Elderbug clutched the pale flower in his claws tightly.
Everything had been normal before he went to sleep. The sky had been just as grey and cloudy as ever, the solemn silence that had once permeated Dirtmouth more peaceful in tone. He'd fallen asleep without any trouble and had a deep, dreamless slumber.
And now, everything was wrong.
"Elderbug? What is...what's going on?"
Elderbug turned to see young Bretta peeking fearfully out of her door.
"It's...the sky! It's blue! Why is everything so bright? Where are the clouds? What is that burning orb?" Bretta whined. Elderbug said nothing back for several moments, trying to think of something comforting to say, and coming up empty handed.
"I...I don't know...perhaps someone else in town will have an idea?"
Yes, that sounded like something he could do. The nice young couple who lived in the map shop...perhaps they would know what to make of this phenomenon.
The sound of Bretta's door shutting startled Elderbug, and he heard muffled breathing and muttering coming from behind the door. Poor girl, she was already high strung as it was.
As he stepped into the harsh light, Elderbug winced. Whatever that orb was, it gave off a glow many hundreds of times brighter than a lumafly lantern, and a warmth like fire. After suffering no ill effects though, Elderbug decided that it probably wasn't dangerous, and continued on towards the map shop.
Knocking on the door, Elderbug heard a loud thump, followed by some giggles. Iselda was the one that answered the door.
"Oh Elderbug it's-" Iselda petered off as she realized that something was very wrong with the world outside of her home.
"Ah, yes. Iselda. As you can see...well...that."
Iselda pushed past Elderbug without a word and craned her neck in every direction. After several moments, her abdomen puffed up, and she yelled.
"CORNIFER GET OUT HERE!"
Moments later, Elderbug was nearly bowled over as the stout beetle rushed to his wife's side.
"Izzy, what's wrong, what is—oh."
Cornifer plucked the spectacles off of his face and polished them, as if performing such an action would change what his eyes were seeing.
"Oh my."
"Have you ever seen such a thing in your travels?" asked Elderbug. He hoped that such worldly bugs would know more than he did.
Iselda responded first, saying "No, never. We've travelled to places without persistent cloud cover, but even then, the sky was always black, with tiny shining dots, like Lumaflies on the ceiling of a great cave. This is new. So bright as well." Iselda winced away from the burning orb and shaded her eyes with a claw.
Beside her, Cornifer had a piece of silkpaper out, and was furiously scribbling.
"Not only the sky either! Look at the mountains surrounding us!"
Elderbug had been too dazed by the change to the sky to notice before, but what Cornifer said was true. While he could still see the familiar sight of Crystal Peak to the south and the Howling Cliffs to the north, there were other, unfamiliar mountains nearby as well.
To the west was a medium sized peak with what looked like fortifications ringing it, and there was some strange tower with glowing blue lines sticking out of the top of the foreign mountain. To the east was a shorter peak that was much wider, and Elderbug spotted what looked like houses, though oddly colorful and shaped like cubes.
Even further than that were more mountains, open plains, and everything was so colorful. Green was the primary color, which reminded him of Greenpath, but the land also was painted in shades of red, yellow, and orange.
"How could such a thing happen?" asked Elderbug.
Iselda shook her head "I haven't the slightest clue, Elderbug. I am sorry. Maybe...maybe someone else in town might know? Sly travelled in his youth as well. And there's always those who still live in Hallownest. Corny met a number of bugs down there who knew secrets that he didn't."
Elderbug clacked his mandibles together once, thinking it over.
"Maybe. But the danger posed by the ruins of Hallownest are great. I know that Cornifer has braved the depths of the kingdom, but it has changed. The air from the well has only grown more and more foul since the little one came to Dirtmouth, and I would not want to risk my friends for an unlikely answer."
Whatever Iselda or Cornifer was going to say next was cut off as all three of them heard a loud screech coming from the well, like metal shearing in half. With nary a glance towards each other, they all rushed to the well to peer down into its depths.
Staring back at them were the masks of the a bug who wore the King's Brand, and a large, dark bug with empty eyes and a chilling stare.
Their horns were lodged into the side of the well, and they had somehow cut the old well chain in half. It was clear that they were stuck.
Upon seeing the three bugs staring down at her, Hornet tossed the severed chain upwards.
"Hello. Let me tie this end around onf of his horns. We'll need to pull him out."
. . .
"Are you sure about this Hudson?" asked Fyson, his feathers ruffled in agitation.
Hudson scratched at the top of his head with one hand and sighed.
"Look, I may not know much about anything 'sides from building, but that there's a town. A very strange lookin' town that don't look like any Zora, Rito, Gerudo, Hylian, or Goron work I've ever seen, but a town all the same. It don't have any walls and looks small, so it's probably not a military camp. We should go say hello, see who and what in Nayru's name is down there."
"And if they attack us?" asked Fyson.
Hudson hefted his sledgehammer onto his shoulder with one brawny arm.
"Then we'll deal with em just like we deal with Bokoblins on the road. Tarrey Town's fulla tough crabapples. We can handle ourselves."
Fyson huffed at that, then looked down his beak towards the distant town. With his sharp eyes, he could just barely see figures moving around, but not much more than the suggestion of movement and shape.
"...if you say so Hudson. But at the first sign of trouble I'm flying straight to Zora's Domain, and coming back with a full platoon of Zora Warriors at my back."
Hudson chuckled and slapped Fyson on the back. The Rito winced and rolled his shoulder gingerly as the stout Hylian walked away.
"I swear he has a Goron in his family line somewhere."
