Chapter 18: Chapter 18

Artemis went over to the room for the drones and entered. There were currently 6 of them lazing around and one came running over to her clicking its mandibles together in excitement. She crouched down and scratched the drone's neck. 

Artemis looked around to make sure nobody was watching her and then cuddled the drone. “Yeah, who is a good girl?”

The drone chittered happily and pressed itself more against Artemis. Then it rolled on its back and she scratched its belly. “You are a good girl!”

The other drones came over too and Artemis gave them the same treatment. A few minutes later she was surrounded by happy drones.

Artemis stood up and looked at the bunch with an excited smile. “So, who of you guys wants to go on a hunt?”

They all got up as fast as possible, but two of them beat the other four to it. Artemis pointed at them. “Alright, I will take you two with me today.”

The others looked at her with puppy eyes and she put her hands on her hips. “No begging, you will get to come with me next time.

The two chosen drones ran past Artemis and out of the room. She looked at the rest for a moment longer before she chased after them. “Hey, wait for me!”

In her rush to not be left behind she completely forgot to take anything to fight with her. Artemis followed them away from the hive and caught on to them. The two drones parted and let her run in between them.

Artemis jumped over a rock and smiled. The way the wind moved her fur, the beating of her heart and the noises of nature felt good. For some time she just ran with the two drones, chasing them or getting chased by them and enjoyed the moment.

Still, they hadn’t come out here just to play so Artemis slowed down after a while. It was time to begin hunting for real.

The two drones seemed to catch on and spread out a bit. Artemis crouched down and listened to the sounds of the forest. They had alerted a lot of the animals in the surroundings with their game of chase and it was rather silent.

Artemis stayed in a lowered position and began to move as silently as possible, wincing everytime her movement made a noise. The two drones were better than her in that regard, but she wouldn’t let it stay that way.

They walked past the trunk of a tree when one of the drones suddenly stopped. Artemis stopped too and watched as it slowly moved towards a bush next to the trunk. Half a meter away from the bush the drone jumped into it.

A shriek sounded out and Artemis could hear the panicked flapping of some kind of bird. The drone got kicked out of the bush and hissed in annoyance. A second later a green bird began to rise out of the bush. One of its wings was slightly damaged and slowed it down.

Artemis would not let it get away and started to sprint towards the tree. The bird was already too high for her to reach it with a jump, but she followed her instincts and jumped up the trunk. 

Before she lost all of her upwards momentum Artemis extended her claws and rammed one hand into the bark of the tree. She put her feet against the trunk, tensed her muscles and then pushed off of the tree, jumping up towards the bird.

It shrieked in fear and tried to evade, but Artemis impaled it on the claws of her other hand. 

The bird tried to get off, but its own claws only scraped over the chitin on her forearm. Then she fell back to the ground and landed with a roll to lower the force her body had to endure. 

The bird flapped its wings wildly, making the move all the more difficult and Artemis failed to stand up. As a result her shoulder got slammed into the ground, stopping her whole momentum. 

She yelped in surprise and pain and glared at the stupid animal.

The bird tried to peck her with its beak, but Artemis caught its head. With one last twist she broke its neck and a second later the bird stopped moving.

The drones ran over to her and began to dance around Artemis in victory. She smiled and sat up. Then she handed the corpse to one of the drones.

Now with free hands she carefully tested if her shoulder was injured in any way, but not one motion did create any pain so she likely only had a bruise.

Artemis patted the two drones and looked at the bird, comparing it to the birds she knew of. It was a new kind that no hive member had seen until now and about the size of an owl. Its feathers were of a strange gray-green and going by the form of the beak it ate fruits, seeds or small insects.

Artemis got up and stretched. They should have enough time to catch something else before the hell moths went out to hunt. She looked at her minimap and realized that they were so far north-east that they were surrounded by unknown territory.

Walking further north would reduce the time they had for their hunt so Artemis decided to travel south-east for the rest of the day.

The drone with the bird put it down on the ground and then walked over it. It grabbed the bird with its middle pair of and continued to walk on four legs without a problem.

Then the three of them began to traverse the forest as silently as possible again.

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A few hours later they came across the tracks of something that Artemis guessed to be the size of a drone. They carefully followed them until they reached a small stream where the tracks stopped.

