The temperature had been getting hotter in the following days, which meant my siblings and I slept further apart from one another. Of course, a select few siblings determined that to mean it would be funny to kick others in their sleep – of which I became a frequent victim. “I’m looking at you, siblings No.1 and 4!” Saying that, I made sure to get my revenge on those who had forgotten their lesser positions in the sibling hierarchy!

Since we’d moved den locations, I noticed a change in our usual surroundings which greatly piqued my interest. For one, while foraging for termites, we sometimes came across a creature larger than Mother and Father combined that had a small crystal embedded in its forehead. It didn’t seem to do much apart from eating the grass growing close to the nearby water hole.

Nonetheless, the creature seemed to put Mother and Father on edge, so we were often guided away from it. I don’t really understand why the creature is eating the grass, though, since when I’ve eaten some out of curiosity it tasted vile. “Urgh, just the thought of it makes my tongue go numb.” Anyway, there had to be some kind of secret to the grass since the creature was so massive and only ever seemed to consume that yellow vegetation.

As for other new things, every now and then when I was playing with my siblings in the daytime, a bird with a crystal beak would fly over and perch itself nearby. At first, we were all curious, but then we remembered about that cobra and how we’d never seen sibling No.2 since, so we made sure to keep our distance from it.

Even though we usually ignored its presence, the bird seemed to always give us its undivided attention. “Scouting.” I thought to myself, which confused me since I had no clue what scouting meant but the involuntary shudder I experienced gave me cause to be more wary around it. My siblings, on the other hand, didn’t seem fazed by the crystal bird and sometimes even charged at it to watch it flap its wings – which greatly amused them. “Such silly siblings.”

Although these discoveries were new and interesting, the biggest one my siblings and I made was the area we had started foraging in. Primarily, the larger termite mounds with a few crystals poking out here and there. However, that’s not even the best part! The termites inside were three times larger than the ones in our original foraging site and had crystal pincers!

The first time we came across these termite mounds, Mother and Father were exceptionally cautious; sniffing the vicinity with great care to ensure the place was safe before allowing us not-so-little pups to start our buffet. When Father gave an affirmative woof to tell us that the area was safe, my siblings and I raced each other to see who could reach the crystalline mound first. Of course, I was at the forefront of the pack the entire time; just ignore the fact sibling No.1 tripped me up a few steps away from the finish line, causing me to come in last. “I know you sabotaged me, sibling No.1!”

Since I got last place in the race, I was relegated to being the final one to find food. I was a bit miffed about this until I thought about how I’d be able to laze around and properly groom my fur and paws while waiting. I guess every cloud has a silver lining, and the moon that night was especially soothing on the eyes. Licking between my well-maintained claws, I began to wonder if the termites would end up tasting differently due to their larger size.

Once it was my turn, I swiftly bounded over – careful to not make the ground collapse under my paws – before stopping in an undisturbed spot of the mound on the opposite end. Using my beautiful claws to expertly dig into the mound, I noticed how the building material for the structure was much denser than the mounds at our first den. Expending more effort in my digging, I soon came across my first catch of the night and speedily used my sticky tongue to catch and eat it.

The experience of eating one of these termites was an interesting one, to say the least. For starters, the flavour of the meat was more full-bodied; the crunch of the body and crystal pincers within my jaws felt satisfying – even though it took more pressure to do so. The after-effects were the most surprising, however. Within a few seconds of eating the first crystal termite I felt my body brimming with an indescribably fantastic energy.

To describe the sensations I felt from eating crystal termites would be a gross undertaking of which I doubt I’d have enough of a vernacular to perfectly convey my experiences. However, the best way of interpreting it would be I became hyper-sensitive to my surroundings. One consequence of this was I found myself able to deftly pinpoint the exact locations of other nearby crystal termites. With my heightened sense of smell, I pointed my snout in the correct direction inside the hole I’d dug out and caught morsel after delicious morsel. “Ahh, so tasty!” I thought as I wagged my fluffy tail in delight.

After a few days of feasting on these new variants of termite, I noticed that my vision was much better than a few weeks ago. I took it to be a sign of me getting closer to being like Mother and Father, which excited me since it meant I would be acknowledged more. Running around the termite area to burn off some excess energy, my siblings decided it was time to have another play-fight.

Scrambling around on the ground, I lamented at how my beautiful fur was going to become muddy and dusty but I didn’t let that hinder my sure fire road to victory! “Ouch! Don’t bite my leg while I’m thinking about how to punish you for stealing my food once I win!” I dodged out of the way of sibling No.5’s kick, while nimbly ducking from sibling No.4’s paw swipe. My victory was assured until sibling No.1 worked with sibling No.3 to pin me down before biting the back of my neck with his stinky jaw. “That’s cheating!”

Once our excess energy was spent, my siblings and I heard Mother and Father bark their marching orders to return to the den. Not wanting to be a naughty aardwolf pup, I made sure to run up to Mother and nuzzle her side while following her. Mother licked my slightly injured leg from when sibling No.1 bit me before turning her attention back to maintaining vigilance of our surroundings.

Upon arriving back at the den, we all paused in our steps as that strange scent from the previous den was present at this one. Father pricked his ears up to listen to our surroundings while Mother sniffed at the indentation in the ground before following a supposed trail a bit further away. Not sure on what to do, I thought to help Mother sniff out the source of the smell but was pushed out of the way by sibling No.1 who swatted my face with his tail on his way over. “I’ll be sure to bite your tail off, one of these days!” I thought to myself as I eyed his mangy, unkempt tail.

A few minutes of observing our immediate surroundings gave us no results, and so Mother and Father ceased the search before guiding us all into the den. Since the temperature was still rising with every day, my siblings and I chose to sleep further apart than previous nights. Although it was weird not being in close proximity to my siblings, the cool comfort that came from it was very much welcomed.

As I rested my head on my front paws, I watched Mother sneak out of the den while Father kept a vigilant eye on the entrance. Yawning from fatigue, I licked my paws clean before eventually closing my eyes and going to sleep. My last thoughts before losing consciousness seemed to be of me wondering if we would end up moving dens again due to that strange smell, but then I realised that was a silly notion since we’d barely settled into this place.