Finding Food

When Rowan woke again, he could feel that the temperature around him had dropped. He was a little hungry, but he had already eaten the eggshell. The shell, which had been twice his size, had only been enough for two meals. He had no idea where it had all gone.

He could also infer from this that he had quite an appetite. Being able to eat was a blessing, but for him, it wasn't good news.

The surface was a desert, and he still had no food. He might starve to death in a few days.

The thought made him feel a sense of urgency. He couldn't just sit around and starve to death.

So, sensing the direction of the surface, he set off, climbing with all six limbs.

The temperature kept dropping. Rowan even wondered if he was climbing in the wrong direction, but his antennae and leg hairs told him he was on the right track. He could only grit his teeth and keep going. Oh, his head was already hard—and very black.

The moment he crawled out of the sand, he was dumbfounded. The yellow sand all around him had vanished, and a layer of silvery frost covered the ground. If the geology hadn't remained unchanged along the way, he would have thought he'd been transported to another world again.

"What kind of place is this? The temperature difference between day and night is huge." It should have been night now, and the light was much dimmer. Strangely, he could see five or six meters ahead, much farther than last time. Was he a nocturnal bug? Rowan wasn't sure.

Even with his improved range of vision, he still couldn't make out what the cold light sources in the sky looked like. But he could tell how many there were.

Two! There were actually two light sources in the sky!

During the day, there had been only one light source in the sky, so there was still a chance he could be sent back home. But now, that possibility had been completely snuffed out.

Based on his limited knowledge of astronomy, Rowan could tell that at least two moons hung in the sky.

Still, he accepted reality quickly. He'd already turned into a bug. What was one extra moon in the sky? He'd been shocked so many times over the past couple of days that he was starting to get used to it.

His options had gone from three to two. All he could hope now was that he hadn't ended up in that wizard's world. It was far too dangerous, and clearly not a place for a little bug like him.

Of course, his main priority now was to fill his stomach. Otherwise, he might not live long enough to figure out where he was.

He hadn't spotted any food yet, but there was a layer of frost on the ground. Rowan decided to drink his fill first.

His mouthparts were somewhat long, with a mushroom-shaped tip. He flattened the tip into a disc and pressed it against the ice. Tiny mouthparts hidden inside rapidly scraped at the surface, shaving off little bits of ice. With the help of his tongue, he sucked them down into his belly.

Rowan had no idea what he looked like when he ate, and he didn't want to know. He was simply using these organs by instinct. And bugs even had tongues? That was a real shock. Before becoming a bug, he hadn't known that.

After sucking at the ice for ages, he'd made only a shallow little hollow in its surface. That showed just how inefficient he was at eating. But he had no other choice, so he could only keep at it.

The icy liquid flowed into his belly, and he felt his whole body growing stiff. As his thoughts gradually slowed, he remembered being human, when all those annoying mosquitoes and flies disappeared in winter.

Only then did he realize he'd become a bug too. In this freezing weather, he'd come out to wander around and drink an ice-cold beverage. Wasn't he going to kill himself?

The shock snapped him back to his senses. In a panic, he crawled back along the route he'd taken to get there.

This place was way too damn dangerous. It was too hot in the daytime and too cold at night. When was he supposed to look for food? He'd planned to scout the area a little after drinking his fill and search for something to eat, but now he could only forget about it.

Back deep underground, Rowan had only just woken up, but he didn't want to rest any longer. Besides, there was no time to rest. He had to find a food source as soon as possible.

If the surface wouldn't work, he'd search underground instead. His digging talent was extraordinary. It'd be a waste not to put it to good use.

He did what he'd decided and immediately got to work. Picking a direction at random, he burrowed forward with his head down.

The two antennae on his head trembled constantly. Along with giving him all kinds of strange new sensations, they sent him a wealth of information. They seemed to function as both a nose and ears, letting him smell scents and hear sounds.

As he moved forward, his antennae suddenly picked up an unfamiliar smell from down to the left. Unfamiliar meant unknown, and it could very well mean food. Rowan grew excited and dug faster in that direction.

The closer he got, the stronger the strange smell became. But Rowan gradually slowed down.

He'd come looking for food, not to deliver takeout.

He was small and scrawny, not even as big as a bluebottle fly, and he'd only been "born" recently. He hadn't learned any insect fighting skills yet. If he ran into anything alive that could fight back, he figured he wouldn't stand a chance. He'd better think before acting and proceed with caution.

Trying his best to follow his insect instincts, Rowan slowly felt the hairs on his legs stand on end. Then the hairs all over his body stood up too.

His body detected every vibration coming from ahead and to the left. The signals gradually came together and entered his brain. After processing and analyzing them, he reached a conclusion.

There were living creatures ahead, about three or four of them. They were moving slowly and were smaller than him. He could sneak closer and have a look. If anything seemed wrong, he'd run at once. There were no familiar bugs around, so he didn't have to worry about losing face.

Carefully scraping at the sand in front of him, Rowan found that his digging technique wasn't quite suited to the task. The little claws on his forelegs were great at scraping sand, but they struggled with the earth deep underground.

Fortunately, he hadn't reached the proper soil layer yet. The ground was still a mixture of sand and soil, so he was only a little slower than before.

Besides, the mixed sand and soil held its shape better. By digging and compressing it again and again, he carved out a passage, then carried the excavated soil and sand up to the layer of sand above.

In no time, he'd dug a passage just wide enough for his body to fit through. That way, if he ran into danger, he'd be able to escape faster.

As he got closer to his target, Rowan's movements grew gentler, but his body grew more and more tense. Suddenly, as the soil ahead was scraped away, a round, plump, transparent white bug rolled right in front of him.

Its body was segmented, with more than ten segments in all. It had only three pairs of short legs on the front few segments, along with a little yellow head. But what Rowan couldn't accept was that the thing had a pair of fearsome fangs.

The little creature was about the same size as Rowan, just slightly smaller. It had been abruptly scraped out of the soil and was now repeatedly curling up and stretching out its body, making faint hissing sounds in the hope of scaring Rowan off.

Seeing the white bug struggle to even turn over in the soil, Rowan no longer felt nervous. His courage swelled, and he gave a cold chuckle inwardly.

"You little punk. Don't think those big fangs are enough to scare me!"