“I’ll go ahead with the first group” you said.
“Sounds good to me” Pink Skunk said. “I hope that the new nest will be as nice as this one.”
“I’m sure it will be” you said. “Now we just need to pick our groups.”
You both enter the Mating Chamber and split up to form your groups. You try looking for the snails but you don’t see any in here. Maybe they were someplace else. You realize that you’ll need to get some more experienced Magni in your group if you want to survive. You gather up quite an impressive group of those in the Mating Chamber and find out that not all of them are new. About half of them have been Magni for a long time now. They come to the Mating Chamber when they feel the need to mate. You’re a little surprised that you can tell how far along the females are by their scent. There were a few that you wanted to take but they were too far along.
Once you had your group set up you found out that snails had been assigned to your group already. You just hoped that they wouldn’t slow you down like their counterparts. Suddenly T-Rex was in your head again saying ‘Sister, you can create a specific scent. Make sure to let the others smell the scent you will be leaving. The scent you will be following is the scent of elephant dung. May the spirits be with you on your journey.’
You didn’t like the idea of following the scent of elephant dung but you had to. You suppose that it was picked so there would be no confusion with the natural scents around. Now you had to choose a scent to leave behind. You search your memory for a scent that wouldn’t be natural here. You finally hit on one that you think will work, the scent of a dolphin. There shouldn’t be any dolphins around here that would confuse that scent. You start to wonder just how you know what a dolphin smells like. You had been to Sea World a couple of times and you didn’t notice that the dolphins had a scent. You figure that you must have smelled it but it was so faint that it didn’t register consciously. Now that you were Magni your sense of smell was a lot stronger. The problem was that you had never been around an elephant before so you don’t know what the scent is like. Fortunately several of the Magni in your group have and could produce the scent. One marked a spot in front of the alcove she was using so you could smell it. With that done you find Pink Skunk and her group so you can give them a sample of the scent you would be leaving behind. Fortunately that same female who marked the spot for you told you how to leave a specific scent. It wasn’t hard as long as you concentrated on the scent you wanted to leave. You squat down and mark a spot in front of the alcove that you were using. You guessed that it felt just like a human female peeing but you had no reference to compare it to.
After you had let Pink Skunk and her group smell the scent you were going to leave you headed out of the nest.
The sun was high in the sky and you guessed that it was about noon. That would mean that you would be just about to the new nest by the time the sun went down. As you follow the scent trail you notice that it diverges at several points. You make sure to mark the path that you take with the dolphin scent every now and then, especially when the path diverges.
About two hours after you have left the nest you feel weak and tired. Of course you felt that way after a half hour in the sun but now it was becoming more pronounced. You hoped that you could get to the new nest before you grew too tired and weak to continue. Then again T-Rex wouldn’t have had you go out if he didn’t think you could make it. Suddenly you smell the scent of humans and oil just seconds before Steve and a few others jumped out of the bushes with Super Soakers. You give a quick command to take cover and you dive to the side just before they opened fire.
One stream of oil hit you in the left hand/paw and you howled in pain as it dissolved. You hear more howls of pain coming from others in your group as oil hits them in various places. Through it all you hear Steve say “Die monsters!” You manage to circle around and hit Steve from behind. Even though you’re weakened by the sun Steve falls to the ground unconscious. You see one guy soak Red Lion with oil. You’re horrified to see Red Lion dissolve into a puddle of red goo screaming in agony the whole time. The is the last guy standing and you take him. You weren’t feeling particularly merciful right at that moment so you rip his throat open. The small battle was over pretty quick and in the end nearly half of your group is either dead or injured. Steve is the only one left alive from his group.
Purple Wolf goes over to him and is about to deliver the killing blow when you say “Stop! I want him alive.”
“He doesn’t deserve to live” Purple Wolf said.
“We need to know how many more humans he told” you said. “The only way to get that information is if he is alive so we can turn him. Unless you have a better way to get the information we need.”
