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The Nation of Blue Flame had known peace for millenia. After the brief but eventful return of the Demon God Lykoraz, most races and nations were willing to cooperate more readily. Even ties and connections that may have been impossible before were beginning to form. Lief's connection with the nearby hive was proof of that. Lief was a human of Fjorskelic descent, which made him a large strong fellow with fair hair and skin. He was a hunter from the small town of Gyldwal nearby, and he had made two kills that day. One for himself and his brother, and one for his local friends.
His friends were feared by almost all who knew of their race, and for good reason. Xenomites were enormous insects with immense psychic energy and the gift of sentience. Their hives were hard to find because they prefered solitude, often reacting violently to intruders to their land. The fact that the local hive had such peace with Gyldwal and such a friendship with Lief was signs of lasting peace in the world.
Lief trudged through the fields, carrying two deer over his shoulder. He would love to just go home after a long day, but he did not wish to make two trips with this weight. So he went first to the hive. It appeared as he came around a great rock formation. It looked like a gargantuan sculpture of stalagmites made of tightly packed ashes, but he knew that the material was as hard as the stone around it. Lief could feel ten thousand minds bustling about his own, like being in a psychic bus station. He knew there were many many more deep beneath the ground. Most payed him no mind. But he suddenly had the attention of nearly two dozen. From two of them, he recieved the impression that they were close and would be able to greet him shortly.
And sure enough, a great rock slid aside and two chitinous form emerged, one with four legs and two long, thick gripping appendages, the other with two legs, one pair of arms with hand like endings, and one pair of arms ending in serrated scythe-like blades. Each had a smooth and slightly shiny carapace the color of sand, and Lief knew one of them had vibrant transluscent wings hidden beneath two shield-like extremities on its back. He knew this because these two Xenomites were the closest things to friends he had in the hive. They had names in their language, but seeing as how the language of Xenomites was impronouncable to humanoids Lief had taken to calling them Bryn and Rodulf. It was only after they had all become used to the nicknames that Lief realized that the two were apparently female. However, the two did not seem to mind.
Bryn and Rodulf approached Lief as he set down one of the deer. "How's the queen?" he asked. From Bryn he recieved a brief distaste at his overly casual reference to her queen, but Rodulf, who had a firmer grasp of human ways from her fascination with Lief's memories, answered with an assurance that all was well, that her majesty was very healthy and that a new queen had hatched. Lief mentally responded with a simple friendly acknowledgement.
As he turned to leave Bryn called out with her mind, projecting an image into his mind mixed with curiosity, a question. The image was of the night sky, but when he expressed his concern to Bryn, she narrowed the vision until the subject became clear. A small, bright, and oddly green star that Lief had never seen and, judging from the insect's question, she hadn't either. He couldn't tell why, but something about the star unsettled him. Deeply.
***
Over dinner, Lief and his older brother Ulfric, with whom he lived until he became something more than a hunter, discussed their day. It seemed Ulfric's day had been rather uneventful. He went to the shooting range with his friends as he did every other Sunday, and had gone to his friend David's drake pen. Lief told Ulfric about his day, including his visit to the hive. But he left out Bryn's question. It still unnerved him, and he didn't want to burden his brother with such things. It was probably nothing anyways.
But his mind couldn't let it go. That night, his dreams were seared by the baleful green glow of that star. It's disturbing presence seemed to grow larger, closer, until it seemed to swallow him up, and he became nothing but fear, and mote of sheer terror floating through a realm of twisted green hunger.
He awoke, breathing quickly and covered in a cold sweat. He looked at the small red glass orb on his night stand. When he looked right at it a small glowing 23:56 seemed to materialize in its depths. He covered his face with his hands and waited to calm down. He walked slowly to the window and looked at the sky. Sure enough there was the star, clearly visible even with the full moon shining brightly so nearby. He shivered, considered going to tell Ulfric, but it was seeming more and more like he was doing his brother a favor by not telling him. He crawled back into his bed. His sleep was troubled by a sickening green light, though it did not burn so bright in his dreams again that night.
 JustAnotherRandomPoultry · Wed Dec 12, 2012 @ 04:11am · 0 Comments |
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