Fly Quest

File: Sparrow.jpg (4KB, 274x184px) Image search: [Google]

4KB, 274x184px

There is no time for deep thought. The bird's shadow gets bigger and starts to circle. You begin shaking. Wang stands his ground. You wait for the instant that the bird dives, that will be your chance.

You wait. You wait. You wait...here it comes! The force of the dive generates a gale that buffets you. You struggle to stay aloft, spinning your body to match the contours of the wind and ride it. The sparrow is not coming for you, it has spotted Wang.
"Wang!" The bird is already below you, wings tucked to pierce the air, beak forward and eyes full of the terrible hunger of the predator. You can hear the shriek of the air as it is split apart by beak and body. Closer and closer to the ground, until at last the wings unfurl and the bird glides with an open beak. Wang stands directly in the path.
"Wang!" There is the slightest movement of an bladed forearm, so fast that it seemed only to have occurred in your imagination. The bird's left eye is covered in blood. Wang's left arm is covered in blood. The bird shrieks.
"Insect! You challenge me? I am the hearld of your death, your flesh is mine to feast and feed. Perish now and submit to your fate!" The voice blasts through the air like a hurricane. Wang stands unfazed and fearless.

"Make me."

The bird cries out in fury, swings around and descends with still greater speed. "You will die this day, mantis. I will feed you to my children."
The sparrow does another pass but misses again. This time he lands on the pool and starts pecking at Wang. The ground breaks from the force of the tremendous beak. Wang is able to dodge all blows, but the bird has greater strength and stamina. Wang cannot win. Once again the fight in futility, strength destroyed against greater strength, and you remain hidden in fear.

>Fly in, distract the sparrow somehow
>Run, run as fast and as far as you can, there is no saving a dead insect

>>466158

I won't hide, not this time.

>>Fly towards the sparrow, try to hit his bleeding eye.

>>466158
>Fly in, distract the sparrow somehow

GO FOR THE EYES, BUZZ, GO FOR THE EYES

>>466158
>Fly in, distract the sparrow somehow
Let's die an honourable death.

File: godofthesky.jpg (5KB, 250x202px) Image search: [Google]

5KB, 250x202px

>>466356
>>466371
>>466459

"Conflict alone, separates maggots from flies, son, remember that."
"Yes, father. But...I don't like fighting. I'm scared. I don't want to be a soldier."
"Don't be ridiculous! You're a Bizzbozz. You have warrior's blood in you. 30 generations of it. My father was a warrior and his father before him and his father--"
"--But father!"
"Quiet! Your mother was always soft on you -- that's how you became like this, like-like..."
"Like what! Say it! I'm a weakling! I'm a maggot! You never wanted me for a son! Say it! Say it!"
"...I'm going. You're starting in the morning, get there early."
"..."


It makes no sense to fly to certain doom. No one will mourn you. Your death will mean nothing in the greater context.

But. If you live and if you run, you can go on to the ants and do your part in the world. To die then, at least having tried, to have valor, honor, glory in the death...

But the wiser part of you knows that valor is a hollow recompense for victory. Your father lived and died for the glory of battle and his name was remembered -- for a time -- but now you alone remember him and if you die, that will end the line of Bizzbozz. In both, word and flesh it will end. Warrior's blood. What bullshit! What a fantastic lie!

Then why are you flying so earnestly toward the sparrow? Tears well unchecked, you scream as you charge toward the sparrow's eyes, but nothing comes out. You slam into the side of the bird's face, missing the eye completely and knocking yourself backwards from the blow. You start plummeting from the sky.
"Pests and fools! Shoo fly! Shoo!"
Desperately you aright yourself and rise. Two of your legs are broken. You brace yourself for another charge. You scream. A high shriek falls like the dread call of lightning.

It is not your voice.

Again the high pitched thunder sounds, time holds still as it passes. You look up. A hawk. A god of the sky. The sparrow is rooted to its place and its face you can see the fear you know in yourself. It begins flapping its wings to gain altitude. But already you know it is too late. Mercy that was never given...how can it be found?