A few minutes later, a small group of Tarrey Town residents left the borders of the town and began the hike down to the Torin Wetlands. Hudson led the group, followed by his wife Rhondson, the Goron miner Greyson, the Rito Fyson, and the Sheikah Granté.
All of them were armed in some way or another. Hudson had his sledgehammer slung over his shoulder, and Greyson his pickaxe. Fyson wore a quiver full of arrows and carried a Falcon bow, while Rhondson had a Gerudo Scimitar strapped to her hip, her hand never left the hilt. Finally, Granté carried an Ancient Sword that glowed a bright blue that became more noticeable as the sun began to sink in the sky.
It was dusk by the time the small group reached the outskirts of the strange little town. Fyson hadn't spotted anything on the way down, but as they drew near, he saw movement. From the doors of one of the almost shell-like houses, he saw some sort of large beetle exit. The beetle walked on two legs, and while he couldn't judge size perfectly at this distance, he judged they stood somewhere between the height of a Rito and that of a Hylian.
"It's a beetle."
The rest of the group turned their heads to him, a cornucopia of shocked looks on their faces.
"A..what?"
"A beetle. Standing on two legs." intoned Fyson, flatly.
Rhondson raised an interrogative eyebrow at Fyson and asked "You're sure it's not some messed up looking Lizalfos?"
Fyson returned Rhondson's look with a huff.
"I can see fine. It is definitely a beetle. It's got antenna and a shiny shell and everything."
Beside them, Hudson harumphed and scratched at his beard.
"Walking on two legs though? Like a monster, or like a being?"
Fyson threw up his wings.
"How should I know?! It's a beetle, alright! It was walking! Maybe it's a monster, maybe it isn't, we aren't going to find out by sitting around here talking all day!"
"Na minobis."
As one, the Tarrey Town residents yelped and jumped back raising their weapons.
"Ah! Ma'galamek! Churro tella selamak!"
Less than a stone's throw away from them was a new figure. This beetle (if it was indeed a beetle) was of a height with Hudson, and seemed to be wearing a pair of spectacles on its face. Two long antenna drooped behind it, and there was a knapsack of some sort bulging with rolled-up parchment on its back.
The beetle raised its hands (claws?) in a motion of surrender, and Fyson relaxed his hold on his drawn arrow. He left the arrow on the bow, though.
Rhondson was the first to recover fully. She stepped forwards, sword drawn but pointed at the ground and announced "We are residents of Tarrey Town. State your business in plain Hylian, bug, so that we may know you as friend or foe."
The beetle tilted its head somewhat, then began speaking. Fyson tried not to stare at that way its mouth moved.
"Te'mello, nudo'aylamek. Bezz'a stakugando?"
Greyson shuffled around awkwardly and said "Did any of you get that?"
The others shook their heads or murmured in the negative. The beetle seemed to pick up on that, and they came to the same conclusion that it likely had.
They didn't speak each other's language.
Granté, who had been silent until now, spoke up.
"Fascinating! The presence of language, the upright posture, the fact that they are wearing spectacles. This must be a being from some far away land! So far away that they don't know any Hylian!"
Fyson, and more than a few more of the party members rolled their eyes.
"Yes, fascinating, but this puts us in something of a pickle, doesn't it?"
Granté's smile dimmed somewhat, but after a moment, it came back full force.
"Well, yes, but that doesn't mean we can't try other avenues of communication. Did anyone bring paper and ink?"
Rhondson snorted.
"I doubt the beetle shares our script either, but if you want to try, grab a stick and draw in the dirt."
Seemingly not picking up on Rhondson's dismissiveness, Granté proceeded to do just that. He walked closer to the beetle, who had been watching them curiously, and began to sketch out something on the ground.
Fyson saw a picture begin to take shape. There were roundish, shell-like houses in one place, and cubic houses in another. The bug seemed to pick up on what Granté was doing, and pointed to the roundish, shell-like houses, then over to the town behind it.
"Det'umass."
Granté smiled, and pointed to the cube houses with his stick, then over to where their town was.
"Tarrey Town."
"Tchareey Twoon?"
"Tarrey Town."
The beetle nodded and muttered to itself (himself? Maybe it was a him. It sounded like a male. Or at least Fyson thought so, not that he could understand the bug very well. The language it spoke almost sounded like something that could come out of a Rito's beak or a Hylian's mouth, except for the chitters, trills, and clicks).
The bug motioned to himself, papping his chest (thorax?) several times and said "Cohr'neefer."
Fyson blinked.
"Is that his name?"
Granté ignored Fyson and pointed at the bug.
"Corneefer?"
The bug nodded and papped his thorax again.
"Cohr'neefer."
Granté nodded, smiling, and copied the motion the bug had done.
"Granté."
"G'hantae?"
The Sheikah just continued smiling and once again said "Granté."
The bug repeated the name dutifully.
With that done, Granté turned in place and gestured to the rest of his companions. Rhondson was the first to pick up on his meaning. She stepped forwards and slammed a fist into her chest.
"Rhondson."
Fyson sighed internally. This game of charades was going to take awhile.
Author's Note: So yeah, if you haven't picked up on it now, Dirtmouth and Tarrey Town are quite close. Dirtmouth is in the Torin Wetlands, which is that flat area just a paraglide down from Tarrey Town that has a bunch of dead Guardians and 2 Guardian Stalkers patrolling. Crystal Peak is to the south, and is butting up against the mountains surrounding Zora's Domain, and is also right next to Akkala Citadel. The Howling Cliffs are to the north and butt up against Death Mountain. The Northern Road in the Area now actually goes through King's Pass, while the Southern road is mostly unchanged despite its proximity to Crystal Peak.