//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: Frank // Story: Why Am I A Bug? // by DJ TR33 //------------------------------// Chapter 2: Frank by DJ TR33 I stood up slowly, trying to keep myself from falling over again. It wasn't easy, especially since my legs felt like they were literally on fire. Don't ask me how I know what it feels like to have your legs be on fire, but believe me, it is extremely unpleasant, and it was not helping my mood at all. Eventually, I managed to stand push myself into an approximation of a standing position. I stood upright, my legs wobbling somewhat beneath me and threatening to send me crashing to the ground. The only reason why I actually managed to stay upright was through sheer force of will, and an intense desire not to get more sand in my mouth. I lifted one leg up to take a tentative step and promptly fell flat on my face. "Shit..." I mumbled, cheek pressed against the sand. When I tried to stand up again, I realized that my horn had lodged deep in the sandy soil. I pulled hard with my back legs, trying to get it out. After a few seconds of straining, it came out with a jolt. I overbalanced and fell over backwards, landing hard on my back. A jolt of pain shot through one of my wings. "Son of a bitch!" After a few seconds, I rolled over and tried again. This time I managed a few steps before crashing back to the ground. It took a few tries, and a significant increase to my headache, before I was able to walk without falling immediately. I made my way up the dune I'd been sitting under. It took a few minutes, since I constantly had to check myself before I lost balance. Eventually, I made it to the top, and I was able to look out at the desert in front of me. "What the hell..." I said, trailing off as I took in the view. In front of me, a few miles away, lay a massive structure. At first I thought it was just a massive sand dune, but I quickly realized that it was made out of sandstone. I could see holes in the structure, entrances to tunnels that presumably wound down into the ground below. I stared at it for a few moments before realizing what it reminded me of. It looked like a massive ant nest, or a wasp hive. "The Hive," I said, almost unconsciously. Something about the word just felt right. I tore my gaze away from the Hive for a moment to look at the view beyond. The desert kept on going for almost as far as I could see, but just past it I could make out a glimmer of green, the end of the desert. For a moment, as I looked at it, I felt an intense, irrational anger start to bubble up. Then I remembered that I had a lot of better things to be mad at than a green place that was miles away, like the fact that I was a bug-thing or that I still had fucking sand in my mouth. Mostly the latter, though. I brought my leg up, trying to rub it against my teeth to get some of the gritty little shits out of there, but all I really accomplished was cutting my leg again, this time on my sharp front fangs. "Goddamn it!" I cried out, putting my weird black leg back on the ground. It hurt like crazy, and I hoped that whatever creature I was wasn't venomous, or at least was immune to its own venom, otherwise today was about to get a hell of a lot worse. And, to add insult to injury, I still had sand in my mouth. I was interrupted in the middle of trying to spit it out by a voice coming from somewhere nearby. "My Queen!" someone near me cried out. I winced as the sound amplified my already bad headache. I turned towards the source just in time to see a smaller bug creature crash into me at full force. I screamed as it knocked me off the top of the hill, sending me tumbling down the hill in an ungainly mess of limbs and chitin until I finally stopped at the bottom, with my mouth once again firmly pressed into the sand. "My Queen! Are you alright?" the voice asked. "What do you think? Of course I'm not fucking alright, some asshole just crashed into me like a goddamn five ton truck!" Slowly, I struggled back to my feet, looking up at the asshole in question. He looked a lot like me, but smaller. A black glossy substance covered his entire body, although it was cracked in a few places where I could see green blood flowing out. He also had a horn, fangs, and glossy wings on his back, although one of them was bent at a bad angle halfway through. Despite this, he was hovering in the air above me, pain warring with concern as he looked down at me. As I spoke, he landed next to me and bowed his head. "I offer my humblest apologies, My Queen. I have injured you, and my life is now forfeit. With this, he exposed his neck, giving me a chance to study his features more in depth. Unlike my own horn, which was jagged and sharp, his looked more like a thorn, sticking up off his head and eventually tapering to a point. He also had a large fin running down his back, almost like a mane, and a short tail made up of a similar material. Curious, I poked at the fin. It had a strange, almost rubbery texture. Reaching back, I tried to feel for a similar fin on my own body, but instead of a fin I found something that almost resembled