Notes: I'm trying to do too much stuff at once rn. see you in like 1-2 months maybe. Also I hit 20,000+ words :))
ive never done that before
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
(From now on out I'm going to just straight up copy/paste from my ao3)
Chapter Text
For the longest time, and by that, he meant the past day or so, Etty had been observing this odd, glowing-white child through the window of the pointy knight lady's house.
His eye twitched irritatedly. Every time he got close, pointy knight intervened and firmly (and none too gently) pushed him in the other direction. It was almost like she had some sort of grudge. Why did so many seem to hold grudges against him even though he'd never met them? Was there something he did not know?
A shiny blue glint caught his eye, shaking him from his thoughts. At last, her glossy, clear eyes finally fixed themselves on his own and he felt himself begin to loosen his grip and tumble off the house he had so very, very stealthily clambered onto.
A small tumble later and he found himself dazed on the ground. However, he couldn't really find it in himself to be annoyed as he watched the target of his curiosity draw close.
She unhinged the creaky window with little difficulty, a root easily propping it open as she leaned out and stared curiously at him. Now that he could see her clearly, he realized that even despite her single main body, her legs were very numerous and looked slightly tangled without being really tangled, judging by their occasional movement. He couldn't really judge, though. Everyone always underestimated how many limbs he had as well.
Etty opened his mouth to speak, but he was not the first to talk. "Not far one walks to greet me. What little creature might you be?"
"A wyrm, miss. Might you not call me little? You seem to possess only a little more leverage than I in that category," he replied smoothly.
A small giggle escaped her. Wordlessly, she popped out of the window, accidentally snapping it out of its hinge in an unintentional show of strength. Then she landed right in front of him. Indeed, she was taller; even with his spires, she towered a respectable amount higher than him, especially including the tendrils on her head.
Pale sleeves, nearly as blindingly bright as the rest of her, were raised to her face in a gesture of lilting amusement. She reached out with a tendril and he reached for hers. Closer and closer-
"Pause there, you mischief-maker!"
The minute child found himself pushed back with a foot, staring down the much taller figure sighing with the white child in her arms.
He huffed in frustration and didn't try not to glare. This was the closest he had managed to get the whole time and he was denied it! The odd draw he felt, the shine of her eyes, the lightness and purpose in her gestures and body language. Was that why he so intrigued?
There was annoyance on the pointy knight face as she began to grumble. "I leave for a moment to survey the Menderbash and you show up? Do you watch her like a greedy surveiler?"
"Nary a thing I feel could be conveyed properly to a tightfisted upkeeper in knight's clothing like you," he snapped back.
To his shock, a small laugh escaped her as she pressed a free hand to her face, shoulders shaking in a mild effort to keep still. "You're different now, that attitude of yours. I keep forgetting even despite it all."
"What does that even mean?" muttered Etty.
Dryya fixed an uncomfortably cold stare on him. "I know what you're capable of, what you could be. Don't ever value results over heart."
A shiver passed through him at her confounding intensity, but she pushed onward like a hot knife through butter. "Let us dearly hope you don't reach that point, for Hallownest knows what will smite you this time."
In spite of the sudden drop in atmosphere, a sort of morbid curiosity set in. This time? The number of questions he had only grew.
The two looked searchingly at each other. The tension grew higher and more strained, but he didn't notice until the white child popped it like a fog canyon bubble.
"Menderbash?" she piped up in the silence.
Etty released the breath he didn't know he had been holding. Dryya's eyes lost their hardened edge. The white child blinked innocently. Did she intend to diffuse the tension or was it a coincidence?
"There you are!" he twitched as the familiar voice caught his attention.
The trio turned to see Quirrel stride toward them, the knight sitting on top of his head, and a hammer-wielding bug trailing behind, buzzing forward on stubby little wings. It seemed that he had given in on walking to keeping up with Quirrel, whose much longer legs made it difficult to do so. Was it manners or pride that stopped him from hitching a ride like the knight?
A sigh of relief came from the pointy knight. "Good. You two should be much better at explaining than I."
"That is not something I doubt," Etty snarked under his breath. Her side eye told him she definitely heard, but the earlier animosity seemed to have dissipated, thankfully.
"Please hurry, then! We have to make it on time!" the menderbug urged.
