I can’t believe he locked the cage. It hadn’t occurred to me until after he put the lock on the new cage that I had shown I understood how latches work. He was decent enough to leave me food, at least that’s what I think these two roly poly mice are for. If they are supposed to be my roommates he is going to be pretty horrified tomorrow.

It was pretty apparent he had decided I would make a good pet for his daughter. Of course, I would have to disagree. It looks like it’s time for an eat-n-run.

I quickly grabbed one of the squeaking meatballs, skewered it and hauled it to the top of the cage. I hung upside down from the perch and started chowing down. It was amazingly delicious.

As I savored my dinner I thought about how naturally hanging upside down felt. It was funny, but stuff like this caught my attention more than the whole having five eyes deal. Humans are built to stand on the ground, head up feet down. As a praying mantis I didn’t have to worry about vertigo, so I could commit vertical kidnappings pretty easily.

I finished eating the first mouse pretty quickly and hoisted the other into the air and sent him after his friend. I really enjoyed them both, they were surprisingly filling considering my true size.

I figured it would be best to wait till night time to make my escape. It was entirely possible to disguise myself and run away during daylight, but it would be better to be cautious. Of course that meant I had to stick around for a few hours, but I would rather be bored than sorry.

As it turns out, I don’t sleep, I just zone out. That makes sense, I did spend an entire week without sleeping with no ill effects. Unfortunately there were no windows in here, so I could only guess when it would be dark enough to leave.

Now, it’s not like I didn’t appreciate the hospitality… I flexed my claws and bulked them up till I looked like the praying mantis version of popeye. But I got places to be, and interesting creatures to eat.

Normally a metal cage would hold a praying mantis pretty easily, being proportionally strong is only good if your ‘proportions’ are big enough to matter. Exoskeleton can’t match up against whatever this purple/bronze metal is. However, I was a lot stronger than any old praying mantis. My exoskeleton was so tough that when a badger managed to grab me by the leg it didn’t even tickle. And I was able to punch a hole in its skull with ease.

I could handle the bars of this cage easily. I grabbed the bars of the cage and shifted my claws into heavy shears. Then I squeezed.

…

Okay, this is tougher than I thought it would be…

…

Cut you stupid thing!

“Graaah!”

Okay, this isn’t working… time for plan B

One thing I noticed about my power is that the boost to my physical capabilities matches the growth in size. People say that giant bugs would be dangerous because an ant the size of a man could carry four and a half tons. I wasn’t sure that the scaling issues applied perfectly to me as I grew, But I was also receiving some sort of magical boost as well.

It took me a while to appreciate how monstrous that boost was making me. Once I shrank down I became weaker but I was still much stronger than I had been when I was this size almost a week ago though.

Plan B: a.k.a. plan Bigger. I swelled up large enough to fill the cage. My claws were now too big to fit between the bars. To compensate I formed a crowbar shaped spike on the ‘knuckle’ of each claw. I was more flexible than I had been when I had been born, but it was a bit cramped in here all the same. I was still able to get in a position to apply the leverage I needed to free myself.

*Kreeen~*

There we go.

I managed to force the bars wide enough apart to fit my smaller form. I shrank down to my ‘normal’ size and stretched, it had been quite cramped in here. I crawled out and finally shifted my color from the flashy bling appearance to a dull brown.

I made my way to the door, I had to climb the frame and hang on while turning the latch to open the door. Lathes, not knobs? Tsk tsk, it’s like they are asking to be eaten by velociraptors. Luckily it wasn’t locked.

Now I just had to figure out how to leave this building. This would be difficult. I had been in buildings like this before; the original building was buried in repeated expansions as the needs of the owners grew. This kind of growth was organic and disorganized. The end result was a maze of hallways and rooms.

To make things worse I couldn’t exactly go into any room I wished, if I accidently entered a kennel or roost I might have to worry about them making noise. I may be small, but that doesn’t stop any small yippy dogs from going bonkers.

