Aquatic Nightmare

The host has a voracious appetite, that being an appetite at all. The parasite didn't know anything about the material world, but the concept of destroying something, and then break it down to its base parts is a novel one. The body of the host uses those broken down components to fuel itself, which is a necessity in material space. The father never spoke of the material realms much, other than that they are filled with dangerous things that could give even him trouble. The parasite has to acknowledge that the host knows much more about the material realm, and the more the parasite learns, the more it sees how much the host has its knowledge ingrained by time.

When it faced the dog-like scavengers, every move it made was made to intimidate. The host stretched her facial muscles to reveal her teeth, which should easily pierce most things in the material realm. A threat, a simple one. The host also stood as tall as possible all the time, despite the muscles in her tail not being meant for this purpose. The parasite didn't know why the host was being more careless than usual with her own body, until a spear deflected off of her tail. Had she stayed closer to the ground, the scavenger might have been more inclined to hit a less well protected area, or even the host's precious cranial cabin.

Then the parasite watched as the host captured the scavengers, and from what the parasite could tell from the nerve connections, done so with the intent of learning their language, and interrogating them. The reading of surface level thoughts went undetected, confirming the parasite's theory that while the host's control of their bloodstreams is absolute, they are completely deaf to the other workings of her own body. Right to the point of not knowing something is happening within her if the nerves aren't telling her. Expanding further into the host wasn't trivial, but it was completely unnoticed. The parasite had to be careful not to trip on any blood vessels as it expanded its influence throughout the body, and the nerves wouldn't tell the host anything if the parasite didn't want them to.

The parasite was so absorbed in expanding, it didn't even notice what was happening until the chicken soup entered the system. The host had appropriated some carrion, and began the process of breaking down the components. The parasite itself was eager to try this in its own manner, and started siphoning resources acquired by the host. Turns out, the blood carries over these nutrients rather quickly, and in the parasite's haste accidentally devoured some of the blood cells itself. This act didn't go unnoticed by the host, but she didn't seem too inclined to punish the parasite either.

As the parasite fed on the resources with calm for the first time in its short life, it wondered why the host didn't greatly value the blood cells if it was its main weapon. As it traced the cells to the source, it was surprised to find that the blood cells were produced by a spongy material within the bones. It was quite interested in this process, as the host's weakness could easily lie in the source of its strength, but the bone marrow was heavily defended. Thick streams of magically enhanced blood flowed around the bones, along with an unusually high amount of the security blood cells. It has frequently witnessed these cells combat other tiny foreign lifeforms that feed off the host as well. The parasite decided to leave these factories alone, but they wouldn't go unobserved.

The host is now asleep, put to an unconscious state by the grueling effort of staying conscious in material space. The parasite can move much more freely now, but killing or hijacking the host completely is out of the question. It will die without the host as it lacks the knowledge and the strange power that gives the host greater control over its own blood than even the parasite, and hijacking it will fail as the host demonstrated it only need the brain to stay functioning to fight using this. Rising the body to its tail, the parasite quickly notices that movement like this is exceptionally strained, maybe this body wasn't meant to move on this terrain? She certainly seemed more mobile in extradimensional space.

It matters little, the parasite may not have magic, but it has other tricks in its arsenal. It's long legs phase out of the back of the body, and extend to the ground. Eight shiny black legs materialize their points as they touch the floor, and push the body to suspend it in the air slightly, the body is too large to stand up properly, but the force it can exert like this is enough. The parasite will need information in the no doubt short time the host sleeps, and it knows just where to get it. Opening the hatch to the lower levels, the parasite carries the body to the prisoners collected by the host.

"JAN WORD WAKKER ER IS IETS MIS MET DE VIS!" The loud noises made by the prisoners could potentially wake up the host, if the ears weren't currently non-functional. No nerves will be reporting anything to the sleeping host on the parasite's watch.

The parasite approaches the restrained prisoners, very happy that they are restrained right now. It makes things so much easier. The parasite gets close to one of them, and quickly jabs its tongue through the cranium and into the brain. This should be the place where it houses the memories, and thus information on this material realm. The other screams at the sight of the extradimensional parasite's tongue. It's a long, barbed and flexible thing, meant to pierce even the thickest of hides to extract whatever it wants to. Soon enough, both of the dogs now lie dead on the ground. The parasite returns to the cabin, and references the recently acquired information with what the host has been doing. As expected, the host has done excellently so far considering she doesn't know the local languages, a little too well, perhaps.

The parasite crawls the body to a nightstand with a book in it, in the book are various notes the host managed to write down. Geographical location, local forces and their strengths, potion recipes that she managed to decipher, and notes on a certain parasite with its potential weaknesses. The parasite destroys the notes on itself, careful to not damage the rest, as incomplete as it is.

It must have the host as focused on the locals as much as possible if it wants to take over one day after all.