Location: Appalachian Mountain Range, Former State of Virginia

"We'll be over, we're coming over…." The sound Eliat's voice broke the otherwise unbroken silence of forest.

"And we won't come back till it's over over there!" Summer's voice joined the song.

"Hey you got it this time" Eliat said in a praising tone. Summer had a wide small going across her young face.

Eilat and Summer had been walking for a while now, Eilat having to occasionally pick Summer when she got too tired to walk on her own. To pass the time, he had taught her the lyrics of some old songs he knew, including some war songs. The sung they had just sung was called "Over there." He remembered that it was from one of the world wars, either the first of second one… he wasn't sure which one, history wasn't his strongest subject.

"Hey, Mister Eliat?" Summer said.

"Yea?" Eliat said in response.

"You said that these songs were from your home, and… that your home was destroyed, how was your home?" Summer asked.

Eliat thought about the question for a moment. He knew he couldn't tell her the whole truth, considering what he knew of the world as it was now since he woke up, he doubted even a child would believe it. He would probably only accomplish making himself look like he had a few screws loose.

"My home was… well, what do you mean by my home? The specific place where I lived, or the country to which I belonged to?"

"Oh,both please" Summer said with a normal child like curiosity as her little legs worked to keep up with him, Eliat had reduced his stride to accommodate her.

"Well, I lived in a small rural town, helped my dad around the local general store after school, went to church on sundays"

Summer gave Eliat a confused look.

"Whats a sunday?"

"It was a day on our calendar" Eliat responded.

"Oh… ok, wait, you worked in a store!?" Summer said in with a hint of disbelief.

"Yea, though I joined the army out of highschool-"

"The army!? But I thought humans always became elders!" Summer said with a small jump.

"Is that what happens where you're from?" Eliat asked intrigued. He was aware that Whitenest had a practice of turning his kind into mind wiped nobility for some reason, due to his conversation with the White Queen.

"My parents told me that happened everywhere"

"Well, your parents must not have heard of where I lived, wouldn't be surprising, in fact I would be more surprised if they had… lets just say the place isn't particularly well known, and again, doesn't exist anymore."

"Because it didn't use its humans right?" Summer asked.

"Because it got destroyed in warfare" Eliat responded.

"Because it didn't use its humans right?" Summer asked again.

"No" Eliat responded.

Summer gave him a look of suspicion but she didn't pursue it further.

They walked in silence for a while, Eliat enjoyed the scenery, while he was no mountain boy himself, he had to admit the Appalachians had a certain charm to them.

"Did you fight in that war?" Summer asked

"The war that destroyed my country?"

"Yea that one"

"Yea I fought in it, I did my part, everyone did their part"

"What… what did you do in the war?" Summer asked.

"Oh, I was your run of the mill soldier, nothing special"

Summer took a moment to take in this information. The idea that her kind in some place once did things so average like shopkeeping and being an average soldier seemed so alien to her. Mister Eliat said that the kingdom he came from didn't misuse it's humans, but Eliat's soul was still a chaotic mess, and using her kind in a way that was so mundane just went against everything that Corona and her parents had told her about her kind.

"What was the name of your kingdom's god?" Summer said breaking the brief silence.

"Hm?" Eliat said in confusion.

"You know, the god that ruled the kingdom you lived in, all kingdoms have those"

"Well, it would really depend on who you asked honestly. Most people like me would have told you it was Jesus, others would tell you it was Allah, some might tell you there were more than one god, others would say none at all, and many would say that they didn't know if there was one or not"

"You weren't sure who your god was?" Summer asked, once more confused by the kind mister that saved her.

Eliat chuckled "I had my own beliefs as others had theirs, in the end it wasn't any of my business which god someone believed in-" Eliat was cut off by an interjecting from Summer.

"Wha? Wait, what? Then how did you know who led your kingdom? How did you know what you were supposed to do without your god telling you?

"Well Summer, we didn't have a king, or queen, in fact the nation I belonged to was birthed from a rebellion against a king-"

"WHAAA!?" Summer exclaimed, she knew Mister Eliat's soul was still chaotic, but he must have hit his head or something. A kingdom without a king or queen? Which meant no god, which meant that there was no god to lead them. How can there be a kingdom without a king or queen? It made no sense, neither Corona or her parents ever told her of such a thing being able to exist, it just made no sense.

"How did you have a kingdom with no king or queen mister?!"

Eliat seemed to take a moment before responding.

"We had what was called a repub-" Suddenly, Eliat heard the sound of something moving, its steps disturbing the grass, and hit the ground with enough force to make a thumping noise. Whatever was near either had more than two legs, or was in a group.

Eliat, thinking fast, grabbed Summer and jumped behind a tree with a thick trunk, an armored hand covering Summer's mouth to prevent her from making noise that might give them away.

The steps were getting closer and closer, soon something came out of the bushes. Eliat turned his head slightly to peak over to where the noise came from.

To his surprise, there was a well dressed bug, or, at least he thinks it was well dressed by bug standards, mounted on what looked to be a bug beast of burden. However that isnt what mainly got Eliat's attention, what got his attention was the contents on the back of the bug of burden. It was his weapons, rifle, pistol, magazines, grenades, and a combat knife. Why the hell would this bug be bringing his stuff out here? But that didn't matter, what mattered was that he had just found a rather convenient way to rearm himself.

The noble was continuing her journey hoping to catch up to the escaped humans. Her plan was to find, get their attention, drop off the weapons, and then leave, simple as that. Communication with the humans were unlikely, unless the young human who was in the service of a dream god somehow knew the language of Whitenest, it would be impossible for her to vocalize her intentions to them.

