Chapter 1

     In the pitch, skittering shapes gave neither glint nor gleam— the luminescent caverns had dimmed to their deepest point. Adi had no need of such trivialities as sight— smelling her prey on the air and feeling the thrum of their heat. One stood out to her in particular, warmer but no more vibrant than the others. Feverish. It faltered, stumbled, fell. Her every instinct said to strike, but she managed to reign herself in. The staple of her diet was prey easy enough to catch. However, the building blocks of her death would most certainly be infection from prey; assuming she wasn't predated on first. So she waited, tensing her muscles into tight springs. Another shape approached the first, sniffing the air as if to check up on them. They had a friend. Adi would weep if she had room enough in her head for such thoughts. The springs unfurled and she thrust herself across the space, in an instant plunging fangs into the unsuspecting flesh of the healthier mouse.

     Her venom was swift and potent. Even as she meticulously folded her jaw back together, the mouse fell beside their feverish friend, who quickly scurried away in a stumbling manner. An irksome sort of pride washed over her— mingled with disdain— as she surveyed her handiwork. The beating of the mouse's heart had ceased within moments, their body heat seeping out into the world around them. She carefully coiled them, lifting them from the ground and turning them about, just to gently shake lose any dust or detritus. Her meticulous predation would hardly matter if the meal came with a mouthful of dirt. The body was tasteless going down her throat. Every meal so far had been, to her great relief. Her hunger was sated for another few... days? weeks? It was so hard to tell in these caverns, in this mind.

     Two months ago, give or take, Adi had awoken as a rattlesnake with the fresh taste of copper in her throat. That would have been concerning, but acceptable if not for the glaring pit in her memory. Three months ago, give or take, she'd awoken as an average human woman with bills to pay and worries about the future. As she had every month prior for more than two decades.

     Her life now fell into three distinct phases. When hunger began to mount like the sun struggling to rise on the distant horizon of her perception, she would rise to hunt. Tread familiar ground, stalk familiar prey. She had territory, so to speak— an entirely alien thing to experience as opposed to studying the idea, compounded by the transience of her own housing prior. Full and digesting, she would seclude herself in safe burrows until she'd regained her full mobility and stamina. The calories would last her perhaps two weeks, but extracting them was a cumbersome process spent carrying a considerable dead weight in her gut. She tried to spend the time thinking. Mostly she slept. Once it was finally over, she would at last have her freedom from duty, her thoughts, and her task. Think something every day. She feared more than anything losing her humanity, her thoughts reduced to the noble approach of a humble snake, her memories dashed against the rocks; every time she woke due dilligence compelled her across meandering thoughts of the day prior, things that were at least once true about herself, any trivia she could grasp at. But free to explore? She would let her thoughts meander alongside her own meandering.

     But tonight she was trapped in the second stage. Retreating from the site of her feast, Adi slithered home. Just around the corner, down a ways, slip through a pair of rocks, past some yet unidentified undergrowth, and into her burrow. How she stayed so keen on her path when she had such a poor mental image of the space remained a mystery to her, but without fail she always found her way back. Curling round and making herself comfortable at home, she couldn't help but notice the distant cool glow. A mental note— she was later than usual tonight, the scattered luminous shards in the ceiling were quite punctual whether or not she was. They rested for a time every day. A reprieve for the shards and herself, Adi thought. She wasn't opposed to seeing the walls and creatures of this place, and in fact would have to depend on it later. But she preferred to hunt in the dark. Safer that way. She tried to chew on the events of the day, think if there had been anything out of the ordinary, anything new, anything freshly remembered... but all that she could summon was slumber, weariness a heavy blanket on her thoughts. There would be time. Soon she could set about exploring, as an opportunistic predator, looking for something to change her situation. Always looking.