You look away at the swift and efficient carnage. Wang takes his chance and flees into the tall grass and you follow, make haste to the east. You offer a silent prayer to the Great Wind which has kept you aloft.

"Alright there my flying friend?" Two legs broken, out of breath, still scared beyond all wit.
"Fine! Just fine! And you?"
"Hahaha! Can't complain!"
You move hard fast into the dense grassline, not daring to look behind you. Not daring to think about the closeness of it, the terrible proximity.

>>467211
You travel until the burning of your muscles overtakes all sensation. You start sinking, your wings refuse to beat.

Wang stops.
"My dear Bizzbozz, you need rest. Let us go to under shade of that flower and drink deep of it dew."
You strain your body to move forward, almost crashing beneath the leaves of the flower. You find solace from the heat, too exhausted to care about anything else, even the fact that you are dangerously near a Praying Mantis.

>Close your eyes and rest for a bit
>Ask Wang to continue his tale

>>467237
>Close your eyes and rest for a bit
I believe we can trust him.

>>467237
>Close your eyes and rest for a bit Wang seems on the up and up.

>>467237
>>Close your eyes and rest for a bit

File: tegaki.png (7KB, 400x400px)

7KB, 400x400px

>>467237
Don't rest nigr, this Faggot Mantis is going to eat you.

>>472881
Always knew mantis were faggots

>>467237
>close eyes

>>468642
>>468670
>>472371
>>472936
Despite your better judgement your eyes close and fall into a deep sleep.


"Hey! You're Buzz's kid ain't ya?"
"Y-yes sir."
"Thought that was you. Smaller than I heard. Well, if you're Buzz's son I guess I can expect great things eh?"
"..."
"Well, get settled and head to the mess hall. I'll see you in the morning."
...
"Great Wind, Bizzbozz! You must be the weakest, smallest, most sorry buzzing maggot I ever did see! Buzz me side ways and set me loose in the buzzing wind, are you kidding me Bizzbozz? You can't even evade that? If you can't evade that how are you supposed to run screens in actual battle? Huh? Again! Again you buzzing maggot motherbuzzer! Again! Again! Agaaaaaain!"
"I-I can't do it sir. I can't do it."
"You're a disgrace to the Fly squadron Bizzbozz, a disgrace to your own name! Great wind on a buzzing fly, get the buzz out of my face your buzzing maggot! Get out! Get the buzz out!"


You jolt awake. The sun is sinking on the horizon. You overslept. Wang is sitting next to you, awake, but in deep meditation, or prayer. You test your wings, your muscles ache but you can fly. You two legs are numb, you can't move them. They've been bound in sticky sap.
"Ah my flying friend, you are awake! Wonderful! I hope you don't mind, I took the liberty of casting your limbs while you were asleep. It will be a while before they fully mend, but the pain should have subsided yes?"
"...thank you."
"Of course, of course! That was quite a exchange back there, I suppose we should be more careful from now on. Luck for us that hawk came around and...well so it goes Bizzbozz so it goes, such is the endlessness of all earthly effort!"
"Uh...right."
"Now then, I suppose we should keep moving yes? You are still determined to meet these ants?"
"I am, I have to."
"Ah necessity then, yes, yes, yes that is more forcing than mere fancy. Very well, lead the way my flying friend, lead the way!"
You take flight, it's a little more difficult to balance yourself with two legs out of commission -- you fly in a slight slant to compensate.

>Ask Wang to continue his tale
>Tell Wang your own story

>>473155
>Ask Wang to continue his tale

File: queen_termite.jpg (67KB, 950x395px) Image search: [Google]

67KB, 950x395px

>>473238
A sliver of the Great White Orb provides soft light and the night breeze is comfortable.
"Wang, you never finished your story."
"Ah yes, shall I continue then?"
"Please do."
"Very well, where was I?"
"You tried to get help from your own kind, but they didn't help you."
"Yes...a terrible thing to be rejected by your own people but they lacked imagination, they were stuck to the ways of their lives. And so, realizing that I could not obtain wisdom from them, I left them. I traveled. I sought out wiser pastures. And eventually, my travels led me to the Aged One. Do you know of her?"
"Can't say that I do. Who is she?"
"She is the queen of the termites, who lives in the Grand Tree. She is old and has seen many things, far beyond our ken to see, for she has lived many lifetimes beyond our own."
"And you met her?"
"I did. I climbed the Grand Tree and sought a meeting with her. Her servants, for...obvious reasons, were reluctant to let a mantis in to see her. To tell the truth, my dear Bizzbozz I thought I wasn't going to get out of there alive! But, as it happened, she saw something in me, or perhaps she was simply curious, and she personally invited me to parley with her."
"What was she like?"
"Like nothing else on this fair earth.

