Cagaster of an Insect Cage one shots

Cagaster

3rd pov

Kidow's honestly not sure why he can recall his past, what allowed him to retain his sanity after becoming a Cagaster, but he has. Sure, adjusting to being able to fly, having more legs and impenetrable skin had been extremely hard - especially since his skin feels wrong and weird - but the worst part had to be finding out more about Cagasters that he ever wanted. Because he's not hungry. Which means they don't eat people for food, they just eat them because they want to. He never wanted to know that, because it's disgusting to know.

Learning to see through eyes that only see heat had been a problem too, so he only really moves around at night. Of course, he's also a different kind of Cagaster, not the huge ones that fly or the ones that dig under the ground, he's more... lizard/man like? He's got the same height and build as when he was a human, but instead of skin, he's got the leathery brown skin of a bug, with the bulky armor like coverings all along his legs and arms. He can choose to walk on two legs or on 4, since he's not got 6, and he can also move much more fluidly than other bugs.

The two legs he received after changing, are more lizard-like than an insect, with the ends having toes with claws, rather than just claws. His wings are more sturdy, less easy to be taken out like bugs, though they are certainly still more than strong enough to withstand most of the things humans have to attack with. Of course, the tail had to definitely be the give away, only thick around his spine before getting thinner, the only thing it has is the layer of skin and a bit of armor, but otherwise it's just like a lizard. He knows his eyes did not change much, that they remained where they are, though the way they see certainly changed, and they might've changed color - he'll later learn they almost always glow an almost ethereal blue - but otherwise, he thinks he's doing pretty good.

He stretches, grunting as the armor over his face shifts, making him really feel the sand that's gotten between it and his skin, so he'll need to take a bath and hope he gets lucky, since the only nearby pond is pretty close to the town - E05, he believes - and he is now their enemy, even if he doesn't want to eat them, they won't believe him, least of all if he talks to them. So, he moves with a grunt. Night time it may be, Exterminators still patrol the wall, along with the army they have there, so he can't be spotted. The armor on his face is annoying and often leaves him wanting to just yank it off, but he doesn't know if that'll kill him, so he refrains... for now.

He heads off towards the pond, making sure to stay low, the only thing letting him know he's reached the right place, being the wetness on his fingers as well as the familiar heat coming from the town nearby. Honestly, night time is the best time for bugs to attack, but they're much less active during this time, sleeping or whatever the hell it is they do, so the towns are more or less safe, though they should take every precaution. He slithers into the water, ignoring its temperature difference - after all, he's no longer human and so he can't feel it very well - just trying desperately to get the sand from between his armor.

He's so focused, he misses as the moon finishes setting - he'd been exhausted recently and slept longer into the night than he usually does as a result - and the sun rises, people starting to come out and leave the town, merchants and the others who work around the bugs. He misses the footsteps, the whispered cusses, the hurried footsteps, as well as the slow steady ones, giving an angry grunt before he takes a hand and digs the claws that are able to come and go as they please under the armor, finally getting the bit of sand that was bothering him. He finally focuses, only to freeze as he realizes he can see everything, as well as nothing.

With the arrival of the sun, heat is coming off everything and he only has a small hope of not being discovered, blind as he currently is. Of course, that goes out the window when he hears the footstep, a single loud one, before something winds around his neck, limiting his air and dragging him from the waist deep water he was in, causing him to blink the water away. He's stuck on his back, wings under him, in an uncomfortable way and also a bit annoyed because he just got the sand out from between his armor, but he refuses to lay a hand - claw? Paw? Wing? - on another human, so he just goes limp, resigned.