Lescar

"Ahhh..." Lescar groaned sitting up dazed, her head pounding as if a mountain had fallen on it.

'What- what happened?' Lescar thought stupidly, her recollection foggy and unclear.

Lescar brought herself into a crouch before pushing off something both hard and fluffy.

"Huh?" Lescar looked down on what she was touching then blanched.

Falling on her backside, Lescar scrambled backward, flattening some of the grass and staining her leather coat.

She remembered now, it was all rushing back to her, she had been running from a troll, ended up fighting some rats then fought the most terrifying cockroach she had ever seen.

And then she had lost...

Lescar looked down and touched her neck, a metal band with no seams tight around her throat, flexible but unyielding.

She had been collared, enslaved, It was unbelievable, the collars weren't supposed to affect people.

This shouldn't have happened.

But it had, and Lescar was now in service to a cockroach.

That same cockroach was just in front of her unmoving save for its antennae which twitched occasionally.

'Is it asleep? ' Lescar peered cautiously at the giant bug, it did not move, suddenly she had an idea, if she could kill it before it woke up she might be able to break her binding and not be eaten or enslaved by a giant bug.

Lescar glanced around for her sword and found it a few paces from where she had awoken.

Checking it over briefly Lescar sighed relieved, it wasn't damaged or rusted but it would need to be thoroughly cleaned later, part of the blade had dipped into the water canal.

Lescar tiptoed up to the creature's side moving with muted steps, until she stepped on a dry vine hidden in the grass prompting a resounding 'crack!'

Lescar flinched, holding her breath, but the bug merely twitched, its antennae unceasingly flicking about.

Exhaling, Lescar carefully made her way just short of the bugs head being sure to avoid the lively antennae.

'A swift stab to the brain should do it,' Lescar thought seriously raising her blade high in preparation to strike.

Then she hesitated and tried to bring her blade down but couldn't do it, somehow this felt wrong as if she were breaking a promise.

'I never made a promise! did I?' Lescar internalized frozen, unable to bring the blade down on the slumbering bug.

Clutching her head Lescar felt dizzy her headache growing intense.

"Ahhhh!" Lescar hissed her face clutched in her hands, sword still in one.

She could almost recall a conversation she had, had with... Someone.

It was vague, blurry like looking through misty glass and she couldn't recall the details, but she had agreed to do something...

She just couldn't remember what exactly, but whatever it was, it involved this abnormal insect.

And the being in that hazy memory promised things... power?

'It had promised power in return for subservience and...' Lescar concentrated, trying to hold the wayward and loose memories in place.

Straining Lescar grasped at the mental straws failing to seize the memory, she gasped from the effort, but couldn't hold the memory as it fell out of her reach.

"Damm it," Lescar whispered, her head now pounding again, but now more like she had a drummer in her head.

Whatever that things deal was, it didn't involve killing the giant bug in front of her.

Suddenly, having a thought Lescar glared down at her collar, realizing something important, even if she had been able to make herself stab the insect, the thing around her neck would force her not too or kill her with pain afterward, if it didn't do the first.

She had seen that happen to ab-human slaves who attacked their masters, it wasn't pretty.

So what should she do?

Killing the bug was out, so that left running and staying.

Running away was a tempting option, but Lescar got the distinct impression, that if she did that, the cockroach would somehow find her again and that it would be angry.

And staying... her logical mind said nothing good could come of hanging around next to a flesh-eating insect the size of a donkey, but another part of her whispered that it would be ok, that it would be the right choice, that the bug wouldn't hurt them.

It was really weird Lescar didn't know what to make of the feeling, it felt as if she herself believed it and it was something she had already thought about, 'had she thought about this? she didn't think so?'

Conflicted, eventually, the whispering part of Lescars mind won out, where would she go even if she ran? she was lost in the sewers, and that being had promised her some good things she couldn't quite remember, that being, surely wouldn't let her die so soon.

At least she hoped they didn't.

She was again placing her life on a bet, and she hoped she came out a winner.

Lescar had only settled down for a few minutes, leaning against the cockroaches fluffy leaf-like carapace, when she heard something dreadful.

"UUuuuuurRRAaaaahhhHHH!" The stone shaking roar traveled up and down the forest like sewer way, utterly shattering the silence as many creatures previously hidden in the undergrowth panicked and scarpered, the roaring challenge scaring the creatures witless.

Gripping her blade tightly, Lescar rose from the floor jerkily, the fear making her stiff, she had forgotten about the troll in all the recent madness.

She couldn't run anymore she had to fight, but she was afraid, she was too weak before and that hadn't changed, she couldn't beat this thing alone.

But that small part of her whispered again, ' but we are not alone.'

Lescar felt the ground tremble next to her as another monstrous titan rose to meet the challenge.

Clambering to its many large clawed feet, a cockroach rose to its full and impressive height, standing next to Lescar, towering, its hungry staring eyes focused ahead, both sets of jaws creaking as the powerful muscles within flexed.

Lescar watched in stunned silence as the giant bug took a step forward, shielding her with its bulk, the hind legs moving together to rub furiously against each other, producing an unearthly sound unlike any other.

With a rising crescendo akin to grating metal, crackling bones and inhuman screaming, the king of the hidden forest screeched back his ire, his vocalization just as earth-shaking.

"SKRRREEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"

' Maybe she wasn't alone after all.'