The Queens creepy screech, so shrill it had me shivering and my victorious grin turned down as it rang out, impossibly loud -

*Craaaack*

I felt the weight of the branch giving beneath me -

"Fuck."

I reached out grasping for other hand holds, to take the weight as this one gave out. The elastic band of my briefs was like a sling shot - throwing the insult I'd sent down to her right back at me, it splashed -

*Riiiip*

"Aaah! Damn it!" I squinted and sputtered out a puff of air, trying to wipe it off with an infuriated swipe, the branch hadn't even broke - just sagged and cracked - I was fine. Scooting back to the trunk with two firm hand holds. I sucked my wet underwear off with a furious thought to stop the self-loathing.

I heard the sound of branches and twigs tumbling and flickering down, tumbling bones clanged over the sound of her tempest -

I jerked my head up to the desiccated monkey - seeing it's twisted, agonized face stretched out - the bones of it's ribcage dangling - a gaping hole big enough -

The sapphire Queen pounced just as I put eyes on her. She had a flat head that tapered to her neck like a triangle with two fat mouth pieces waving out of it. Her body was jewel-like and smooth, like her brood, far larger and longer - she was shaped like a beer bottle.

- 1 HP, You have been Poisoned. 0 Damage!

The burst of fear burst like a bubble - the pain that had to be worse, that I knew was coming...

Nothing!

Finally immune, and just in time! I really was amazing. Unstoppable.

"Ha!"

Even as the fat stinger dug into my ankle, splitting my skin from her perch on my foot and spewing her toxin it was just a pinch. I was already flexing - gripped tight on the limbs above, kicking out in fury to crush her against the trunk of the tree.

My foot didn't move.

I balled my right hand, leaving the branch, bending down -

I stayed where I was. Locked into my position.

Paralyzed!

I started hyperventilating - my heart thundering, it should have been! Instead it beat slow - slower than normal - even my eyes moved in slow motion, each blink coming long seconds behind the last, taking forever - my breathing forced to remain calm and slow.

Relaxed.

The Queen chittered - excited. It was so loud! It echoed.

Be be be Beeee-thovan.

She pulled out the massive bottle neck of a tail from my foot, waving it at me, and began to slowly climb my leg. She took her time as she stopped her fiddling, instead beginning a delicate dance up my leg, her sharp claws tickling up my soft skin.

Over my foot and up up my ankle, past the small puncture oozing blood, and I couldn't do anything to stop her, I could only watch.

naked and paralyzed, in the top branches of a tree in a Dungeon Jungle. Completely helpless, stronger then I've every been in my life - the most powerful weapon here - tied against my back.

Beaten again!

By bugs!

I felt the rising panic that struggled for my attention, but it only simmered there, it didn't threaten to completely overwhelm me. I wasn't sure if it was the poison, that paralyzed both my panic and escape, or if it was the realization.

Look how little damage there was? In fact - I'd already healed.

The poison isn't hurting me, it's just stopping me - from hurting her. I'll just heal any second now, then crush and rip her apart. If the last poison didn't even last a minute? How long would the Queens last? Two minutes?

If Enemy-Friend could regrow his entire skin in fifteen?

Then I remembered - the three point's I'd gotten with the crafting of my Pain Stick. I hadn't used them in my debate trying to weigh everything against more strength. The last thing I needed now. A thought pushed them into Vitality - I didn't feel my regeneration change as I'd hoped...still, my health instantly shot up to 80, and I felt a surge of warmth from my center emanate out -

It calmed me further, I became even less concerned that she could hurt me and my worry was dispelled along with a weariness I hadn't realized I'd been carrying.

Like not realizing how cold you'd gotten playing in the snow all day - then coming inside, relaxing next to a fire and having a huge gulp of perfectly hot cocoa. I felt unnoticed stress vanish in a huge hug of healthfulness.

And as wonderful as it felt, I was still paralyzed.

I was looking down - hardly able to move my lips, only a soft scream like a tonsil exam. My eyes watered over my long delayed blinks, and already, the Queens touch flirted with my knee.

