Where Is Your Rider (OFFICIAL WATTPAD UPLOAD)

Chapter 13

Tubbo hardly dared to breathe as the Ohm loomed over him, mandibles clicking.

He'd never been this close to one, he thought to himself as the insect came closer to the outcropping. Sure he'd seen the occasional shed shell of one while scavenging out in the jungle—Ohm shells made excellent lightweight body armor if you knew how to cut and shape it—but he'd never been within a few hundred feet of a grown one before, mostly because that usually ended with someone getting killed.

The one they'd seen earlier today had been a baby. This one was an adult, and it was absolutely fucking massive. Each of its eyes were big enough for someone to use the lenses as an umbrella, and those mandibles could easily crush a truck in half.

The creature rumbled. Tubbo stayed stock-still, internally praying to every deity he could think of that the Ohm wouldn't attack.

"What the hell do we do?" Tommy stage-whispered.

Tubbo glanced over his shoulder, and winced. Tommy was crouched behind the glider, eyes wide in panic. Eret—who was crouching next to him—looked just as terrified, and they'd pulled Foolish's unconscious form with them to relative safety. Punz had gone still in the bush he'd landed in, eyes wide with terror, and he'd seemingly forgotten about the ropes binding his wrists as he stared at the Ohmu, frozen with fear.

Ranboo was standing just as still, his whole body visibly trembling, reddened, tear-swollen eyes wide with silent panic. Tubbo's stomach promptly tied itself in terrified, guilty knots again.

At the sound of Tommy's voice, the Ohm chirred irritably, the spikes on its back slowly raising.

"Don't move," Tubbo mumbled under his breath.

The Ohm's irritation was practically palpable, he realized as the creature's enormous blue eyes stared them all down. After all, they'd crashed into its nest without warning.

Tubbo suddenly felt guilty. He'd always had a healthy respect for the jungle and tried to keep from damaging the plants or killing insects when possible—the jungle was dangerous, sure, but its existence was an undeniable fact of life that Tubbo had personally chosen to coexist with rather than try to destroy—but sometimes, like now, leaving no trace of human presence was unavoidable.

"We meant no harm," he blurted, stepping forward heedlessly.

Behind him, Ranboo let out a horrified croaking sound. "Tubbo what the hell are you doing—"

Tubbo clenched his teeth and ignored him, carefully climbing down the rocks to where the wrecked bomber was sinking into the swamp. He couldn't explain it, but he knew the Ohm could understand him, somehow.

There were rumors about the creatures. Rumors that they were telepathic, superstitions that they could speak to their dying victims.

Tubbo had never quite believed them. Then again, all myths held a grain of truth.

He carefully reached out, holding his palm open flat towards the Ohm. He was eye-level with its mandibles now, and it took all his willpower to stay where he was, gazing up at it.

"We mean no harm," Tubbo repeated, and his voice wobbled anxiously. "W—we're only passing through."

There was a pregnant pause.

The Ohm whirred, giant blue eyes glowing faintly in the low light of the bioluminescent jungle.

Then, the strangest thing happened.