"I knew there was something worth eating here."
The old raptor didn't understand the words, but it understood enough from her tone and the way she looked at it. It was not like the others. It did not rush her right away, nor did it waste itself throwing its body forward just because she had entered its chamber.
It was almost like it was observing her.
The younger raptors moved around the walls and between the eggs, their bodies low as they clicked and hissed, waiting for whatever signal the old one would give them.
Lily could feel the pressure in their minds more clearly now. It was not a true hivemind, not even close, but it was more than simple pack instinct. The old raptor was pushing feelings into them, guiding their fear, anger, and movement until they acted together.
It was so much cruder than her own, but it was almost commendable.
"I really must thank you. You just gave me an idea on how to have my little creations work better together."
The old raptor moved as it heard her, and the rest followed almost instantly.
The smaller raptors attacked from the sides, forcing her attention to split while the old one stayed back and watched. They leapt from the walls, aiming for the various parts of her body.
She didn't even need to move to deal with them. Opening her mouth, she sprayed black ink across the chamber. It splashed over three raptors at once, covering their eyes and nostrils. The ones that were hit stumbled, shaking their heads violently as they tried to clear their faces.
She moved toward them before they could recover.
Her claws cut through the first one's throat, then she grabbed the second by the neck and slammed it into the third, knocking both into the stone wall. The Raptorlings rushed in after that, biting into legs and necks, dragging the fallen raptors down before they could stand properly.
The old raptor made another sound, and the ones on the right began to move.
Lily felt the shift a moment before it happened. The pressure in their minds changed, and the raptors that had been circling suddenly rushed toward the eggs instead of her.
"What are you playing at? Sacrificing them as long as you survive?"
That was interesting.
It either knew she wanted the eggs or it was trying to use the younger ones and the nest as a distraction. Either way, it had guessed wrong.
Lily lifted one hand and formed a barrier between the raptors and the eggs, large enough to block their path. They tried to go around it and jump it, but she wouldn't allow that.
The dark strands shot from her head and wrapped around one of their necks and front limbs, pulling it off course. It hit the ground, and she dragged it toward her until it was close enough for a Raptorling to tear into its side.
The other two kept clawing at the barrier, but Lily ignored them for now.
Her focus was on the old one.
It had not moved from the center of the chamber, but its mind was pushing harder. The younger raptors were getting more desperate, their movements less careful and more violent.
"You're playing so messily. I guess you're just an animal after all. I had too high hopes."
A raptor leapt at her from above, and Lily released a sonic vibration from her throat. The sound filled the chamber and bounced off the old stone, hitting the raptors from different directions at once.
The old raptor reacted worse than she expected, its head lowering as one of its legs shifted back.
'Weak to sound?'
Perhaps all the clicking they were making wasn't just random sounds, but their way of communicating and controlling them? Mental influence and sound together, maybe even vibration through the stone.
The old raptor realized she had noticed, because it finally moved.
It lunged with far more speed than its size suggested. Lily hardened her arms as it reached her, catching its upper jaw with one hand and pushing against the side of its neck with the other. The impact forced her feet back across the stone, but she didn't fall.
Its teeth scraped against her hardened skin, some cracking from the pressure.
Its strength was better than the others. Not enough to overpower her, but enough that she had to actually put effort into holding it back.
Heat gathered in her palm as she pushed against its neck, and fire burst outward. The flames washed over the side of its head and throat, burning feathers and scales, but the old raptor didn't retreat. It twisted instead, using its weight to slam her against the chamber wall.
Stone cracked behind her back, causing her to narrow her gaze.
"Aren't you rough?"
Acid seeped from her fingers into the burns she had made, and this time the old raptor pulled away with a harsh cry. Its flesh smoked, and the smell of burning meat mixed with the rot already filling the chamber.
The younger raptors attacked again, trying to give it space. But she wasn't having any of their annoyance anymore.
Slamming her foot against the ground, it shook as spikes rose all around her and stabbed into them.
Lily sent a command through the Hive, causing the Raptorlings to move back instead of forward, avoiding the rush. At the same time, the Direworm broke into the chamber from below, its mouth tearing through the floor near the entrance.
The ground split open, and several raptors fell into the broken space before they could stop themselves. They were devoured by the Direworm's mouth, while the ones that barely avoided it ran wildly.
