Chapter 3 - Larva Life

In that suffocating darkness, he felt an innate fear urging him to escape. Without hesitation, he mustered every ounce of strength within his tiny mosquito larva form.

With a burst of energy, he ruptured the eggshell, emerging into the water with a frantic squirm. He propelled himself in the opposite direction of the ominous splashing, seeking refuge from the unseen peril that lurked nearby.

After doing one last squirm in that body of water, since he could only exert force at the lower end of his body, he managed to get a glimpse in the direction where he came from.

The sight that greeted him was something he was certain would stay with him for the rest of his life, even though, in the grand scheme of things, it was such a very small event that probably happened millions of times and more.

Hundreds of mosquito larvae, just like him, were doing the exact same thing he did; some of them had even overtaken him and continued to flee. The place where the eggs were first laid, on the other hand, was nothing short of a carnage.

A colossal pitch-black catfish, at least relative to him, was opening its mouth and devouring dozens of eggs and tiny larvae who were just about to second in every second.

Seeing the shocking scene and feeling the crazy ripples of water, which he had no clue how to properly decipher as to whether they were coming from that catfish, the larvae, or some other fish, he decisively chose to squirm his way to the left, where the body of water ended, instead of following his brethren into the heart of it.

Slowly but surely, he was approaching the edge of the pond in an attempt to hide beneath the grass and wet soil. Just as he was about to make another squirm in that direction, he felt a very slight vibration in the water. He still had no idea from which direction it was coming, only that the water close to him moved. How close? He didn't know, which made him abruptly stop dead in his tracks.

His mind raced, trying to process everything that had just happened, but he pushed it all aside to calm down a bit and focus on the most important part right now.

He needed to have the ability to discern the origin of those movements directly. Although he knew that stopping in that place was dangerous, there was no telling if it was more or less dangerous than moving forward or even backward.

In this moment of confusion, he grasped one simple fact: he was no longer human. What this meant in that moment was the necessity to perceive and explore the world in ways other than just sight and sound. Strangely, his sight and hearing were almost human-like, albeit somewhat inferior, but it did provide him with a comforting reassurance.

Closing his eyes, he moved his tail end from the water to the surface, mimicking the breathing technique of mosquito larvae. Using a specialized siphon tube, he accessed the atmospheric air, ensuring each breath sustained him in the submerged realm.

In that complete darkness where he couldn't see a thing, he calmly breathed and slowly moved his head, plunging directly into the water, leaving only a tiny part exposed to breathe.

The moment he entered that cool and vast expanse, he started paying more attention to how he could feel those water vibrations. After a while, he was no longer just aware of the fact that they were vibrations but also of where they started and in which direction. Although this sounds like it maybe took a while, it was only a matter of a couple of seconds, as this was an ability that was already deeply intrinsic to every mosquito from birth; it was just obstructed by Lei Yan's human habits and tendency to explore the world strictly through sight, sound, and touch.

Forward.

He wasn't going forward but avoiding that direction, as that's where he felt the movement. Of what? He didn't know either, but it was doubtful that it would be anything good; after all, he was a mosquito larvae, and anything that could move at this phase would simply eat him. As he was right now, he was probably at the lowest end of the food chain in the whole world, and especially in this ecosystem.

He changed his direction by twisting his body, making it so that his head was facing where he wanted to go, and moved his lower body to squirm his way out of there.

He went to his right this time, to the other edge of the pond. Now he also changed his strategy a bit.

After every five or four squirms, which made him move not more than the length of his previous body's palm, he stopped so that he could start feeling for any dangerous vibrations because his own movements made it difficult for him to really get a clear picture.

Feeling nothing, he continued his journey forward.

Throughout everything he had done so far, every nerve in his body screamed with fright because he deeply realized one simple fact: his survival in the pond would depend almost entirely on luck.

He knew that the moment almost any kind of monster that eats mosquito larvae targeted him, he would surely die, as he had absolutely no way to evade it. His fastest speed was terrifyingly slow by all measures.