hair, but seemed a bit harder and less flexible. I was testing it with my front leg when some of what the bug thing said sank in. "Wait, what did you call me?" I asked, looking at him. He raised his head, hesitantly. "My... Queen?" He asked, his voice as hesitant as his movements. I decided to let him down as gently as possible. "Look, I'm flattered, really, but I think you've mistaken me for another person. Uh, bug creature. Thing. What do you call yourself?" "My Queen, I am Drone #743." He still looked extremely nervous and confused, although I suppose that could be explained by the whole thing of thinking I was a queen. His queen, apparently. "Yeah, there's no way in hell I'll be calling you that. How about Frank?" He froze, staring at me with wide eyes. After a few moments, I started waving my hoof in front of his face, but he still didn't move. "Shit, did I break Frank?" I mumbled. I poked him, hoping it would break him out of whatever the hell was going on. It didn't work. After a few seconds, I poked him again. "Two," I said under my breath. A few moments passed. "Three." For a bug creature with a hard outer shell, Frank was surprisingly fun to poke. "Four." Still nothing. "Five." I smiled to myself. Poking was always awesome. ~~~ "Sixty six." Still no movement. I barely held back a yawn. "Sixty seven." Wait, did he move a bit? I think he did. Hmmm. "Sixty eig-- woah!" Frank jumped back, looking at me with complete and utter confusion. "My Queen, did you... give me a name?" He asked, his voice filled with reverence. "Yeah, I did. Why? Is that important?" I asked, still befuddled by his reaction. As much fun as he'd been to poke, I still had no idea why he'd frozen, although I was glad to see I hadn't permanently broken Frank. He seemed like a good guy, even though he'd crashed into me earlier. He started to say something, then paused. "My Queen, may I ask you something?" he asked, his voice trembling slightly. The whole fear thing was starting to get on my nerves. "I told you, Frank, I'm not your Queen, but sure. Go ahead." "Did you... hit your head when you fell?" I looked at him, surprised. From how he was acting, it seemed like he was taking a huge risk in asking me that. Maybe he was braver than I'd given him credit for. I sighed, not wanting to disappoint the little guy. "Here, let me level with you." I sat down, so that I was actually level with him. "I have no idea what's going on, why I'm here, or where 'here' is. I'm hurt, tired, and hungry, I have a killer headache, and I still have some motherfucking sand in my mouth from when I first woke up. I don't know what I am, but I'm not your Queen. My name is..." I trailed off, as I suddenly realized I didn't know what my name was. Thinking about it, I realized I couldn't remember anyone's name. Not my father, not my brother, not my friends, not even our family's dog. I remembered picking up that dog's shit thousands of times, but I couldn't for the life of me remember what his name was. "my Queen, are you alright?" Frank asked, seeming very concerned. I almost growled in frustration as he stubbornly continued giving me that title. Suddenly, I had a moment of pure genius and inspiration. "Okay, Frank, here's what we're going to do. Consider this me testing you on your knowledge and skill. I'm going to pretend that I don't know anything, and you're going to fill me in on anything I ask about. Sound good?" I asked. He nodded, looking relieved. It was as if he'd been expecting orders the whole time, and hadn't really known what to do without them. I felt kind of bad, knowing that I was using the little guy, but I needed someone to fill me in on the world I was in, or else I might fuck up seriously. Now, I know that it might seem like I didn't care what happened, but that's not really the case. The way I saw it, this was most likely some kind of freaky trip, but it also might be reality, and I had to prepare for that possibility. On the off chance that I wasn't making all of this up in my head, I had no intention of dying of starvation just because I was too dumb to use what the world sent my way. In this case, Frank. "Okay, first question. What's my name?" I asked, standing up again. I started to walk up the dune, leaving Frank to catch up. Ordinarily, I would have felt bad, but Frank was expecting royalty, and I was ready to oblige. "Queen Chrysalis, my Queen," he said, scurrying to match my longer strides. "Chrysalis?" I said, looking at him in shock. "My name's fucking Chrysalis?" I started to giggle. It was just too goddamn ridiculous. Soon, my giggle turned into a snort, then a chuckle, and finally a full blown laugh. Frank just looked at me with a mildly concerned expression I would get to know very well in the near future. "Eh, I guess it suits the situation," I said, still laughing a bit to myself. Frank looked relieved that I'd come back to my senses somewhat, but he seemed too nervous to question me about it. I'd have to work on that. "And it shortens to Chrys. I like it!" "Now," I said, turning back to Frank, a sinister gleam coming into my eyes. "I've got a helluva lot more questions."