After a couple minutes wandering the halls and daydreaming quietly I had an epiphany. I realized I could have tried picking the lock on that cage instead of bending the bars… At least that wouldn’t have attracted attention. Ugh, I’m going to be kicking myself about this for a while.

After that moment of self recrimination I came up with a pretty good idea. If I were to go upstairs and find a room with a window I could just walk down the side of the wall. That would be faster than trying to find a room without animals or people. The chances of the upper floors holding animals was a lot lower, I had seen fewer of those worker types up there when I was brought in and cleaning manure would be that much more of a pain if you had to carry it all down stairs.

Once I made it upstairs I noticed right away that my theory was sound; the scent of animals was no longer nearly so immediate. Besides the smell of birds the upper floors only held the odor of people.

Opening doors was still tricky as a bug. It didn’t help that the doors I managed to pry open so far weren’t the ones I needed. I had a few false alarms as well, I don’t know how late it is, but there were still people up working.

Eventually one of the doors I opened was a winner. I made my way to the window and forced it open. The night sky was beautiful. The thin crescent moon shone dimly between the leaves. The town’s river glittered under the moon’s light.

The extensions to the building protruded oddly, forming an odd alcove around this window. From most angles people probably could not see in this little alleyway. This was great for me, nobody saw me open or close the window. This also seemed great for whoever had hung a rope from one of the homes up in the tree. Is that supposed to be there?

As I began crawling down the wall the rope began to shake, it seemed someone was climbing down the rope. I looked up and saw a thin silhouette abseiling down the rope, a large wrapped package in one arm.

flattening myself and shifting to match the wall was completely instinct by this point. As the mystery person dropped slowly past I got a better look, it seemed that it was the woman from that suspicious trio. The lady was no longer dressed in a merchant's outfit, instead she had donned tight fitting dark clothes designed to hide her without any loose folds to rub against each other and make noise. Her face was covered, so the only reason why I was able to recognise her was the fact that I was so close to her as she passed me.

I looked at the ‘package’ and felt my heart sink. This woman wasn’t a thief or a bandit; she was a kidnapper. There was a small person wrapped in a blanket slung onto her shoulder. The child sized lump wasn’t moving, but the shape could be made out within the blanket.

Lady Luck you absolute witch....

Thank You, Now Let’s See What You Will Do.

The sound of the kidnapper sliding down the rope seemed to underline the silence rather than break it. I scuttled down the wall as quietly as I could. I am a bug, but there are some things I will never tolerate. This would be tricky though.

Keeping up with the woman was difficult. As quick as my body was, long legs have a distinct advantage. Even worse, The kidnapper was incredibly cautious, always aware of her surroundings. She may not have noticed me while I was flattened against the wall, but if she saw me following her things would get bad fast. There is no way she would be dumb enough to ignore a strange beast following her after she kidnapped someone from a beastmaster’s home.

Working wings would be great about now.

I made better progress crossing the bridge. Being able to climb underneath let me run at full speed. Growing to the size of a cat and using the gardens and houses as cover let me barely keep up with her as she began running quite quickly. We reached the gate quite quickly, and the woman’s co-conspirators were waiting for her there. The lights in the gatehouse were out and the gate was open, a bad sign.

As they left the city and began making their way through flower field they began talking, I could hear them despite being a good distance off. Luckily they had slightly let their guards down, else they would see me disturbing the grass and the flowers as I pursued them.

“Are you sure the kid is from the Greenbul clan?” (male kidnapper #1)

“I made sure of it, why do you think we waited an extra day to catch her? She’s definitely part of the clan, there’s no doubt about it.” (female kidnapper)

I grew till I stopped at my default size, I needed the speed. These people were too fast. I guess they were those warriors or whatever, at the very least the woman should be one if she can run at what must be about twenty to twenty five miles per hour without jostling her unwilling passenger.

