Pink, Fluffy, and Angry

by Farrahwaylande

Summary:

Five Pebbles gets turned into a slugcat and Artificer adopts him, they have many adventures and meet many others as Five Pebbles slowly gets used to being a creature he once dispised.

Chapter 1: Surprise Adoption.

“Ah, of course…” Five Pebbles muttered as he watched the explosive Slugcat rocket over a sizable gap. ‘She must want me to read another pearl that she found.’ Five Pebbles thought to himself, if he was entirely honest reading those pearls was one of the only things he looked forward to now, it helped him forget that The Rot was eating him from the inside out. “HNG…” Five pebbles suddenly clutched the head of his puppet as he felt a terrible pain wrack through his structure, it felt different to when The Rot spreads, like it was more localized to his Can and General System Bus. Five Pebbles could feel a jolt go up what felt like a spine, but that couldn’t be right, he didn’t have a spine, he was a gigantic supercomputer with a tiny little puppet inside of it exclusively due to his creators needing a semi-recognizable form for them to feel comfortable around. Five Pebbles was loosely aware of the artificer passing through the gate from metropolis as he felt the gravity in his can suddenly turn on and off in rapid succession, the next thing he knew, the entire world went black.

Five Pebbles didn’t know how long it had been exactly, all he knew was that after a while of not being able to perceive anything, which was something he didn’t know could happen to him, he eventually heard the sound of something land amongst a pile of pearls, whatever had made the noise was completely silent for a good amount of time before Five Pebbles heard something that sounded like a concerned firework fuse. as the hiss penetrated the air he heard a voice from the same place start to overtake the more animalistic vocalization as it said “Baby?” in a similar hiss as earlier but with a shocked and slightly fearful sound to it as well. Five Pebbles wanted to call out and order the voice to identify itself through the speakers in the wall of his can, but when he tried the only thing he was able to do was emit a small whimper from his… throat? Did he have one of those? Before Five Pebbles was able to follow up that line of questioning he was suddenly surprised when he felt himself get picked up by a very large and very scratchy arm. “No need to fear, I'll take care of you.” he heard the voice from earlier say as the arm cradled him like how he had seen Ancient parents hold their young. Five Pebbles tried to tell the thing holding him that he was not a small child and to treat him with the respect he deserved, but once more all that exited his newly formed throat was a small mewl. “Shh, it’s okay, you’re safe now, hold on!” the voice suddenly told Five Pebbles as he felt a sudden lurch upward and a loud *POP* filled his ears as they went rocketing through a pipe.

Five Pebbles started squirming, he was incapable of leaving his Can, if he did that, which he couldn’t, his structure would collapse! “It’s okay, you’re safe now, I won’t let ANYTHING happen to you” the voice said, suddenly becoming incredibly intense as Five Pebbles heard a familiar popping sound ring out into the air around them before going back to speaking in a still aggressive, but less outright enraged, manner. ‘Oh no, this can’t be happening! What did I do to deserve this!’ Five Pebbles thought as he struggled even harder when he started hearing the sound of a closing shelter door. “It’ll be okay, you need sleep, maybe you’ll be able to open your eyes when we’re done hibernating.” the Artificer said as Five Pebbles felt her bundle up around him. The Artificer was so… scratchy, she was obviously covered in fur, but that fur had been singed down to the point that it was barely there, but even though FIve Pebbles supposed that he was supposed to be uncomfortable when the burned fur dug into his strangely moist back, he felt… strangely safe, as if the beast he had watched murder the entire Scavenger population in metropolis wanted nothing but his safety. The heat from the Slugcat was starting to make him drowsy, but… why? He wasn’t given the ability to sleep or get tired when his creators made him, but right now all he could think of was that he needed to rest. The sound of a light snore permeated the air as Five Pebbles felt his consciousness drift away into the void that was sleep.

When Five Pebbles opened his eyes he immediately started panicking, he DIDN’T dream what had happened! It was a thought that was as ridiculous as what had actually happened due to the fact that before whatever had happened he had neither the ability, nor the want, to sleep. What really shocked the stray iterator, however, was the realization of just how fluffy he was now! He had pink fur everywhere, and when he looked at the little nubs that used to be where his hands would have been, he saw two strangely hand-like paws, with weirdly rough pads on the tips of the ‘fingers’ and on the palm. “See, I told you you would be able to open your eyes after a cycle.” Five Pebbles wiggled around on the ground, trying to look at Artificer but not being able to stand due to not understanding how his new legs worked, while he was moving he heard a little coo come out of his new mouth from the effort. “Oh, come here little one, it’s okay.” The Artificer comforted Five Pebbles as she brought him up into her arms to hold him close to her chest. As Five Pebbles looked up at the Slugcat, a position he was not used to being in, he noticed that her face was softer than it usually was, not physically, she still had the intense burn scar, the razor sharp teeth, and the smoke that exuded from her mouth whenever she opened it, but the look in her eye wasn’t one of malice, nor defiance, or even determination, no, it was a look of care, she had a smile that Five Pebbles didn’t know she could physically make on her face. ‘Oh shit, she’s going to use me to try and get over the deaths of her pups isn’t she?’ Five Pebbles thought as he connected the dots in his brain before he was distracted by the dirt that was hanging onto his newly acquired tail and he started wiggling in discomfort.

“Oh no, you're all dirty, I tried not to get any on you, but I guess it was inevitable, your fur is so cute too… looks like you need a cleaning.” the Artificer said as she set up Five Pebbles in a way that would let her clean him without too much hassle. ‘Clean? Come on V-P think… How do Slugcats clean their young?... oh no.’ Five Pebbles tried to recall the Information, despising how long it took to remember now that it wasn't ready to see whenever he wanted, when he finally figured it out he started trying to get away from the situation and how gross the next few minutes were definitely going to be. “Stay still , ahem, sorry about that, just… stop it with all of the wiggling while I clean you.” The Artificer said as she grabbed Five Pebbles by the hind leg and kept him from wiggling across the floor, she began to hiss mid-sentence before coughing and continuing in her less threatening tone, then she started licking the top of Five Pebbles’s head, causing a jolt to run down his new spine. Five Pebbles knew that the slugcat cleaning ritual was far more than just a way of cleaning young, the way it began was on the top of the head to make the one cleaned, which was often the child of the one cleaning, or maybe an orphaned slugcat that the cleaner intended to make their own, which was what this one was for, imprint upon the one cleaning, making them not want to go to far from the cleaner, Five Pebbles could already feel his shifted biology tell him to trust the bigger slugcat, he now knew that if she ever left him in an area and left his sight, he would be nearly inconsolable. ‘This is bad, she mom is going to… crap.” Five Pebbles started thinking before realizing how his thought altered itself, 'Why did this have to happen to me…'

Chapter 2: Scars of Scarlet.

Summary:

when a badass and a badass meet, one, an unstoppable force, the other, an immovable object, but you know what they say about opposites attracting.

“Come on, you need to eat in order to get big and strong like mama.” Artificer said as she moved the dead centipede toward Five Pebbles with one of her front paws. “M-ba” Five Pebbles muttered as he tried to get away from the disgusting dead insect, he was still incapable of communicating with the other slugcat beyond making small noises that came out of his mouth involuntarily, he was still incapable of actually walking too, on his hind legs and on all fours. he saw his reflection in a puddle earlier in the cycle, it appeared that he had color in his eyes now, that was of no surprise though, what was a surprise however was the fact that they were both different colors, one was blue the other was yellow, he was brought out of his train of thought as his new adoptive mother, Artificer, began speaking to him. “Well, I was hoping to not have to do this, but you’ve left me no choice.” Artificer grumbled as she reached down into the insectoid carcass and pulled out a big chunk of flesh, it was a sickening black and it pulsated slightly in Artificer’s hand. As Artificer lowered the meat to be level with Five Pebbles’s mouth he started scrambling wildly to get away, this was in vain due to the fact that he had no control over his leg muscles, but he tried nonetheless. When the flesh entered his mouth his new body immediately bit down on it without thinking about it, as his teeth tore into the meat he felt a jolt of electricity run through his body as a weight that he didn’t know existed was alleviated from his brain.

When the two were finished eating the adult centipede Five Pebbles noticed Artificer’s head suddenly perk up with a low hiss. “Stay here, little one, mama has some work to do.” Artificer said as she set the scavenger kings old mask onto her head, the jingling of pearls coming into contact with one another released into the otherwise quiet day as a group of scavengers climbed over a pile of garbage, probably just looking for food for the rest of their stronghold, what they got, however, was a bloodbath. Artificer launched herself from the ground toward the Scav troop, who tried to impale her with the spears they had with them, as the sharpened bits of rebar were sent flying at the red slugcat, she let out a small explosion, causing them to go flying in different directions, one of which impaled a more well decorated Scav, which must have been the leader of the troop, as the other three tried to turn and run away from her she threw an explosive spear that embedded itself into the one farthest away and pinned it to the ground, when it exploded the blast sent the remaining two flying backwards, artificer then coughed up a bomb into her hand and threw it at one of the Scavs, causing it to explode and it’s limbs to go flying in all sorts of directions, she then used another explosive jump to change her direction in the air to go flying directly at the final Scav, who was concerningly close to Five Pebbles, when Artificer landed on it Five Pebbles noticed just how large she had gotten in the cycles since she killed the Scav king, she now stood at twice the size of a scavenger, as Artificer tore the Scavengers throat out with her teeth some of the blood got onto Five Pebbles’s soft pink fur, not nearly as much as had gotten onto Artificer, her fur became a darker red as another layer of fresh blood soaked into her fur and covered the dried blood that coated her otherwise black fur. “Oh dear. You’re dirty again, I really need to be more careful when you’re around.” Artificer said as the adrenaline wore off, she bent down and began cleaning the blood off of Five Pebbles’s fur as the newest layer of blood on her fur dried.

As Hunter finally caught up to where she had seen the scavenger Troop head off to hunt, she was surprised to see that instead of a dead lizard or vulture perhaps, the entire troop was laying, dead, on the floor, one with a spear through the head, another had an exploded ribcage, there were a bunch of scavenger limbs scattered amongst the ground of the garbage wastes, and a scavenger skeleton laying in between a, frankly gigantic, slugcat, It stood at a height that was almost three times the size of Hunter herself, and Hunter was already larger than the usual slugcat, on the other side of the dead scav body, there was a small pink slugcat that seemed to be mainly made of fluff, it had one yellow eye and one blue eye, it was the size of the first ones foot, and it was chewing on one of the few of the dead scavengers bones that still had meat on it with teeth that were strangely sharp for such a small child, the teeth usually became sharper or rounder as the slugcat grew and their diet became more defined. As Hunter began to walk toward the duo of scav killers, she noticed that the larger one was looking directly at her and growling in a way that seemed to send a shiver up Hunter’s spine. “I was hoping to do this without too many casualties, but it appears you are insistent in getting in my way.” Hunter said with a sigh as she let out a grunt and threw her spear at the more feral slugcat, to her surprise, the larger slugcat grabbed a rock and threw it at just the right time to send her spear embedding itself into the ground at her feet. Hunter watched as the larger of the two grabbed the spear, tearing it out of the ground, and stuck the tip of it into it’s mouth, and when it was pulled out she was shocked to see that a familiar red ribbon was wrapped around the pole. As the other slugcat threw the spear back at Hunter, she had just enough time to jump over it before the spear embedded itself just behind her and exploded, using the blast to fly through the air and gain an advantage from being in the air, Hunter took the second spear off of her back and threw it at the larger slugcat again, this time the larger one jumped over it and a loud explosion sound filled the air as the bigger one went flying toward Hunter, who threw the rock in her hand to the side to put her out of trajectory of the slugcat missile. As the dark red slugcat went flying past hunter she heard a quiet popping sound and saw smoke pluming out from within the dark red slugcat’s mouth, and the scar across its eye glow a warm red before that same loud explosion sounded from behind the other slugcat as it went rocketing directly into Hunter, pinning her to the ground when they landed, with one hind leg pinning Hunter’s right forearm and another pinning her left, the huge slugcat leaned down and grabbed a spear from where it was embedded in the ground and held the tip to Hunter’s throat. “ Don’t. Touch. My. FUCKING. Kid. ” The slugcat that was closer in size to a lizard hissed into Hunter’s ear, a steady popping sound radiating from the back of its throat, shaking Hunter to her core. “I… wasn’t… going… to.” Hunter gasped out as the larger slugcat crushed her lungs.

