One or two drider came along with us partway, making some webs between a tree here or there. I was glad; I myself liked to do things a bit out of order. I used to draw pointless things for relaxation- unformed shapes of random colors and no pattern. Draw things touching, touching, randomly halfway across the page and then fill in the blanks later. The web-wall pathway was starting to be built in the same way. I helped to keep the walls from looking too... refined? No, that wasn't really the word. Civilized? I wanted them to look creepy and monstery so people wouldn't bother us unless we wanted them to. Along the way, we checked the trees. I didn't want anything attacking from inside our guarded path.

I got lost in thought, thinking of things I could do, and what kinds of things I'd need to fill the gaps with. Also, what gaps were obvious, and what went unsaid. "What aspects are available to me?", I asked out loud. Everyone who wasn't otherwise occupied looked at me strangely, but it didn't really matter.

Wait a minute. Scary? I never named anything that, and I don't see the millipede... wait. I know the answer! It was Sun. She had named the millipedes before I did! She must have seen it better than I did and that's why her name for it counted more than mine. First come, first serve, I guess. I also wondered whether or not I'd get a second aspect window, or it would get bigger, or a second page, or something when this one obviously filled up. We did find some millipedes- they were diurnal, like I thought. They didn't sleep in the open; they hid inside holes in the trees where branches once were that had been hollowed out. There were also a few of them underground, in what almost looked like gopher holes. I hadn't seen any gophers, though.

We effortlessly killed the sleeping insects and took some with us to snack on later- there was more than enough to go around. The few drider staying behind that had come with us even kept some on-hand this time; probably for lunch since they weren't in range of the Yuck to get food without having to actually eat. Lyre had my scrap belt tied loosely around her waist, and I couldn't help but think everyone should have one. Well, maybe after I reinvented or at least rebuilt some things to attach to it. At the very least, she could use something prettier.

...

We arrived at the village after a half a day of travel- our speed must have increased from my confidence in where I was going and the lack of unnecessary distractions. There was a small band of men there, wearing armor and riding on... chickens? Well, not normal chickens. They were really big, almost like ostriches, but more robust. Most of them were yellow, but the man that was standing in front of the others was riding a red one. The yellow ones looked rather friendly and smart, but the red one looked somewhat gruff and aggressive. They reminded me heavily of the cutest bird that ever cuted its adorableness from a game series I used to like.

"Gur jin ooey mmph hnng!" the man yelled. He was yelling at the old man that I remembered as being the one that gave me bread the other day. "Glerlik vleruk nu atah!" I had no idea what he was saying, but it was obviously angry. Either that or he was speaking some odd and butchered version of Russian or Klingon or both, but it sounded somewhat similar to at least one of those. Maybe it isn't like English, and it's more like German- the context of the word changes the entire word to the point it doesn't resemble the other. I didn't actually know any of those languages other than English, though not for lack of trying! I mostly only knew fragments of languages from movies and that was tempered by having friends in a lot of countries with lots of primary languages. The media failed everyone, but at least the internet could counter it if one knew how to use it properly. Ahh, I miss Earth's future. I also missed auto-translation software.

"Hu ah nip". The commander, or that's what I expected that man was, kicked out his foot into the innkeeper's face, knocking him to the ground. He didn't even try to get up. The commander then got off his... the red bird, and three of the four men that were with him started to chuckle. One just smiled. I didn't like that smile- there was something horrifying lucking beneath it. I saw the look in his eyes- and obviously I was close enough that the group of them could see me. He pointed at me and said something like "Gum doo ah chee ahk". Everyone saw us now, the commander even stopping whatever he was doing. The innkeeper looked and saw me, too. I didn't know what to do.

He reached onto his side and lifted up a metal club with spikes on it- a morning star, I think. People often got morning stars and flails mixed up- a morning star is a handle with a ball at the end, sometimes with small dull spikes. That was one design, at least. It was on a metal prong sticking out of the armor on his upper leg, a leather loop came off of the weapon's handle. He looked back at the innkeeper, and bashed his skull in, hitting him square in the face a few times. He wanted to make sure he wasn't recognizeable, that I was sure of. It was more than enough evidence I needed, though it wasn't that I ever needed any before.

I was warned about this. "No social justice", the lady from the service window told me. I just saw it with my own eyes. When I was a man, I had fantasized about violence nearly every day of my life, though I very rarely got the chance to use it. I needed the law on my side first. But this behavior? No. No, I don't think so. I let the images I'd kept inside flow into my musicians and farmer, and we rushed forward. I hoped that my own image training would take and my children would fight well- I wasn't as right as I hoped. Shore had dropped the hoe when a cudgel from one of the mounted... I'd call them knights or soldiers or something, but behavior like I had just seen demanded that no respect whatsoever could be granted. Putrid wastes of life. That's what they were; though they'd be dead very, very soon, so it didn't matter what a waste they were.

Shore's arm didn't look broken, but it would definitely develop a bad bruise later, if we survived. But this had to be dealt with; we didn't matter- only Justice did. I had started to rush to the man's aid as soon as the first blow came crashing down, but they were quick and brutal hits, and I couldn't do anything fast enough. The commander tried to hit me with his bloody star, but luckily I was able to avoid it. I grabbed at the ground, seeing the hoe, and turned as quick as I could and hit the commander in the face, cutting his left eye open with the metal edge. He screamed, closing his other eye in pain, when a ding sounded in my head. NOT THE TIME! I ignored it. I'm busy!

