//------------------------------//
// Tallon IV: Apex 
// Story: Another Hatchling 
// by Tatsurou 
//------------------------------//

"So after you played in the snow for a while," Twilight asked, "what next?"

Samus smiled.  "Well, that trip to the Drifts, we didn't encounter that many new animals or threats...except the Sheegoths and their babies."

"Babies?" Fluttershy asked eagerly.  "Oh, they sound so adorable!  They-"

Samus interrupted by displaying an image of said creature - a blue, ice covered beast that was all teeth and muscle, big enough to eat a pony in a single bite - on her logbook screen.



Fluttershy wilted a bit.  "Umm...I'm sure their mothers love them?" she offered somewhat pathetically.

"We had to face quite a few of those on our way through the wastes," Samus explained.

"You...you didn't kill babies...did you?" Fluttershy whimpered.

Samus chuckled at how quickly Fluttershy's sympathies could swing.  "We didn't have to.  See, at that point, Spike stood just a little taller than them..."





Samus' first encounter with a Baby Sheegoth went how any first encounter with a creature usually did for her.  First, she scanned it for information as soon as she got into range, checked to see if Spike could eat it - given it was nearly his size, she decided the answer was probably no - and then seeing if there was some way they could get around it without disturbing it from its snowy bed.

Unfortunately, it awoke as soon as they approached, shaking the snow from its body along with its companion nearby.  Both then roared, exhaling super-cold gases.

Spike stomped his clawed toes in response, snorting fire from his nose.  He then let out an even louder roar, right in the face of the Baby Sheegoths.

The two creatures of snow and ice took one look at the angry beast of flame and scales and decided they had business elsewhere, where the prey was more plentiful and less likely to bite back.





Pinkie giggled and snorted at that.  "Yeah, dragon breath is pretty bad, isn't it?"  That got a laugh from several of those around the table.

Samus chuckled.  "One of the advantages of traveling with a prime developing specimen of an apex predator," she explained.  "At any rate..."





Spike and Samus continued through the only path currently available to Samus through the snowy region, with Spike eating his way along.  The Ice Burrowers - Burrowers much like those in Magmoor Caverns, but adapted to the sub zero conditions of Phendrana - tried to leap out to attack, but only managed to leap into Spike's mouth.  "Much sweeter than the ones in Magmoor," he commented after eating one.  "...almost too sweet.  They'd taste pretty good together, I think."

There was also a bit of Phazon visible out of the snow here and there, which Spike went after like a ravenous wolf.  Samus didn't complain about it.  Not only did it make it less likely she'd step in it and take damage, it caused no harm to Spike, was arguably good for him, and they were there to get rid of the stuff, after all.

After eating up a good amount of Phazon, however, Spike took a tumble into some deep, cold water when attempting to eat a Flickerbat, a nearly invisible scavenger bird that Spike was only able to track by smell.  Samus leaned over the ledge to where he had landed.  "You okay, Spike?" she called out.

Spike shook himself a bit in the water, then held still for a time.  Samus could see something going on with Spike's scales on his neck, so she opened her scan visor to investigate.



Scans indicate that the consumed Phazon has energized Spike enough to trigger another augmentation.  The aquatic environment has acted as a trigger for this augmentation, and the scales of the neck can now lift to reveal newly developed gills.  While Spike lacks webbing between fingers or toes for better force in swimming, the spade of the tail is developing for much greater propulsion.  Neural activity indicates that new pathways for controlling both gill scales and tail for aquatic activity are developing, placing the rest of the brain into quasi-stasis while the alterations take place.







"Wait!" Twilight interrupted.  "Spike has gills now?"

Smiling, Spike angled his neck so they could see the whole arch.  Small scales all along the neck flipped upward, exposing his gills, before closing back up in a ripple.  "Environmental adaptions generally went that way," Spike explained.  "If I had enough energy in my system and fell into a new environment, my body went into temporary stasis as the changes occurred on my body and in my brain.  Rather restful, actually.  I always came out of those refreshed."

"How many more times did that happen?" Twilight asked eagerly.

As Spike opened his mouth to answer, Pinkie whacked them both upside the head with a sign that read Spoilers.

Laughing, Samus returned to the story.





