Daughter of Hallownest (NSFW) (CANCELLED)

Descent

After a few moments of awe over the kingdom and hope for the future, Hornet swiftly swung off the cliff and crossed into the brink of Hallownest. There was a tiny town here at the far side of the kingdom called Dirtmouth. It only had a few residents including shopkeepers. She felt slightly ashamed of herself for never visiting this town or talking to its inhabitants anymore. After all, I'm the protector of this land! Shouldn't I be interacting with the remaining residents? But she was able to push the thought away by thinking of herself as sort of a lone-protector character. It's my duty to protect this land, not necessarily make friends with the inhabitants. Besides, I'm far too busy for that. Suddenly she realized this social withdrawal was probably subconsciously a result of her shawl.

As she approached Dirtmouth thinking about paying them a little visit, she saw the pale bug interacting with a local, then taking a rest at the bench. That was the end of any idea of a visit. She had to stay far from this bug. She wasn't sure why, but she felt like she had to. Just as she was becoming impatient with him sitting at the bench, he got up and walked to the well leading down to the Crossroads, hopping down it as he had at the Gate. The Crossroads were an intermediate between almost every area of the kingdom. In its heyday, it was filled with busy travelers every minute. Now it was empty besides crawler bugs. It seemed that crawlers had infested the kingdom since the plague.

Hornet left her hiding place, crept around the town, and descended the well herself. Hornet had of course navigated the crossroads hundreds, no, thousands of times, and knew it inside and out. It appeared the ghost had already moved on, so she had to move fast to find where he'd gone, while being cautious not to be seen. The lingering insecurity in the back of her mind over the gown made that even more intense, as it had sneaking around the town earlier. It deeply irritated her, but she always tried to push it away. She decided that perhaps completely ignoring it would make it go away. She began to sprint, hop and swing completely recklessly without worrying about the state of her gown, letting it wave freely and expose her body. It felt surprisingly cathartic, and she resolved to do it more often... but only when no one was around. It was a start. 

Hornet saw Cornifer, the cartographer bug from Dirtmouth, humming and mapping out the area. He and his wife ran a map shop there. Knowing the kingdom inside and out, she had never had to buy one. She decided to leave him to his work and creep around where he wouldn't see her. Suddenly she caught sight of the pale bug strolling away with a map it must have purchased from the mapmaker. It stopped, confusedly looking up and down from its map, before seemingly deciding on a direction and heading there.

Hornet knew where the bug was headed. Greenpath. Explorers always went there. So she went ahead to wait on it. She was glad for it too; Hornet loved Greenpath. It was a lush, green series of caves. Even the crawler bugs there were covered in moss to adapt to the environment. She loved coming here to meditate in the serene meadow when she didn't have duties. Once she entered Greenpath, she took a seat at a bench for a break, instinctively adjusting her dress to cover her properly in the sitting position. After a few minutes, she heard the ghost's familiar footsteps approaching again.