Feudal Phase

The Stranger

They were Elytron. They said so as much in a husky voice, almost like insect shells moving across each other, and they stalked forwards on all fours before pulling themselves up even with Aster and Darter. They stood almost a half head shorter than either of them, and the spores covering their face evidenced a youth that their mutations didn't. Their wings, which were insectoid in nature, shot open and buzzed slightly. Bringing themselves far past the bounds of personal space, so that Aster could almost taste their rotten breath, they asked, "Is this yours?"

"When was the last time you were outside?" Aster responded.

Translucent membranes slid across Elytron's eyes. "Where the light is?"
"Not for a while," Darter wagered.

Elytron paused. "Yes." They at last seemed to find the word for it. "You don't look like the old panta."

"We're the new panta," Aster informed Elytron. "This is our house. We moved in."

"Ah," Elytron said. "Did they die?"

"We don't know," Darter said.

"Is there some kind of danger around here?" Aster asked. "Besides us, obviously."

"Are you dangerous?" Elytron's tongue snuck out of their mouth, a long tendril almost as distressing as the mandibles on either side of it. Aster yelled again as the tongue touched their scars, but instead of a fear yell, it was an anger yell. They wished for a stick to brandish in Elytron's face. Elytron backed up. "No. Not dangerous. Not very tasty, either."

"I don't want to be tasty. I'm doing the eating," Aster boasted.

Darter sighed. "We should go back upstairs, Aster."

"There's a panta living in our basement, and they have jars full of dead things and want to eat us!" Aster said. "Aren't you concerned?"

Darter reflected. "Not very."

"Should I be afraid of you?" Elytron probed. They scuttled around the pair of them. "Will you take things? Will you need things? Will you flush me out?"

"Yes, yes, yes, and no." Aster decided. "Consider yourself the first recruit to, uh--" Aster tapped their foot against the ground. Nothing in their immediate proximity jumped out to them as having name-y charisma.

"Aster?" asked Darter.

"--The first recruit to our group. We're going to name ourselves after our first kill."

"You're going to kill someone?" Elytron's voice carried no menace or fear, only the same dull curiosity their other questions had held.

"Yeah," Aster decided.

"No!" Darter said.

"We're going to decide that when we see someone who looks like they should be taking a beating," Aster placed triumphant hands on their hips. "Welcome to the first holdouts of an empire that's going to take over Big Silver."

Elytron blinked. "Do I need to do anything?"
"I'll be the judge of that soon as I see fit," Aster informed Elytron. They reached out to pat their first subject, then clearly thought the better of it, withdrawing their hand from ragged, dirty hair that also happened to be in the vicinity of some nasty pincers. "How do you feel about hard labor?"

Darter pulled Aster by the ear back up the stairs. Aster strained against them, especially as they stubbed their feet against the irregular stone steps. When they got to the top, finally yanking themselves free of Darter, they to launch both themself and Darter against the floor, which was still covered in moss scraps. Aster put one foot on Darter's back. They made no attempt to free themselves. "What was that about?"