As the fight between the two red slugcats drew to a close, Five Pebbles noticed a strange green overseer, who was looking at him intently, it took him a minute, but eventually he remembered this to be one of No Significant Harassment’s overseers. “M’BA” Five Pebbles swatted at the green overseer with his right paw/hand, within thirty seconds Artificer was standing next to him and picking him up, shushing him as she began to bounce him while walking over to the other slugcat. “Okay, now that I know you won’t hurt the baby, tell me why you’re here.” Artificer said, the pearls in the antlers of the king scav’s mask jingling as she spoke. “Well, I was given a task to do by my creator, and I intend to finish what I was designed to do, I have on me a very important neuron that holds several slag reset keys, i’m not entirely sure what that means, but it sounds important, I was ordered to give it to an iterator far past the shoreline, and upon her reset, I must provide her with a pearl I have stored inside of my stomach pocket.” the Red slugcat with the shorter fur said as she brought out a neuron from a pouch that hung around her neck. ‘Ah, so she is a purposed organism then, she was probably made by NSH, and they hold many slag reset keys within a neuron? She was more than likely sent to bring Looks To The Moon back online… I wonder if I can convince mom to help her…’ Five Pebbles thought as he looked up at Artificer with wide eyes and began pawing at the other slugcat. “You’re lucky she likes you, I’ll help you, but first I need your title, mine is Artificer.” Artificer said as she continued rocking Five Pebbles. ‘Oh, right.’ Five Pebbles had forgotten that his new slugcat form was female, from what he had seen and read it should have been more of a problem that his new form didn’t conform to his original, but honestly? She didn't mind it all that much. “I am called the Hunter, and your help would be greatly appreciated.” Hunter said as she grabbed an abandoned spear that had gone flying from a dead scav’s hand and started toward the karma gate to shoreline, Artificer was going that direction anyway, she had heard a great crashing sound not that many cycles ago and had wanted to check it out, and Five Pebbles couldn’t be left alone so she brought her along.

As the group climbed into the shelter that was in the room before LTTM’s chamber, they took stock of how they were doing. Artificer was wet, and hated it, her fur was smoking and crackling as the sodium she had in place of most bodily functions protested to the amount of water it was being exposed to. Hunter’s bumps were a little bit bigger than they had been when they first met, and they had begun to become sticky, which allowed her to use them to hold a spear on her back instead of in a holster like she had been doing. Five Pebbles was miserable, her pink fur was wet and clinging to her so hard that she had lost two thirds of her volume, before she realized what she was doing she shook her torso in an attempt to shake the water off of her fur. “Ugh, this is why I usually stop at garbage wastes.” Artificer groaned as she began running a paw/hand over Five Pebbles in an attempt to dry her off before she began licking her. “What do you think that’s going to do?” Hunter asked as she looked at the two upon hearing Five pebbles begin purring. “I’m not really sure, but she likes it.” Artificer said quickly before going back to cleaning Five Pebbles, who continued purring. “Come on, let’s get some rest, we should dry off faster if we form a pile.” Artificer said once she was done cleaning Five Pebbles, she grabbed Hunter and dragged her over to Five Pebbles as she laid down and draped an arm that was nearly a quarter of Hunters height over her and setting Five Pebbles on to her chest fluff, the only part of her that had retained any sort of fluffiness, where Five Pebbles began to make little sleeping noises as she cuddled into the warm fur, Artificer started to snore very loudly as she propped her legs up on the wall of the shelter, that was the only way she could sleep without curling up around Five Pebbles and Hunter, and she didn’t know if Hunter was okay with that yet. After about half an hour of being trapped under the gigantic bicep of the larger slugcat, Hunter began to doze off as Artificer’s snoring mixed with her popping and crackles to form a sort of white noise.

As the three slugcats awoke from their slumber, Artificer was the first to move to leave, she grabbed Five Pebbles and left the shelter so that Hunter could move before continuing on their quest to raise the dead, Artificer had her mask on still, she had filed down the horns a little so she could go into pipes easier. “‘Kay, you ready?” Hunter asked as she left the small burrow. “Yep, let’s do this.” Artificer said as she began squeezing through the pipes leading to where she assumed the late Iterator resided. She was unsurprised but still very upset to be met with a large body of water when she climbed out of the pipes. “Of course there's more water…” Artificer growled while small explosions popped around her. “Come on, if we hurry you might not get too wet.” Hunter suggested as she jumped into the water and began swimming to the middle of the room. Artificer climbed down the wall and got to the edge of the water before she jumped and caused a small explosion before landing in the shallow water near the dead Iterator. It was hard for FIve Pebbles to look at, her body limp in a heap on a small mound on the ground, Five Pebbles used to be able to give herself some sort of deniability, she had seen her structure collapse, but had never seen the corpse of her puppet on the ground, she thought that maybe, just maybe, she could have been alive, but no, here she was, dead and on the ground. Hunter took out a small green neuron, which floated into the air and began to output strange pictures that Five Pebbles felt she should have recognised before the neuron flies around LTTM began to float around her once more. “Ah, he… hello little friends, you… you did this? You… must have come a long way… ah, you are not well, small creature, you do not have all that much time left, you all have the mark of communication? Strange, you might want to see a more… Functional Iterator to help with your affliction, Five Pebbles would be my first recommendation, he is very thorough in his research, I assure you he could help you… weather or not he would, however… is a different matter entirely, if you cannot get help from him you should seek help from one of the others, ascension is always an option as well, but…” she looks at Artificer, “I feel you are not as eager to do that as we are, No SIgnificant Harassment is pretty close to us, perhaps you can convince her to help?” Looks To The Moon said as she looked between the three slugcats, the way she spoke of Five Pebbles made her heart break slightly, she clearly only assumed the best of her, and she had taken that assumption and nearly killed her, had hunter not appeared she might not have ever seen her again, or even knew she was alive or dead or what else she might have been. “Anything else?” Artificer asked Hunter as she eyed the small pouch attached to her neck with a string. “Ah, of course, I need to show this to you.” Hunter said as she put the pearl into Looks To The Moon’s hands. “Oh? A gift? Well, I suppose we have enough time to have me read this to you, let us see… "Triple affirmative! Triple affirmative! In all seriousness though, we noticed barely any rain from your can so figured a little support might be in order. Wasn't that easy to see of course, with Pebbles' shall we say healthy output. Enjoy the slag keys! Excuse the unorthodox delivery method, equipment eroding etc etc. Be well, NSH" ah, I see, by the sentence structure I can deduce that No Significant Harassment was the one to write this, even if he didn’t sign it, I thank you once more, little friends, the little one is very cute, but you should get going while you can, I wish you the best.” Looks To The Moon shouted after them as they climbed back into the pipes.

“So… what now?” Artificer asked as she leaned on the wall of the shelter, her good ear scraping on the top of the small room. “M’ba!” Five Pebbles made a noise, wanting to be a part of the conversation. “Well, I suggest we take her advice, and go to see No Significant Harassment.” Hunter said as she began burying her face in Artificer’s chest floof. “I feel like I'm not gonna like this guy.” Artificer grumbled, causing the small shelter to shake slightly as she lowered her torso onto the ground and wrapped her front legs around Hunter and set Five Pebbles on top of the pile in the center of the crack caused by their bodies pressing against each other. “Why do you say that?” Hunter asked with a yawn as the constant purr emanating from Five Pebbles made her feel drowsy. “I don’t know, I just don’t trust him, but if you say he’s not that bad, she must be alright.” Artificer said as she began making small sleepy popping noises, “anyway, let’s get to hibernating, g’night, babe.” Artificer smirked a little as she kissed Hunter on the nose before she closed her eyes and began to snore. “I… you cute little… guh.” Hunter sighed as she went to sleep, she would talk to Artificer when they woke up.

Chapter 3: We do a Little Trolling :P

Summary:

they meet NSH! and something happens.

“Dooo-bee doo-bee doo-bah, dooo-bee doo-bee doo-bah.” No Significant Harassment hummed to herself as he watched a red lizard eat a Yeek, he was bored out of her mind right now, the purposed organism he sent to bring Moon back online probably wasn’t going to come back on account of the turbo cancer she gave it. As NSH continued to watch the screen that projected what his overseers were seeing, she was surprised when he saw a dark red slugcat that was a similar size to the red lizard wearing a skull adorned with pearls pounce onto it and emit a loud POP that stunned the lizard, which gave it enough time to tear the lizard’s throat out with its teeth. “Oh? That's interesting.” NSH said as she mimed drinking something from a cup that didn’t exist, he continued to watch the large slugcat as her purposed organism came up behind it and handed it what seemed to be a small pink ball of fluff. NSH continued watching the three(?) slugcats as they trekked toward his structure, the big one killing most of the things in their way, it appeared to have a strange ability to make things explode, by utilizing a unique bio-chemistry perhaps? NSH would have to investigate that. When the slugcats, or ‘scugs’ as she had taken to calling them, made it to a large crack in the earth that was now the only thing between them and his structure, they attempted to find a way around, but that wouldn’t work, the crevasse was the only way in that they could access, said crevasse went down to a large pocket of water that NSH was using to cool her structure. The scugs had decided to just jump it, if it didn’t work they could try again in the next cycle. First, the large dark red one got onto all fours, NSH’s purposed organism got on its back holding the ball of fluff, then the bigger scug sprinted, much faster than when on its hind legs, and pushed off the edge of the cliff, when they began to feel the effect of gravity, a loud BANG let out into the otherwise eerily silent jump that sent them flying twice as far as they would have otherwise, but is still wasn’t enough, they were going to fall, and probably die. As NSH watched in curiosity, the pink puffball held out an arm ‘so it IS a child… why is it so fluffy tho…?’ NSH asked in her head/a farther part of his structure, the little arm reached out in vain to the pipe that led to the internals of NSH’s structure, it was nearly five or so feet from them, but suddenly, a crackling sphere of electricity wrapped around the tree scugs before they were suddenly thrusted in the direction of the entrance pipe. “... I need to investigate that quickly.” NSH said as he altered the gravity in her structure to act as a current that pulled the scugs into his Can.