Her stag beetle continued running through the forestry, though the weight of the black clad human's weapons were beginning to grow heavy on it's back. She was aware that human weapons tended to be much heavier than bug weapons, due to their larger size and greater strength. But even stag beetles would be able to carry a few of them with little issue, barring some of the heavier kinds.

Her stag beetle had to stop multiple times to rest, before moving on. The weapons were not the heaviest weapons her stag had ever carried, but they had enough collective weight to fatigue her stag a not inconsiderable amount.

They were continuing their trek when a black blur appeared from behind one of the trees. Before she or her loyal stag could react, a black clad figure had barreled into them at high speeds.

She was knocked unceremoniously from her saddle, and hit the ground with enough force to disorient her. She could hear the ruffling of the saddlebags as well as a groan of pain that sounded like it came from her loyal stag.

When her vision became less blurry she shot up, and what she saw devastated her. Her poor stag had several of his legs broken, and various parts of his shell were cracked. He was still thankfully alive, but utterly crippled.

The black clad figure was taking the human weapons she had taken from the armory from the saddle bags that had been strewn across that ground, knocked off by the impact.

It was then that she recognized the figure as matching the description of one of the escaped humans. The one she had intended on giving assistance to, and the one that just crippled her poor stag.

Eliat quickly began loading and then holstering his weapons, putting the thermobaric grenades back into their grenade pouches, and sheathing the combat knife.

Summer had peaked out from behind the tree he had left her, she did not like what she saw. The well dressed bug was shouting profanities at Mister Eliat, saying that she was only out there to assist their escape, and how brutal he was to hurt her stag when she was only trying to help.

Of course she knew Mister didn't understand, he could not translate things. She could though, that was one of the first things her mother had taught her. Stating that it was important to know what others are saying about you.

Mister looked down at the well dressed bug, probably one of the bug elders this kingdom had, Corona had told her that they like to dress up all fancy when telling her and a group of other children, human and otherwise about her journeys involving other kingdoms.

Mister Eliat finally seemed to take note of the fancy bug yelling at him. He did something that Summer did not understand, he took out some weird metal thing he had taken from the stag saddle back in one hand, and pointed it at the noble, he seemed to freeze up in fright.

Summer didn't know what was happening.

Eliat stayed in that position for a moment, before seemingly making a decision in his head, and putting the metal thing back on his hip. He instead took out a strange looking nail, the fancy bug turned and ran, and Mister Eliat was about to start after her.

"Wait!" Summer shouted.

Eliat stopped in his tracks, yet the noble continued running away, though not far, she didn't appear to be fast, and she looked like she was already slowing down. Probably didn't get much exercise, glamorous life like the fancy bugs would do that to you, or at least mom and Corona said so.

"The bug was bringing you your weapons, she wanted to help" Summer said.

Eliat tilted his helmeted head.

"You can understand them?"

"Well… yea, it is a trick my mom forced me to learn" Summer said rubbing the back of her head. Summer loved her mother, but her lessons were more than a bit boring.

"Well, cr- I mean, dang…. Sorry!" Eliat shouted our to the bug who had stopped to catch her breath. She was not far at all.

It was then when Summer decided call out.

"Mister Eliat says sorry!" She said in the language of Whitenest.

The bug noble turned around, mask covering her face.

"Sorry won't uncripple my stag!" The noble said in rage, fear appearing to have left her, no longer fearing about the possibility of the large black clad human harming her.

Summer turned towards the injured stag, only to see Eliat with that metal object again, pointing it at the stag's head. She was not sure what it did, but considering the fancy bug referred to it as a weapon, probably wouldn't be good for the stag.

"Wait Mister, what are you doing!?" Summer yelled in shock.

Eliat sighed "Look… he's badly hurt Summer, I don't see anyway he is going to live through this, if I don't give him his peace now, he will only suffer… I'm sorry-"

"Wait, please, I…" Summer said.

"Look, I shouldn't have done this with you around, you don't have to watch-"

"No, no, I… I know another trick, just, please Mister Eliat, trust me!"

Eliat sighed again "Alright… see what you can do"

Eliat stepped away from the injured stag beetle, and allowed Summer to move forward.

"Alright Summer, you can do this, a poor injured bug is counting on you, make Mom and Corona Proud" Summer thought to herself, as her palms began to glow a soft yellow.

Eliat just stood back and watched. He had figured she was able to use whatever wacky magic the human nobility of Whitenest could, after all, whose eyes glow yellow anyway, so maybe she did have something up her sleeve to help the bug-horse thing.

A few moments passed and nothing seemed to happen. The bug who the stage belonged to came closer to her injured beetle.

Eliat was about to ask about the progress of it when the legs of the Stage Beetle seemed to be snapping back into place. The broken shell sealing as Summer's magic worked it's…. Well… magic.

Soon enough, the Stag Beetle was back on it's legs, and let out a sound. The Stag's head turned to Summer, and started making sounds at her.

Summer turned to Eliat.

"He says he forgives you, but would like you to not break his legs in the future, he says he is old, and doesn't really have any molts left" Summer said, translating the stags words.

"Noted..." Eliat said aloud.

"The Hell? That thing is sentient?" Eliat thought to himself.

The bug who the stag belonged to started making angry gestures and sounds as she approached her Stag, and mounted it. She continued that way for a few moments before riding off back into the forest.

Summer did not feel like translating those words. She did not feel like it at all.