The animal had likely gone through the stream and Artemis was determined to follow it. She heaved up the drone carrying the bird and then stepped into the stream. After three careful steps she was through and put down the drone. The other one followed them through the water.

It took Artemis a few minutes until she found the trail again. It led them a bit away from the stream and then turned to the right, moving alongside it.

Maybe half an hour later a lot more of the strange tracks appeared and Artemis hoped they weren’t walking into a bunch of predators. 

The hunting party followed the trail further away from the stream and around a tree where it led inside an area full of small berry bushes.

Artemis looked over the plants, listening to little grunts and rustling of leaves. Whatever they were hunting was inside the berry bushes.

She frowned. She wouldn’t be able to get near them without being discovered because of her size. Luckily she wasn’t alone.

Artemis took the bird from the drone carrying it and crouched down next to the bushes. Then she told the hive what the drones were meant to do. They both cocked their heads in response and then entered the bushes.

Artemis watched as they disappeared and listened intently for any sign that they might need help.

For a few minutes she heard only the rustling of leaves and the chirping of the birds. Then panicked grunting and the sound of galloping animals sounded out. 

Artemis turned towards the bushes and took a few steps backwards, making herself ready to jump on anything coming out of the bushes. She waited like that for a few tense seconds before she relaxed again. The sounds of hooves impacting became more distant and she could see the two drones slowly coming back on the minimap.

Artemis fully stood up and watched the drones progress through the bushes. A little later they came out, dragging their catch behind themselves. The animals looked like a mix of a cat and a pony and were a bit larger than the average cat. It made them taller than the drones, but not necessarily larger as a whole.

She walked to them and helped the drones out of the bushes. Then Artemis looked at their yield. The bird could be carried by a drone and she could carry one of the cat ponies, but the things were a bit too large for a drone to carry them under its belly.

She helped the drone that had to carry one of the cat ponies to get it on its back, but it didn’t look like the drone could carry it without the corpse falling down.

She thought about it for a moment and began to instinctively push her mana to the upper back of her tail. Maybe she could secure the animal with a rope of silk, though the rope had to be thick or it would just rip.

Artemis moved her hands to the openings in her tail and began to carefully pull out the silk. It took her body rather long to produce the silk and it was a big strain on her mana reserves.

10 minutes later she had one rope that was hopefully sturdy enough to hold the weight of the corpse. She secured the thing on the back of the drone and grabbed the other corpse by its hindlegs. Swinging it over her back and carrying it like a backpack she turned westwards.

The hunting party began their way back to the hive. They were a few minutes away from the stream when Artemis thought she had heard something. She stopped walking and concentrated. Her ears twitched and she could make out a faint rumbling sound.

Artemis didn’t know what it was so she just urged the drones to hurry a bit up. They had no need for trouble right now. The rumbling became louder and she realized that the sound was similar to that of the cat-ponies running away.

A mighty roar sounded out from behind the group and Artemis swore. That thing was loud and still a good distant away which meant it had to be large. Artemis had no confidence confronting something like that and began to run herself.

The drones followed her, but the one with the pony lagged a bit behind. When they reached the stream the ponies were already in viewing distance. Artemis didn’t bother looking for the large thing and threw the corpse over the water. Then she took the drone with the bird and walked through the river.

The second drone entered the stream a minute later, but struggled getting through. The ponies reached them and ran through the river not caring about the drone in it. Luckily Artemis was large enough to save herself and the other drone from being trampled.

After the ponies were past them she looked up, directly into the purple eyes of a large scaled creature standing on the other side of the stream. It had a massive muscular body and its mouth was half open, showing long sharp teeth as well as a forked tongue. 

The creature was easily twice as tall as Artemis and she began to sweat in fear.

Trying to get some distance between herself and the beast she began to slowly back up together with the drone and the corpse. The being eyed her and let out a sharp hiss. Then it stepped into the stream with a noisy splash. The beast packed the wounded drone still laying inside the steam and threw it into the air. The drone made some panicked chittering before the jaws of the predator caught and bit down. 

It chewed a few times showing its victim to her each time and then swallowed once.

The scaled creature glared one last time at Artemis and turned around. It walked away with a slow and lumbering pace, but its steps made not a single sound.

Artemis breathed out heavily. If she had learned one thing from this then it was not to go back east until she was stronger or she would end as a snack.

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