The dense folliage arounds him changes from a stalk to grass to another stalk of weed to a flower in nyctinasty back to a grass again. It is a constant cycle broken by the occasional pile of stone, sticks and stray leaves.
By the time Tedior chooses a secluded yet firm stalk of grass, the sky has already fallen. His pathway, illuminated by the glow of the partial moon that made its way past the dense folliage around him. The longer he dwells into the night, the more he sees different light source abounds.
Alas, he is too far beneath the floor of the forest. While he can spot the different glows of colored light, he could not see their source.
Night time symphony has begun. Similar yet not so to his forest, for here, there is a gentle hum in the forest ambience. One that he has never heard before. It feels serene yet there is a hint of something aloof.
The rustling of leaves from the breezy wind. The multitude of creatures making their presence known to all.
"Well, good to know there's plenty more prey out there." He offhandedly comments as he gently places his treats on a stray leaf.
He had opt to finding an epic place to bunker down, maybe an abandoned ant hole or a mud wasp nest. But, he can feel himself growing tired with each steps he takes, both from the exertions and the exploration so far. Additionally, he is not sure if his wounded body part is crucial or not.
Well, nothing a good night sleep can't fix.
He glances up at a giant, extra sturdy looking green stalk and begins to inspects it for any defects. Its prime real estate after all; anything goes as long as it looks good.
After being satisfied with his picking, he retrieves his precious goods and begins the gruelling process of climbing.
A single step at a time.
"...easy does it..." he encourages himself as he carefully place his hindlegs on the stalk. On the fourth hindleg, he slips.
Hits his face straight onto the stalk from the unexpected slip.
"Ack!" He exclaims on impact, tragically dropping his food.
He cries in sorrow for the sullied precious food, crawling pathetically towards them and delicately retrieves them back up while patting away any lingering dirt granules. After such a long journey together, he is getting slightly attached to them.
He sits back down on his back, once again balancing precariously, to studies his legs.
Unfortunately quite a few of his legs have been damaged more than he first thought. Probably from that final move he did on the stone. Those tiny stubbles, crochets, do not seems to be able to stick properly to surfaces for now.
His mindful debates of reclimbing the stalk are soon met with growing despondency. For in his compulsive mind, one of the joys of being a caterpillar is the leeway for traversing literary every nook and cranny. Something and somewhere new he can explore, and he has been very excited about the prospect of sleeping upside down under a leave.
Oh, the woes of an injured caterpillar. He looks pitifully at the underside of the leave stalk before huffing off dejectedly.
Sleeping on the ground it is.
He wretchedly waddles around while tragically pondering on how and where he is going to stay. Like a homeless pitiful little caterpillar he is, he scouts for the perfectly shaded and secluded area before eventually spotting the superbly shaped stone with his name on it; a pretty big stone with a slight, or in this case, huge indent on the ground.
When he checks for its viability he notices a couple of dozing invertebrates, mainly some smaller weirdly colored snails and square-shaped beetles.
Eenie meenie miney mo.
He rudely picks the choosen snail up with his thoracic legs, of course, after placing his precious on clean surfaces. Using his sticky legs to mush and wiggles it about as he holds onto the slimy, squishy and soft texture of the snail.
The confused snail slowly pokes one of its eyes at him. It struggles a bit, eager to be free.
"It looks and feels like a snail. Just more... colorful..." he analyses before promply biting off its head. "Pah! Thats disgusting!" And spitting it out.
The nearby insects scurries away in horror and fear from what they had just witnessed. Or they tried to scurry away, Tedior manages to snags onto one of the teary eyes square-shaped beetle. It looks fearfully and pleadingly at him with its beetle eyes.
He bites off its head too.
"Crunchy crust! Fluffy and moist on the inside. But hmm... no flavor." He savors the food while holding the struggling headless beetle before chomping onto the thorax then the abdomen. Finishes in three satisfying bites.
"I should've catch the rest." He laments regretfully as he spits out the core. The notification pops up as his thoracic leg comes into contact with the core.
Obtained an insect core
2 of 100 000 000 insect core collected
Confused, he studies the core nestled in his thoracic legs before looking in anticipation and realization at the words.
"The notification doesn't comes up when its in my mouth?" He questions as he absent mindedly fiddles the core. "I wonder, I wonder..."
"The words appear when I touch it with my hands. The core is my target attention. Then... if every other creatures have this notifications, only those that can read will start collecting the cores. Can others collect it out of curiosity? Or are there more like me?
Ah! The suspense is killing me! I must know more." He gleefully says, wriggling about in excitment.
"Thats what it is right? I just needs to kill them. Winner gets all, after all. And thats what happens in all the games! If I'm wrong... Well, couldn't hurt to try." He concludes happily.