{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "canonicalUrl": "https://serpentsquiggles.neocities.org//posts/black-nerve/chimhop/25",
  "path": "/posts/black-nerve/chimhop/25",
  "publishedAt": "2022-07-17T00:00:00.000Z",
  "site": "at://did:plc:ivoe7cntxuy6at7uzmxzs2ft/site.standard.publication/3mfk6cpprzt2t",
  "textContent": "How many bugs could a direhound kill?\n\nOoliri --- Ooliri of all people --- was able to knock down one of\nUnodha's dogs with his baton. He had his brother's help, sure, but then\nit took one stab from Firha to finish the thing. (If his recounting is\nright, that is, but would Ooliri have embellished killing something?)\nAwelah shakes her head. So, Unodha's dogs had to be something a town\ncould defend itself from without needing vesperbanes' help, right? The\ndanger of direhounds is that they come in packs, anyway. There's only\none left, now.\n\nYet she had watched that very hound undergo that same muscle-crawling\nenlargement its master could provoke --- all on its own. Something\nMakuja had thought was impossible without a spell, Unodha's own spell.\nWas that direhound casting a spell on its own? But it's impossible for a\ndirehound to be host to the vespers, wield the vespertine arts.\nImpossible for any direbeast.\n\nBut not a myxogoth.\n\nAwelah tightens for a moment, remembers where her spear is. That was\nimpossible right? Just an obscure myth? Maybe Unodha dying had disrupted\nwhatever hold she had, sent her spell into misbehaving. Awelah breathes\nin, abdomen rising.\n\nDid it matter? Myxogoth or miscast, what would Awelah do?\n\nYanseno insinuated Awelah was selfish --- willing to enact personal\njustice and nothing more. He had to be wrong, and she had to show him\nthat.\n\nHow many bugs could a direhound kill? Awelah wondered. Now, she asks a\nbetter question: how many bugs can I save by acting?\n\nAwelah drops from her perch in Boleheva's office, feet sinking into the\ncarpet. Carpet, and this town hall has dirt floors. No layer of grime\ndwells in between the cloth fibers, nor discolors its red and light gray\npattern. Well, except for the dirt Awelah's sandals are tracking now.\nShe looks up, where a red roach is waiting at the threshold. Her large\nmaxillae are crossed.\n\n\"Finished your fascination with the floor? You've been sitting there far\ntoo long. It's time to go.\"\n\nAwelah nods, mind far from the floors or the roach secretary. What would\nshe say to Ooliri, to Makuja, in order for them to act alongside her?\n\n\"Be a dear and tell your friends to get lost with you while I close up.\nIt'll save me some breath.\" Ruby closes the door.\n\nReaching the two other members of Team Duskborn means walking past\nYanseno. Right now, he's calling over to Mogs:\n\n\"Look,\" he says. \"I'm not gonna be your minder. I'm letting you off the\nhook, just get back here tomorrow, right?\" Yanseno balances the black\nglass of his sensor ball on one dactyl, another dactyl grazing it,\nspinning the orb. \"Remember: I'm a sensor, so it's not a question of\nwhether I'll find you, it's how much of my time you waste. And I charge\nby the hour.\"\n\nThe pale nymph walks on past. Ooliri is beside the maverick, but Makuja\nis perching by the door. If Awelah can get the red nymph on her side,\nOoliri will come along too.\n\nOr truly, she didn't even need to go far. Ooliri stands and starts\ntrailing after Awelah just as she passes.\n\n\"Do you know what's going on?\"\n\nAwelah waits until Makuja is in hearshot of her low murmur. The red\nnymph's head turns, auricles flaring.\n\n\"The direhound is back,\" Awelah says. \"We need to finish it.\"\n\n\"You say we, but you mean me,\" Makuja says.\n\n\"I can still use my spear.\"\n\nOoliri turns to her at that, maxillae opening, His palps ghost his file,\nperhaps considering avenues of objection --- you shouldn't be using your\nspear, he could say, or we shouldn't be doing something so dangerous.\nBut Ooliri takes a different approach: \"We shouldn't do it alone. There\nare other vesperbanes here.\" Then he stops. \"Would Boleheva even need\nour help? Is --- is this what she left to do? Then it doesn't seem like\nshe wants us to---\"\n\n\"It's our fault,\" Awelah says. \"We brought it here. It---\"\n\nShe doesn't get a chance to finish, because Yanseno has stopped his\nconversation with Mogs, and in a single stride, crossed the distance to\nstand behind Awelah.\n\n\"What was that?\" he asks.\n\n\"It's following us,\" Awelah finishes, her voice not raising nor her\ndictation quickening, as if in defiance of Yanseno's intimidation.\n\"Hunting us. If we go out there, it'll seek us instead of the bees. We\ncan save them.\"\n\n\"You're very important, aren't you?\"\n\nAwelah scowls.\n\n\"Look, everything you said might be true. Might explain some things. But\nyou forgot what I said this morning. Mother anteater means father\nanteater. I watched Boleheva read the letter. She wasn't thinking about\na direhound, she was thinking about a direanter.\"\n\nDirebeast is all she said, Awelah recalls with a spike of\nembarrassment. Awelah taps her palps, but no response materializes.\n\n\"Then we shall not be getting in her way,\" Makuja says. \"Boleheva can\nhunt the anteater, and we can find Vilja.\"\n\nFind, Awelah notes. Not hunt, not kill, not even stop.\n\n\"You aren't getting in her way, yeah.