“HELLO PITIFUL CREATURES! I AM not going to do that anymore, yo, sup, whad’dya need?” NSH asked as she shifted his posture from standing with his fake arms wide in the gravityless room bathed in red light, to having the gravity on and the lights set to a more pleasant yellow. “Yes, of course, we have returned from my mission to seek your help in removing my illness, ma’am.” Hunter said while standing at attention while doing a salute. “Oh? Yeah sure, while that's happening, I’ll talk to your new friends here.” NSH dismissed Hunter with a wave of her hand that sent her out of the can and into a different point in his structure, “so, who are you ?” NSH asked, snapping the neck of her puppet to look at the larger, darker red scug while keeping himself above the creature. “I am called Artificer, and I don’t like you…” Artificer growled with smoke coming out of her mouth and small pops passing through the air. “Yeah, I get that a lot… cute kid.” NSH said nonchalantly, she knew the creature couldn’t hurt him, and if she tried, she could end her in a moment. “Oh yeah, she’s ado… you can understand us?" Artificer asked when she realized that she was actually having a conversation with a near godlike creature. “Oh well, duh, I managed to incorporate a translator for most of the animals in the area, slugcats included!” NSH said excitedly, none of the other Iterators really cared about the wildlife of the world they were made to inhabit, but he was particularly interested in the evolutionary trees of all the animals she had seen. “Okay, well, yeah, I know that she’s cute, she’s my pride and joy right now… if anything EVER happened to her…” Artificer said as she scratched at the bridge of Five Pebbles’s nose, causing her to let out a satisfied purr. “Can I?...” NSH asked as he lowered herself down to Artificer’s level and held out a barely functional arm in a manner that seemed to ask if he could pet the little pink fluffball. “Uh, sure, if you want.” Artificer said in a cautious tone as she sat on the ground so that she could hold Five Pebbles in a way that would let NSH pet her without too much trouble. Hunter came back into the Can when NSH began to pet Five Pebbles’s head. Before NSH’s own eyes, static electricity formed in the tiny fluffy child and ran up the arm of her puppet and into his umbilical, Suddenly her head was filled with so many WARNING notifications that he couldn't think for a good 5 seconds, and when she could, it felt like he held a fraction of the information that she used to, he watched with wide newly formed eyes as her green synthetic skin got lighter and gained more blue into its color scheme and became more of a light cyan and a jolt of pain ran down his spine ‘but… I don’t have one of those… right?’ Her brain was quickly distracted by the feeling of bone forming from solid metal and joints growing from nothing, it felt like she was simultaneously growing and shrinking at the same time, suddenly, she fell from her umbilical and landed among her disorganized pile of pearls with a clatter. “ SIR!” Hunter shouted in shock before picking NSH up and looking him over. “Woah, I’m fine Hunter, just a bit… woozy.” NSH assured Hunter while trying to get out of her grasp, in the background, she could hear a shocked gasp. “Are you… sure about that?” Hunter asked as she looked at NSH with concerned eyes. “Yes, now will you put me down please?” NSH asked as he looked up into Hunter’s eyes. After Hunter set her down, NSH first realized she was smaller than he remembered, as she looked at her “hands” she instead saw a set of cyan paws that were built for climbing poles and holding things. “Ah… this… might be a problem.” NSH mumbled as he looked at Hunter, who was now three times as big as her, and held up both of his arms and clenched her hands in the universal sign for “Uppies.” he also said it as well, “let's go see Big Sis Moon”.

As Artificer landed on the small island in the middle of Moon's chamber, she heard her let out a small yelp as Hunter swam in with NSH sitting on her shoulders. “Oh, you have returned! I was beginning to get a little bored to be completely honest,” Moon said with a small laugh, “and you brought your children? How nice of you.” Moon finished while she looked at NSH. “Wow… she really doesn’t know it’s me, huh? Man… Pebbles sure did a number on you huh?” NSH said as she climbed down off of Hunter’s shoulders and sat at Moon’s feet. “Yes, yes you are adorable.” Moon began to pet NSH, who flinched away at first, before leaning into it and beginning to purr against his better judgment. “And of course you can’t understand me, I just wish tha-” NSH began to say before getting cut off as she began coughing very hard, after about ten seconds of coughing, a cyan pearl dropped into his hand. “Oh? Another pearl? I could read that one if yo-” Moon began to say before she touched the pearl and her processor went into overdrive as a sudden surge of information was uploaded into her servos. “Moon! Are you okay?” NSH asked in desperation as she grabbed Moon and kept her from falling completely to the ground. “Yeah, I think so…” Moon trailed off as she realized what she had heard, “I understand you! I heard what you said! How though?” Moon asked as she looked to the others, who were just standing there while that was happening. “She can understand us now?” Hunter asked NSH while sitting down next to him. “Hm… interesting, it only works on the littler one?” Moon asked as she continued petting NSH. “I hypothesize that it has something to do with the fact that it came from inside of me, due to the fact that I used to be an Iterator, perhaps my internal components formed that pearl to allow me to continue to speak with other Iterators.” NSH said as she patted his hind legs, she wasn’t used to sitting down for so long, in the five or so cycles that had passed since her transformation he had been moving near constantly. “You were an Iterator? Then why are you… not anymore, and which one? I haven’t been able to communicate with any others in a long time…” Moon asked before trailing off at the end of her sentence. “Well, I am No Significant Harassment,” she did a little twirl, “and as for how this happened… I’m not so sure, I was just petting the little one over there, and then something happened, and now I'm like this, with a fraction of what I used to know! It sucks!” NSH finished shouting, stomping his feet, before getting picked up by Hunter. “Yeah, I can imagine…” Moon said, fully believing that that was NSH after the little showing of over reacting, “sorry to say, but I can't help you, and from what you said, this feels like something that a more… functional Iterator, would actually be affected by, it is wonderful you found a way to get past the whole ‘stuck in one place till the end of time’ thing, perhaps Seven Red Suns would like to see it?” Moon asked, closing her synthetic eyes and tilting her head in an attempt to get NSH to leave her alone, being alone was terrible, but spending too much time with NSH was something no-one wanted, there was a reason that she used to be muted in the comms unless specifically being spoken to. “GOOD IDEA! ONWARD!!” NSH shouted as she pointed to the exit pipe in Moon’s chamber. “The one Iterator I wasn’t all that keen on interacting with again…” Moon muttered as she went back to reading the pearl that Hunter had given her.

As the four slugcats clambered into the crowded den they immediately noticed a problem. “I don’t think there’s enough room.” NSH said what they were all thinking. “Hold on, I can do something about that, we just need to be smart about it, we had enough time before you came along, and you’re half the size of a normal slugcat, so it should be okay if we form a pile.” Artificer said, her neck was craning to the side due to her standing with her head on the roof, her mask had left small scratches in the ceiling. “Well, the only way we would all fit in there would be to form some kinda snuggle pile, and I don’t think Hunter woul-” NSH began to say before he got interrupted by Hunter. “Actually, Ma’am, I do quite enjoy the slugcat snuggle pile.” Hunter said, bouncing from one hind leg to the other. “Well, damn, alrighty then, if you say so…” NSH said, acting like she didn’t really want to do it. The pile arrangement they had was Hunter and Artificer on the outside bottom, providing most of the warmth due to how Artificer was basically always at least a little on fire. NSH in the middle of them, covered on all sides by indescribable amounts of fur, he felt like she was in heaven. And Five Pebbles on top of NSH, Five Pebbles was used to sleeping closer to her mom though, so she squirmed over into the crack between NSH and Artificer. Artificer, like usual, was the first to go to sleep, her deep snores filled the shelter, and the pile of scugs shook slightly with each inhale of the sleeping slugcat. Next was Hunter who needed some sort of white noise in order to actually sleep now. As Five Pebbles began to nod off she was loosely aware of NSH, he had clearly gotten a better deal from this, what with her liking the wildlife better anyway, but Five Pebbles was perfectly fine with staying an Iterator, even if the rot would have killed her eventually. As Five Pebbles closed her eyes to go to sleep she heard NSH muttering something under his breath, after a little bit of effort, she was able to figure out it was her saying goodnight to everyone, ‘that’s nice.’ Five Pebbles thought as she began to fall asleep, as she began to fall into unconsciousness she was just able to make out what was actually being said. “Goodnight Hunter, Goodnight Artificer, Goodnight me… Goodnight, Five Pebbles.” NSH said with a smirk as she fell into unconsciousness.

Notes:

for context, No one but NSH know that 'tiny pink floofy baby' is 5-p

Chapter 4: Red Hot

Summary:

when you go to see the only one of your friend group who doesn't put up with your shit and accidentally kill and resurrect her

“Hm… now that is intriguing.” Seven Red Suns muttered to herself as she looked out into the world around her chamber and saw a Ginormous slugcat holding a pink ball of fluff tear the throat out of a green lizard and eat the corpse with two others, occasionally giving the pink ball of fluff, which must have been a genetically altered child, a far too sizable chunk of meat. “... and that might be an issue…” Suns said to herself as she watched the run back of the large slugcat cause an explosion to cross a hole in their way. “Spears, If you would.” Suns gestured to the screen in front of her as she looked down at her greatest creation, a genetically altered slugcat made specifically to kill things, it’s survival was dependant on it in fact, it had no mouth so the only way to feed was by stabbing living creatures and it had an abundance of spikes it could use to do so. Spearmaster the fifth looked up at Seven Red Suns before nodding and using its overgrown tail which was twice the size of its body to launch off of the ground and into the pipe at the top of Seven Red Suns can.

As Artificer made simple conversation with Hunter during a lull in their trek to Seven Red Suns’ structure, NSH took Five Pebbles a little ways away from the other slugcats and sat her on a large rock. The infant slugcat immediately began squirming in protest as she attempted to look at her adoptive mother. “Ah, how the mighty have fallen, eh, Five Pebbles?” NSH sighed with a smirk as she watched a look of terror fill the baby slugcat’s eyes as she realized what was just said. “No need to look so horrified, what kind of adoptive sibling would I be if I didn’t take every opportunity I had to blackmail you?” No Significant Harassment asked rhetorically as he sat next to the rock she had set Five Pebbles on and began holding her like the small baby she now was, his new tail felt weird resting on the dirt but she would need to get used to it at some point. “You know… I actually kinda like you now that you can’t talk back, so now I can just keep on talking and talking for as long as I want!” NSH bragged as he wiggled a finger in front of Five pebbles face in the way she had seen ancients do with their young before Five Pebbles opened her mouth and bit his finger with teeth that were far sharper than they had any right to be. “GRAH! Damn, fine geez, whatever, ‘your majesty'” NSH growled as she began to carry Five Pebbles back to the other slugcats before a sudden jolt ran down his spine. Before she could fully process what he was doing, NSH suddenly jumped backward, and looked with horror as a white spike embedded itself into the ground right where she had been standing, The sudden lurch had caused Five Pebbles to let out a small yelp, which had allerted Artificer to their location.

Within the span of about five seconds, Artificer had rocketed over and was now standing with the now somewhat gray spike in her hand. With a wave of her gigantic front paw, NSH was sent falling into Hunter's arms with Five Pebbles in his own, and she looked on at the scene in front of him with amazement. Artificer bit down on the black needle, which splintered at the contact, stabbing tiny splinters of bone into Artificer’s gums, when she took the needle out of her mouth it had a red cloth wrapped around the base. Artificer braced and threw the spear with all of her might, causing the cloth wrapped around it to whip around as it flew through the air. The dark silhouette of a small slugcat weaved under the thrown spear, readying their own Before the sudden explosion sent it flying in Artificer’s direction. Artificer coughed up an explosive and threw it at the rapidly approaching slugcat, but the smaller one threw a spear that gave it the change in trajectory that it needed to avoid a face full of bomb.

As the slugcat came to a sliding stop just next to Artificer, both realized the same three things at the very same time. The first was just how huge Artificer was in comparison to this slugcat, incredibly large when put in comparison to anything not colored red or aquatic in nature, but the slugcat that was fighting her was about the size of a pup, maybe smaller. The second thing they both realized was that Artificer had a definite advantage in close combat, she could explode on command, was able to turn almost any animal's innards into outards, and the smaller one didn’t have anything other than a bunch of spears. The final thing that was made apparent by the smaller slugcat coming into the light, was the fact that it was completely outmatched in every way, artificer could close any distance near instantly, was better at close combat, and was considerably more ruthless than anything that the smaller one had ever needed to deal with.