I told her everything. My predicament, my constant fear, my dream to be rid of it. She was...astounded; she laughed. I asked her what the right path was and she told me -- she, who had seen so much pass before her, who had lived so many lives -- she told me that my quest was futile."
"I don't understand."
"Neither did I. She said, that to be a mantis is to accept a fate which was determined before my birth. To go against the grain of fate is a sin unto nature itself. She said, that we -- us insects -- are born into specific functions and roles. And these are immutable.

I was a mantis. Nothing could change that. I had to kill. I had to live in fear. These things were as absolute as my own death. Such was my lot in life."
An old bruise on the back of your head and another on your torso begin to ache.
"But you didn't give up...did you? I mean back there...with the sparrow, you didn't seem scared."
"...No I did not give up. The Aged One's words stung me, I thought I had wasted my time and I was more than ready to give up. But...at that moment giving up did not mean simply returning to my old habits. I did not want to live in fear. And if it was denied to me in life...what more could I live for?

But."
"But?"
"But, there existed a being far wiser than even the Aged One. You see, my dear Bizzbozz, The Aged One has seen many lifetimes and perhaps shall see many more, but there will be an end, eventually."
"What are you saying?"
"There exists a creature, who is not merely old, not only aged, but immortal, undying. He will not merely see many lifetimes, he will see all of them."
"What is this creature?"
"The Skin Beetle, the Undying One. I traveled for many suns to find him, but as fate would have it, he found me."

File: Undying.jpg (12KB, 260x211px) Image search: [Google]

12KB, 260x211px

"And what did he tell you? How do you conquer fear?"
"Haha. It was an answer I did not expect. He told me, that the Aged One was right."
"What! After all that?"
"Oh yes. I felt the same way. I was angry. I was furious. But then he told me something which at once pacified me if only because I did not understand it."
"And? What was it?"
"If a mantis is fated to be a certain way...to walk a certain path, if this is immutable, the solution is to stop being a mantis."
"I...don't understand."
"Neither did I. So I followed him. And gradually I began to understand. Whenever people saw me, they were frightened because I was a mantis, by my appearance they had certain expectations, as no doubt you did when we first met...but what of that? This me (he touches his chest) is not Me. Our bodies are determined at birth, this is true. But it is also true that we are not only what our bodies dictate. The same expectations that others had from me, I saw in myself and once I realized this, I understood that fear was not an outward thing to be vanquished, but an inward thing to be accepted.

You cannot conquer fear. Trying to conquer it is false. You feel it, completely, it is you, for a moment. And then it will pass if you let it. You spoke of the sparrow and that I was fearless then, but no, I was full of fear.

But it passes. As long you understand that the fear, will pass, that it cannot wholly and forever constitute you, then it cannot affect you."
"I'm sorry. I still don't really understand."
"Ah perhaps not...but you will one day, wisdom comes to us all, in the end."
You muse on what Wang has said, but none of it makes sense. Fear is fear. A fly is a fly. You are still your father's son. Still a failure. Still a coward.
"Ah, my flying friend, I believe we have arrived."

Before you ascends the great anthill. Lines of ant workers, even now in the darkness, work tirelessly for the colony. You have not been spotted...yet.

What do you do?

>>473689
Holy shit that was deep.
>Leave Wang behind for a second, and try to speak to one of the leaders.

>>473689
>Approach the ants openly with wang

>>473737
Wnag'll understand. We don't want hostility from the ants, keep Wang behind and confront the ants alone.

>>473737
This