Purple Wolf just hangs his head and then picks up Steve. You don’t want Pink Skunk’s group to see this so you head back a little way and mark a new path around the area. You make the scent stronger on this path so hopefully they will follow it and not see what has transpired here. After you have finished marking the new path you come back and take stock of the situation. All the snails in your group were killed. Red Lion was killed along with Orange Rat. The others various injuries ranging from the loss of a finger or two to one that all that was left was the head. You’re shocked to discover that that one was Yellow Fox. At least he was alive but he was in terrible pain. Looks like the only way to kill the Magni is to destroy their whole body. You pick up Yellow Fox’s head and tell your group to keep moving. Some of them had to be helped but you were on the move again. Hopefully you wouldn’t run into anyone else with oil weapons.
During the three hours that it took you to get to the new nest you thought about a lot of things. The one that you kept coming back to was whether or not Red Lion had had sex before today. He could have died without knowing the pleasure of sex as a Magni. You wouldn’t help him pass on his genes but he should have had at least one partner. Maybe he did and you don’t know it. Maybe it’s best that you don’t know for sure.
When you get to the new nest you order your group inside. There in the dark you feel better, stronger. Not as strong as you were before but that will take time. You have your group stop in the first chamber you come to. It had a little light spilling in from outside so you could see well enough. One of your group volunteers to search the rest of the cave but comes back soon because she couldn’t see even with her enhanced vision. So you wait for Pink Skunk’s group to show up.
After a half hour you see someone coming into the cave. It has steadily grown darker during that time and at first you think it’s a human. Then you see the outline of a bushy tail and relax. Pink Skunk’s voice rings out as she says “Let’s get some light in here! Pink Cat, are you ok? Why don’t you have any Lumocus up?”
“We ran into a problem” you said. “The snails didn’t make it here.”
“What are you talking about” Pink Skunk asked.
“You’ll see” you say as you watch the snails from Pink Skunk’s group lay down the Lumocus.
When there was enough light to see Pink Skunk gasped and said “Oh the spirits! What happened?”
“We ran into some humans with weapons that can kill us” Purple Wolf said. “They killed the snails, Red Lion, and Orange Rat. The only one left alive from that group is with us at Pink Cat’s insistence.”
“Why didn’t you kill that one” Pink Skunk asked.
“Because he can provide information on how many humans he told about us and how to kill us” you said.
“Then it’s probably a good thing that you didn’t kill him” Pink Skunk said. “Have you explored this cave yet?”
“Not yet” you said. “Most of us are injured and without the snails we couldn’t explore very far.”
“Blue Lioness” Pink Skunk said. “I know that you’re tired but I need you to go back to the nest and tell them what happened. The sun is going down so you should start to feel better soon. Go as quick as you can and watch out for any more humans.”
“Yes ma’am” Blue Lioness says as she turns to leave.
“Be careful” you say to her. “The humans may be covering their scent so you might not know they’re there until it’s too late.”
“I’ll keep that in mind ma’am” Blue Lioness said.
After Blue Lioness was gone Pink Skunk said “Well we had better explore this cave. Are you up to it?”
“Of course I am” you say as you get up. “I may have lost a hand/paw but I’m alright otherwise.”
“Well the first thing we should do is find a Birthing Chamber” Pink Skunk said. “We could use this one. It’s the first one we come to like in the other nest.”
“No” you said. “I think that this chamber gets sunlight and we can’t have the Birthing Eggs exposed to sunlight. We’ll have to go deeper into the cave to find a suitable chamber.”
“Well let’s get exploring then” Pink Skunk said.
You spend the next few hours exploring the cave. Almost immediately you come across a chamber that is perfect for the Birthing Chamber. It has an alcove that’s large enough to be the Holding Chamber right off of it like the old nest. The next chamber you come across is perfect for the Mating Chamber. It has alcoves all around it and up the walls. There were more than enough alcoves for the females to use. You also find a chamber that is perfect for Compy when she comes. The shadowed alcove is bigger than T-Rex’s is. At least you think it is. The opening is certainly bigger. The chamber that you picked for the Orientation Chamber was just about perfect as well. At least you were able to set up the nest with little difficulty. Now to wait until one of the females expels a Birthing Egg so you can turn Steve into a Magni.