And through the terrible helplessness, even though I couldn't quite give into panic, didn't feel like I was doing anything more than waiting to finish her - that any second -

Where's she going?

She climbed higher, I began to sweat, I saw those pinchers and the part of me that dangled closest to her - I couldn't even turn away!

There is something she can do, a part of me pounds at my awareness. The little brother of my survival instinct screams - it doesn't matter if I can heal, it doesn't matter to me that I can heal. Her clicking mandibles and hard stinger just a foot away from my limp one?

I needed to open my hand - to fall, knock her off or...anything! I had to get free now! I would destroy, then - my mind finally found the panic - but the best I managed was to slowly pull one finger free from the iron grip I'd put on the branches above. I pushed all my concentration, all my will into it - I felt my thumb twitch.

It was working! The poison's hold lessoning!

My heart beat was increasing, the pull of air starting was coming easier, I was about to be -

Stab!

It was another sting!

-1 HP, You are Poisoned. -0 HP per second.

She knew! Damn it!

Another chitter, she was gloating! A clacking of her mouth parts and limbs - the violin squelch of her deformed wings as they pulsated up and above her in creepy applause at my failed escape -

I couldn't move at all, everything I needed in my inventory rendered useless without the freedom to swing it, it didn't matter if I could just flick and send her flying. Not if I couldn't even blink!

Of course!

I started popping things out above her - ribs, femurs and skulls - they popped into existence and fell down hitting her, I felt her claws dig deeper, felt them pierce and still she moved closer - more! Heavier. More!

I dropped books just above her - feeling the weight pull at her grip before sliding off, tumbling away.

I dropped them from my chest to gain speed to hit, to flip down and tug at her. To smash her away. Items fell randomly, landing lucky hits or just glancing blows against her, sometimes missing completely - and I felt her ascent stop. She started slipping, I was doing it!

We were going to be alright!

My wet underwear slapped her as she began to retreat, angry clicks as she saddled away, I continued to pour my gathered horde as she bit back with pincers trying to keep her grip.

They weren't sharp like I imagined, or even that strong. They just gripped a roll of skin and she held herself there, dangling from a bullring and I thought -

She swung back, catching herself.

Until the tree was littered like a crackheads van -

And I was empty.

Scraping the bottom - lint, sand, a few blades of grass - a pebble...everything I owned and it had only bought inches of reprieve, of safety for the little guy.

Why had I offered to introduce her?

Still I couldn't help being relieved. My panic had passed as the existential threat to my reproductive organs passed and that part that took over went back to sleep. She'd have to climb down my throat to even have a chance to kill me, she'd have to choke me and my mouth was closed - well, closing very slowly right now, but as fast as I could make it as I imagined feeling her claws scratching down it.

I tried to imagine the worst - to prepare myself. Maybe she'd get my eyes, but so what? She isn't that smart, she was instincts, not revenge - she'd realize she was vulnerable, against something so much larger that she couldn't kill, she'd retreat back to her hive...

Except...my eyes slowly moved to the monkey piñata, caught between two branches, my added weight had slowly ripped it open and it was still dripping -

Sting!

-2 HP

Another stab. My wait restarted.

Still - she wanted to survive. She'd just go make another. That's all that bugs care about. Building their hive and reproducing. And with that thought once more my eyes fell upon that poor monkeys face, saw it dangling there, as part of the hive that was no more.

And if I could have screamed in realization, it would have been enough to kill the Queen by itself -

No, no, no, no, no.

Hot tears - and I could hear the patter of urine once again on the branches below, I could smell it.

No!

The nightmare of the monkey's death - it's pain before being turned into a shelter by its killers, that became a fantasy. A sweet dream as I felt the pinchers - much stronger now, with their broad tips put to their actual use - not pinching.

Spreading.

Not the hole from a sting. I only thought of what she would enter. You can't - that's an exit.

NOOO!

How long had that monkey lived? The stinger inched up my thigh and I felt it catch and tug on my small curls of hair.

And start to push inside me -

NOOOOO!

Not cutting. Not stabbing. There wasn't even any pain to distract me from what was really happening. It was worse, worse than pain.

