"HEIYA! HEIYA! Heiya...!" I go, so sincerely hoping that what I saw was not what it was. Yet, with each sprinting stride and the slowing down that follows it... No, it is. No point in pretending otherwise.
My eyes shift to the girl that needs my attention.
"Heiya...?" I quietly ask, dropping to a knee as my friend's daughter continues to whimper. Though not for the reasons that might seem so blatantly obvious now that there's a dead bug near us. An odd one at that.
I double check the corpse, frowning at its peculiar colour scheme. That's not a normal bug by any means. Nin might be far from a normal bug, but he at least looks like one. I suppose it doesn't mean much when the bug died the same as all the others... But I've never heard of bugs having unique colours at all.
"Nor having random... Anklets?" I question, spotting a barely clinging ring of rusted, hollowed out iron.
"We need to get to Nin," Heiya points out, knowing far more than I do. And if she's immediately seeing him as the only option, then there's something very wrong.
"How bad?" I ask instantly, looking her in the eye as she seems to find some certainty about her situation. She looks one way and then another, nodding away as she hugs her father's gun close. I offer her back her own gun, and she's more than happy to take it, but the intentions are clear.
The bug tried to take the gun? It's filthy, covered in marks that are all smudged and messy. No, that makes no sense at all. Bugs can be crudely taught how to use siege bows, but hardly anything complicated or mechanical proper. No, no... She dropped it.
Heiya dropped the gun, she lost it in the chase and...
"There's an earth shaman with them. It got in through the tunnel we took. Killed the soldiers in the forest. Maybe a messenger got out, I don't know." Heiya explains, her words awkward and rushed.
"Mmm... An earth shaman..." I go, knowing full well the problems that come with such a lethal threat. Guns or not, surface-touched or not, is not good enough. We need a witch, a damn good one at that.
Earth shamans aren't just some bug witch, like most osibindah things, they're the culmination of stolen life. The queens are freaks of nature made of corrupted, kidnapped women. The drones are all men, their bodies hijacked and taken. The earth shamans are funnels for the magical power of every single one of them, the lone proper mortal among them all.
Damn bugs.
"We need to get to Nin," Heiya rightfully points out, and I nod.
"How unfortunate." I go, rolling my eyes along with my tongue.
"We can only hope he's got his power back." she points out as if it needs saying at all. I give her a nod and get my way back upright, looking out the way she came. My hand comes out, and she takes it, handing me her musket back at the same time.
"You're the better shot." I remind her, and she gives the gentlest of snorts.
"I can tell." she remarks, our eyes sharing the same view of a bug corpse.
"Don't be too harsh on me now." I go, patting her on the back to force her along. My hand waves away in the air, my palm prickled and marked by the spines along her back.
"But I was so close to being taken away by the bugs..." she sarcastically reminds me, and the hand comes back for a gentle slap.
"I hit the bug!" I snap, reminding her of how she even ended up without me.
"That you did, that you did." she goes, coming close and holding onto my leg tight. I smile and nudge her off as we're going to need as much stride to our legs as possible.
"Anything else you might be able to tell me?" I ask her, taking another look down the way she came.
"It was those two. That corpse and the earth shaman, the hive is close behind." she explains, sharing the view with me as she makes a point of keeping to the clearest paths possible. Everything has to be out in the open, under the sunlight as much as possible.
"That's very strange. Bugs never lead with the earth shaman." I remark, and a noise fills out her throat.
"I know, I thought the same thing. I've no idea why they're acting so strangely." she goes.
"The quakes?" I suggest, and all she can do is all I can do. Shrug.
"Who knows? Who really knows at this point? Not that it matters. Bugs are on the way, and problems are coming with them." she says, opening up the spike gun and shaking it clear.
"I'll assume it didn't work with improvised ammo?" I dare to ask, the shame perhaps too raw.
"No... It didn't. I can shoot the gun, but nothing works properly." she answers, and I frown at the details of it. Only thing that'll work is proper spikes, perhaps even just the blood wasp ones specifically. Outside of my handguns, Heiya's musket is the only thing we have that's reliable. Even if Ivahstar was around, I doubt we'd be able to handle a hive.
How much of a hive are we dealing with, anyway...? The only thing that makes any sense at all is if the hive has lost too many of its usual drones. I guess that's a moment for optimism, but even then. The earth shaman.
"Is it worth going to warn the people ourselves?" Heiya asks, and I look around, knowing full well there was a view on the path she took.
"No, I can't really care what happens to them. Besides, anyone who doesn't find someone to warn when a monster is roaring away violently probably doesn't deserve a life to have." I tell her, shrugging away any concerns I might have in a truly heartless way. My heart's for one life right now, and I saved it minutes ago.
"We should at least say something. The less prepared the villages are, the quicker the bugs will come for us. For me." she emphasises, and my brow cocks. She looks back at me with a scowl.
