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With a rhythmic, straining pulse, the pressure inside him reached a breaking point. A familiar seam along his back—the "molting line"—suddenly snapped open. Slowly and painfully, Arthro began to crawl out of his old self. He pulled his jointed legs, one by one, from the rigid tubes of the old shell. What he left behind was his : a perfect, ghostly translucent replica of his former body, complete down to the tiny hairs and the lenses of his eyes.
For a few hours, Arthro was at his most dangerous crossroads. His new skin was soft and pale, lacking the hard that would eventually turn it back into a shield. He stayed perfectly still, pumping fluid through his body to stretch the new cuticle to its full size before it could harden. In this "soft-shell" phase, he was a prime target for any hungry passerby.
As the air finally cured his new armor into a dark, impenetrable lacquer, Arthro took a deep breath. He was bigger, stronger, and ready to face the forest again. Behind him, the discarded exuvia remained—a hollow monument to the creature he used to be, and a reminder that to grow, one must always be willing to leave the past behind.