I couldn't see her - but the shape of her body was burnt in my mind, the tapered tail that just kept growing wider - and I saw myself frozen here- for the next 63 hours with just that triangular head poking out as she nested -

My mouth wasn't closed anymore, as it monkeyed the expression I had seen.

Deeper - my mind moved frantically to find a solution, but there was only one thing I could think of -

The money! The wallet! The Store;

I realized that I wasn't out of options, I reached for the store. Store!

I sensed it - it opened up in front of me like my inventory, not menus, but a vast store of everything. Everything in the universe...it all could be made real, all mine for the coin...

Everything was there - everything in existence that cost sixty-six coins, or less - everything I had to my name.

Why hadn't I killed those baby monsters, they had to be worth a coin each - it could be the difference between me getting - I grimaced in my regret, even as I felt the growing pressure inside me, the pressure to...to -

Sixty-six coins. What could I get? There was food and bottles of water for a few coins. There was a basic knife for twenty-five, and I realized it was like dollars - the costs were close to what I'd pay at our corner gas station - overpriced. But it had more selection than any retailer.

I searched with a frenzy - pushing through the choices, I searched for magic solutions for a magical world, there was a basic health potion for thirty, which could maybe help me survive, if it was only my life that was in the balance.

You have been Poisoned.

No damage - just absorbed, and the growing pressure I couldn't understand that drove my excited search as it twisted me, I looked down - surprised at how my body was reacting to the intrusion.

It felt like a cramp. A writhing - not painful like it should be as it moved deeper. I never felt anything like it before - never imagined -

I washed good! But the first line of the pinky was already going boldly where no man had gone before. And the Queen - what I felt so far was a lot more than my pinky. Probably a lot more then Brandon's pinky.

The sensation was spreading, building in me as it lurched for my concentration, causing it to waver. The...poison, it was effecting me differently now, strange I felt hotter, humid sweat oozed, in a way I couldn't explain, the vulnerability, the pinching as she fought for leverage...

Nothing - nothing in the store! Except there was everything - everything for sixty-six dollars or less: T-shirts, jackets, strange soda cans and candy bars, crafting materials, soup, rope and wire, a set of drums. All useless! The only thing magic I could buy was stats - 50 Coins each. And behind the paywall I couldn't afford, a mountain more - I sensed the promise of Abilities, Powers, Items - Magic Items, real armor. Spells. So much that could help me now if only I could afford it -

But I didn't care about that, not when -

I looked at the Monkey - saw his face, it looked completely different now as I fought, opened wide in the ecstasy of death while I suffer -

You have been Poisoned.

So what did I have?

My Abilities? Crafting abilities? And I thought of what I had done to get them, could I get another, could I create my own? But the thought rang hollow - I had to do something, thinking about something hadn't been enough, only to...twist it. They were rewards, unplanned presents -

And now? All I have is my inventory, an empty inventory, and even if it had been full all I had been able to do is move things around. I hadn't actually done anything with it? All that had been my imagination...right? And I'd already thrown everything away! Now all I can afford is souvenirs! Bottled water -

And rope!

The purchases were made with a blink.

Five coins for the largest container of water, fifteen for a length of woven fiber rope - even as I mentally tossed a coin over my shoulder in a prayer of luck, I was so focused on my task I wasn't even surprised when it disappeared behind -

*Plink*

And the rope.

I felt the sturdiness of it, I thought of my father - guiding my hands though knots, showing me the motions - the sailing knots and how to use them.

"There's really only two skills that will earn your keep on any boat." My father explained, "I'm a Marine, so I learned this one."

After the twentieth time I failed at the bowline knot, tugging it against the bar of his toolbox and watching the loop that should have held, unravel, "What's the other skill - this is hard."

"Sucking dick."

I was ten when I could tie a bowline blindfolded, with one hand behind my back - but could I do it naked, paralyzed, with half a bug sticking out my ass? Before it was the whole bug?

