"The Hanmah are beings from another land," Smorm began. "They came here suddenly and were small, nearly the size of my eye." Smorm's eye was nearly the same size as Dante's head. "They came through places where the air shimmered for too long. At first, we paid them no mind. They were harmless and took no interest in us. But then they began to consume." Smorm's color flickered to purple before paling to almost white. "Our land used to be filled with life. But the Hanmah hunger, and their hunger cannot be sated. Our land used to be lush with life. So many vibrant mushrooms and animals. But the Hanmah have consumed until they are the only life that exists outside these walls.
"They feast, growing in size and then number and then size again. Now, the largest of them are large enough that they can eat us, and they do indeed eat us if we fly too close," Smorm continued. "The largest Hanmah are now too massive to move, but they still find ways to feed, by making the air shimmer above them and summoning their food to them. Our first thought was to attack their eggs to slow their growth, but they protect them well, and many that we access will vanish into shimmering air before we can crush them. Our current attempt in slowing them is by catching their food from the air and bringing it back to our nest, but they counter that by keeping the shimmering air above them longer, and we cannot catch everyone.
"The Hanmah are an unstoppable invasion," Smorm concluded, voice solemn. "Our numbers have dwindled drastically from all our attempts. There seems to be nothing we can do but accept our deaths, but we will fight them for as long as we have breath."
Dante worked his other arm out of the manacles while Smorm talked and then sat cross legged on the bedroll, listening. "Where I'm from, we call the shimmering air 'portals,'" he said. "It sounds like the Hanmah are able to create portals to bring their food in from other worlds and then also spread their infestation by pushing their eggs into new worlds." There was something about stating his realizations out loud that struck him, and he swallowed hard. He hadn't known lifeforms like this could exist, and if they managed to spread all the way to his home world, he doubted that anyone could stop them. "But it might not be as hopeless as you think," he added quickly, his words partially reassuring himself. "I'm a noble of the Nascent, and I have super strength." He dug his fingers under the metal cuffs binding his ankles and pulled with all his might. The iron gave with a crack. "Even without a weapon, I should be able to cull a few of them. Maybe that will make a difference."
Smorm and Ekl glanced at each other.
"Don't look at me like that, Smorm," Ekl said.
"But I knew this one was different," he said. "I was right in saving it, and now it can help us."
"And I don't need that rubbed in my face," Ekl snapped back.
Dante rubbed absently at the indentations on his freshly freed wrist as he watched the strange insects argue.
"But for all we know," Ekl continued, "this being is meant to distract us. Why should we believe that it's so willing to help us?"
"My friend was killed by one of the Hanmah," Dante cut in. Mentioning Jemma's death brought with it all of the associated pain, and his eyes brimmed with tears. "I saw her mangled body caught in the throat of one of those monsters. I want my revenge, and I want no one else to ever die like that again." The tears spilled over, and as they brushed across his cheeks, he lost what composure he had left and began bawling. He cried all the tears for Jemma that he'd repressed. He cried out all his fears from being thrust into this foreign and deadly world. He cried for his broken Chimera and his hopelessness at ever seeing either the Nascent or his home ever again. All his possessions were lost now, his bag having been stripped from him. He had nothing and no one.
"You have distressed it, Ekl!" Smorm snapped at the other mantis before resting one of its long, barbed forelimbs against Dante's shoulder. The smooth carapace was warm and bowed as it came in contact with his flesh, as though it were a bag filled with water instead of the leg of an insect. The barbs were mobile and caressed Dante as he sobbed.
Ekl harrumphed and ignored the emotional human.
Other than the anguished sounds of Dante's crying, the room had fallen silent. Dante used only stopped when his eyes would produce no more tears and he was hiccupping. He wiped tears and snot from his face with the sleeve of his shirt and swallowed. What little saliva was left in his mouth was thick and sticky, catching in his throat and making him cough. "Water," he croaked pitifully.
Smorm went to one of the glowing shelf mushrooms that wasn't holding anything and came back with a clear, square container that was filled with a thick, dark liquid like congealed mud. Bubbles occasionally broke the surface like the time Dante had left beef stew in a pot and forgotten about it for several nights, causing it to spoil.
But there was no smell when Dante took the container and placed it at his lips, and Dante was thirsty enough to try anything. The liquid was somehow grainy as he drank it, and it was as thick as it looked. However, there was no flavor, and it refreshed him in a way that only the coldest, cleanest mountain water did. He drained the entire cup, rubbing at his lips with his fingers as he handed it back. A strange taste lingered in his mouth, tasting somewhat like the smell of rain hitting dry earth mixed with lemon. "Thanks," he said. "What exactly was that, though?"
