Destined: 2 Be Continued

32. Not the Mosquito!

Penny awoke, lying down in some clearing deep in a dark green forest. She stood up and looked around frantically, wondering where she was--this was most definitely not Vespira's lab. "IS anyone there?" she shouted. "Vespira? You better not be joshing me, or I'll cut you into pieces!" Penny, as she spoke, became very uncertain about Vespira joshing her. She was almost entirely sure that this was not Vespira's handiwork. Vespira was evil, but not downright torturous.

"Alex and Penny, sitting in a tree..." Penny heard some strange voice sing from behind her. She heard a strange snicker, then turned quickly to see what was singing. There was some small, slender form rising from the brush. It had glistening wings and a long needle at the front of its head. 

"K-I-S-S-I-N-G..." the form continued. It stepped towards Penny, its eyes glowing. Penny gulped, wishing for her crossbow. "Are you one of Scar Shi's brothers?" she asked.

"First comes love..." the form sang. Penny wanted to rip its head off of its slender body. Finally, the form came into view. Penny wished that it had stayed in the brush.

It had four arms and two legs. The glistening wings sprouted from its back. It was covered in some sort of exoskeleton, which was an ugly sand brown. It had bulbous kaleidoscope eyes, and the needle on its head was some sort of mouth. It also had antennae on its head that Penny hadn't noticed before.

"Yes, YEEEEESSS, hee hee hee hee," The form--most definitely a mosquito--laughed. "I AM one of Scar Shi's brothers." It extended one right hand. "My name is Muskrel, the mosquito. Pleased to make your acquaintance." Penny hesitantly shook his hand, and she felt a bit of her power drain from her. She hastily pulled her hand back.

"HEE HEE HEE!" Muskrel giggled, spitting a green liquid from its needle mouth. "I get some of your power! That's what you get for shaking my hand, ah hee hee hee!" Muskrel's skinny little neck looked really really delicate to Penny. All she needed was one swift moment, and she could easily rip his head clean off.

"What do you want, Muskrel?" she scolded.

"I simply want to tell you about your next mission. You have defeated my good little brother, Scar Shi the beetle, hee hee. In order to even come close to Vilor, our big brother, you must first kill me! I will tell you my coordinates so that you may find me, and FEED ME, HEE HEE HEE!" Muskrel threw his head up in the air and laughed some more. His neck was looking real tempting. 

"I can see you want to kill me, hee hee hee. If you even try, however, I will take every drop of poison power in your soul. Then you will be powerless, and I will kill all of your friends..." Muskrel put his face so his needle mouth nearly touch Penny's human mouth. "...but I'll leave Alex for a while. I'll slowly kill him, so that I can torture you and break you inside. As I said, I suggest not touching me." Penny lost all temptation to strangle or behead Muskrel.

"Good, good. Now, allow me to tell you my coordinates. They are... and listen closely...

"45.13, -118.1," Muskrel pronounced slowly. Penny screamed in pain as the numbers were carved magically into her arm. Did this happen to everyone? She glared at the giant mosquito. "Fine by me. We'll go straight to these coordinates, and we'll crush you. You don't look that tough."

"You don't think I'm strong, do you, eh heh heh heh? Well, allow me to demonstrate to you what I can do," Muskrel whispered, then opened up his wings. They began to buzz, piercing Penny's ears and boiling her brain. She cried out in pain, screaming her lungs out.

She woke up on the floor of her cabin, with Heather and Belle standing over her. "Are you all right, Penny?" Heather asked, her brow furrowed with concern. Penny tried to answer, but she felt like she was being pulled back into Dreamy, the dream world. She attempted resisting its pull, but she eventually failed, falling into sleep.

Penny awoke on the forest floor again. She whipped around for a moment, searching for that treacherous insect, until she heard an ear-piercing buzzing. 

Muskrel.

"Oh, no, not the mosquito again..." Penny grumbled, as she was really hoping he had been a one-time thing. Instead, Muskrel floated, with very little grace, from the trees and into Penny's vision. "Hee hee hee!" the mosquito laughed, which was almost as ear-piercing as his buzzing. 

"Alright. Why did you bring me back, Muskrel?" Penny growled.

"Oh, just so I could taunt you more," Muskrel said, seemingly serious. He buzzed for a second, making Penny dizzy. Wait, was he trying to warn her about his abilities? He was insane, so he would do anything. Anything was excusable under the "positively, absolutely insane mosquito" card. Penny then began to make note of everything he did.

For one, Muskrel sure moved a lot. He would constantly be in full-body spasms, but it happened so often that he either did it as some sort of shtick or it was just how he normally was. He couldn't stay still. Also, his needle mouth would always be pointing to Penny, as if it was some sort of tracker for what must be blood, or even Destined power. 

"...Are you listening, eheh?" Muskrel asked after a while. The answer was no, Penny wasn't listening, as she was cataloging his every movement and tendency. That usually took up a lot of attention.

"Well, fine then, ehe ehe eheh. If you aren't going to listen, I might as well send you back."

"Okay. Be my guest," Penny grumbled. Muskrel raised his wings up, and Penny immediately regretted saying "be my guest." She covered her ears, but the buzz that resounded from Muskrel's wings was too loud and too powerful. It rang in her ears and dominated her nerves, eventually distorting her vision. Dreamy warped and whirled around in her vision, and she woke up.