Let me be clear that the Dontas ™ Factory is completely trustworthy, compliant with all relevant food safety standards, and is in fact the cleanest, most organized, most pristine, most meticulously allergen-separated, most OSHA-compliant factory you will ever see in your life. However, that didn't necessarily mean that its manager was one hundred percent trustworthy.

Overseer Tectus, he noted. The Hive would remember that. And this one would wither if it was dry: perfect, a weakness that could be exploited. Its name was--

They were cut off by Mother's Lessers arriving. The distraction, and the opportunity for him to flee. Jinyi prepared himself, crouching down slightly as the Lessers exploded forth, but he was not prepared for them attacking him. Pinpricks of pain and confusion burst in his mind as a cloud of songbirds dove for him and a rat sank its teeth into his ankle, but realization struck him quickly. This was a gift to clear him of suspicion, and he could easily break free. Thick chitin armor still remained on him that their teeth and beaks could barely get through, and he felt the warm air of a jetstream rush toward him. Sparkling pink wings unfurled from his back, leaped into the air--

The Valkhound lunged at him just as his feet left the ground, and Jinyi flinched, stumbling. Only for its jaws to close on the rat that had first attacked him. He flapped his wings quickly, but couldn't resist a confused look back. Why had it done that, instead of attacking him or one of the Lessers currently biting it? Did it really think that they were friends, and if it did then why didn't it SNAP CRASH KRAK FOOF BAM BAM BAM!!! In his shameful lapse of attention, Jinyi flew right into a low-hanging branch. His wings flickered out of existence and he crashed downward through several layers of branches and ferns before landing heavily on the ground. Dazed, he craned his head around. Where was--oh, there the Valkhound was. Still within sight. Which meant he was, too.

Jinyi picked himself off the ground, wincing. Not quite out of the situation yet.

Jinyi scrambled to his feet as the Valkhound approached, but again it wasn't to attack him. Instead, it just... poked him. With a claw. The same claws it walked through the oily, bloody ground with. The same claws that were dripping with the leaky black fluid even now. He stumbled back, though the poke hadn't been that hard, and fought back a gag.

"Mother?" His voice was strained. He spoke the first lie that came to mind. "Is- is it your mother that's attacking us? What did I do to make her not like me? Does she have anything to do with the Master and Overseer Tectus you mentioned?" His expression took on a wide-eyed, bewildered appearance.

"I'd better get out of here before she gets madder." The jetstream was still there, waiting for him. Shimmering pink wings sprouted from his shoulders again. "What's your name!?" he shouted as he took flight, not forgetting Mother's question. With luck the birds would block its vision and he could get the hell out of here with the information she wanted, and go take a very thorough bath.

The Valkhound's accusation of lying followed him into the air. Jinyi didn't particularly mind the fact itself. Sure, he was a liar. The Valkhound had also ruined his clothes and Touched him with its corruptive magic and wrecked a lot of the Hive's hard work and was also fundamentally opposed to Order, part of the forces locked in an eternal war with it, so he didn't feel particularly guilty about it.

What he did mind, though, was why it was so insistent upon its belief. Was he really that bad of a liar? It had clocked him immediately, and that... made him feel funny. Vulnerable, maybe, the way he'd felt when he'd been frozen to his branch and could do nothing as a Valkhound stared him down and climbed closer and closer. He need to watch out for this one in the future. At least, though it refused to give him its name, he had managed to find out something about it. Overseer Tectus. And withers in dryness.

Let's hope that next time, he wouldn't be caught unprepared.