Once Spike had climbed his way back up after getting his new gills, the pair continued onward.  Other Baby Sheegoths confronted them briefly, but one snort of flame from Spike was able to convince them to go elsewhere.  A brief detour was indicated on Samus' map, which enabled her to acquire a boost function for her Morph Ball.  This would enable her to use various half-pipe structures scattered about the environment to access new areas...as long as Spike didn't damage the half pipe with his claws.

Heading back out of the Drifts, however, a massive shadow passed over them, a shadow with wings.  Looking up, Spike got his first sight of Ridley.  Inside, his teachings from Samus about choosing his battles warred with an instinctive urge to challenge this other dragon.  He wanted so badly to meet this beast in combat...even though he knew that, at this point, he'd be torn asunder.

Samus's hand on his shoulder snapped him out of his focus.  "You okay?" she asked.

He examined himself internally, and eventually nodded.  "Yeah...I'm okay."

Nodding, Samus led the way out of the drifts.





The pair detoured back to the Tallon Overworld.  On the way to the ship, Samus followed the clues her ship's sensors was sending her map, detouring via a half-pipe up to another chamber over her Landing Site, where she reacquired her Space Jump Boots.  They took a brief stop at the ship to download Samus' findings, upload any new scan information to her suit map, and for a more in depth analysis of the influence Phazon had had on Spike's development.  Finding still no signs of corruption or atrophy as a result of unnatural growth, they continued on their journey.

Returning to Phendrana, they explored other paths made available by Samus' space Jump boots and Spike's wall climbing abilities.  They encountered two new creatures on this path.  First was the Ice Parasite, similar to the Parasite creatures Samus had encountered on the Pirate Frigate, but adapted to the frozen regions.  After eating one, Spike commented, "Rather bland, and not very filling...like unsalted crackers."

The second was Ice Shriekbats, similar to the dive bombing Shriekbats of other regions, which also conveniently dive bombed into Spike's waiting jaws.  It was rather amusing to Samus how effective 'sit back and say Ah' was as a hunting stratagem on this planet.  "Salty and sweet," Spike commented after eating one, "like a strange flavor of ice cream."

They managed to avoid fighting Baby Sheegoths for a time, since they were all scared of Spike's flames.  However, when they entered a large courtyard inside a snowy temple, the infants were more belligerent.  In order to discourage them, Spike was actually forced to breathe fire on them, which caused them to flee in pain and fear.

Unfortunately, this drew the adult Sheegoth, which smashed its way in through the wall.  Its proportions were the same as the Baby Sheegoths...but its mouth was big enough to eat Samus or Spike in a single mouthful, and instead of an ice shell on its back it had massive ice crystals which were charged with energy.  Samus' scans indicated those crystals would draw energy based weaponry into them when charged.



Unfortunately, Spike's instincts were strong.  When the Sheegoth roared its challenge, Spike snorted flame and roared back.  The Sheegoth didn't back off, so Spike charged.  In response, the Sheegoth opened its mouth wide and chomped down, eating the young dragon in a single bite.

"Spike!" Samus screamed out in fear and anger.  She leveled her arm cannon at the Sheegoth.  "Give me back my son, you son of a-"

Her shout was cut off by a loud, crunching snap, followed by the Sheegoth jerking convulsively. Its eyes rolled up in its head as it spasmed, its crystals sparking randomly.  After a time, it fell over on its side, its mouth hanging open.

Within the open mouth, Samus saw Spike happily scarfing away.  "Spike?" she asked.

Spike stuck his head out, plainly none the worse for wear, bits of bone falling from his head spines as gray semi-solid dripped from his mouth.  "This gray stuff is delicious!" he said happily.  "What's it called?"  He scooped another handful out of the Sheegoth's skull and stuffed it in his mouth.

"...that's the brain," Samus replied, torn between frustration with Spike for being so blase about nearly being eaten and relief that he was alright.

"The...brain?" Spike asked nervously.

"Yup," Samus replied as she picked up the Wave Beam upgrade she had come this way for.

"I'm eating the brain...and liking it..." Spike breathed.  His eyes then widened.  "Does this mean I'm...a zombie?"

There was a metallic clang as Samus' armored palm met her helmet.





"It's not that funny!" Spike complained as the entire table burst into laughter.