2. Oh no, not you too!
The yellow creature flew fast, I noticed. I had a rather hard time catching up, and I was already focussing as hard as I could on things below me so I would get repelled as forcefully as possible. It was flying faster still and I began to wonder if I could ever catch up. I noticed it had wings, a bit like a beetle. Did natural wings give so much better flight than just repulsion? My eyes widened slightly as I realized something. Maybe…
This was going to be hard. I needed to focus on three things at once! Still, with what little focus I could manage without falling to the ground, I willed the air around the thing I was pursuing to repel it towards the ground. Not too forcefully, just, enough to slow it down. At first, the yellow creature seemed to be spiralling out of control towards the ground, but then it regained its control over flight and landed, grumbling all the way, gently on the ground. I caught up with it and slowly released my focus on the ground, causing me to land gently behind it.
Before I could say anything, the yellow, insect-like, mechanical-like creature turned around to face me and I found myself suddenly surrounded by five more of these creatures, all looking exactly the same.
"Who are you?" It asked with a female voice. "Why are you following me?" I narrowed my eyes. The voice sounded familiar, despite sounding more… guttural? I cocked my head to one side. Was it really…?
"Ether?" I then slowly asked. The girl's eyes widened. Apparently she recognized my voice as well, despite me sounding more… soft, like I was constantly speaking in whispers.
"Icarax?" She then asked back. I nodded. At once, the five other Ethers around me disappeared.
"It's me, no matter how I look." I said with a shrug. I looked her over. There was little about her, aside from her voice, that could tell you she was a woman. "But I see you received a… makeover… as well."
"Yeah. But gods, look at you! You're walking on four blade-like legs!"
"You're one to talk." I snorted. "I don't know if you noticed, but your head looks like a scarab. And you're yellow and black. And you have wings like a beetle. And… Well, to keep it short, you're an insect-like, biomechanical monstrosity like I am."
"How tactful." She hissed, her metallic wings fluttering in irritation. I sighed. Wonderful. Not only did I end up here, so did one of my friends. But on the other hand, at least it meant I wasn't alone in my misery. I was rally getting annoyed and became quickly tired of walking around on four blade-like limbs like an insect.
I sighed and looked at my friend. "How did you end up here, Ether?"
She shrugged. I was a bit jealous of her. Sure she had a scarabhead now, but at least she still walked around on two legs. Granted, her feet just existed out of just two toes, and those toes were just blade-like, metal claws, but hey, better than walking around on four legs. But in closer inspection, I noticed her hands weren't far better of than mine. They were blade-like pincers, like mine, just not as long. But hey, at least she didn't have to walk around on them.
"I have no idea how in heaven's name I wound up in this swamp, looking like I do now…" She sighed and shook her head. "I went to sleep and woke up only to be here."
"Then we're the same." I admitted. "I wonder if there is a way to get out of here and become normal again." I glanced at her sideways. "You do know where we are, right?"
"Nabreus Deadlands, Ivalice." She replied flatly. "Hard not to notice when you're flying around above the mist and see the ruins of Nabudis right in the middle of the swamp."
"Yeah." I looked around, it looked like the mist was thickening. "What do you think of going somewhere above the mist before it has become so thick we can't see our own ugly selves anymore?"
"Sounds good. I don't feel like being ambushed by the things that dwell here in this swamp, either." She spread her beetle-like wings and shot up in the sky quickly and without a sound. Shrugging, I repelled myself of the ground and flew after her.
Again, she was a fast flyer. I repelled myself as forcefully as possible and barely caught up with her.
"Ahem, care to fly a bit slower?" I shouted to her over the wind. She looked over her shoulder to me and slowed down a bit.
"Sorry. Didn't realize I could fly so fast." She looked me up and down then noticed I didn't have wings. "Speaking of flying, how do you fly?"
I quickly explained her how I could repel myself or other objects. "I guess I gained this ability when I became an insect."
She nodded knowingly. "Possible. After all, I found out that if I focus enough, I can summon past version of myself. As many as I need, for as long as I need."
I whistled. "That may come in handy. You know, if it weren't-"
I never finished that sentence, because at that moment, a loud scream could be heard from somewhere below in the mist.
"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!"
Ether and me looked at each other, both of us surprised. I stopped, hovering perfectly still in mid air. Ether stopped as well. Both of us looked down to the mist and swamp below. Finally, I spoke up first.
"Is it just me, or did the voice who just screamed seem familiar?"
"It isn't just you, I thought I recognized it as well." Ether replied slowly.
"Do you think we should check it out?" I asked slowly, not certain of what I should do. Ether shrugged her now metallic and black shoulders.
"What do we have to loose?"
"Nothing, I guess." With that said, I slowly lowered my focus, causing me to gently descend to the swamp floor. My female companion followed quickly. Soon enough I was crawling over the swampfloor like an insect again, carefully placing my four limbs on the muddy ground, always testing first if the ground was solid enough. Ether just flew over the ground. Can't say I blamed her.
"Now, where did that scream come from… It's hard to orientate yourself with this mist." I muttered. Ether looked around carefully and intently. She didn't know either. I trudged through shallow water silently. I noticed that no matter what, these four bladelimbs of mine did make me very quiet as I moved. With a bit of practice, I could become very stealthy in this mist. The sound of grumbling reached my ears – wherever my ears were located now, because I was sure you couldn't see them on the outside of my head anymore – and I slowly walked in its direction, quietly mentioning Ether to follow me.
We came upon a little island in the middle of the shallow waters of the swamp. Some dead tree trunks had fallen over and now laid on it. Seated on one of them was what I at first glance mistook for a giant mosquito. Upon closer inspection, though, it became immediately clear to me that, for one, it was way too large to be a mosquito, and second, it was half-bio, half-mechanical like we two were. Great, fantastic, wonderful! Another poor sod who suffered our fate and now looked like an overgrown swamp insect robot. This poor guy was a bit short, was green and black and had, believe me or not, four arms and two legs. Great, six limbs, and I thought I had it bad walking around on four legs. His face was strangely twisted, too hard to describe. The most notable thing about it, though, was the stinger on the end of its… chin? A pair of mosquito-like wings sprouted from his shoulders. The upper two arms had, and I felt jealous again, just normal hands. Well, if you call three-fingered hands with huge claws normal. But hey, at least its better than a set of oversized pincers to walk around on. The second pair of arms only had hands with two fingers, each finger having a huge claw. To my surprise, the guy's feet were identical to his second pair of hands. And the most weird thing of all, was that his legs seemed to have two knees each. Too weird for words. Ether frowned at first as she looked upon our mosquito friend, who still hadn't noticed us. Then her eyes widened in realization. She left the safety of the mist and approached him.
"Munchin?"
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And cliffhanger-ish ending! Yayness, I'm not the only one who has become a biomechanical insect trapped in the Nabreus Deadlands in Ivalice. What will we do now? Is there any hope of escape this too weird for words nightmare? That's for me to know and for you to find out. :p
Images of the three insects (that's me, Daughter of Ether and Munchinmonster). Just put a dot . where the spaces are.
Ether:
www majhost com/gallery/Elpizo/SpiritsOfTheMist/ether jpg
Me (Icarax):
www majhost com/gallery/Elpizo/SpiritsOfTheMist/icarax jpg
Munchin:
www majhost com/gallery/Elpizo/SpiritsOfTheMist/munchin jpg
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Next chapter: we three insects sob in each others claws and act like a miserable bunch when suddenly, someone comes up and tells us there's a way to go home and be normal again...