"Why the focus...? I know it was trying to nab you, but that's hardly anything." I point out, and she deepens the scowl.
"IT NEVER ONCE TRIED TO GO FOR ANYONE ELSE EVEN WHEN THEY WERE CLOSER!" she screams with all she has, jabbing at me with that damn spike gun.
"H-Hey! HEY!" I go, slapping the gun away as I take in the detail.
"It only went for me..." she repeats and I glance over at the farmhouses nearby. Though I'm getting old for what I am and where I'm from, I know a dress when I see it. She's right, there's other girls among the crowd and the worriers. Odd how it focused on her unless...?
Of course, she's the only one with any magic in her system at all. Bugs go for places weaker than them when they reach a certain size. Otherwise they're cautiously raiding stronger peoples. It doesn't matter, so long as they can get a few higher-born women for a queen. It all cascades from there if they can help it.
"All the more reason for us to get moving. Let them think the local villagers are the best they're going to get." I point out and her eyes narrow on the distance, staying her feet.
"I don't think it will be that easy..." she points out, her words just the right amount of bad luck in my life. I turn to face the direction she's looking, only to see a travelling wave of magic ignition. It's going off enough at night and in the day to be an easy enough guess. Damn bug's casting a spell.
One that stops right at Heiya's feet...
"Wonderful." I click, taking her arm and getting us going again.
"Just my luck... Only woman in this entire..." she starts to go, only to stop as we focus on the mountain palace. The spell never ended, my attention did.
"Not that special." I quip, getting a snarl from Heiya as we reach the edges of the village. A crowd of concerned folk keeping the road as clogged as it's ever been.
"What was that'eth? What foul beast is covering the land in its spiteful cry?" the self-appointed lead asks, stepping forward as his dirtied work apron flutters on the disturbed wind.
"A monster. Go to the garrison and lay it clear to them. Make sure to let all the nearby villages and the like know. You're going to get invaded." I explain and it travels through them like the wildfire of that dying spell that came on through.
"An invasion!?"
"Monsters!?"
"MOMMA!" a child screams.
"We have to call the guard!"
"Rally the knights!"
"EVACUATE THE VILLAGE!? THE LADY-KING NEEDS TO KNOW!"
"WE WILL LET HER MAJESTY KNOW!" I roar above the crowd, getting quite through and fed-up with all this noise. Screaming, snapping and roaring. I'm fed up with all of it.
"H-How!?" one man asks and I give him a hard stare.
"Because all that light you have been seeing at night? Our friend, the doctor we came with, he's training himself to be able to handle monsters like this!" I say, not quite sure if this is somehow going to land right back on me. Either or, we won't linger for the consequences.
"The Lady-King knows...?" somehow comes out of this and it spreads.
"We best get moving while they're gossiping." I whisper to Heiya and we do just that. Our path takes us towards the farm and our barn and we head on in. I look around at our supplies, snatching up what we can. We don't have long and we need to get going now. Yesterday, even!
"They're not going to be of much use against regular osibindah... Let alone an earth shaman." Heiya points out, watching over the village as best as she can.
"We don't need them to stop them. If they do? All the better. We just need to be somewhere safe and Nin is that safe spot." I explain and she nods, reassuring her grip on Ivahstar's gun.
"Are we even going to make it?" Heiya asks and I can't help but be snarky.
"The more we linger thinking about it, the less likely. So. Let's. Go!" I growl, heaving her after me as I place the bag over my shoulder.
"H-Hey!" she snaps, smacking her way free as we leave the barn behind.
"Heiya, enough already. Put the energy into your legs. Keep out of your head. It's getting so insufferably annoying now!" I hiss, letting out the wrong thing at the wrong time. She comes to a stop and I turn to face her, mutual scowls on our faces.
"I'm not falling apart..." she cautions me, her head no doubt a mess.
"Yes... You are, Heiya. We both are. We both are..." I sigh, knowing full well that this can go so very wrong at the slightest moment.
"Is this really it, Hrurim...? Running from bugs to a bug?" Heiya asks, sighing herself as she holds Ivahstar's spike gun close.
"Yep..." I go, looking down and away. Right back and to the Crack in the Sky as the locals put it. And, frankly, I'm more than willing to call it that.
"We should get moving. It's a long way to go." Heiya says, heading off without me. She doesn't even bother snatching back her musket. One of her most important possessions, perhaps her only possession of note.
Very well. Very well...
"Long way to go, indeed." I say, following after my friend's daughter. It was just meant to be a quick retreat, really, this place. And now it's not. The gods must be messing with us. An osibindah assault at this time? Surely they'd naturally avoid this area knowing the security that's typically up? This place typically has trained witches on a war-witch standard on a regular payroll!
They shouldn't be anywhere near here. Nowhere near at all... What a mess. A mess that's no doubt going to get worse before it gets better. And the only place it's getting better is a single direction ahead of me right now. Right towards that other bug problem in my life right now.
Great.