Dulcet had pounced on one of the mounted suicidals when it was facing me. It had a gender and the gender was obvious, but it didn't deserve the respect. My hate was growing. Good! Hatred can be a beautiful and shining star that gives salvation and hope if one uses it right! I know I would. The thing came off its bird when it was pounced on, and Dulcet's fangs easily stabbed into the back of its neck, though not right away. Both of its jugulars were torn open in the attempt. I was pleased.

Lyre had hidden in between some buildings, and her black widow half was hidden in the shadows. It was bright enough outside, but the shadows were cast by the strange shape of the building making a cubby-hole that my daughter had backed into. This was bad! Don't trap yourself. But one of the monsters had shown a forceful and lewd behavior, seeing my daughter's unshirtedness. It didn't notice that she lacked a certain feature on her chest. Well, two certain features. The base structure was there, but the center was as smooth as everything else. Her hair was long like most of my black-haired daughters and I guess it wasn't obvious. As the thing got closer to her, she kept backing up, or trying to. She looked frightened. I felt through her, though, that she wasn't. She was hungry and angry. Once it got close enough to grab a hold of her forcefully, she lunged forward and bit into his face, releasing the poison from her fangs into his now empty eye sockets. He began to scream, but the poison pumping almost directly into his brain stopped that quickly.

The commander collected itself while I tried to grab something else to hit it with that would keep my weapon's reach longer than its own, but I didn't see anything close enough and I didn't think my hoe would last. I was surprised it lasted this long, really. I was surprised at what I saw next. The creature dropped its star to the ground, and pulled a knife out of some holster that must have been on its back where I didn't see it. Maybe I did, but didn't notice- we were busy and things were moving quickly. It looked at me as best it could, and started grunting and smiling, and gestured with its fingers for me to come closer. Sure, I could do that. I wanted to!

I don't know where the other thing was- seeing in the corner of my eye, it was being beaten with its own ripped off arm by Shore. I think that was the one with the cudgel. That means there's another somewhere! That's three of four cohorts dead by my children, one going to be dead by me soon, so that means there's a straggler. I wiggled my fingers in a way that if they wanted to crack, they would. They didn't. It lunged at me, and stabbed me in where... if I was human, which I most certainly wasn't now, would be my kidney. AGAIN!? REALLY!? Even if I had a kidney there (I didn't know my own anatomy!), I had at least two more. I could spare one temporarily for effect. Maybe permanently.

I had let it stab me. I stared at it and smiled, imagining what I was going to do next. I grabbed a hold of its arm the moment its grip released, and pushed it away. I pulled the knife out and the horrible beast attempted to punch me in my face. I grabbed a hold of it and pushed on its armored chest with one of my legs, and cut its hand off and threw it behind me like it was garbage I didn't care about. "You wanted me to do this! You can't actually act like that and expect to live, can you? You are suicidal and have come to me for help because you're too weak to overcome your own survival instinct! Don't worry, I'll help you!" I screamed, letting my voice crack as much as it naturally would when half out of breath and screaming at the top of my lungs, not caring about how much spittle I lost while I ranted. I called my children to me, verbally, by name. "Shore! Dulcet! Lyre! Hold him down!" Just in case they didn't understand their own names- and they did by now- I called help to them emotionally, too. Not 'oh no' help, but 'hey help me set the dinner table' help.

I cut through the leather pieces keeping its armor together, not caring if or how badly I stabbed it while doing so. It died pretty quickly. I heard a sound like something crashing inside one of the buildings, but luckily not the gardener woman's. It came from the inn. I walked over there. I didn't need to run, it would cause more fear in my remaining enemy if I walked. I opened the double doors and went in. I only saw two people- one was an elderly village woman. I recognized her from the other day- she didn't say anything and seemed quiet. Even more quiet now that she had red hand-shaped marks. One over her mouth, one on her throat. She hung limply and acted as a meat shield for the straggler. How it got in here and like this so quickly, I'd never know. But I also didn't care- it was holding its own knife against the throat of the poor woman. "Hrrnn ooo eee ooo eee" it verbally squirted out of its mouth, but I didn't care what threat it had been trying to say. I could tell that it didn't need to threaten to kill the woman if I didn't obey or leave or whatever it wanted- she was already dead. It probably strangled her to death or broke her neck or something trying to keep her quiet before she could be used to guarantee its escape before it killed her anyway. I studied history. I studied movies. I studied pretty much everything, really. It's a good thing to have no friends or family- you learn a lot more that way.

I gently moved chairs and tables out of the way as I got closer to the thing with the knife. It kept backing up, but as far as I knew, you couldn't back up through a wall made of solid wood. I stabbed my fingers into its throat when I got the chance. The woman might be dead, but there wasn't a reason to injure her body, only the one of my enemy. Its esophagus was hard, but the neck in between there and the jugular wasn't. My fingers, though mostly human, were granted the strength of my neanderthal self and though I didn't have fingernails, the last joint of my fingers looked just like black widow leg tips, so they were pretty pointy and sharp. The back of the middle of my finger joints had carapace on them too, which was nice. While I watched the murderer's blood ooze down my fingers and drip on the floor, I found it curious to stare so intently at the fusion of insect and human parts again. I guess it was just that my fingers weren't hairy anymore, but plated.