After staring at each other for what was likely seconds but felt like hours, Artificer grabbed the small slugcat with a singular paw and growled directly into its face, “ Dont, touch, my pups. ”. The seething rage was more controlled than it was when she dealt with the scavenger patrols, as though the fact that this was a slugpup, or at least looked like one, made it at least worth a warning before getting its throat torn out through its skin. The smaller slugcat shivered slightly as it desperately tried to gesture an explanation as to why it was doing what it was. “I’m going to assume you were created by this… Seven Red Suns character,” Arti asked as the purple slugcat nodded desperately, “ good , then take us to them.” Artificer ordered as she dropped the slugcat onto its oversized tail, “lets go!” Artificer called out to the other slugcats to signal them to follow her.

“Hmm… fuck.” Seven Red Suns muttered to herself as she watched her purposed organism lead the intruders into her structure. “Let me see here, that happened about five minutes ago… so it should take them abou-” SRS began to say before getting interrupted by the sound of five slugcats collapsing onto the floor of her Can. “Oh, of course.” she grunted as she turned to see the pile of strangely slimy mammals. As she touched down on the ground the first thing she realized was that one of them was a strange cyan color, with a familiar symbol on its forehead, but that mattered not to Seven Red Suns, however, as she readied her brain explosion beam, the cyan pup grabbed the tiny pink one and rubbed its head fluff on to her hand. “Ew… what th-” suddenly, Seven Red Suns felt an intense burning in her… throat? She didn’t- but before that thought could finish forming, something strange happened, she began to cough, she felt a desperate need to get whatever was inside her throat out of it, now , who cared if it didn’t make any sense. As SRS dropped onto her fully functional hands and knees, she felt the synthetic skin around the bottom of her face give way as the desperate coughing burst out of her face, forming a mouth behind it. Coming from within her newly forming throat was a burst of flames, which fell down toward the floor before realizing the direction they wanted to go and going straight back up into SRS’s face, making her feel like it was burning, which it was. As SRS’s false eyes looked up at the slugcats in her Can, the lenses fell out onto the floor with a loud *klink* noise, the burning in her face was unbearable,but then she felt something worse, her newly formed jaw collapsed onto the ground, crumbling to ash. As she began to sift through the ashes of her own face she saw more ash falling to the ground from behind her. As she looked back she was horrified to be confronted by her entire back being separated from her umbilical and lit ablaze as it collapsed in on itself. She let out a pained cry that came out more as a moan than anything as she fell to the floor, what was left of her puppet swiftly collapsing into the pile of black ash.

“Okay, can we all agree that was not my fault, right?” NSH asked desperately at the exact wrong time, causing all the slugcats in the room to look at her with disgust at the attempt of humor, and fear from the fact they just saw what was basically a god burn to death in front of them. Then the fire came back, it formed a torrent as it rose from the bottom of the small room to the top, it circled around itself a few times before shrinking down and condensing into a more animalistic form. The figure started out looking like a regular slugcat, but then things got weird really fast, it began with the ears being more floppy than the usual attentive ears of a more typical slugcat, then the wings came in, that was the main thing that made it look weird, the fact that it had wings. After holding that form for a good ten or so seconds, the flame immediately died and the newly formed slugcat fell to the ground in a heap. It seemed to have a bright red head, a soft orange main body, and light yellow paws and tip of its tail, it also seemed to have wings that followed a similar color scheme of red top, orange middle, and yellow base. As the slugcat raised from its position on the floor, it made direct eye contact with No Significant Harassment. “Well… at least you aren't dead, eh?” NSH said before dodging an attempt to tackle him. “I am going to fucking kill you!” Seven Red Suns shouted inrage as she kept chasing No Significant Harassment. “Girls! Calm down, we’ve had a good run of keeping everyone alive so far, and we’re not going to let this stop it.” Hunter said calmly as she scooped NSH up from under her armpits and held him like a misbehaving toddler. “And honestly, you’re older than her, you should have more self control than that!” artificer berated as she picked SRS up in the same sort of way. “Wha- wha- w- WHAT!? He fucking BURNED me to death! And you think I need to CALM DOWN!? Who do you thin-” SRS began to steam at Artificer before she got up in her face and looked her directly in the eyes, “yes, ma’am.” SRS said meekly as she made herself look smaller, pulling her new limbs as close to her body as they could go, and pulling her head back and into her neck slightly. “Good, now let's get to the nearest shelter.” Artificer said as she launched herself out of the Iterator Can.

As the ever growing pile of slugcats clambered into the shelter they immediately took the shape of two different sleeping piles, SRS was now on the bottom, and as one of the only smooth slugcats in the pile she was dispising almost every hair that stuck to her. To the far left was Artificer, who was wrapped around little Five Pebbles like their lives depended on it. Five Pebbles was all in all pretty happy with this arrangement, like this she could just enjoy having her gigantic mother wrapped around her like a red centipede wrapped around its clutch of eggs. On the right of Artificer was Hunter, who was clinging to Artificer with great intensity, NSH was in between their bodies and felt like he was being crushed on both sides by unimaginable amounts of fluff, and she loved every second of it. Spearmaster was on top of SRS, who didn’t seem to dislike the presence of Spearmaster as much as she did all of the others

Chapter 5: How to Tame your Dragon. PT.1

Summary:

a Flashback to times gone.

“Gourmand! SIR!” Guard ran through the curtain of Gourmand’s Tent, causing the giant Slugcat to stop playing with one of the children that he was in charge of watching as part of his responsibilities as the leader of his Slugcat tribe.

“What is it, Guard?” Gourmand asked as he put the child down, the 15 other children scrambling around it, the children making miscellaneous sounds out of their mouths as they crawled over each other, they had just hatched so they were about the size of Gourmands hand, about as big as the occasional grapnel worm, Except for one, who was a normal sized Pup of their age, she was white as white could be, and had slightly thinner Fur from the rest of the tribe.

“The… The Beast, It’s back.” Guard shivered as he spoke, and Gourmand's eyes widened as he could hear the screams of the damned out in the square.

 

The curtain to his tent flew to the side as Gourmand ran outside, catching sight of the carnage in the village square. There, in the center of town, was The Beast.

It had pitch black fur that shone in the moonlight as it tore into the flesh of an innocent Slugcat, its Blood Red Head getting showered in gore and viscera. The tribe was uncertain whether it was a Lizard or a different predator of some sort, so they coined the term “The Beast” in a twisted and horrid version of the typical naming convention of the tribe.

Gourmand grabbed Guards spear, Guard letting go immediately, knowing where this was going.

The spear cut through the air between them like it was the very definition of a sharp object, covering a length of 20 Slugcats at a speed of 40 Slugcats a second. But as the dust cleared, the citizens were surprised to find that the beast had Caught Gormand's spear, in one hand, and was shifting it into its mouth, coughing up a sticky red substance that hissed in the air, as though the very existence will cause it to combust, and by the look of it, it was.

Gourmand dove as the spear was sent flying at him, bouncing off his hard skin beneath his fur, and piercing the tail of The Beast, which had jumped upwards in an attempt to rip Gourmand’s throat open, no doubt.

The explosion tore the tail in half, a Guttural shout bursting out of The Beast’s mouth as it rolled on the ground in front of the tent that Gourmand had exited. The Beast was surrounded, Guard and three more of his brothers, as well as Gourmand himself, were standing around the frightened monster. Gourmand was very tired, but he had to tough it out, for the colony. The Beast flicked its eyes between all five of them before standing on its back legs, tail still bleeding profusely, and the white chest fluff that seemed to deflect and reflect any and all dirt, grime, or blood, suddenly flickered, a pattern of eye straining colors assaulted the eyes of the colony defenders.

When Gourmand opened his eyes again, The Beast was gone, and a trail of sizzling blood led into the large tent.

Where the Pups resided.

Gourmand scrambled into an upright position, stumbling his way into his own tent.

 

The picture in front of Gourmand when he managed to get into the Tent was surprising, to say the least.

There, on the floor, right where he left them, were the Pups, still with fear as they shivered, and in front of them, with a look of defiance on its face, was a stark white Pup, she had a scar on her forehead, which bled lightly as she panted before dropping the Spear in her hand to the ground with a loud clatter, the blood on it forming a puddle.

Leading to the Pile of Pups was the trail of blood that originated from The Beast’s severed tail, still popping with small combustions, which made a sharp turn from the front of the Pile of Pups, leading under a flap in the fabric of the Tent, and into the woods.

“Gourmand! Sir! What… happened here?” Guard asked as he approached the larger Slugcat from behind with a slight limp.

“Prepare The Tribe, this Pup has Earned her name.” Gourmand told his guard as he patted the white Slugcat’s head in between her ears, causing the small girl to look up at her Chief in curiosity.

 

Gourmand approached the stone that rested in the middle of the ring of rudimentary tents, the White Pup holding on to his back until he had reached the top and set her down. The Hunting squad was off burying their dead and grieving the loss with the families of the recently deceased.

Gourmand sighed, “My fellow slugcats,” He began in a booming voice as he looked among the crowd, “There was an… unfortunate occurrence, in the Tribe, as you know, this could have been a tribe wide Massacre, had it not been for the actions of myself, my trusted guard, and this brave Slugcat right here.” Gourmand told the gathered crowd as he revealed the white Slugcat behind him, she looked scared, and backed up slightly, “She risked her life to save the rest of her litter, and managed to damage The Beast! I believe that she has earned the right to gain her name.” Gourmand spoke with pride, shuffling his hand against the top of her head as the rest of the Colony cheered, “I will take that as a sign of agreement, young one, due to your resilience in the face of adversity, and your bravery, you shall now be known as… Survivor.” Gourmand got down on one knee, taking a bluefruit out of his pouch, split it open, and pulled some of the juice out of it before using it to dye Survivors fur in a pattern that followed the curvature of her neck. With a stripe above a layer of segmented dots that were, themselves above another line.

 

As Gourmand led the newly dubbed Survivor back into his old tent until she could be given one of her own, he was surprised when she pulled on his hand with slight urgency.

“Mr. Gourmand, sir, the truth is that I didn’t protect all of the Pups, The Beast managed to grab someone before I fought her off.” The young lady’s eyes were wide and her grip was tight, and Gourmand could see that she was scared.

“Now Now, that is… unfortunate, but at least you helped the rest, there would have been far more lost had you done nothing, and you might have been one of them, look on the bright side for once, we all need to every once in a while…” Gourmand propped Survivors chin higher with his index Finger claw, a sad smile on his muzzle.

“That’s the thing Sir! The Beast didn’t… Hurt, any of us, it just looked at us, confused I think, before grabbing My Brother, which is when I attacked.” Survivor explained the source of her fear as she hopped from foot to foot and looked at the ground.

“...Ah.” Gourmand sighed, understanding the tenseness of the smaller Slugcat better, and kneeled again to rest a hand-paw the size of her face on her tiny shoulder, “Do not fear, little one, I will find your brother, and give you the closure you so desperately need.” Gourmand told Survivor Sincerely as he stood back up, following the Blood out of the tent and into the woods.

Notes:

So, How to Tame your Dragon is going to be disbursed among the Normal chapters, and takes place in the past, before the story, or any of the Campaigns from the game.
Comment if you want to see more.

Chapter 6: THWARTED AGAIN!!!

Summary:

NSH gets a bit mischievous.

Notes:

BatNip smells like Strawberries

NSH was the first one to wake up, and managed to Pry herself from the Crevice that was created by Hunter and Artificer’s intense cuddle. The Shelter was still closed, should he have just gone back to sleep? The fluffy crack called to her, as if tempting NSH with its intense comforts, then, No Significant Harassment caught sight of the small pink pile of fluff resting within the clutches of her new mother, and got a… devious Idea.

“Pst, Suns!” NSH whispered, poking the newest Slugcat in the shelter, the fact that SRS was the only smooth Slugcat in the shelter wass weird, but what was weirder, was the fact that she had… feathers?

“Huh.” NSH hummed in recognition as he continued to wake up SRS.

