Under Your Carapace
Chapter 1 - Plundering Failure
When they got out of bed this morning, the group of rogue scorpions only sought to plunder any creature unfortunate enough to be wandering alone in the Outback. Lucky for them, they came across a small group of traveling geckos by midday, and it was even more in their favor since geckoes don't do so well without water for long periods of time.
This plundering mission would be a cinch, and the two leaders of the forgotten Scorpion Army warriors knew it. While Caz was the oldest and strongest of the group, his second-in-command was a young female scorpion named Thorn; she had just as much rage, cunning and agility as any other scorpion, but she showed her feminine side by wearing a dark purple loin cloth and golden ring on the left side of her head spikes.
Still, she showed all of her determination and dominance when she snatched a basket of barriers from an elderly gecko, even knocking them onto the ground with a whip of her claw. Even as the old gecko trembled and shakily begged her to let her go, Thorn threatened to end her life as she pinched her other claw close to her neck.
"Quickly! Take their food and water! Whatever you're able to carry!" Caz shouted demandingly, as the rest of the scorpions scurried after fleeing geckoes.
"Hmm, lucky for you, duty calls; otherwise, I would've ended your pathetic little life," Thorn chuckled darkly before returning to her commander's side.
"You can't always go killing everything in sight, Thorn," Caz pointed out.
The said female scorpion scoffed, "Yeah, yeah, I know. Always leave a few alive, so that they can spread the terrifying tale of our existence. But what's the point if we're never gonna be a real army again?"
"You never know. Fate could bring us the last scorpion that harbors the blood of one of our greatest lords that ever lived."
"Lord Marmoo's bastard son? Uh, in case you haven't noticed, the guy's dead and we've never seen this proclaimed 'son' once since the war ended. How do we know he even exists?"
"Trust me, he does exist. I knew Marmoo's old flame when she was still fighting with her own kind, and I heard that she gave birth to a child before joining the frogs. It can only be Marmoo's, even if it is illegitimate."
"Oh, so you heard about his child. Great. I can sleep easy tonight knowing you've got incredible and completely trustworthy sources of information."
Caz glared and snarled down at the younger scorpion's sarcasm, but ignored punishing her for the sake of finishing ransacking the geckoes. But just when Caz was about to start helping out, a large, blue blur fell from the sky and threw one of the soldiers against a rock.
Followed by the blue object was a bright red one, but it suddenly turned as grey as stone and darted between two more scorpions. Not long after, darts started flying through the air, and pierced the other soldier's armor to make them drop the supplies they stole.
It wasn't until one of the soldiers ran up to the source of the darts that they realized the attackers were actually frogs, but not just any frogs. They were Kulipari. The soldier that ganged up on the spike-throwing, pink frog was just about to attack when something latched onto his waste. He turned around and was shocked to find it was another scorpion, but they had never seen him before.
The new scorpion yanked the soldier away, and spun him around before tossing him across the clearing. The soldier came to a skidding halt in front of Caz and Thorn, who were just as surprised to see a scorpion fighting alongside Kulipari.
"A scorpion protecting geckos and frogs? How pathetic," Thorn scoffed in absolute disgust.
"Skitter back to the desert, scorpion!" the large blue frog snapped.
"Really?" the good scorpion asked in disbelief.
The blue frog shrugged, "Been waitin' my whole life ta say that line. Don't ruin the moment."
"Whatever," the scorpion sighed and shook his head before turning his attention back to the enemy and raising his voice, "You, surrender now!"
"We're not scared of you!" the red frog added with confidence.
"With what you are, young one, you shouldn't be afraid of anything," Caz admitted with a respectful bow, and turned his attention to his small fleet, "We're outmatched! Return our plunder to these good wayfarers, for we submit."
"Who are you? Who do you follow?" the other scorpion questioned demandingly.
"My name is Caz, one-time sergeant of the Great Scorpion Army. Alas, we follow no one. Our leader, Marmoo, is long past—our only lord now is survival."
"If that's true, there's enough food and water in the village for everyone."
"Yeah, thanks but no thanks," Thorn huffed.
"Our lord is gone, but we do not seek to replace him with a frog, even if he is the Blue Sky King," Caz added.
With that, the rogue warriors walked forward and placed the stolen goods in front of the geckoes, but Thorn was reluctant. Caz had to give her a hard nudge against her back to convince her, and she sent cold glares towards the other scorpion and his frog friends the whole time she brought the berries back to its owner.
"Back to the desert, troops! Hungry and thirsty, but scorpions to the end! Fair well with your frog masters, young scorpling! I sense greatness in ya—I hope they do as well," Caz proudly announced, as the small army followed him back out into the desert.
The other scorpion merely scowled at Caz's last hushed statement, but his attention was drawn away from the old sergeant when he realized that Thorn still stood her ground.
"Still gonna let your pride be the death of you, too?" the other scorpion inquired with a cocked brow.
"Even if it is, I'll still live longer than you, traitor," Thorn spat, quite literally, in the other scorpion and frogs' direction before following her fellow troops back home.
Even though he begged himself to disagree, Stinger knew that at least half of what Caz and the female said was true.
"Stinger's one of us, so don't be causin' anymore trouble around here again!" Thuma shouted angrily.
"Take is easy. You're not like them," Tharta pointed out while placing a reassuring hand on Stinger's shoulder.
"I've been told I'm not much of a scorpion—maybe it's true," Stinger protested bitterly, as the memory of Jir's subtly racist lecture replayed in his mind.
Meanwhile, Thorn ran to catch up with the others, and she grimaced when something still confused her.
"You know we were much greater in numbers. We could've kicked their asses right then and their, so why didn't we?" Thorn hissed at Caz.
"If we're going to take down their little village, we'll have to be patient and smart about this. Just leave this to me. I'll have the perfect plan ready by tomorrow morning," Caz replied with a conniving grin.
Yup, another new fanfic. I regret nothing.
Anyway, this is a fanfic for the Netflix show Kulipari: Dream Walker. If you've seen that show and you know what I'm talking about, this story will mainly focus on Stinger and Thorn, but I'll try my best to include other characters and plot devices. If you haven't seen the show, I suggest checking it out because it's pretty cool.
Also, check out my DeviantArt account if you wanna see my drawings of Thorn and Stinger.
Until the next chapter, I'm TRikiD, bye-bye!