Chapter Text
A faint scuttling noise woke the red from his sleep. At long last, a millipede to hunt! He got up slowly, trying not to rouse the sleeping teal, and focused on the source of the sound. Perhaps he could catch her a present. He hopped up on a rock and pawed at some of the small pebbles behind it. What popped out wasn’t a millipede, but as it turned out, something that would make an even better present for the playful little teal.
Chirp? Chirp! The teal woke and shook away the groggies at the sound of the red’s chirping. He was looking down at her from atop a smooth rock, with something small and round clasped between his front feet. He dropped it and let it bounce down and roll to a stop right below the little teal’s nose. She sniffed at it for a moment, before it suddenly opened up to reveal many tiny legs inside of it. The teal jumped back with a startled hiss as the strange leggy ball rolled itself over and began to scuttle away. She had never seen a roly-poly bug before, and did not know what to make of it. She crept up on it and tapped it with her foot. The bug responded by rolling back up into a perfect ball. Curiosity quickly turned into amusement as she began to bat the little bug about, chasing it around until it rolled under a rock. The teal tried to reach underneath to get to it, but couldn’t get her little paw under the rock.
Disheartened, she looked up at the Red and chirped softly to him. He didn’t look sad about losing the roly-poly bug at all. He chirped, and gestured with a turn of his head for her to climb up to where he was. She scrambled at the rock a bit before finding a foothold. She wasn't as used to climbing on rocks as he was. He waited patiently for her to get up to the top. He had something to show her. When she finally reached him, he presented to her a different bug dangling from his mouth- a fat millipede.
The millipede was trying to curl up to protect itself, but that was hard to accomplish while dangling from the mouth of a predator. Snip! The red bit the millipede in half, taking half for himself to lick up the gooey inside. The teal watched on with confusion for a moment. She had never associated bugs with food. But the red seemed to be enjoying it, so she decided to at least give her half a taste. It was slimy, yet it had a sweet, meaty taste, and licking it out of the exoskeleton was kind of fun. The innards were gone fast, and the husk cast away, and the two grubs were immediately looking for more tasty millipedes.
The red began showing the teal all the "tricks of the trade". Listening, digging, pulling out a bug that had lodged itself in between the rocks. She was getting the hang of it very quickly. She held her breath, tilted her head and listened to the faint scuttling noises between the rocks. She could hear something that sounded big behind a big rock a ways over. She was sure the red could hear it too, but he didn't react to it. Feeling rather confident in her newfound bug-catching skills, the teal crept up to the source of the noise.
Now she stood right in front of the rock that she was certain was hiding the source of the scuttling noise. She peeked into the crevice behind it, but she detected no movement... Feeling unsure, she chirped to the little red, who bounded right over to see what was up. He pressed close to the rock and listened for only a brief moment, before jumping back with an angry chatter. The teal became flustered, thinking that she had done something bad and that the little red was mad at her. Frozen in place, she looked back and forth from the chattering red to the dark crevice behind the rock.
The red took matters into his own little paws as he grabbed the teal and pulled himself and her off of the small ledge they were on. The little teal squealed and scrambled awkwardly as she fell and landed safely on top of the red. Looking up, she saw two long, thin antennae sticking out of the crevice above. There was simply no time for curiosity now. The red wriggled out from beneath her and hissed fiercely at the strange feelers above.
As if on cue, a long, armored, and many legged monstrosity slowly emerged from the crevice. That was most certainly no millipede. It was yellow, orange and black, with a large head and big, thick mandibles that could easily crush a young grub. While the teal was frozen in fear before this giant adversary, familiarity screamed in the red's mind. Centipede!
The little red began nudging the teal away, while never taking his eyes off of the looming predator, and never ceasing his hiss. The teal snapped out of her terrified trance and realized that the little red was pushing her away, and standing up to the centipede alone. Certainly he didn't mean to fight the centipede! It was more than twice his size! As the centipede began to crawl down the rock toward the red, the teal took a few steps ahead of the little red and joined him in hissing at the enemy.
The centipede looked back and forth between its feisty prey. Unable to wait any longer, he swatted the teal away with the side of its huge mandibles and lunged at the red. Acting quickly, the red jumped back and swatted at the centipede's mandibles with his front feet. There was simply no time for fear, now. The red knew he wasn't fast enough to outrun the centipede, and besides that, he had something to protect.
The centipede was a smart hunter. It knew that even though the grub's body was soft, it's feet were much more solid and a swat to the centipede's delicate inner jaws could do damage. The red knew this as well. This was not his first time fighting a centipede, but this was surely the biggest he'd ever seen. No matter how the centipede moved, the red made sure to stay facing it's jaws, front feet up in the air and ready to fight.
Something brought the centipede's attention to its backside, suddenly. The little teal had gotten back to her feet and was now biting down as hard as she could on one of the centipede's many legs. There was a loud snap, and the leg came off, causing the teal to tumble over from the released force. The centipede screeched and lunged for the teal, turning away from the red.
The little red, desperate to get the centipede away from his little teal, attacked the closest part of the centipede, which turned out to be one of it's delicate, sensitive antennae. The enraged arthropod reared up and shrieked in pain, swinging its head side to side, and flinging the poor red into a rock beside the teal. Loosing any rational thoughts, the centipede lunged for the stunned grub before he could get back up.
Instinct took a back seat. Out of desperation, the teal boldly stood in front of the red and lunged forward, meeting the centipede's jaws head-on. The teal was instantly losing, but strived to do as much damage to the centipede as possible, even as the sharp mandibles came down on her sides. The centipede lifted its head, lifting the wounded grub off the ground and let her dangle as he held her in his death grip.
There was a pressure on the tendon behind the centipede's left mandible. As it had reared its head, the red grub had gotten beneath it and began to gnaw at the muscle connecting the powerful pincer to its head. With a painful snip, the mandible became severed. The centipede flew into a rage, throwing the teal aside and coming down on the little red one final time. The red dodged back as his foe hit the ground with its face, and then jumped onto the back of the centipede's head and began to gnaw.
The centipede thrashed about, trying to shake the grub off, but the red held tight and refused to let go, gnawing away at where the head connected to the body segments. After a long handful of moments, the head was severed. The rest of the body flailed about for a moment, and then was reduced to a curled up, twitching corpse.
The red paused for a moment to catch his breath and bask in the victory. He had taken down a centipede three times his size! With the little teal's help, too. Of cour-
...Oh.
The little teal was lying by the rock she had struck when the centipede threw her. There was still part of the beast's mandible jabbed into her side, and her color was oozing out to form a pool around her. She wasn't moving.
The little red was at her side immediately, cooing and nuzzling his friend, trying to get any kind of response from her. He turned his attention to her wound, pulling the broken pincer out of her side and gingerly licking the wound clean. Thankfully, he didn't taste venom in her blood. The bite had been dry. But her wounds were deep, and her breathing was very shallow. Other than cleaning the wound, there wasn't much he could do for her. Paying no mind to his own injuries, he laid down beside her and continued calling to her with soft coos and nuzzles and licks. Maybe somehow he could coax back to the world of the living.
Living underground, grubs had no sense of time. However, it seemed like forever for the little red as he held vigil over his wounded friend. He refused to sleep for hours, fighting off his exhaustion from the fight until he finally passed out, nestled against the little teal.