“Wha do you mean ‘Huh’?” SRS asked, offended at how surprised the Green slugcat had sounded.

“You’ve got feathers!” NSH whispered excitedly as she looked SRS in the eye.

“I WHA-!” SRS began to shout before NSH clamped a paw over her mouth, looking at her with fear before looking back to the Adult Slugcats.

“SHHH! You almost woke up MOM!” NSH growled quietly as he glared back at SRS, who was glaring back, before slowly pulling the paw away from her mouth.

“Geez, you really accepted these things as your family quickly, didn’t you.” Suns said dryly as he stopped himself from licking his Paw.

“It’s the best thing I could do, alright! I’m a child in their eyes now, I need some way of learning how to survive in this world, alright.” NSH hissed lowly as she justified his choice of company.

“Sure, now why did you wake me up? I nearly forgot about all of this.” Suns sat against a wall of the shelter as Spearmaster layed next to him, still sleeping.

“Ah! Right ” NSH grinned with dubious intent as she leaned closer to Suns’ floppy ear before whispering into it.

“... if you're going to lie to me, make it believable.” Suns chittered before curling up and trying to go back to sleep.

“What… No! It’s TRUE!” NSH hissed at Suns, holding onto his shoulder, keeping him from getting comfortable enough to sleep.

“Yeah RIGHT, as if mister Five “OOH, I’m so GODLIKE in comparison to these pitiful Beasts” Pebbles would ever be caught dead like… That.” Suns gestured at the fluffy pink pile being clutched by the Giant Crackling Fire of a wild animal that was The Artificer.

“Well… yeah, sure, BUT! Look, look closely Pink, with four yellow lines on the forehead, general constant anger, it all lines up! And also, she responds whenever I call her that too.” NSH said, halfly in questioning as he sat next to Suns.

“...Why are you telling me this anyway?” Suns asked the green Scug as he sat properly.

“Well, when I was talking to Moon for the first time Post-Scugification, I coughed up a pearl that allowed her to understand what I was saying, so I thought that perhaps there was something similar within Pinky’s pearl pouch.” NSH explained as she waddled around the shelter, careful not to speak too loudly or risk awaking the parents.

“...Pearl Pouch?” Suns asked, unimpressed as he looked at the green Scug.

“Yeah! The tests I used to run came back telling me that these creatures actually have a small pocket in the back of their throats that they use to hold small inanimate objects! Often pearls, but it can also include rocks, bricks, grenades, different plants and other such things.” NSH told Suns as he paced around the shelter, Artificers snoring was so loud that the younger Slugcats needed to talk a bit louder than they intended.

“Mhm, and you think that the child, which you intensely insist is Five Pebbles, has a pearl in this strange pouch that the Slugcat species somehow managed to evolve.” Suns looked NSH in the eye when he spoke, clearly not believing a word out of NSH’s muzzle.

“Oh my us, ok, here, let me show you.” NSH sighed in exasperation as she poked Suns’ chest, slightly below the beginning of his neck, causing a feeling of nausea to run through Suns as a hard object began to force itself up his throat using muscles that clenched against Suns’ will until a vibrant orange pearl plopped out onto the ground of the shelter, along with a puddle of somewhat murky liquid.

“... I… ugh… I…” Suns struggled to form a sentence as he clutched his throat to keep the rest of the bile in it from spilling out.

“I said I didn’t want to do that, now, see? You popped out a pearl too!” NSH sat down on the ground, avoiding the puddle of stomach slime as a green, thin hologram with a large eye appeared next to him.

“Oh, hey Jiggy, how…” NSH was interrupted when Jiggy grabbed the Pearl with its thin appendages and began to project a mesh over it, squares adapting to the smooth round object as Jiggy scanned the Pearl.

“... your… Overseers… still function?” Suns panted as he sat against the wall of the shelter.

“Apparently? I’ve seen a couple on our travels, but I wasn’t sure if I was actually seeing them or just getting used to my new organic eyes.” NSH replied as she watched Jiggy scan the pearl, he didn’t think that was how that worked…

Jiggy dropped the pearl when it finished scanning it and zipped over to NSH HandPaw before nudging the appendage, which made NSH bring the clawed limb up off the floor, allowing Jiggy to link its wires with the tips of her fingers.

NSH’s brain was filled with schematics and genetic mutations that could be applied to Slugcats, to make them grow spikes, carry pearls, explode, that sort of thing, as well as how they seemed to share an ancestor with the large lizards, strangely enough .

“Wait… Explode?” NSH focused on that string of thought as he began running the records of lab tests that Suns had simulated, the results were different from what NSH had expected, it was attempts to make SlugCats that could use some kind of thrusting ability to jump higher and farther, some that could breathe fire, it was more of a focus on Combustion than Explosions, so then the eternal mystery of how the hell NSH’s new mother existed was still unsolved.

“Ok, I believe you about the Pearl Pouch, can I have that thing back please? And what do you want to do anyway?” Suns shuddered when he swallowed the Pearl, making it slide into a skin Pocket in the back of his throat.

“Well, since you have one, that means that having one of these is a result of the Scugification, so then there might be an answer as to how it keeps happening on hers, because we’ve only been getting Scugged when we made contact with her.” Nsh explained her plan as he grinned slightly, she knew that Five Pebbles was going to hate this, she just didn’t care.

“I don’t think that’s a good Idea…” Suns muttered, not moving to stop NSH from following through with this course of action.

NSH gave herself a little shake to prepare for the mission that he was about to embark on, popping a few spine vertebrae.

 

NSH scittered over Hunter's sleeping form with bated breath, treading lightly as she began to reach out toward the sleeping, purring, pink baby. The scent of Soot and BatNip assaulted his nose.

“What are you doing?” The sudden sound of a tired Hunter shocked NSH, causing her to lose his balance, face planting into the soft chest fluff of the Artificer with an undignifying “YEEP” sound.

“I, well, uh… I, uh-” NSH failed to come up with a good excuse for that question, so she just kept stuttering until he thought of something.

“Leave your sister alone, we still have a while before the Shelter opens, go back to bed.” Hunter sighed as she pulled NSH back into the Cavern of fluffy fur that seemed keen on clinging to his own dense fur.

“I… but… I don’t…” No Significant Harassment was cut off as she yawned against his will, an intense Vibration running through her body as his chest rattled with the sound of her Purrs, lulling him to sleep.

“You too, Seven, we have an eventful day ahead of us, you need your energy.” Hunter told Suns, keeping her back to the small Fire colored SlugCat.

“I see no flaw in that logic.” Suns muttered as he shrugged before draping himself over Spearmasters own body, soft and smooth, much better than the strange fluff that covered the others, in Suns’ opinion.

Notes:

Comment if you want to see more.

Chapter 7: How to Tame your Dragon. PT.2

Summary:

A flashback to times even Farther Gone.

Gourmand followed the pool of sparking blood out into a dark and nearly endless forest, A scent that was nearly exactly that of a firebush seemed to seep in the air, the fact that it was obviously far more potent than the powder that rested in the volatile plant was also not lost on Gourmand ass he chased after The Beast. A hiss was suddenly heard, alerting Gourmand to the existence of the Rust Lizard that lunged toward him, easily getting dispatched when Gourmand grabbed the tiny by comparison lizard by the neck and slamming it into the ground the sudden slam making a small plume of flame light in front of the Lizards mouth as the air was knocked out of it. Gourmand took the spear in his hand and plunged it into the flesh under its metallic head, blood splattering out of it and coating his spear and hand.

Gourmand grabbed enough meat off of the Lizards metal bones to keep him satisfied if a rest is required, and then some, before putting the rest into his sack, where he kept all of the prey that he got while hunting for his tribe before continuing to follow the trail of blood that was too violent to dry, it just kept steaming, as though its chemical components were so volatile that it would combust if put in contact with anything at all. As Gourmand tracked The Beast, he thought back to the Rust Lizard.

“I don’t know about that thing…” Gourmand told himself, he hadn’t ever seen one of those leave Seven Red Suns’ structure grounds before, most of the less… well thought out creatures that found their ways into an ecosystem usually came from the Iterator playing god, which he… often did…

Gourmand shook his head as he sighed, pushing the thought out of his head, he didn’t have to deal with any of that anymore, for now, all he needed to focus on was finding The Beast, and save the Slugpup that it had carried away, or at the very least recover his body.

It was then that Gourmand arrived at the entrance to a cave, it was a dark thing that seemed to have some sort of effect on its surroundings, there were no other creatures lurking, the grass seemed to be charred, the ground was loose, like the creature that walked it had claws that dug with every step.

Gourmand stopped, listening, there was almost no sound, as though the sound waves themselves were afraid of disturbing The Beast’s home. But he still heard the sound of a slight hiss that the trail of blood left behind. Gourmand focused, reaching a hand into his pouch, focusing on the specific thing that he needed for this situation. A light glow seeped into the dark clearing as the red X that rested on his forehead let out a deep red light, and after a few minutes or so of this, Gourmand pulled a fully formed Hazer out of his pouch, feeling slightly more ravenous.

“Okay, get in there, blind the thing, grab whatever’s left of the Pup, and get the Void out of dodge.” Gourmand said his plan out loud, quiet enough that he couldn’t be heard from inside the cave, before doing a quick stretch, popping his joints a little before letting out a light yawn, he was starting to get old, at this time in the usual slugcat’s lifetime, they would have settled down and had a litter of their own, but Gourmand wasn’t like the rest of his tribe…

He had gotten off topic again, and shook his head back to the problem at hand and began approaching the entrance to the cave.

 

It was deceptively shallow for how large it’s mouth was, upon Gourmand entering the cavern of stone, he immediately saw The Beast, his little animalistic heart skipped a beat, this thing had torn the throats out of his most trusted defenders, caught his fastest scouts, and ravaged his tribe for generations. But right now, it didn’t look like the apex predator that he remembered, the creature he had seen tearing the wings off of vultures, lobotomizing their Kings, or disemboweling Red Lizards. No, the creature in front of Gourmand looked almost… Sentient, as though it was capable of higher thought, but simply indulged in the actions of a wild animal because it knew no better, Gourmand knew that way of acting quite well.

The Beast was sitting on its back legs, using a pair of front paws to hold it in a sitting position, its eyes were locked on the small, yellow figure of the child that it must have set on the ground, its eyes never moved from the Pup, even though it’s head tilted from right to left multiple times, as though trying to decipher the lack of terror on the infant Pup’s face.

Gourmand watched as The Beast leaned in, pushing its nose into the yellow fluff that sat on the pup, and sniffed, before leaning back up to look at the child in confusion once more.

When Gourmand took another step into the cave, the two large fluffy ears on the head of The Beast flew upwards, its head snapping to look at Gourmand, their eyes met, they actually met , for a time of 4 seconds before The beast seemed to recognise Gourmand as an enemy and jumped back, crouching down with a loud HISS that splattered a liquid onto the ground that hissed even more.

There it was, The Beast’s pupils dilated, making it look far more like a lizard than it had before noticing Gourmand’s intrusion.

Gourmand thought fast, and threw his Hazer at The Beast, Frightening the squid that had been filled with far too much Ink by the Iterators while being ordered by old residents of the cities in the clouds, this action also shocked The Beast, who Clamped its jaws down onto the Hazer, getting a face full of Ink and coughing it out. Gourmand launched himself forward, slamming into The Beast and sending it onto its back for a few oh so precious seconds, and picked up The yellow Pup that seemed serine in the face of this terrifying sight, and also Grabbed the empty Hazer, might be able to feed the Pup that if they need to sleep outside the Colony.

