entirely. She’d definitely peeled some skin away when eating before. She hadn’t really been going for that as a goal but she knew it was possible.

Here was not the place to do that however. She was well aware that she was still exposed out here and didn’t invite another ambush. She’d drag it somewhere safe before she got to work.