Enter the Changeling
Chapter 1: Death and Rebirth
Death was a surprisingly, pleasant thing. Once you crossed the threshold from life to unlife, whatever pain you were feeling goes away. In fact, all feeling went away, and you float in the deep black, at peace.
At least, that was my experience after the I got shot, jumping the burglar in my own home. I at least got off a shot of my own, striking them in the chest, but alas, they got off a shot of their own, the noise deafening my ears, the aching pain in my chest blooming like an angry flower.
I don't know how long I lay there, slowly fading away as my precious blood bled out, my vision darkening until there was nothing, and then I knew no more.
"It seems you've been treated to a most cruel fate." speaks a voice, a melodiously feminine voice, like a gentle breeze.
"Hardly, most warriors can only dream of falling in mortal combat." answers another, a deep, masculine voice, their tone one of exasperation.
"Indeed, and yet they were dealt a poor hand, to meet their end at so young an age." responds the feminine voice, before continuing "Not to worry, you will be granted a new life. One you will soon learn to love and enjoy, in due time."
"Know this, Mikey. The world you are reborn in will be equal parts familiar, and mysterious. Keep your head held high and stay true to yourself." says the masculine voice, and then I get the feeling of being compressed in from all sides, and sleep claims my awareness.
An indeterminate amount of time later, I regain awareness. Still floating in darkness, but this darkness is more, visceral. I struggle to more, my limbs feeling soft and squishy, struggling against an ever-present stickiness around me. I try opening my eyes and get nothing but darkness.
I struggled for a time, eventually hearing sounds around me, before I became exhausted and entered sleep.
Some more time later, I reawakened, and felt like I was being pressured in from all around, my body feeling not quite as soft and squishy as before, the sounds around me clearer and louder, but still gibberish to my ears. I struggled again, trying to free myself from the suffocating darkness, but tired myself some more, sleep claiming me again soon after.
The third time (or it may have been the tenth time, time was hard to understand when there was no difference between one moment and the next) I awakened, felling like I was being crushed, my limbs squished against a hard surface, and it was this that finally jolted my mind's understanding of what I was in.
"I'm in an egg" I thought, my struggles exhausting my limbs again. I could now hear the sounds much more clearly, the clicks and hisses clearly a language of some kind, one that I couldn't understand. I had been reborn, as creature born from an egg.
Praying I was reborn as a dragon, I began struggling again, my strength renewed in excitement of understanding. It was as I struggled, that I felt a pressure in the back of my head, and suddenly the hisses and clicking made sense as I hear "….yes, little one, break free of the egg. Show us your strength."
I struggle even more, before I feel an instinctive need to bite something. I push forward and bite, my teeth catching on the shell. I try again and again, until my teeth (which feel really weird, for some reason) catch on the shell, and a crack is made in the shell, light filtering in. This spurs me on, and as I push and pull within, the egg begins cracking more and more, until one of my arms punches through.
Break my way through the egg, spurred on by the praises of the voices around me, and I pull myself out, blinded by the light around me. I'm immediately swept up into a hug, turned this way and that as a feminine voice goes "Yes, yes, strong and health, all limbs intact.", as I squeak from the treatment.
I squeak even more when a tongue and teeth roam over me, cleaning me of the egg fluids, and I begin to lose consciousness, tired from the struggle of breaking free from the egg, my vision slowing sharpening as my eyes adjust to the light, and I take in my new mother. What I see causes me to squeak in fear, as before me, with a bone white mask shaped like a heart, is a Nosk.
My panic, however, is drowned at the sudden instinctual love that smothers my thoughts, and I squeak and babble as I am nuzzled by my new mother. A wispier voice says "Strong of mind, they shall be known as 'He who thinks'.", and I'm maneuvered around to face another nosk, this one appearing aged, cracks and wrinkles present.
After being inspected from every angle, I'm bundled up and brought to a nest of darkened silk, and I fall asleep, tired from breaking out of the shell.