When Gourmand looked back at the beast, He immediately gave up on the idea of saving the hazer for himself or the Pup. The Beast had its haunches raised, its mouth unknowable wide for any non lizard to be able to do without hurting itself, and it was about to slam the bloody stub of a tail it had into the floor, launching it at the Slugcats, but before it could, Gourmand threw the Hazer again, this time only as a distraction, The Beast grabbed the Squid like creature out of the air, scarfing it down in a single, smokey gulp, the Hazer getting cooked on the way down The Beasts throat. Something in The Beast’s eyes changed, the eyes flickered out of dilation for a moment and its face softened, seeming to lose a bit of its wish for Slugcat Blood.

But Gourmand couldn’t think about that, he had to get this child back to the Colony, and away from The Beast. The only issue with this escape attempt, was the fact that the forest was simply Crawling with Lantern Mice, tails hanging from the branches of the trees, low to the ground due to their lack of self preservation.

On the way to where Gourmand thought the Colony was, he had killed a multitude of the Muted Glowing Mice, leaving a trail of Bodies as he attempted to outrun the incredibly violent Mammal(?), Gourmand could hear the sound of The Beast’s jaws snapping as he ran as fast as he could for as long as he could, he heard the sounds of tearing flesh as the Beast gave chase, stopping at the occasional interval to do… something that Gourmand didn’t look back to see before continuing chase.

Gourmand was forced to stop running when he fell to his front paws, the Pup was safe in his Pouch, though perhaps a bit more rattled, Gourmand couldn’t tell. Gourmand had lost the trail of The Beast's Blood. ‘It must have fully dissolved at some point.’ Gourmand thought to himself in reprimand, how could he assume that the steaming blood wouldn’t turn to steam ! He was supposed to be smarter than this!

Gourmand was ripped out of his internal debate when he heard The Beast scuttle over to where he had moved to sit against a tree, the falls of its Paws seemed to have lost their chasing quality, more of a casual following than an intense chase.

The Beast jumped onto Gourmand, Not to kill him, apparently, but to instead rub his face with its own, coating him in its scent as a way of reminding its primitive brain that he was a friend.

“Guh, Hey hey HEY! Down Boy!” Gourmand shouted, trying to push The Beast off of his Chest, remembering how Male Slugcats tended to have some kind of Chest Fluff that was often a different color and density.

The Beast blacked down, placing his head close to the ground and looking away as he was told off with a light whine.

“Well, it seems we don’t have to worry about getting eaten any more… eh kid?” Gourmand joked as he pulled the (perfectly Calm) Child out of his Pouch, nestling him into Gourmand's fur, only to see The Beast moving its large open mouth closer to the (probably Sleeping) Baby.

“HEY! No! BAD! Don’t Hurt Babies!” Gourmand shouted, Parental instincts running high on account of how Slugcats work, causing The Beast to reel Back his head, eyes wide, (but not dilated, Gourmand noticed).

“D… Don’ Hunt… Babys?” The Beast spoke… HE SPOKE! It sounded like he had swallowed sand his entire life, but it was PROGRESS! Gourmand could teach this Wild creature how to exist in the society he had built! With how much ferocity he had seen from The Beast, If he could get him on the side of his Colony, they wouldn’t have to be so intense about guard duty, and the others could pursue what they wished instead of being assigned a name based on what was needed! But, for now, Gourmand needed to teach him right from wrong.

“Yes, Don’t Eat Babies.” Gourmand repeated, speaking slowly now that he knew The Beast was going to try and learn words from him.

“But… Babys Tase Good!” The Beast complained, looking at the ground in disappointment, this was going to be a long cycle.

Notes:

Comment if you want.
It fuels my writing.

Chapter 8: First Words.

Summary:

Artificer has Issues

Five Pebbles was awoken when Hunter tried to pick her up, the fluttering of tiny pink eyes exposed the inside of the Shelter that the cluster of Slugcats had slept in.

Hunter looked at Five Pebbles with wide eyes as she realized that Artificer’s fur was no longer pressing against her, no longer filling her nostrils with the scent of Smoke and gunpowder.

Five Pebbles, against her better judgment, began to cry, causing Hunter, NSH, and SRS to begin freaking out as the high pitched scream slammed against their ears.

“Wait, no, no crying! Momma’s still here! It’s just time to leave, and I have a pouch! Please stop crying!” Hunter pleaded with the infant Slugpup, but Five Pebbles was inconsolable, the screams were echoing through the shelter as Arti got up from where she was laying.

“Hey, it’s okay, momma’s here, sh-sh-sh” Arti took the Pup in one hand, pressing her against her lush white chest fur as she calmed the child.

“Loud.” Suns rolled his eyes as he held his ears down against his head.

“Yeah, babies are like that, she might be hungry, come on, I’m going to go hunting, Spear can Hunt on its own, right?” Arti asked the Pupified Seven Red Suns, who looked up at her in response.

“Yeah? Of course it can, It’s the most capable hunter I’ve ever made!” Suns puffed out his chest, proud of his accomplishment.

“Good, then it can teach you how to as well.” Arti responded, not missing a beat as she carried her Baby out of the Shelter as Suns just stood there, shocked.

“C’mon Siggy.” Hunter reached out for NSH’s paw, which was quickly taken by the much smaller green Pup.

“Are you going to teach me how to hunt?” NSH asked as she left the shelter.

“No, you’re too little, Suns is big enough to hold a spear as well as another Item, so he gets to go Hunting, learn how to survive without help, those sorts of things.” Hunter explained as she Covered NSH’s eyes to shield from the sun before Exposing Artificer, who was pacing the ground outside the shelter as she gently bounced Five Pebbles, who was still sniffling as she clung to Artificer’s chest fur.

Artificer brought Five Pebbles up to her face, sniffing her fur as the child stared off into the distance with wet eyes. After sniffing for a few heart beats, Artificer pulled the child into the crest of her neck, rubbing her scent gland on the small child, which made her finally stop crying fully.

“There you go, now, you need to ride in Hunter’s pouch, I know that me and her haven’t been together enough for my scent to mix with hers yet, and the pouch may be uncomfortable, but I need you to be brave, ok? I don’t have a way to keep you safe when I enter a confrontation, she’s the best option, Okay?” Artificer asked Five pebbles, who sniffed once.

“Agabababadooo.” Was all that Five Pebbles was able to say, her mouth still wasn’t familiar enough for her to be able to actually react to things properly yet.

“What else did I expect, alright, In you go.” Artificer held Five Pebbles out to Hunter, who nodded before taking the small child and placing her, delicately, into the pouch that most Maternal Slugcats held, NSH was loosely aware of how this worked, she had a hand in the creation of the proposed organisms that had evolved into these beings, after all! Not nearly as in depth as Sliver of Straw had, but enough that he had paid attention to how the creatures developed after the Ancients had all ascended.

It was a form of sexual dimorphism, the Males of the Slugcat population had silky Manes that also made a nice soft Chest fluff for the children to play on without fear of getting hurt until they were large enough to exist properly. And the females had somewhat large pouches that they used to hold the children until they could walk on their own, they had been used less by the more civilized Slugcats that lived in tribes and had more communal child rearing habits.

 

Five Pebbles was embarrassed, she had been crying like some kind of CHILD! She was supposed to be better than this, but the way that the Non-Ruffian Beast’s pouch smelled irritated her nose, and made her feel too cramped, but if she began crying again… she would be a nuisance, and if she was a nuisance…

Five Pebbles cried softly.

 

Hunter Could feel The Pup shiver in her pouch, it felt very strange, and she could barely hear the sounds of little sniffles as she Followed Artificer, who stopped, holding a hand out for Hunter to stop as well.

Artificer sniffed the air, “Centipede, Red, oversized, Good food for Pups, and for you?” she asked, looking back to Hunter, who nodded once.

Artificer nodded back and dropped to all fours. “The Green One can watch, try to figure out some strategies for dealing with these.” Artificer told Hunter before jumping down from the pile of abandoned farming equipment they were seated on.

 

Artificer Grabbed a Spear on her way down, ripping it out of the wall with a quick explosion that sent her flying until she was just above the Centipede, then she made a smaller explosion to send her rocketing down. She took a bite out of the sharpened piece of rebar in her hand, teeth causing the metal to split apart, and her saliva, red, viscus, and oh so volatile, coated the end of the spear, leaving a slightly sticky ribbon on the end of it.

Right before hitting the centipede, Artificer made yet another explosion, right above it, which made the Red Centipede send one of its mouths straight into where she used to be. Artificer landed next to it, the Red Centipede sensed her landing with its long antenna, one mouth clamping onto the arm that wasn’t holding the explosive.

And as the other head came in to try and close the circuit, Artificer took her opportunity, burying the pointy end of the explosive spear into the other head before it managed to grab her, exploding the head and sending her flying.

The Centipede let go of her as it recoiled in pain before over shooting her a bit on account of having one less brain.

Artificer took a small rock sitting next to her, and shoved it into her mouth, grinding against the stone, reducing it into gravel before coughing up some stomach bile and saliva that coated the shards of the stone, causing them to all stick together with a thick red coating.

Artificer jumped a few times, allowing the centipede to finally pick up on her location. The centipede scittered straight at Artificer as she stood perfectly still, and the Centipede opened its mouth.

Artificer shoved the Newly formed grenade straight down its throat, ignoring the way that it bit down on the familiar scars on her arm from doing this many times before, and the exposure to a non-Artificer produced chemical immediately caused the head of the creature to explode, leaving its lifeless body laying on the ground, twitching.

Artificer blinked away her feral rage, shaking her head before looking back up to Hunter and The Green One.

“It’s Okay, you can come down now!”

Hunter and The Green One carefully climbed down the pile of metal and lawn mowers and tractors and other things.

“These things are an Apex Predator, so they tend to clear out whatever area they live in, and die of starvation soon after, this one looks like it took care of a lot more than usual, the amount of segments is irregular, it was missing an antenna, I was only able to stab the first head because someone else already took the protective plating off of it, and the Spear I used was barely piercing that wall, I assume some unlucky Slugcat got in over their head.” Artificer Explained to The Green One as she tore the insects flesh out of its carcass, and placed it onto the abandoned Plating, holding it out to the middle child of their group.

“Uh… Are you sure this is good to eat? I think it’s still sparking…” The Green One poked the meat on the shard of centipede armor, quickly pulling away.

“We haven’t had any problem eating them before, so it should be easy enough.” Hunter told him as she ate her own, Artificer slowly pulling the tiny pink child out of her pouch, seeing that she was sniffling, and holding her own tail, a common way for baby Slugcats to show that they are stressed, and she could also see that the tip of it was damp with baby tears.

“Hey, Darling, Momma’s right here, it’s Okay, I got your favorite.” Artificer comforted her Pup as she gently took her over to the slab of Centipede meat that she had placed on the ground for easier access for the pup.

“... Ma-ma-ma.” Artificer stopped in her tracks as she heard the Baby say her first word, and it was to call her mom , her body shook a little bit as a sob mixed in with a purr of acceptance. Artificer sat down, next to the food she had laid out for the Baby, and pulled her away from her chest, seeing the small child look up at her with large eyes that made her heart beat even faster, she was so small, so delicate, so… Fragile .

 

The explosions, the spears flying, the sound of a splash of water, the tearing of flesh, the spilling of blood, the scent of new Pups, the feeling of the world under paw, the feeling of FUR IN HER -

 

“Ma-ma?” The child looked up at her in confusion, shaking her out of the spiral she was falling down. She looked slightly spooked as Artificer put her down next to the piece of meat that was almost twice her size.

“Arti? Are you okay?” Hunter asked as she sat next to Artificer, who laid down, head on her front paws, looking into the middle distance.

“Yeah… just thinking…” Artificer answered before sitting up, her front paws still on the ground, between her back legs.

“About…?” Hunter pushed a little, wanting to help her new girlfriend with whatever was going on.

