Records of Rebirth

Typhon and I arrived rather suddenly. We were in the lowest level of the cave, where it was noticeably cooler. And there, amongst all the prison cells, we came upon the three containing Apollo's bottom feeders.

It wasn't exactly hard to find from the directions Arsinoe had given, and unlike the other quiet cells, these ones gave off an audible skitter from the numerous creatures crawling within.

We quickly spotted Apollo in the middle of feeding them fresh corpses, causing him to fidget awkwardly under our combined stares. He was scared we had caught him keeping the nasty creatures, and rightfully so, because he had done this without permission.

However, after waking up from what was perhaps the best nap I had in a while, I was in a really good mood.

Typhon on the other hand, was not so lenient. He was disappointed with Apollo and immediately pulled him aside to give him a verbal warning, while I peered over at the three cells to watch the creatures devouring a corpse whole.

[That's ew.] The dark fae remarked, as she peered at them from above my head.

[Hmm.] I agreed, but they were surprisingly effective.

In a few seconds I'd watched them consume nearly half of the corpse, the speed completely exceeding my expectations. From what Arsinoe described, Apollo was in the process of training them to be safe, but it seemed that by restricting their food, all he had done was worsen their hunger.

If I thought about it, they were no different from a garbage disposal. I could keep throwing things down and they would devour them in an instant like those creepy monsters in horror movies.

But then, why hadn't they tried to climb out to the other cells? And why hadn't they attacked Apollo?

The other cells contained many eggs that could have been easy pickings, and Apollo was the easiest target of all. From their numbers alone, eating him wouldn't even be enough as an appetiser. Yet, they didn't.

Was Apollo secretly a genius?

He seemed to have tamed them to only eat what they were fed, and also to assume a dormant state to conserve their energy when they were not eating. I peered over at Apollo who cowered under Typhon's scolding. He looked terrified and was at the point of tears.

He shared a similar pattern to Artemis, who was also quite intelligent, and I couldn't stop thinking of how well thought out his procedure was. 

He must have gathered the creatures a little at a time, until they were enough to fill up three cells, and gotten them all used to his presence. They weren't completely safe, but he seemed to have conditioned them to associate his presence with food.

Being the opportunistic feeders that they were, their food was mostly dependent on the remains of other predators. If there were none, or they had to fight over them with stronger predators, they would likely starve for days or weeks on end. 

Perhaps they had chosen to ally with him because they were fed regularly here, which was better than relying on scraps.

I thought Apollo was onto something and I called him over to explain more.

Typhon stopped scolding him to come over and see the cells. And he got to witness the last of the corpse get eaten away to nothing. In an instant, a flicker of understanding crossed his eyes.

It seems he had also caught on.

Apollo nervously peered at the both of us to see what we thought, and he was taken aback when he was met with our enthusiastic questions.

The dark fae even buzzed around to examine him from every angle, making Apollo more terrified.

[This spotted serpent is odd, but also cute.] She proudly announced. [But why is he shaking? Stop scaring him, you bad snake!] 

[But I didn't do anything.] I complained.

Did she not see Typhon over there doing his best thug impression?

It was him that was scaring him, not me!

And so I shielded Apollo from Typhon's searing glare.

I had a lot of questions from him and it was best to calm him down first.

At first Apollo trembled in fear, but after some questions by the dark fae, it soon became apparent we were interested in his discovery. He started to showcase his bottom feeders and explain more of his training method.

I was mostly right. Apollo explained he kept them separately from each other and fed them regularly overtime until he built their trust. But I was wrong about the creatures, in that they weren't completely docile.

Apollo always made sure he was uninjured before coming near them, because if he ever bled, they would attack him indiscriminately, regardless of whatever friendship they had built up.

To my surprise, Typhon didn't care about this glaring issue. He approved of their bloodthirsty instincts, going as far as to suggest weaponizing them at strategic points around the cave.

[Hold on.] I stopped him. 

It was too risky.

Firstly the creatures weren't tame. Keeping them inside was dangerous enough, but creating cells of them around the cave was even worse. Some nestlings regularly got injured during training, and I would hate to suddenly be overrun by a swarm of bottom feeders. 

That would be the lamest way to die. 

Typhon and I agreed, and instead he suggested creating underground tunnels to keep the creatures in. They would be away from the cave itself which was a good way to keep the critters away from my nestlings, and this got me thinking… 

The ape creatures and some of the scorpions were already quite large. If we created underground tunnels that were hidden, we could fill them up with bottom feeders to create pitfall traps that would be triggered by weight.

I thought of using [Dimensional Box] to thin out the top of the tunnels to create a fragile surface, so that if any creature over a certain weight passed over it, the ground would collapse, leading them to fall into the bottom feeders below.

Hm…

It sounded good, but it would need a few tests to figure out. 

Also what if an accident occurred in battle and one of my snakes fell in instead?

Ah…what the heck. 

That would also be another dumb way to die.

With every evolution, this risk would increase because their sizes would change. 

I could imagine this ending very badly. 

The bottom feeders would have to be trained to not attack my nestlings somehow. 

But when I asked Apollo what progress he had made, he wasn't yet close to a breakthrough.

He would need more time if this was ever going to be achieved.

Which left one more option.

The tunnels would have to be created in a pattern, so that only we would know which areas were thinned out and which were safe enough to thread on.

It was still risky, but at least it was easy to avoid. 

«Don't forget to create some sort of a warning.» Sensei added. «Not every nestling is smart enough to remember patterns.»

Dang it!

And here I thought it was solved.

This would have to do, until I thought of something smarter, or until Apollo cracked the friendship code. If any nestling was silly enough to fall in, maybe surviving that would make them smarter.

Typhon also had the wonderful idea of incorporating training tasks and hunting activities around these tunnels.

Alongside those containing bottom feeders, there would also be some entry and exit points created to ambush creatures while hunting, or for ease of travelling between one point and another.

I thought these ideas were all well and good and I didn't blame him for being ambitious, but they would only work if the bottom feeders could be trained. 

Somehow I didn't like the idea of being surrounded by the creatures, and Typhon agreed. Until they could be trained, the focus would remain on using them in safe ways. 

But it soon became clear that if any of this was going to work, we were going to need far more bottom feeders. Three cells worth was simply not enough. 

And speaking of cells, while Typhon and Apollo worked out the specifics, I went on to check out the rest of the cells where all the eggs were gathered. They were all placed deeply and so far none had shown any signs of cracking, not even the worms.

The cells were all rather bare and I began to wonder if they would even hatch in the cold. Maybe they should have sprinkled in a bit of sand.

While I pondered this issue, we were joined by two more curious nestlings. 

It seems the two had heard of our visit and wanted to show us around their room as well.

How cute.

I recalled they were part of Typhon's team, but instead of greeting their captain, they came straight to me and started chatting away. 

They were practically identical. Both had a certain mischievous air to their manner, and they were almost hyperactive from how quickly they spun circles around me.

However, while it was easy to understand Typhon, these two spoke too quickly for me to pick up any words, and I could only stare at them in confusion. 

Not that they noticed anyway, they gestured for me to follow them as they passed the cells, regardless of whether I understood or not.

Well...they were certainly enthusiastic. 

It was only when Typhon came over that I finally understood what they meant. 

They had a big surprise for me, it seemed. And so, we all went over to their room to see.

Once there, I was pleasantly surprised.