During lunch, Claw announced that she was ready for her next evolution.  Her current one wasn't too hard to figure out and she had already done what she could with it.  Not to be outdone by her rival, Scar also announced her readiness.  Her main problem had been figuring out Battle Mode.  

Jelin accepted the order and then turned to Conk.  He had been neglecting himself and as he thought through all the types of evolutions he had seen from the others he wanted to increase his own options as much as he could.  He decided to be Conk's newest test subject, starting with trying some of her previous concoctions.  

The regenerator and blood options both seemed to come from her regeneration concoctions and could be decent evolution options if he could get them or some equivalent.  In addition, there were a variety of poisons and healing herbs that could likely help as well, if he had enough of it.  Scar seemed interested in trying for the regenerator option as well and decided to become the other test subject in return.

The rest of the afternoon and evening was filled with suffering, pain, and a strong desire for the creation of mouthwash.  It was actually bad enough that he asked Scratches to make some waterskins that night in the cuddle pile with the intent to go find some berries and make juice.

He spent the next morning gathering berries, practicing his psychic abilities by sensing and mind-punching the bugs he found, and testing all of Conk's various concoctions.  When lunch came, Scratches handed over some crude waterskin prototypes, which he immediately started crushing berries over to fill with their juice.

The girls watched on for a while until Legs seemed to get it and took one of the waterskins herself to start crushing berries into.  All the leftover parts of the berries he left sitting on the remains of their lunch's skin to transport over to Conk's garden later.  Maybe there would be some seeds that would sprout and if not then they should help add nutrients to the soil.

Soon, some of the other girls started helping as well.  The ones who couldn't quite get in to help still did what they could and took turns.  By the end of it all, they were all covered in berry juice and had three waterskins full of the drink.  When he told scar it was to help with the taste, she praised him excitedly and somehow they all ended up in a dance party again.

After only about an hour, they all moved over to the stream to wash themselves and each other clean.  Somehow all of that ended up with both Conk and Scratches gaining inspiration for new projects.  As the two mad scientist types ran off to start whatever they had thought up, Wings spoke up about her insecurity.

<So.  I really like it here and all, but...>

Legs frowned, cutely, and turned to her.

<But what?>

<Well.  Everyone seems to have something to do that helps everyone else.  I'm just kind of here and trying not to go crazy and start biting whatever's around.>

<Oh, that.  Don't worry too much.  It wouldn't be very nice if we tried to start finding something like that right now, anyways.>

<Huh?  Why?>

<Well, first you have to get better with your current evolution.  After that, you'll be going as support to the humans as well.  The humans can find the rest of us too easily.  Probably.  Also, you can understand what they're saying.>

<Oh.  Wait, I am?  I wish someone had told me...>

<Sorry.  We probably just forgot to include you in the link when we were discussing it since we're still getting used to having a new sister.  I thought you were just listening and agreeing.>

Jelin considered arguing against the decision he was hearing about for the first time as well but upon thinking it through a little more he figured it was actually a really good idea.  Legs' leadership abilities were starting to really show.

Noticing that everyone was now pretty much clean, he sighed and walked to where they left the waterkins.  He grabbed them, asked wings to take the last one to Scratches for her and Conk to play with later, and then walked with Scar towards Conk and her various remaining tests.

That night, Scar scrambled to be the first and closest one to snuggle with him as she thanked him for the now half empty waterskin.  Apparently she had been suffering in silence more than he thought.  He managed to wrap an arm around her and they fell asleep that way.

The next morning Jelin noticed that his link to the rat was back to normal as he woke up, indicating it had finished evolving.  Before going out for breakfast, he decided to check it out.  Everyone else watched with some interest to see if this time the rat might be less disappointing.

As he walked towards it he gave it the command to stand up and walk around a little.  As it stood up, several of the bone structures he had tried to attach fell to the ground.  As disappointing as that was, he noticed that there were only about half as many bones or less at its feet.

He knelt down to get a good look and saw that the two most complicated additions that had taken the most work were still there.  Some of the webbing he had used seemed to have been integrated while the rest seemed to have dissolved and deemed unnecessary.

The rat actually had what looked like an extra set of ribs from a distance but were actually attached to folding arms connected inside of the rib cage at the spine and when folded up they were presses lengthwise with the spine.  When unfolded, they came out and formed two bone limbs with sharpened bone spikes at the end, kind of like tentacles or a certain swarm creature from a sci-fi game in his past life.  The tail had the other modification.  It was actually a little longer than it should be because it now had two hollow pieces attached to the end with webbing rolled inside to act like a kind of rope. 

The tail part would need some thorough testing but the new combat claws seemed to be working like he had designed.  Unfortunately they were both weak and dull.  The additions would have to be tested in general to see if damage would heal and how.  If he could still sculpt the rat some, though, then the sharpness issue could not just be fixed, but he could turn them into proper blades instead of sharp sticks.  The strength issues could hopefully be solved either through evolutions or more sculpting.

Everyone seemed excited for their own reasons.  Scratches was ecstatic about the additions and began to study the poor rat with incredible intensity.  Since she was likely to not even notice anything else for a few hours, everyone agreed that it was time for breakfast and Queenie offered to bring back some food for Scratches when she returned to her throne.

Jelin thanked her while also mentioning that he and Claw would likely be heading back as well.  They would have to somehow get Scratches aware enough to move at least a little bit away from the evolution spot and it was here that Wings suggested she prank her since Scratches always reacted most to her pranks.

Everyone giggled a little at the thought and the plan was set.  After breakfast, the four of them headed back with all but Wings stopping at the entrance to watch as Wings started teasing Scratches relentlessly.  Just as she said, scratches couldn't handle it for long and soon snapped out of her daze.

All of them then moved forward and handed her breakfast.  She grumbled as she ate but soon forgave Wings when they told her that they needed her aware enough to take the rat with her to the workshop so Claw could evolve.  

As Claw got comfortable she let him know that unless there were some big change that she already had an idea of what she wanted.  The options only came up for about half a second before she made her choice and slipped into sleep mode.

They all watched her for a second or two and then moved back outside.  Since Scar would be the next one and within another couple days, most likely, she was no longer on test duty.  Jelin had no such luck. 

As he started to go look for Conk he found Scar waiting for him with her waterskin filled with fresh juice that he could see she had been trying to quickly squeeze for him.  He gave her a hug for thanks and watched as she went to wash herself off.  It took a moment to realize what his mind was trying to tell him was wrong with the scene.

Claw was evolving so the morning hunting duty was not on Scar.  If she were to make it in time she would likely have to rush after making sure she didn't smell like berries and give herself away to the prey.  He sent a last wave of feeling appreciative through the link and went to find Conk again.

The rest of the day was fairly normal with even lunch being on time.  Jelin actually felt like he was making progress with his psychic attempts and shared his new breakthroughs with everyone that night before they slept.  Scratches seemed to be listening more intently now that he had sparked some interest in psychic powers with her.