The much more calm Quirrel patted his back in a mollifying manner. "We're still early if you were truthful about the secret passageways."
Secret passageways? Suddenly he noticed the look in Quirrel's eye. Had he intentionally dropped a hint about something that was sure to catch his interest?
Still patting the menderbug's back, Quirrel winked and held up an ok sign when he realized Etty had caught on.
Very subtle.
"Well, if you insist, then we can just explain it to them on the way, Mender Bleu."
"Oh, are they coming along too? How nice!" he said. "We've never have any non-mender spectators before."
Etty tilted his head. "And why is that?"
Bleu smiled. "Oh, King's decree. A menderbug shall work out of the view of others. It was repealed recently though, and speaking of the king, you look-"
"Ah, is that Hornet?" interrupted Quirrel.
Indeed it was. A flash of red and the glint of glowing thread was all that was needed to identify her. "I apologise for being slightly late. I was cleaning my cloak after... a minor incident including Ogrim." a very slight shudder from her was enough to convince him that she wasn't lying.
She gestured in the direction of the town well. "I would not do me well to dwell. Let us head out."
Excitedly, the menderbug zipped forward in a burst of energy and everyone quickly followed suit. Not technically the white child, though. She was just being carried along. Semantics.
Feeling a light tap on his back, Etty looked up to see Quirrel, who was offering a hand.
"Hm? What for?"
Quirrel blinked. "What do you mean, 'what for?' Think you can keep up?"
"Oh." He made a motion to rub his head sheepishly, but retracted it before it made contact. "You seem to be of the belief that you can carry both the void child and I at once and still keep up with our consorts."
The corners of his eyes seemed to crinkle in amusement. "Try me," Quirrel said as he picked him up and held him in his arms. Etty rolled his eyes, but blinked curiously when the void child shuffled forward and looked down at him. Suddenly he became too conscious of how much he seemed like a cradled little grub in Quirrel's arms.
The stare of the child became oddly intense; it was almost as though they were trying to see through him. Uncomfortably motionless and still, the pitch darkness of the child's eyes became more and more eerie until they turned their head up and swatted playfully at Quirrel's face as if they hadn't been exerting that heavy pressure a second ago.
Etty sighed in relief and abruptly felt the force of his carrier's movement slam into him as he shot off to join the rest.
"No more dallying, they've all probably made it by now!" Quirrel said as the wind whipped around the trio. Etty off-handedly wondered how the void child was holding on at this speed.
It didn't take long to catch up to the main group, seeing as they were still somewhere in the dark greyish blue caves below the town. Menderbug was at the front, wings humming, determinedly making his way ahead with what seemed like long-bottled nervous energy finally leaking out. The sight of his reflective wings glinting in the dim light made Etty's back twinge oddly. A vague longing momentaily settled in his stomach, but he immediately pushed it down as soon as he noticed. Envy was unbecoming.
They all stopped when the menderbug stopped, which was right in front of a wall unobtrusively built to look like stone. Pulling out a key from his case, he stuck it into a small crack in the wall and the resounding click filled the air. Dryya reached for the newly-appeared door, but paused to glance at him politely for acknowledgement. The menderbug nodded.
The sight of a small tunnel strung with lumafly lights greeted them. "You see, these are the pathways we menderbugs use to navigate unseen. Very handy, if I do say so myself."
Through the tunnel, various other ways seemed to branch off from their current one, and they took turn after turn. It was a wonder how he managed to know exactly where everything was, judging by the pointing and explaining he was doing.
"That path over there was constructed after complaints about how difficult it was to reach the crystal village without being seen. That one over there is very old, I asked my mentor when it was dug and he shrugged! He was older than my great grandfather at the time!" he rattled off. Rambling seemed to calm the menderbug down so Etty didn't interrupt. The others seemed to be riding the same train of thought.
Finally, an oddly elaborate and abnormally large door loomed into view. Once again the menderbug lifted a different key, having already pulled it out of his bag, and plugged it into the lock.
Dryya didn't need to offer her aid this time. Someone was already on the other end of the door and helped open it the instant it unlocked.
Half breathless, the menderbug answered the good samaritan. "Mender Berri?"
The larger bug seemed to perk up at the voice. "Mender Bleu?"
Notes: Sorry about the abrupt cutoff guys but the chapter was going to get abnormally long if I kept going