Chapter 9 - A New Home

By the time she had stopped eating the entire jaguar had vanished— with only bones and blood that had spilled out reminding.

Not even the fur was left— she didn't even realize when she ate them.

She couldn't help but be shocked—dazed at her actions— she fell back into a sitting position, with her eyes widened.

She had given in to her instincts, she had lost herself to her hunger.

She said she would never do that— she thought herself better than the members of her race from the past. She thought that because she was once human she would be able to control herself.

But she was wrong.

She didn't realize just how much the instinct to feed was wired into the very being of her species— it was so deep, it was their core value.

Eating was their entire point, eating and evolving.

It's not something that one could simply ignore or avoid because of their willpower.

It was truly frightening.

She was a fool to think that she was able to deal with it because she was once human— why wouldn't they be able to do the same if they kept evolving?

But they didn't— nor could she.

She had to get that hunger under control before she lost control and did something dangerous.

Or at the very least, she needed to find a way to limit it.

A thought for the future since she had to move currently.

While she could use the blood splatter to lure in other wild animals, it was highly likely to gather other predators that are looking for something to eat.

And she was too tired to be bothered fighting multiple predators, not to mention she wasn't sure what might happen if she fought so many predators at once.

Animals are unpredictable because they act wild and on instinct. Just because she killed one jaguar, she wouldn't go as far as saying she was capable of handling any.

So with a deep breath— she stood up and started to make her way over to a good spot she found using her worker earlier.

It was a small cave that had been naturally made into an undersized mountain, one that was overgrown with trees.

From her observations of it, it seemed to have been empty due to how small the entrance to it was.

No animal big enough to be alone could fit in it, and no animal small enough to fit in it would move alone.

It was perfect for her— she was currently small enough to fit in it after all. And she intended to use it as a base of operations while she was in the forest.

She would check her status, and any gains she had once there.

So she set off, the night still fresh since she had been woken up early by her unexpected guest.

She kept quiet and alert, making sure not to make any sounds that would attract a nighttime predator, not that she was worried since they would've been distracted.

Soon enough she got to the cave— or rather calling it a hole in the wall would suit it better. The hole was so small that she would have to crawl into it— but she was assured that inside of it was a bigger area thanks to her worker.

If there wasn't an area she wouldn't have even bothered attempting to go in.

'It's not a bad place— it's just annoying that I have to get all scrapped up.'

She said as she looked around at the area, a lush mountainous area that had ample trees and wildlife to cover her hideout.

Also without any signs of human involvement.

She was really curious as to why— and how— humans hadn't already explored this piece of land but she also didn't care too much.

For now, she was just going to focus on making this cave into her new home— so she got on her knees and started to crawl through the hole.

Honestly, if it wasn't for her enhanced physical capabilities, crawling through such a tight hole with nothing on would've definitely been painful.

But at best for her it was annoying, and left some aches.

Thankfully the hole wasn't too long, leading into a much bigger cave once she had crawled in a few.

Allowing her to properly stand up— without even the need to worry about her head since she was rather short.

'It's so dark.'

She thought as she struggled to look around in the pitch-black cave.

She could tell her eyes were adapting to see, thanks to the fact that she could see vague outlines of the cave walls.

However, it was far too slow for it to be useful current— if anything she would really prefer to eat something that would speed it up.

Thankfully she had just the things in this very cave with her.

Bats.

She could hear them moving and shifting as she came in, obviously alert to her presence but unmoving because she wasn't a threat to them.

Not yet at least.

With the amount of bats here— if she was able to eat all of them— she was sure she would be able to gain some skills.

On top of that bats weren't strong enough to pose any sort of threat to her— not any that would bother her that is.

At most she would have to worry about them rushing for the exit and trying to get away, but if she just blocked the hole off with something it would be fine.

They would be trapped in here with her.

So as a smile overtook her face, she prepared to hunt.

She sneaked back out of the hole to the other side and looked around for something to block the hole, finding the perfect object in the form of a stone that seemingly rolled down the hill to its current location, meaning it was easy to move.

For her, that is.

She rolled the stone over to the hole, leaving a gap for herself to fit in, then crawled back inside.

She then pulled the stone into place and blocked the entrance from the outside. Making it so the bats couldn't get out due to their lack of strength to move the stone, but she could because of her enhanced strength.

With that out of the way she crawled back to the cave and was ready to kill them, her eyes adjusting to the point where she could see much better now.