I manipulated the rope in my inventory - twisting it like spaghetti and testing its grip. Was I doing it? Or just imagining it move? Would it just pop out a coil, like I'd bought it - I moved it in a race against an invisible, confusing enemy that argued with my speed and need to dislodge it, to escape -

I concentrated past the absence of pain - finishing a clove hitch around the jug of water, I swung the working end around to make a bowline the way I first learned - make the hole, fuck it once, go around back, fuck it again - pull it tight to finish the night.

I felt the gritty fibers as the knot formed inside me. I tested it - felt it hold. I looped it back on itself - a cheat to make the running bowline.

The loop opened into a snare.

I felt exactly where the queen squirmed, where the wider part of the body twitched against me - the legs and mouth - pushing apart my pale cheeks in it's desire to enter me, and I aimed it off my leg like a lasso around my asshole, and forced it into reality -

The jug and the rope vanished from my sense - I heard it bounce - prayed it didn't stop thee - it brushed my foot...praying the knot would cinch - and hold, that it was a knot at all and the loose rope I heard landing -

The jug thunked again, tearing through trees - the rope finally flicking out in a flash, whipping, unravelling, the jug was tied! Even as I braced myself the sharp tug, felt the relief that weakened my body, an emptiness left in it's absence I appreciated -

I'd done it - as the growing terror of my body retreated and I waited for the poison prison to release me, I felt a new Ability crystalize inside me - no, this time it was different. My inventory changed. It became more solid, more...functional.

My breathing came easier - my heart beat quickened, then thundered - the air pushed past normal and my lungs heaved in the storm - I was hyperventilating - finally panting at what I had felt, giving myself to the reaction my body had earned.

It's just a bug! No...no...a girl bug.

A Queen.

These last few minutes, everything I felt - I wrestled it into submission, I through it to the back of my mind and barred it.

The only thing I stopped to grab was my armor - I pulled my backpack off, and took the armor into my mind. I shook it out like a pair of favorite jeans - stretching them out and pushing them open. They slipped over my skin - a gross, sweaty hug.

Then I found the Queen. Twitching - tied, wiggling at the end of my rope that still held her tight. A perfect knot. She wasn't loud like before, instead she tittered indignantly, like I'd somehow insulted her.

And I guess I had - coming here, destroying her home. Still it was no reason for her to -

I pulled the jug of water inside me as I held the rope up. I saw the length of her - the portion of her body that was sapphire and sparkling, the dirty line that marked how far she'd pushed me - and I searched my mind for anything to return the favor - any way I could make it equal.

Nothing - there was an emptiness inside of me now - one that not even the spite of her death could fill.

"You win." I whispered, and I had to admire her, even as the chittering reminded me of chuckling. It looked like she'd have the last laugh - but there was two ways to punish an enemy. I was rethinking the vengeful nature of the 'little guy.'

Force them to fail,

The water jug appeared in my hand, the loose contents left to slosh unconfined in my inventory - it now held something else.

Or make them watch you succeed.

The rope vanished back inside me as the Queen thunked to the bottom of the jug. The rope reappeared, wrapped back up neatly by my mind, I kissed it.

I'm going to throw a damn party for this rope if I ever make it back...

I climbed down the tree in a zig zag, gathering up my scattered possessions on the way, wondering how much I lost. Not caring because it was a fair trade - I made it to the bottom, I'd completely forgotten.

Enemy-Friend.

And the three bulges pulled next to the skinned body, shaking, whimpering, huddled against their lost protection -

And I hated everything:

I hated that there wasn't a happy ending, that the better parts of me wanted to scoop these monsters up and cuddle them like puppies. A part of me that needed to hug a puppy right now.

That was the soft part, the weak part that saw a hurt person lashing out instead of a bully. A friend that didn't have your back as just shy, that didn't invite you out as just forgetful...

I still wasn't tough enough. I could have died because I passed up a rescue, a way to get stronger. And I got f-

They joined my inventory as a family - and then I climbed back up the tree and examined the monkey corpse, and took it as well. The fat wiggling larvae floated in the air like popcorn kernels for a second before they fell -

And I got another coin for each of them as well that I could find and squish in the dim light that was now fading.

Half a day -

I'd survived, stronger.

I'd accomplished my goal.

I was meaner, leaner - stronger.

Was it enough to make it through the night?