"Water," Smorm replied with a hint of confusion.
"Ah. I guess water means something different here," Dante said. "Still, it was good." He rubbed again at his face. His tears had dried, but the residual salt had left dry, itchy paths on his cheeks.
Smorm leaned back. "We could let this one speak with the others of its kind. Maybe then they will be more willing to work with us."
"Might as well get some use out of it before we toss it back to the Hanmah as a snack," Ekl said.
Smorm shimmered a vibrant green. "This being is going to help us kill the Hanmah. If things go poorly, I will be there to save it. I won't let it die." Its wings buzzed defiantly.
"Then go and show it to its kin before sending it off on its death mission," Ekl said, tone dismissive.
Smorm placed a protective limb about Dante, the barbs stiff and poking through Dante's shirt, and the two of them left the room and ventured out into the halls.
Dante was led down tunnels that were much taller than wide. Although more than wide enough for him and Smorm to walk side by side, when another mantis approached them, it suddenly felt cramped.
The halls were lined with more of those shelf mushrooms. Some of them were damaged with chunks missing out of them. The mystery of the damaged fungi was solved when one approaching mantis snapped a piece off of a mushroom as it passed, holding it up to its mouth pieces with both forelimbs and munching as it walked.
Most of the other mantises they passed didn't seem to notice Dante. But the handful who did flashed purple and froze, their mouth parts twitching. They rotated their heads all the way around so they could watch as Dante and Smorm continued down the winding halls.
Eventually, the pair of them reached a wide pit. A dozen mantises flew around the mouth, and the sides were dark with damp. Smorm held him back from getting too close to the edge. "It's slippery," Smorm warned. "And you cannot fly."
Dante held on to Smorm's forelimb for stability and leaned closer to peer down.
Fellow humans wandered aimlessly at the bottom of the pit, picking at mushrooms or reluctantly drinking this world's version of water. Many of them were thin and lay on their sides. A few of them were kept isolated from the others in elevated cages built ten feet up into the walls.
The muscles in Dante's shoulders tightened and his jaw clenched at the sight.
"What's wrong?" Smorm asked, gently pulling Dante away from the edge of the pit.
"These are my kind," Dante said. "They don't deserve to be in a pit."
Smorm shifted to a pale shade of orange. "Before you arrived, their lack of a language and their animalistic nature made us think they were unintelligent. Many of them even lashed out at us and hurt us. But if you can manage to tell them we mean them no harm and have saved them from certain death, then our two species may be able to work together from now on."
Dante looked down at the people below him and then back at Smorm. The mantis creature did seem to be on his side. Maybe the two of them really could make things better for the humans down below, so that they could all live together.
He cupped the hand that wasn't holding onto Smorm to his lips and yelled down to the people in the pit below him. "Hey!" he called to get their attention.
Everyone looked up at him, including many of the mantises. The ones who had been flying landed on narrow perches or hugged the walls of the bit, the barbs in their forelimbs clutching to the pores in the stone.
"These…bug things, whatever they are, don't mean you any harm! This is my buddy Smorm! Together, we're going to make sure our two races can work and live together! If you're willing to live in peace with them, they'll take good care of you! I can act as a translator!"
Smorm pulled Dante back and spun him around so they were facing. "What are you doing? You have to speak to them into their own tongue!"
Dante shrugged. "Everyone can understand me when I talk."
A murmuring rose from the pit.
Dante jerked one thumb over his shoulder at the pit. "See? Sounds like the message got through just fine."
Smorm relaxed, lowering the forelimb on Dante's shoulder. "I see. Interesting. You have great powers, it seems." The mantis held open its forelimbs and invited Dante closer. "Now that you have placated your kind, let us be off. You will have my support and be perfectly safe, both in flight and in your combat."
"Can I say one more thing first?"
"Of course."
Dante leaned carefully back over the hole. "I'm about to go out and kill some of the creatures that are the real enemy! I'm going come back after I kill ten, no, twenty of them, and from there, we can unite and take out the rest! Once they're gone, this world will be safe for us all!"
There was a cheer from the pit as both the humans and the mantises were energized by Dante's words. Satisfied with the results of his speech, Dante got into position and allowed himself to be carried, though he clutched tightly at Smorm's arms as they rose into the air. The sinking feeling in his stomach was only partially from how far below the ground was.
What if he failed and never came back?