I was crouched low to the dirt, my knees caked in soil and grime. Her reptilian tail that doubled her height twitched behind her with ecstaticism at every discovery. Horned beetles, mossy frogs, black toadsnakes. All of them fascinated her, not just in the mind, but in the mouth.

  Thock!

  I clicked my tongue.

  "Sorry, little guy. I was hungry," she thought, wiping the wet smear of bug ichor from her cheek as she stepped over the green mossy ridge and headed back toward the den.

  The air was cool, only because it was morning dawn and the sun had yet to rise fully, leaving the remnants of the cold from the night before. The mostly darkness mixed with her brown camouflage coloration made it easy for her to hunt if she really wanted it. Scaled feet were her only downfall to her design, though she was a predator after all so God had to make it fair somehow.

  Hosanna was farther out than she normally was. Where the trees bend and the bone-marked stones, and the world took on a stranger color. The blood lines stopped growing around this part of the forest, but the frogs were bigger out here. And the bugs had colors I'd never seen before, organ blues and reds that shimmered like drake saliva.

  Deep in the Heat of the Chasm.

  But I was hungry, and this alone led me to forage on.

  CRUNch Crunch

  My instincts told me that whatever it was, it was clumsy and stumbling. Prey.

  I crouched, lowering myself down to the ground. My senses sharpened as the crunching sounds drew closer. My pupils dilated and my mouth watered.

  Something in my brain was ticking as the millions of years of chasm creatures before me that had to survive finally showed face. 5 years old or not, my brain chemistry was that of a hunter.

  If it's smaller than me, it dies.

  After a small moment of waiting, a boy appeared suddenly, stumbling into view. His face was pale, streaked with dirt and blood, and his steps faltered. He had obviously been running desperately, smashing through the branches and rocks as he showcased fresh wounds.

  Fresh blood.

  He moved as if every step was a struggle, dragging himself through the underbrush as though something were hunting him. Something was hunting him, but whatever it was, it was too late. You shouldn't have let him get away, and now he's mine. A small smile escaped from my lips as they formed a minor crescent moon. He hadn't noticed me. Perfect.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  His crawling fascination, this... appetite. She liked her sentient prey, small, mysterious, and sometimes soft. Sometimes she didn't even eat them. Sometimes she just watched.

  Watched them struggle.

  Yes, there was no empathy in the forest. The smell of blood emanated through her nostrils, and the only thing on her mind was what actions she had to take to make sure she wasn't caught by this human. The Stone Wolves used 100% of their technique to hunt and I would too, if only to flex their might and superiority. Not that I was a Stone Wolf.

  Wiggling my body, I wanted to lunge, but something felt off. Why hadn't the creature that had been hunting him shown up by now?

  Clip

  My tail accidentally hit a tree branch while in thought about his peculiar state.

  The sound was slight. Too slight. But the boy seemed to notice.

  While in thought, the boy's head did a 180 from his laying down position.

  Click. CRACK. Snap.

  The boy's neck rearranged itself. Odd rows of two red eyes blinked open from what had once been a human face,

  now warped, now… true.

  It grinned, if you could call that an expression, more like an uncontrolled muscle spasm than emotion, as it stood upright, its spine clicking hollow bones. Taller than it had appeared, its arms too long, too many joints bending the wrong way.

  Did it think that scared me? I studied it curiously. It was a medium-sized prey. It was only the size of a small child. I was easily at least 2 feet taller than it, but because I was crouched looked much smaller. I looked it in the eye. I don't know what was happening, but my body was telling me that this wasn't a hunt anymore. Perhaps a fight for territory or a fight for dominance.

  I felt it in my blood. In the iron of my jaw. In the blood behind my eyes. Understanding the assignment, the creature, whatever it was, began to show its hostility. Already assessing me, it viewed me as something that it could potentially eat.

  It was probably waiting for me to run, but there was no voice of fear in my head, no cause other than consumption.

  Both monsters were smiling.

  It was just a child. Just like her.

  But she was different.

  Not prey. Not pretend. Just real.

  You should've stayed as small prey, I thought as I lunged at it.