“I… It’s… there was… I’m… … Nothing you need to worry about…” Artificer told Hunter, thinking back to the fires, the torches, the shouting, the spears that flew over her head as she held her own children in her mouth, the way that the scars on her back burned when wet, the way her face made all who saw it terrified, the way that her husband… Artificer rubbed the stump of a tail that hung from her body, the stitched scar at the end of it, the way it was too small for her, too small for her body, too small… or she was too big.

“Hey, I… I can’t say that I know how to help with whatever is happening with you, but in my own experience, holding back is never good, not for your health, not for your relationships, holding back when you want to say something can cause your whole life to fall apart, I don’t expect you to tell me right now, but I hope that you eventually feel comfortable enough to tell me what's wrong.” Hunter patted Artificer on the paw, looking into her eye without flinching, she wasn’t scared, she had seen her single handedly take down one of the most deadly creatures in the world, and didn’t see her as a monster, a Bea- a weapon, she saw her as… another Slugcat, one with issues that they could work through together.

She wasn’t alone anymore.

 

No Significant Harassment may have made a miscalculation, What else was new? She had forgotten to carry a one and created a laser eyed, scissor mouthed, flying monstrosity when he was still an iterator.

But now… now she was confronted with something he had never had to deal with before, Consequences, she had turned into a slugcat, a creature able to leave his can, and now she had to eat.

The most disgusting thing ever witnessed sat on a chitin plate, he was also loosely aware of how Five Pebbles was ravaging her own portion, a quick glance over to her showed NSH that Five Pebbles was gnawing her way through her own piece of centipede with incomparable speed, but not getting anywhere because she was tiny.

NSH looked at the meat on the plate, it looked like it was still electrical, and took a small bite.

Much to her surprise, the jolt of electricity actually felt good! It surged through NSH’s teeth, straight into her brain, making it feel like he was back in her can again, the way that his brain seemed to float, the way that she could almost see through his overseers again!

Then she noticed Jiggy doing the jig that he had named them for, and remembered the plan! NSH devoured the rest of her serving of centipede, feeling stuffed as the shelters they often stayed in, and looked over at Five Pebbles, who was still biting her way through the centipede meat, she had eaten a surprising amount, well, she was a growing child. Then it was time for NSH to put his plan into action.

“MAMA!!! THE BABY ATE A ROCK!” NSH shouted, shocking Hunter and Artificer, and making Five Pebbles get wide eyes.

“She did!?” Artificer skidded to a stop in front of Five Pebbles, picking up the child as she tried to tell them that NSH was lying through her teeth, but all that came out were little baby sounds.

Now all NSH had to do, was wait, it was all he could do, Artificer was almost 6 times her size, and was holding the tiny baby at chest level, and poked Five Pebbles in the chest, causing her to throw up the Pearl that had formed in her pearl pouch, which dropped to the ground, NSH managed to grab it before it hit the ground, and tossed it to Jiggy, who scanned it within the span of three minutes as Artificer explained to Five Pebbles not to eat Pearls.

When Jiggy was done scanning the Neon Pink Pearl, NSH handed it to Artificer, who threw it into a water basin, never to be seen again.

Notes:

Comment your thoughts!

Chapter 9: How to Tame your Dragon. PT.3

Summary:

A flash back to a time that shouldn't be Forgotten.

Gourmand had snuck away from the Colony again, and had met with his newest Project.

The Arsonist.

He was a Slugcat, that was the first thing he had found out, and as such, he deserved a proper name.

Another thing that Gourm had found out, was that the Arsonist was also a lizard.

His movements were unimpeded on all fours, he hissed when threatened, and was more than capable of throwing his weight around.

“Oh! Uh… Gourmand, you come back!” Arson jumped over to meet Gourmand, nuzzling into his neck with familiarity that had made Gourm need to explain his new scent to the Tribe multiple times.

“Came, Arsonist, I Came back.” Gourmand rubbed his own head into the Arsonist’s neck, Purring as the two commenced the somewhat intimate ritual for a couple heart beats.

“You… Came back.” Arson corrected himself, smiling as Gourmand pulled out a large red Egg like item, and a small green egg.

The surrounding area was bathed in red light as the mark on Gourmand’s head glowed brightly, his eyes turning the same bright red as the two items mixed into one.

“Noot!” The baby Noodle Fly began to wiggle frantically, and Gourmand took a Spear tip he had in his pouch and dove it into the Fly's brain, and handed the lifeless corpse over to Arson.

Gourmand laughed softly as Arson torte the Noodle fly in two before eating the whole thing with little trouble.

Arson’s ears twitched during the speaking lesson of the day(The last one if Gourmand was right).

He hopped to his Paws, lowering his head while raising his Stump-tail, it had been stitched back together by Gourmand, Smoke was floating out of his mouth and Scars, Sparks illuminating the area around them.

“Akka!” It was a Scavenger, who raised her spear.

“Wait! Uh… Wottana!” Gourmand warned, getting between the two.

“Goma?” The Scavenger tilted her head, her Mask had two spikes sticking straight up, and two smaller ones that stuck downward.

“Hiya, Goma, Arso, goged.” Gourmand explained as he kept hold of the growling Arsonist.

“Ckikatiwana!” The Elite Scavenger shouted, pointing at Arsonist.

“Hika nota knaw, goged onew, Frintana.” Gourmand calmed her down, and Turned to Arson.

“This is Chika, she is a friend, the Scavengers know me, and they won’t hurt you if you’re with me, alright?”

“F-Friend?...” Arson narrowed his eyes at Chika, who reciprocated the distrust.

“Gowana, cotimata, I halien, Speik Snugatt.” Gourmand motioned Chika to continue on her way.

“... Okay, now, where was I?” Gourmand looked over his flashcards he had made for this meeting.

“What is… She? ” Arson asked, not grammatically correct, but Gourmand was here to deal with that this cycle.

“She was a Scavenger, I am friend with them, they won’t-”

“No, I know… I know that, I’m asking… what does she… mean ?” Arson looked confused, and Gourmand realized that he had skipped over Feminine Pronouns.

“Oh, my bad, so, She, is a Pronoun, you remember those, right?” Arson nodded, “right, so, You call me, He, and I call you the same because of your Mane, that shows that you are a boy Slugcat, got that?” Gourmand explained, slipping in a bit of Biology.

“Y-... Yes.” Arson nodded, and he ran a paw through his chest fluff.

“But… You don’t have Mane.” Arsonist pointed out, and Gourmand flinched a bit before remembering.

“Ah, that… see, I… don’t have a mane because I was originally a girl Slugcat, but I preferred being a boy one, so I changed my name, stopped going by Homemaker and became Gourmand, nobody really made too big of a fuss, really.”

“You can… Change?” Arsonist had forgotten about the flash cards at this point, he had the general Idea down.

“Well, It was less of a change of me and more of a change in how others per- Saw, me.” Gourmand remembered that he was doing the basics of the language.

“Hm… but… why pick He?” Arson tilted his head, still confused.

“Well, it just kinda felt right, y’know?”

“Felt… right …”

“Arsonist, do you want to tell me something?” Gourmand asked patiently, he had noticed the winces, the twitching, the confused looks, all of them.

“I… I think I might… be a… She.” Arsonist forced out.

“A girl?”

The word felt right, from what Gourmand had said, it fit better than Boy, in Arsonist’s head.

“Yes, I am a Girl.” Arsonist nodded, teeth Bared, but in a good way?

Slugcat society was weird.

“Alrighty then, now let’s work on Contractions before I show you to the rest of the Colony.” Gourmand took out a differently colored set of flashcards with a smile on his face.

 

Gourmand had lost track of time, and was hiding in a makeshift shelter within the cave that the blood red Slugcat resided in.

She was wrapped around him, her fur making a nice and warm feeling that enveloped Gourmand as he reciprocated the cuddle he was receiving.

But neither of them could sleep, Gourmand knew what was going on, and didn’t hate it as much as he thought he would, but the other seemed confused.

The scent of a sweet confection that Gourmand only loosely remembered filled his nose, he was panting.

 

“What’s that thing doing here?”

“Why is it following Gourmand?”

“Did he tame it?!”

“No way man! That thing isn’t smart enough to be tamed!”

“I mean… just look at it.”

Arsonist was clutching onto Gourmand's arm, she was bent over slightly in order to reach it, and she was looking around at all the Slugcats that were glaring at her.

Gourmand rested a Paw on hers, calming her down.

He led her to the announcement stone, and stood at the top of it with vindication, and he spoke to his people.

“ My fellow Slugcats! It is with great and powerful pride that I speak these words, and welcome the newest member of our Tribe, A Slugcat that has shown me that she deserves everything I give onto her, and one that I doubt no-one knows, may I introduce, My Mate, The ARTIFICER!”

Notes:

comment your thoughts.

Chapter 10: the final thoughts of a dying God(Like being)

Running reading protocol…

 

(WARNING! Damage to Outer Iterator detected!)

Protect the Puppet.

…

…

…

Running tests…

…

…

…

Runnin-

 

(PRE UPLOADED MESSAGE RECEIVED!)

Reading!...

HELLO! Congraduations on managing to Find the Answer to the Great Problem! Your Main System shall notify the Staff immediately and the Iterator project shall now be shut down, thank you for your contribution to the Team effort that we have set all of you out to do together!

(Message Suppressed)

(Reason: Do not Disturb)

Need not Keep Puppet Connected…

How to save Puppet from possible harm due to constant damage?

…

…

…

Please respond with possible solution.

(Message Suppressed)

(Reason: Do Not Disturb)

Response found.

Response: “( She ) must want to show me another Pearl she found.”

Identifying Subject “She”

…

…

Subject “She” Identified!

She: Slug-

Liz-

Slu-

Li-

S-

She: UNIDENTIFIED CREATURE of INDETERMINATE Origin.

Processing what to do with subject “She”...

…

…

Copy of Genetic code found!

Running Tests…

…

…

SPECIES FOUND!

Subject “She” is a-

(ERROR)

(ERROR)

(ERROR)

Irreparable Damage found!

Interference in Iterating Detected!

Initiating Possible Solution with on hand experiments…

Genetic code of Subject “She” found!

Composing Body out of Genetic Code.

(ERROR)

Lack of Pigment Genetics discovered!

Fixing…

Fixing…

Fixing…

Solution found!

Using Pigment of Puppet…

(ERROR)

Pigment not available!

Fixing…

Fixing…

Fixing…

SOLUTION FOUND!

Using Puppet as Base for New Genes…

(ERROR WITH PROPOSED SOLUTION!)

Puppet is Mechanical in form!

Fixin-

SOLUTION FOUND!

Shift Puppet into purely Biological form…

Running Tests…

Running Tests…

Reason is sound, Puppet no longer needs to Iterate due to finding the Solution, therefore, the Puppet can be relieved of Duties and the rest of the responsibilities will be done automatically.

Intiati-

( ERROR )

Genetic code does not line up with term in database for “She”

Solution found.

Altering Code of Puppet to Align with Term “She”

Initiating…

(Deactivating Anti-Grav)

Initiating…

(Activating Anti-Grav)

Initiating…

(Deactivating Anti-Grav)

Initiating…

(Activating Anti-Grav)

Initiating…

(Deactivating Anti-Grav)

 

(Connection Terminated)

 

NSH sat there in the dark of the shelter.

This was it…

That was it .

All that searching, all the questions, all the amazing possibilities!

And it had happened because Five Pebbles was such a little baby that she had turned off Push Notifications…

SHE HAD FOUND THE ANSWER TO THE GREAT QUESTION!

NSH grabbed hold of an abandoned Spear off the ground and bit down as hard as he could, growling as she shook his head.

After about five Minutes of doing that, NSH had worked herself ragged, and waddled over to the pile of fluff and fur that awaited before falling in with a long snore.

Hunter sighed.