I am eventually roused by a loud series of growls, and I'm bundled up and brought out by my mother, sights and sounds whisking by my senses until I'm set in before the elder, who is holding down a small dirtcarver. Instincts I didn't know I had come to the fore, demanding I immediately jump the dirtcarver, but I hold, awaiting the elder to speak. After a moment, they make a noise of acknowledgement, and say "Yes, good. Hold our instincts, rule them, don't let them rule you. Now, prove you deserve the right to live." and steps back, releasing the dirtcarver.
I initially stumble, unused to the many limbs I seemingly had now, but manage to dodge the dirtcarver's attack, and jump on top of it, following my instincts as I try to bite into it. My little fangs find no purchase, and the dirtcarver throws me off, screeching all the while. Squeaking in terror, I stumble away as it jumps at me again, and lash out with my front fore limbs, catching it in the sides, stunning it from the impact. Climbing on top of it again, I analyze it this time, tapping at it with one of my smaller inner limbs. Finding what my instincts looked for, I plunge a leg through the back of the dirtcarver's head.
The dircarver stills immediately, and I bring forth another limb to widen the hole, my instincts guiding my actions. I jab my mouth parts into the hole and eat. The taste was, gross, but my I felt exhilarated from the thrill of the fight, and my hunger demanded satisfaction, and so I ate, gulping down the gooey insides of the dirtcarver.
Once done, I step back, squeaking in victory, entirely too impressed with myself to notice the looks around me, before I'm unceremoniously bundled back up into my mother's arms, their cooing voice going "Yes, yes, my little precious, you have proven your worth."
The elder whispers out "He who thinks, has passed. Now, the future is uncertain. What will they do, when the battle of instinct and mind comes to pass, we will never know." while I'm being carried away.
And so, my life as a nosk, continued, time flying by as I grew. The words of the elder, who died shortly after, always rang in my mind, holding them close. Many of the things that were only hinted at about nosks, became my day to day life. I ate without any complaint, learned how to hunt, how to entrap, and how to create things with my silk. That was something, finding out I had spinnerets similar to a spider's, but the silk I created was much thicker and denser than the few examples of weaver silk I had been shown. I also discovered, much to the horror of my human mannerisms, that as a nosk, I was technically both genders, having both sets of sex organs. That was an awkward talk with my new mother, who found my intelligent questions both mesmerizing, and frightening.
The biggest thing I learned about being a nosk, was that we didn't have a true face. At the end of our neck, we had a pseudo face, that would hold onto whatever mask or head we scavenged, and we used our pseudo face to act as a holding point for whatever illusions we made (and that was a fun experience, learning how to create and use illusions of the mind). Underneath the pseudo face, resides a gaping maw that a series of tendrils containing teeth, smell sensors, eyes, and pseudo bones that when all fitted together, forms a pseudo head. And we ate things, via a proboscis, sucking down the insides of our prey, with the many teeth and jaws simply being used to tear open a hole through the carapace.
I also learned, that Nosks don't have a society, for lack of a better word. Nosks lived in small communities, but there was no greater society, and might made right. I ended up getting into many fights because of my inquisitiveness, with many of the older nosks outright trying to eat me when I wore down their patience. I eventually figured out that I was the only survivor of my mother's last clutch, before she became sterile, which was why she loved me so much. As much as a nosk can, at the very least. I lived with my mother until my third molt, at which point I was now larger than my own mother, and then I was given a brief growth ceremony, and promptly sent on my way to make my own destiny.
And so, I began wondering the deep depths of Deepnest, wondering why I had been brought here. Could have been worse, I could have been a vessel.
AN: Alright, here's my new Hollow Knight story idea. An isekai (I know, how original), but with the MC being a nosk. A nosk, with the intelligence of a human. The actual world of this story is heavily influence by "Not all who wander" by Writing Frenzy, as it will contain fae magic, fae courts, and other fae stuff. Along with other things.
Now, this won't be the main fic, as I'll be focusing mostly on Enter the Dragon, but I had to write this down, couldn't get it out of my thoughts. I hope you all enjoyed it, and peace out.