Making her way back to the nest was easy enough.
The remaining raptor bodies and deer-like creature were dragged behind her by the Swarmlings, the blood leaving behind a faint trail that would likely attract something sooner or later.
She knew that, and she didn't mind. If something followed her, then it would either turn back after sensing danger or it would become another meal.
The Savage Land was useful in that way; everything here seemed to either hunt, hide, or wait for a chance to do both. Even the plants had a different feeling to them, much more aggressive than the ones she was used to.
Once she reached the nest, the entrance opened before her, dirt and roots shifting aside as her workers made a path. It still looked rough, barely more than a hidden hole under the roots of a large tree with some basic Hive-units wrapped around it.
'If I plan to stay here for a while, then this needs to be fixed.'
Workers moved around her, some taking the raptor bodies deeper into the nest while others began moving through the nearby tunnels. The main issue was obvious; the tunnels were too simple. They led inward too directly, which meant that if someone found the entrance and followed it, they would eventually reach the inner chambers.
That was stupid.
She ordered the workers to begin making false paths near the entrance. Some would lead to dead ends, others would loop around, and some would be made weak on purpose so that if something large forced its way through, the tunnel would collapse on it.
It wouldn't stop anything too strong, but it would slow them down.
She also had the Direworms begin deepening the lower tunnels, moving them further from the surface. The Savage Land had too many large creatures walking around above; she didn't want part of her nest caving in because some giant lizard decided to step in the wrong place.
While they worked, she made her way toward the Harvesting Well.
The Well was already pulsing by the time she reached it, the inside of it opening and closing like a throat waiting to be fed. The Swarmlings dragged the bodies over and dropped them one by one.
The tendrils inside wrapped around the raptor corpses and pulled them down; the sound was wet and gushy, flesh being broken apart slowly as the well broke down the material and digested it slowly.
She could feel the Mass starting to flow through the nest, little by little. Not enough to make up for what she spent on the Harvesting Well or the Breeding Spire, but this was the first step in a self-functioning nest.
She watched for a few moments before turning away, the workers could handle the rest, and she had other things to deal with.
The Fall People; even though she had spoken to them briefly, she wanted more information.
The elder had rejected her before, telling her to keep away from them and avoid interacting with them. She had accepted it and moved away, even setting a boundary around their village so none of her units would harvest there.
That was restraint; she was willing to grant them that because she was not willingly cruel.
She came to them asking for knowledge of the land, and that had not changed. She still wanted to know what was here, what she should avoid, what tribes existed, and all the things that she didn't know about the Savage Land.
The Savage Land was too strange to explore blindly, and the Marvel comics and movies didn't dive into it properly, with messy timelines and information.
Thus, if the Fall People survived here, then they knew something.
With that thought, she left the nest again, this time taking only a few scouts with her. She intended to move as light as possible and interact with some of the Fall People near the edges of the village, avoiding the main group.
Even then, she knew she wasn't truly alone; the Hive was always with her, and she could call upon them at any time.
When she reached the area near their village, she stopped before crossing the boundary she had made for herself. She didn't go any closer, but instead stood there and waited.
It took a few hours of her just standing there before she noticed movement between the trees. Two hunters appeared first, both holding spears. Then, after a while, more of their team came from behind; it was a hunting party they had sent out to gather food.
They saw her a few moments after she noticed them.
The group came to a stop almost at the same time, their bodies tensing as they raised their spears in her direction. There were six of them in total, four men and two women, each one carrying some form of food with them.
Small animals, fruits, and what looked like a large bird that had been shot through with a spear; it seemed they had a decent hunt.
Lily didn't move from where she was standing, nor did she bother raising her hands to make herself seem less dangerous. It wouldn't work anyway; they knew she was dangerous.
One of the hunters stepped forward after a while, his spear still pointed at her. She could tell he was filled with fear, but he couldn't make himself look weak in front of the others; he was the leader of them.
"Stranger."
Lily nodded slightly. She could understand the language a lot better now that she had wormed into their minds.
"Hunter."
He frowned at the reply, clearly not liking the way she addressed him, but he did not correct her either.
"You come near the path, you said you won't."
"I didn't cross it, I have respected the border."
The hunter looked down at the ground, then around her, as if checking if she had hidden something nearby. She did, of course, but not close enough for them to find casually.
"You wait for us?"
"Yes."
The other hunters grew more tense at that, and one of the women said something in their language, but Lily didn't understand every word; she could guess the meaning easily enough.
The hunter replied to her, then looked back at Lily.
"Why?"
"I still wish to learn this land, you know it the best."
"We told you, ask the elder."
"Your elder told me to stay far."
"Then stay far."
"I am."
The hunter stared at her for a while, and Lily just stared back. It was an awkward silence, but she didn't mind; she had the time.
Eventually, one of the older women in the group stepped forward slightly. Her face had more lines than the others, and she carried herself with the calm of someone who had hunted long enough to know when fear was useful and when it wasn't.
"Runner's blood, you kill them?"
Lily was a bit surprised at the question. She didn't try too hard to clean off the Raptors' blood on her, but she did wipe it off; yet they could tell she had fought them.
"Yes."
"Many runners?"
"Most of the pack."
The woman said something under her breath, and the others looked at each other. They still had fear in them, but she could tell it was no longer the only emotion they felt; interest was also there.
"Why?"
"I wanted to eat them."
A few of the hunters stiffened at her words, but they didn't move.
"You want land words?"
"I want to know what you know of the land. What tribes exist? What things are dangerous? Anything you know."
"Everything is dangerous."
"Yes, to you it may be."
The woman shifted the dead bird on her shoulder, then pointed deeper into the jungle.
"Beyond wet trees, there are mud people. They paint with green clay, they pull men into the waters and feed on them. They do not like fire, but are strong."
'Swamp Men, maybe? Or some other tribe.'
Lily knew a bit of the Savage Land from the comics; she could assume what some things were from the description of them, but not every Savage Land comic was canon, or the same.
The woman then pointed in another direction, where the ground rose higher, and the trees became less thick.
"Beyond the high teeth, there are sun callers. They build pillars of stone that they live in, and carve large circles. They say the burning eye watches them."
'Sun People.'
That one was easier to guess; the Sun People were one of the reasons she came here.
"What do they do?"
"They take people, they come and force sacrifices. They say blood makes light happy; we have to pay respect or they will kill us all."
The Sun People worshipped the Sun, but they only did that because they believed it was the source of their power. The Savage Land had enough strange things that it could be religious nonsense, mutant influence, or something worse.
"What about things related to stone?"
The woman went quiet.
"You know of the stone man? Do not speak of stone man."
The male hunter from before raised his spear and spoke in a deep, warning voice.
"I didn't."
Lily smiled as it confirmed her suspicions of this place. The woman glanced toward him, then back at Lily.
"Old stories say the sun callers pray to a man made of stone. Sometimes he sleeps, sometimes he walks. Sometimes he is dead, sometimes he is not."
'Garokk.'
That had to be him, or at least something based on him.