 

The sounds of the Shelter opening Awoke Artificer, which woke The baby, who began whimpering.

“Ok, we need to make a game plan now, where do we go now?” Arti asked Hunter, who popped her back, Arti was still pressing against the walls, neck stuck to the side.

“Hm… I don’t really know, maybe we head over to that Moon lady? She seemed like she’d know what we need to do next.” Hunter suggested, sitting down with her legs crossed as she leaned on the wall on the other side of the Shelter.

“Wait, Is Moon alive now?” SRS asked, blinking the sleep out of his eyes.

“Yep, and I was the one that did it!” NSH jumped up, hooking the Thumb on her paw at himself.

“Ugh, well, when we get there, can we go our separate ways or something? Because I’m getting tired of all the Fur.” SRS yawned, still laying on the ground.

“I suppose that may be a good idea, it would be easier to go places without needing to make sure that 6 of us were safe.” Hunter reasoned, and Spearmaster nodded along, its long nose wobbling with the movement of its head.

“Alright, let’s get going then, are you ok to go in the Pouch Darling?” Arti asked the small child that was chewing on her claw tips.

She just made a small sound out of her throat.

“It’s going to be Ok, if there’s not many predators I’ll carry you, Ok?”

“...K.” Arti’s heart almost exploded from the Cute little whimper that her child had made.

This one actually lived long enough for her to start speaking.

Arti shook her head before exiting the shelter, she needed to be at her best.

She had a family to protect now.

And she wasn’t going to fail them.

Not this time.

 

It had actually been about five full rooms since the group had seen anything that could be considered a predator, and even then, it had been a noodle fly.

Arti took hold of the Baby, who was damp from tears again, but not as bad as yesterday.

“I think you should give her a bath later, get her to recognize you, that way you can carry her without her going crazy in your Pocket.” Arti told Hunter, and The Baby shook with a small sob that she tried to hide.

“Shh, it’s ok, moma’s here.” Arti gave the Baby a small bounce, she hadn’t named this one yet, she had jumped the spear with her last litter, and didn’t want to be too hasty.

Her little Stars…

There was a whoosh, and Arti side stepped, a spear went flying past her, but there wasn’t a thrower to be seen.

“Hm, They must be a powerful shot, even I would still be visible if I threw that.” Hunter said, running a hand on the tip of the Spear.

“But if we can’t see them…”

“Then they can’t see us.” Hunter finished Arti’s sentence, and took hold of the Pup, handing her over to NSH temporarily.

“Watch your Baby sister for a little bit.” Hunter took the Spear out from the sheath she had made, and Arti bit the tip of the one that had been thrown in the first place, pulling back with a bit of red gunk on the tip of the spear, sparking.

Hunter and Arti krept forward, moving slowly as the children, and Spearmaster, followed Close behind.

 

There, right in front of them, was a Slugcat jumping on top of a Vulture that was below him, snapping its neck, killing it.

Gourmand pulled himself up, popping his back as he stretched.

He looked at a Pipe that led out of the room, and Arti smelled a familiar whiff of Scavengers, and Growled.

Gourmand stopped mid step, and looked back at them, catching sight of the Jingling Pearls on the Mask that she had pulled off of the Scav King's face, he had wide eyes, and backed up as he looked at her with fear in his eyes.

He pulled out a Bomb from his pouch.

Arti pounced, a familiar hiss bubbling in her throat.

Gourmand chucked the Grenade as hard as he could, and it slammed into the Mask, shattering it as Arti was sent flying back for a few Slugcats before grabbing the ground with her back legs.

“ You .” Arti glared, smoke rising from her back, her mouth, her eye, her hands, everything.

“A-Arti?” Gourmand’s eyes widened even farther.

“YOU DON’T GET TO CALL ME THAT!” The liquid in her mouth went flying,making medium sized pops as they hit the ground.

Hunter ran up next to her, holding her Spear threateningly.

“You know this guy, Babe?” Hunter squinted at Gourmand, who put the second Bomb back in his Pouch.

“Uh… Hi, I’m Gourmand, I’m the leader of a Slugcat Trib back at the outer expanse, I can take you there if you want?”

“Not happening!” Arti dropped to all fours, hissing at Gourmand with nothing but pure vitriol.

“What are you doing here?” Hunter asked, cautious, she trusted Arti’s judgment.

“I’m looking for a new place to set up Camp, ok? We’ve managed to deplete the supplies that the expanse gave us, so now I’m looking for a new place to set up shop, the problem is that there’s a forest on the other side of this compound, and I need to check if the planned route we’re going to take has enough food, or any Scavs that moved in.” Gourmand had his paws in the air.

“There aren’t, not if I had anything to do about it.” Arti growled.

“The Scavs like me, I can just talk to them, and they’ll understand-”
“No, you don’t understand, I killed every Toll in this place, so you’d only need to deal with roamers, who I’m still working on.” Arty sat up, absolutely towering over Gourmand, and just about every other Slugcat ever.

“Ok, got it… uh…” Gourmand looked behind the two slugcats, which caused said Slugcats to do the same, and find that the children, and Spearmaster, had followed them.

They stood there for a few moments, unsure of what to say.

Then, NSH spoke up.

“SLIVER OF STRAW?!?”

Notes:

Next chapter is going to be the final How to tame your Dragon chapter, but I have about five or so normal chapters I can think of before this is going to become a series of Oneshots.

Chapter 11: How to Tame Your Dragon. PT.4

Summary:

Flashback to a time that is wished to be forgotten.

Artificer wrapped her body around her babies.

Protect them .

It was the only thing she could think when she saw them, she doesn't hurt Babies, she protects them.

Gourmand rubbed circles into her fur, it had gotten softer in recent times, it no longer scratched, she looked up at the smaller creature.

He smiled at her.

His fluffy body and face brought a warm feeling to her body.

She wrapped around her children a little tighter, and fell asleep like that.

Gourmand sat on the ground next to his Mate.

“Look at yourself, never thought you’d be doing this, huh?” Gourmand chuckled to himself for a moment before giving a sigh, a thing that the rest of the colony did not understand, and a thing that he couldn’t do before.

“You’ve been like this for… Countless cycles now, and yet you continue to find ever more things you never expected, Fascinating.” Gourmand looked at his empty hand for a moment, the red x across his forehead glowed for a moment, and a pearl appeared in it.

He grabbed a nearby spear, and began scratching a message into it, an incredibly ineffective mockery of the old way they did it, but it should function for his purposes.

 

The next Cycle or so (it was hard to tell time without an internal Computer… or, External?) He packed a bag, which included the pearl he had carved, and set off for the Scav Kings lair, if he could give him some good shiny things, then the Slugcats would have enough food for the great Snowfall that was coming.

Arti had tried to go with him, wanted to join in the journey, but Gourmand reassured her that the babies needed her more than he did, and she relented.

The rest of the colony was looking at Arti suspiciously, but Gourmand knew that they wouldn’t try anything.

They were his citizens, and any going against his wishes would bring upon them his wrath.

Granted, it wasn’t as powerful as it had once been.

But it was good enough.

 

Arti was sleeping.

She was wrapped around her babies, protecting them.

 

She was back there.

An image flashed through her Small animalistic brain of a light red hand grabbing what looked like a White Slugcat with a flat head, hard and solid, a flickering mane that was barely there, and it was screaming.

“Hm, Another failure, too much Slug, these little… Beasts , they have such fragile DNA…” a voice Spoke as Artificer growled and the screams got louder.

“And this one… much larger, sure…” a hand hit Arti on the snout and she snapped at it, “And just as hard headed, as well as a relative amount of Sensitivity, Tails a little short for a red though…” The hand pushed her to the side, and grabbed a small shaking Cyan Slugcat with a ventilation shaft in it’s legs.

“And this one! Total failure!” the voice shouted, and an image started to move over the Cyan Slugcat.

Arti didn’t know what it was, but she knew it was bad.

PROTECT .

Her Dna Flared through her, hormones clogging her oil glands, and she jumped at the large figure, using the teeth that she didn’t know how to use at the time to tear through the figure's Cloth robe, and bit into his arm.

“AAAAAAAA!” the figure shouted, and the room filled with crackling lightning.

“You little… !!” a solid metal object grabbed Arti around her neck, and lifted her into the Air.

“So, Number 3.82, I see you wish to Volunteer for something a bit more… Experimental, yes?” The figure leaned in, right outside of 3.82’s range of motion, close enough for the barely formed eyes to make out what it was seeing.

A solid white body in a black coat, with a hood and golden accents, he had Silver lines running down his face, and what looked like sharp teeth carved into the face from the same gold lines. There was a pair of Goggles on the face, but one of the lenses was shattered.

Then, the room shook.

“INCOMING MESSAGE FOR DIFFERENT BEAST.” the voice made 3.82 growl and whine.

“Damnit, I will see to you , later.” DB waved a hand, and the collar around 3.82 pulled it away from the room, and into a hallway.

The screams followed her.

 

Artificer blinked her eyes open, the memory already melting away, and was met with the image of a light green Slugcat trying to carry her baby away.

Her other one was already crying, and screaming, and the first was starting to wake.

Arti started to growl.

“RUN!” one of the kidnappers shouted.

 

Spearmaster was wandering through a quaint little Slugcat Village, and everyone was being… alright, granted they couldn’t understand him, but they didn’t run him out of town like the last place, Baby Steps.

The long, thin Slugcat walked in a trains sort of way, he wasn’t as chunky as the rest of his kind, his Needles only ever gave him enough food to survive, so he didn’t really have a need for any sort of Body Fat, or any fur, do to the heat he already gave off due to the Pearl within his core.

Spearmaster was looking at the wares of a very dark blue Slugcat when an explosion drew his eyes to the largest house there.

Three Slugcats ran out holding what looked like two children, and they were followed by a huge…

What is that? It was covered in Scarlet fur, there was a hard head, and the Fur on the chest was flashing different colors.

Spearmaster threw its Needle at the thing chasing the Slugcats, and everything went crazy.

The Beast raised the Stumpy tail it had and slammed it into the ground, sending it flying at the slugcats, it grabbed the spear in its hand before using the momentum to spin into a throw that embedded one of the Slugcats running from it into the ground by the tail.

It was the one not holding a child.

Spearmaster watched, shocked, as the beast tore the Slugcat to shreds right there in the center of the Village.

It stood.

Taller than Spearmaster, who was already more than twice the size of the tallest Slugcat it had met.

And it roared.

It wasn’t a hiss, like a lizard.

Or a grumble, like a slugcat.

This was something else entirely.

“WHERE, BABIES!” The beast dropped to all fours before diving at another Slugcat.

The Village was in disarray, every shop had packed up and booked it in a matter of moments.

The Spearmaster shook itself out of its stupor, and looked around, eventually finding the beast with two Slugkits in its mouth, it was Running away.

The observer warned the Spearmaster of Danger.

The beast.

Spearmaster chased it.

 

He found it near a Cave, the ground scorched, but grew again, the area was torn apart.

The beast was taking care of the children, grooming them until they calmed down.

They whined before they began snoring.

The beast looked back at the Spearmaster.

It looked melancholy.

It breathed in.

And it turned.

Spearmaster threw a Spear.

The beast caught it.

And brought it up to its mouth.

And bit into it, causing the Spear to shatter before a strange sticky liquid wrapped around the Spear, and it was thrown back at Spearmaster.

Spearmaster jumped to the side, and the explosive spear hit the ground next to it, exploding, and sending them into the trunk of a tree.

The Beast took hold of a Spear, and drove it into Spearmasters chest, hitting the pearl that held it together.

The Pearl shattered.

And Spearmaster looked upon its killer before fading out of this world of living.

It would avoid the village next time around.

Notes:

This is the last how to tame your dragon chapter.
Comment thoughts for me to make the next chapter.