However, he had to get a hold of himself and not let his mind run wild with worries and fears, as that would surely just lower his chances of survival even further. He stopped once again, almost at the other edge, where he could see with his own eyes the grass, the wet soil, and the huge tree to his right.

He breathed in and out of his tail or rather siphon, and dived to feel the vibrations even more closely. Making his body completely still, he once again felt some movements in front of him, making him certain of another simple but unfortunate fact: his sensory range was pitifully small, and the fact that he felt movement there surely meant that something was getting closer, or maybe he was getting closer to something.

Not wanting to find out what that something was, he quickly backtracked from where he came from, as he had nowhere else to go. The pond edge seemed to be always crawling with living creatures; even with his sight and hearing, he could see some movements there—a toad croaking, some grasshoppers jumping, and even some big mosquitoes buzzing up above them all.

To his right was the majestic big tree, its roots reaching towards the pond forming a huge network, creating a natural canopy that looked especially serene and peaceful in this buzzing environment. One would be foolish to go find some sort of refuge there, especially a small mosquito larvae—it would surely be eaten, so that thought never crossed his mind.

Although, to be fair, the mixture of the sounds emitted by all the nearby creatures was strangely mesmerizing coupled with the view of the calm canopy, and he couldn't help but get lost in it for a couple of seconds.

'It's not really the time to relax now.', Lei Yan thought wryly in his mind and no longer paid attention to the beauty of the scene.

Thinking up to there, he gave up any notion of finding refuge somewhere, and seeing how his survival would be somewhat entirely dependent on luck, he chose to stay somewhat close to the edge but not that close as he felt less movements in those areas.

'So... what now?' Lei Yan couldn't help but think.

Of course, he had to eat so that he could grow bigger, and then he would molt and shed his exoskeleton to accommodate his growing size. After reaching an appropriate size, he would enter the pupa stage where he would transform into an adult mosquito.

But what he could eat was the question that stumped him. He knew that small larvae mosquitoes fed off tiny bacteria, microorganisms, and maybe some algae, but so far, he found none of that.

He swiftly immersed himself face down in the water, extending his siphon to replenish his air supply.

Long strands of hair at the tips of the fish-like lobes at the end of his body caught on the luminous, stretched layer of surface tension. At this miniature size, they were as rigid as feet, granting him the distinctive ability to cling to the water's surface, resembling a bat finally finishing a day's work and settling in to sleep.

This time, he didn't close his eyes like he used to do to focus on feeling vibrations but opened them. He didn't know whether it was the fact that it was dark or just because it was a pond and thus not clear or even because his sight was really poor, but he couldn't really see much.

All he could discern was an expanse of darkness, but amidst it, he observed minuscule fragments in motion. With caution, he gently opened his tube-like mouth, apprehensive about choking, and "inhaled" both water and some of those fragments. Quickly, he closed his mouth as the experience felt too bizarre to say the least.

Fortunately, he wasn't some defective mosquito, and everything functioned flawlessly. The water couldn't breach his stomach and naturally flowed out, while those tiny particles were caught and consumed.

To this moment, he still had no idea what they were, but he instinctively sensed that they were somewhat nutritious.

Indeed, soon enough, those particles rapidly dissolved upon entering his stomach and dispersed throughout his body. He sensed a change—very minute and subtle, but a change nonetheless.

Seeing that, Lei Yan's eyes lit up. He finally found what he should be doing. Not wanting to waste any more time, as the fact that he would die once and for all in three days was still weighing on his shoulders, he started eating whatever he felt was edible. As for the origins of what he was eating, it wasn't something he could care less about—whether it was waste or whatever, he would just eat whatever he found to grow.

Just as he ate maybe his fourth mouthful, he felt some vibrations, and this time they were strangely coming from above, meaning on the water surface, and they weren't that far from him. Sensing the possible danger, he hurriedly brought up his face to take a look and see what was happening.

The moment his eyes emerged from the water, he saw a relatively big insect dancing towards him with a sharp spear as a mouth.

'Holy shit,' he thought as he swiftly dove down for the first time. The insect that was moving above the surface of the water, as if skiing on ice, stopped where he was and seemed to be waiting for him to reappear.