Chapter Text
She should have known better than to go out alone.
The mantis darted her eyes between her assailants: a weevil, a numbnail, and a chomper. Her grip was weakening on her daggers. She was running out of time.
The weevil charged, and she could not stop it in time. She cried out in anguish as it bit down on her leg, crushing her shell under its jaws causing her to fall prone. Her vision blurred as her eyes welled with tears, not to mention the searing pain in her leg. She tried desperately to stab the weevil, managing to gouge out one of its eyes, causing it to release her broken leg. But it was no use, the other bugs would finish the job. She watched helplessly as the chomper waddled up to her, jaws open wide.
Suddenly she felt air rushing past her, as a large black and red butterfly landed in front of her, and the chomper fell to the ground, sliced in half. The butterfly flipped their poleaxe and swung at the numbnail, the hammer head easily crushing the hardened shell. The weevil attempted to flee, but the butterfly threw their weapon, spearing the weevil.
“Thank you! Oh, gracious Venus, thank you. I thought I was done for!” She praised the butterfly as they went over to retrieve their weapon.
They turned to face her, finally revealing their face.
She screamed, recoiling back at the hideous sight. The butterfly had a half rotted face, with mushrooms sprouting out of their right eye socket. The light of the setting sun illuminated the pulsing mycelium lurking just beneath the empty eyes. Poking out through the neck fluff was the sickening sprouts of cordyceps. She had read about them, and hoped that they were only stories.
They… it , crouched down in front of her. She tried to push herself away from the zombie, but the pain in her leg caused her to fall limp. She whimpered as the zombie reached a hand towards her leg.
“That’s quite a big hole you got there.” The zombie spoke with a harsh voice, crackled and raspy. “It’s barely holding together.”
“You– you can talk?” she asked, her voice quivering from fear and pain.
“Not only that, I can heal . It’s a good thing that weevil didn’t get another bite, probably would have torn the thing clean off. And that would have made my job harder, as well as the treatment more…invasive.” he held his hand millimeters above the leg, and the shell of his hand shifted as fungal tendrils spread from his wrist.
She yelped, and jerked her leg away. His mandibles twisted into a scowl.
“If you don’t want my help, so be it. I have nothing against leaving you here to die. If you want to live and return to your home, hold still. ”
Her chest was heaving from her shaking breaths, but she held her leg still. She watched as more mycelium grew from his wrist and wrapped itself around her leg, straightening it and covering the hole. It quickly hardened, and broke off of the butterfly.
“There’s healing spores in there, too, to speed up recovery. You should be able to walk on it in a moment.” He got up and left the mantis lying there without another word.
He flew south, following the strange feeling. It called to him. The setting sun cast long shadows across the golden hills, and the sky was a sea of beautiful red, pink, and orange. It was breathtaking. Or, it would be, if he could see it. He did not mind the fact that he could not admire its beauty, but he did occasionally wish his eyes were not simply holes. His other senses made up for it when he needed them, but sometimes things that would be obvious are not easy for him to discern.
The scenery soon changed to a darker field of greens and blues, as he flew across a new region and the sun finally dipped below the horizon.
Eventually he found a cave with an opening like a gaping maw, and he landed in front of it. This was the place, he was sure of it. He could feel the pull in his mycelium. He had to hurry. It was getting desperate. It was getting weaker.
An ant stopped him. “Hey, you’re not supposed to go in–” her mouth hung open in shock as the butterfly turned and growled at her, before flying into the cave. “Sweet venus, who… what was that? I– I gotta report this”
He rushed through the cave, leaping over walls and flying over chasms until he reached a set of large, ornate doors. He flew through the open doors and into an ancient laboratory. He could feel the buzz of mycelium all around him. There were cordyceps here. Beetles, bees, and ants, even some creatures wholly fungal…but these were not the source of the call. They were simple minded, feral, and tried to attack him. They failed. He flew past the slow ones, and quickly dispatched the ones that successfully got in his way.
Eventually he ran into a group of uninfected bugs. Another beetle, though this one had a brighter shell and only one horn, a bee, though smaller and cuter, and a moth. He could feel the moth in the same way he felt the other cordyceps. Though his was different. More refined. sentient.
“Aw man, another one?”
“Wait, this one’s a butterfly. How odd, the rest were all found in droves, and yet this is the first time we’ve seen a butterfly…”
“Asoiu, khiwenjf huivstr!”
The two uninfected bugs jumped, and looked at the moth, concerned.
“I take it he’s not supposed to do that.” Cordy said.
“What?!” Vi jumped.
“It talks?” Kabbu wondered.
“That one does, and you don’t seem surprised about it” Cordy pointed at the moth.
“It knows about Leif?”
“How could it know about Leif?”
“It’s a bit rude to refer to someone as an ‘it’, you know. Do you refer to Leif as an ‘it’?”
Leif flinched. It was only moments ago he referred to himself as an it.
“You could instead refer to me by name, if you want. I haven’t got a proper name, but most bugs call me Cordy.” The butterfly extended his hand. “Nice meeting you.”
The bugs looked at the hand like it was the strangest thing they had ever seen.
“...Leif.” The moth took his hand and shook it carefully. “Though, we guess you already knew that.”
“I mean…at least he isn’t attacking us. So, sure, why not? I’m Vi!”
“Kabbu. Where… how… are you…like them?”
“Of course not! Those things are mindless beasts. The only difference between them and the feral bugs is that they’re mushrooms instead of insects. I, and Leif, on the other hand, are just as sentient as the two of you.” He crouched down to get on the same level as them and leaned towards Leif, who leaned back slightly. “Hmm. There’s magic in you, definitely. But not…” he stood back up. “No, you’re not the one who called me here.”
Leif blinked. “What? What do you mean?”
“There’s another cordyceps here. Another like us, sentient. They’re close, so close I can’t tell what direction they’re in. Have you seen any other cordyceps?”
Team Snakemouth looked at each other, unsure whether to tell this bug what they did to the one other unique cordyceps.
“Oh, don’t tell me. Come on, Leif, don’t tell me you didn’t sense it, too! Surely you recognized it as one of your own”
“We…did. It was overpowering. It scared us. We didn’t want to accept it.”
“What did you do?”
Vi looked back at the room they just left. “We kinda…killed it. Sorry.”
Kabbu glared at her and whispered, “Vi! Don’t just tell him that!”
Cordy stepped past the group. “Well, clearly you didn’t do a good job at it.”
“What?!”