《Whispers of Aferum》10 - What is That?

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Failure didn’t know how long it had been trudging through the forest, following after the soldier that had fed it. Not too long, the light hadn’t changed; it was still daylight bright, and the shadows weren’t much longer than they had been when they started back to the Hive.

It glanced up at the others. The two soldiers were walking on either side of Sturdy with their paws on its sides. They must be talking about something. Rather than worry about what they could be discussing, Failure cast its eyes about to find something, anything, distracting to look at.

Twisted, spiked plants with waving, tendril stems covered in thorns and reddish purple leaves…no, too ordinary. Tall, orange barked trees with sprawling branches that merged into the blueish forest canopy…no, too common. A fluttering insect with broad, brightly colored wings, drifting lazily along the breeze…oh, what was that? The disgraced hunter had never seen anything like that before.

Failure was so entranced by the strange bug that it stopped walking entirely. What was that thing? Why was it so colorful? Was it toxic? Was it tasty? Was it both? Where did it come from? We’re there more, out in the mountain forest? Why had it never seen one before?

The strange, colorful thing fluttered this way and that, and Failure watched it. It landed on a tree trunk and spread its wings out, brilliant yellow and black against the orange bark, then folded them together, like two leaves pressed against one another. Failure slowly stepped closer to get a better look.

The bug slowly flexed its wings again, mesmerizing, beautiful.

Failure reached out.

A set of thick, meaty paws grasped it around its middle, long, sharp claws pressing into the soft skin of the hunter’s belly and drawing thin beads of blood. Failure was hoisted into the air, wriggling, unable to move toward the strange insect and its bright wings.

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a familiar mind exclaimed, gleeful.

It was the soldier that caught breakfast for Failure. It seemed far too cheerful for someone that was lugging a full-grown hunter around.

Failure told it, sending along the sight-memory of the thing.

the soldier answered, conveying a sense of amused derision.

Failure didn’t reply, only slumped in the soldier’s grasp. It loaded Failure onto Sturdy’s broad back and briefly touched the gatherer’s side. Sturdy clumped forward, Failure on its back, seemingly unbothered by the hunter’s weight.

Sturdy said as it walked. Its mind was friendly, but the hunter was too distracted to return pleasantries.

Failure watched the bug as it was carried away, facing back toward the alien thing. It fluttered back into the air and drifted away, colorful and foreign, dancing on the breeze like nothing the hunter had ever seen before.

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