The entrance was half-blocked, stopping most from leaving.
Lily moved before the old raptor could recover.
She pushed off the wall and crossed the chamber, her body lowering as claws formed over her hands and feet. The old raptor clicked again, trying to force the others back into order, but Lily released another sonic vibration before the sound could spread properly.
The vibration clashed with its clicking and made the smaller raptors hesitate.
She drove her claws into the old raptor's wounded neck and pulled herself close, using the hardened hair to wrap around its body and hold herself in place. It thrashed, slamming her against the wall again, then scraping her along the stone.
Her skin tore in some places, but not deeply, and it couldn't knock her off; adhesive leaked from her limbs as she stuck to it.
She bit into its neck.
The taste was strong, like sweet blood with fresh meat, much richer than the others. She didn't try to eat properly yet, but she tore away enough for the old raptor to weaken.
It screamed, and the raptors around them reacted as if the sound had struck them directly.
A few rushed forward without order, and the Raptorlings met them before they could reach her.
Lily tightened her grip.
The old raptor tried to twist its head toward her, but her hardened hair pulled its jaw to the side while her claws dug deeper into its throat. She gathered condensed energy in her hand, pressing it against the wound she had already opened.
Then she released it.
The burst tore through the inside of its neck and shoulder, blowing out flesh and bone from the other side. Blood sprayed across the chamber floor, and the old raptor's body crashed down with enough force to shake loose rocks from the ceiling.
The pressure in the minds around her broke almost instantly.
The remaining raptors lost whatever order they had. Some ran toward the exits, only to find the way half-collapsed and blocked by the Direworm. Others attacked anything close to them, including each other. The younger ones screamed and scattered among the eggs.
Lily pulled herself off the old raptor's body and wiped blood from her mouth with the back of her hand.
The fight was over; they weren't all dead, but that didn't matter. Without the old one, the rest were just animals again.
She sent the command.
The Direworm sealed the broken entrance more tightly while the Raptorlings moved with the workers and scouts she called from outside. Lily did not need to personally kill every raptor now. The remaining ones were disorganized, injured, and trapped in a chamber with nowhere good to run.
Still, she killed the ones that came close.
A few younger raptors were still alive when the chamber finally quieted, and she considered killing them as well, but stopped.
Young creatures were useful.
They could be studied alive, and if they were young enough, maybe they could even be shaped into something useful for the Hive. She gave the order for the Raptorlings to keep them cornered instead of killing them.
The old raptor's body was the main prize.
Lily crouched beside it and placed her hand against its head. Even in death, the structure of it felt different. The skull was thicker, the ridges were not just decoration, and something about the way the flesh near its throat and head formed was connected to the clicking and mental pressure it had used.
She wanted to eat it immediately. From just that bite, she realized how good it tasted; she craved it.
But she didn't, not all of it at least.
"A snack for the road."
She tore into part of the neck and head first, eating slowly enough to let her body focus on the information instead of just the Mass. The taste was better than the normal raptors, heavier and richer; it was so good that it made her entire body feel hot, tingling. She wanted it all.
'Control yourself, idiot.'
The Hive stirred in response, especially the Raptorlings nearby. They felt it too, faintly, as if the information she was taking had already begun to show a path.
It wasn't an ability like a mutant XGene, but it felt ancient; something beyond just an animal.
'What are you?'
This one raptor made the whole nest worth clearing.
She stood after eating enough to understand the first pieces of it, leaving the rest of the body for later. The chamber was filled with meat, eggs, bones, and young raptors. The Harvesting Well would benefit from all of it, and the Breeding Spire would benefit even more.
Then her eyes moved to the old markings along the chamber walls.
Now that the fighting had stopped, she could see more of them.
The raptors had nested over the old place, but they had not made it. The carved symbols went deeper into the stone, continuing behind the eggs and along the far wall. Some of the markings were covered in old dirt, while others had been scratched apart by claws.
But one section remained clear.
A sun shape, a many-armed figure beneath it, and under the figure, a line cut into the stone like a mouth opening downward.
Lily stared at it for a few moments.
The Fall People had warned her about the old stone; they had been right to fear it, too. But it wasn't her concern right now.
She looked toward the Raptorlings, then toward the corner where the young raptors were being held in place.
"Don't kill those yet. And drag everything back to the nest."