\" Yanseno says. \"You've got a room\nat the inn, and I'm taking you there.\"\n\n\"Why do you care,\" Awelah says. \"Let us take out the direhound. If you\nthink we can do it, we get rid of a problem. If you think we can't...\nthat also gets rid of a problem, doesn't it?\" There's an edge that\ncreeps into her voice.\n\n\"I gave you the wrong impression, didn't I?\" He shakes his head. \"I\ndon't care about every tragedy I see. Takes a hard heart. But I'm not\nheartless. I'm not going to let a couple of fresh fevered kids throw\nthemselves at the world when you --- literally! --- can't cast a spell\nto save your life.\"\n\n\"So come with us, then,\" Makuja says. \"They can be the bait, and you and\nI will be the teeth of the trap.\"\n\n\"I don't work for free. Right now, the extent of the problem is some\nhowls in the air at night. Direhound hasn't attacked anyone besides\nyourself, and you say it's got a special grudge against you. There's\neasier prey in those woods, and I think the dog will do the smart thing,\nat least till it catches a whiff of you. Boleheva will be back tomorrow,\nand there's nothing breathing down our necks to do something tonight.\nRelax a little --- would think you three would be anxious for beds after\nshades stuck in the wild.\"\n\nYanseno starts toward the door. Behind him, Awelah is mumbling. (Her\nvoice is quiet, but can he hear anyway?) \"Does someone have to die\nbefore you'll do anything?\"\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\nOoliri climbs down the trap door. The tavern, with a shuttered look from\nshafts of sunlight, has a bug sitting at almost every table. The whole\nroom seems to pause when the vesperbanes enter, heads turning, voices\nquieting. The mood is... expectant. Do they think we'll do something?\n\nThe quiet means they hear the distant patter of steps, see a green nymph\nclimbing up from downstairs. With timing that perfect... Ooliri frowns.\n\n\"Did she know when we'd arrive?\"\n\nIn front of him, Yanseno glances back to reveal a quirked palp. \"Don't\nworry about it.\"\n\n\"Nouspell?\"\n\nYan clicks mandibles, then nods. \"No need to answer if you're quick\nenough to figure it out yourself, ha.\"\n\nThe pale nymph is beside Ooliri. \"You said you could read minds,\" Awelah\nsays. \"Does that mean you know that --- know what I'm thinking?\"\n\nYanseno points at a spinner ant. That one is draped in cloth, colorful\nstands woven across the surface of the cloth, but it's... hugging?\nkissing? It's touching another ant, and there's no convenient sheet to\nread off of. \"Way the myweft is woven means something. Can you tell me\nwhat it says?\"\n\n\"No.\"\n\n\"But you can see it, can't you? Make out the different strands and\nsymbols? Why not tell me what it means?\"\n\n\"I don't understand antscript.\"\n\n\"Every mind is its own language,\" Yanseno concludes. \"Being a\nconnectique means being a code breaker for a script with no translator.\nI'm not bad at it, give me a few sessions and I could answer your\nquestion --- but like I keep saying, I charge by the hour.\"\n\nAwelah breathes out at that.\n\n\"Still, don't need any special insight to know you plan on sneaking out\ntonight, right?\"\n\nThe green nymph has crossed the distance, stands before the maverick\nwith a smile now giving way to puzzlement. \"Why's that?\" Quessa asks.\n\n\"Awelah still wants to risk her life against a direhound for no good\nreason, and I haven't prevailed sense on her.\"\n\nShe glances at the pale nymph and gives her a smile. \"That sounds\nheroic!\"\n\n\"Not if it's ineffective and unnecessary,\" Yanseno says.\n\nQuessa tilts her head. \"What if I helped?\"\n\nA sigh, almost completely muffled by his trenchcoat. \"Not you too.\"\n\nThe green nymph frowns, but before she can reply, her gaze lowers,\nlooking past the imago. At the entrance he stepped through a moment ago,\na new bug is at their heels. Quessa smiles.\n\n\"Bites Water, was it?\" says the maverick. Looking back at the girl, he\nsays, \"This one was asking about you earlier.\"\n\n\"Right,\" she says. \"There's something you can help me with, in fact!\nBut,\" --- she looks at Awelah --- \"I should probably show you your room?\nThey didn't have one with more than two beds, so there's a cot---\"\n\n\"Not it,\" Awelah says.\n\n\"Nor I,\" Makuja says.\n\nThey both look to Ooliri, his golden antennae twisting. \"Can we rotate,\nat least?\"\n\nYanseno, having lost interest in the conversation or seizing the\nopportunity to ditch the nymphs, has stepped over towards the bar where\na dirt-red mantis glances up. \"Looks like I'll need something with\nenergy,\" he starts.\n\nAfter that, Ooliri turns to see the green nymph waving to him --- she\nand the other girls have slowly started walking, and the ant steps along\nwith antennae working. They advance and there's silence, at least until\nthey reach the ramp, and then Quessa is whispering.\n\n\"I can maybe help you three sneak out, if you still want to. But if we\ndo this... I can't tell you the plan.\"\n\n\"Why not?\"\n\n\"Yanseno can't read my mind, and I'll know if he tries. It's safer!\nAlso, I can be cool and mysterious. All the strongest vesperbanes have\nsecrets,\" she says.\n\n\"So we just have to trust that you mean it and you're not just going to\ntell him behind our back",
  "title": "A Stifling Protection"
}