“Are you sure she’s worth that much? Ain’t she a bit young for us to get a good price on her?” (male kidnapper #2)

Okay, you're a dead man.

“Haven’t you been listening? She’s a Greenbul, they are the only ones that have been able to control the bees of this damn forest. Nations have been trying to conquer this forest for a millennia and they always failed. Every time someone sends an army in here they get annihilated by swarms of mother bees and guerrilla tactics.” (female kidnapper)

The woman sighed before continuing,

“People have never given up because this forest is so valuable, but as long as the Greenbul clan control the bees an army will never be able to reach any of the cities inside it. Other beastmasters have tried to control the mother bees and were stung to death. So, if we bring her to Macedor, we can sell her and live like kings.” (female kidnapper)

“And how are we going to avoid being stung to death when morning comes and the bees wake up?” (male kidnapper #1”)

“We have repellant in the boats, as long as we leave a false trail we can meet up with Phillip and the rest and head downstream. You can’t smuggle anything without the repellant around here, and these none of these elves uses the river.” (male kidnapper #2)

Okay, that was convenient, unfortunately it looks like I can’t just follow them and murder them in their sleep.

My original plan to solve things quietly, by killing them when they let their guards were down and returning the kid while she slept, was a wash. Fine then, from what the book said, unknown magic beasts are considered monsters… Let’s try being a bit monstrous.

I boosted my size a bit more, growing larger than I ever had before. As a praying mantis that was a normal man’s height I was truly terrifying. I boosted the intimidation factor by putting on my ‘game face’ of horrible spikes and shiny black armor. As soon as I finished transforming I started running at my top speed.

When I wanted to I could run at maybe thirty miles per hour for as long as I wanted. That was in my default size and I hadn’t been going all out. Now I was a bit more than twice as tall, with the extra leg length that comes with it. I also was running at a sprint rather unlike my previous jog.

They reached the trees when I decided to get their attention. My vocal cords weren’t that developed, but I could make hissing noises.

“HHHHHHHHSSSSSSSSSSSSSSH!”

“What the?!”

“Gyaaa!”

“Aahg! What is that thing!”

They all jumped and turned around, one of the guys made a bit of a girly scream. I can’t blame them, A massive spiky black monstrosity was bearing down on them while making a noise like an overheating boiler leaking. I wasn’t too far from them when I started running. By the time they turned around I was in their faces already.

*Shunk*

“Arg!”

Massive scythe shaped claws sunk into the rearmost man and lifted him up. Leaning forward, I took a meaty bite of the lower side of his neck. The first bite was just a mouthful of cloth, leather and chainmail. The next bites were meat. He kept trying to jab me with a short thin dagger but my exoskeleton held up fine.

By the time the man was missing a good chunk of his neck and collarbone his friends had their short little swords out and were ready for me. At least, they thought they were.

I tossed aside the gurgling man and opened my claws wide. Hissing again, I noticed that they weren’t as scared as they should be. They both looked shocked and nauseous, but they were still determined. The girl didn’t even drop the kid.

I waved my claws around, snipping the grass at my feet. Just as I was about to attack the man lunged forward. He had a short sword in one hand and a parrying dagger in the other. Unfortunately for him, neither weapons are very good at dealing with a praying mantis’ claws. They were designed for fighting humans, not monsters.

I opened my claws to greet him. Thanks to their length all I needed to do was let him enter my reach and give him a nice pointy hug. As he slid within my grasp he raised his weapons to meet my arms. He was surprisingly strong, I should have completely overwhelmed him. Still, my claws shape meant he only blocked the front of my claws; the ends curved around and sunk into his back as I squeezed my claws shut on him like twin nutcrackers. I could feel the bones cracking.

“Garg! Tawnie! Now!” (noisy meat)

I looked up from my struggling prey to see a throwing knife shoot into my eye. It hurt. Aw, son of a %[email protected]*!

Reflexively letting go of the man, my claws tore up the armor on his back. He ignored it and shoved the parrying dagger in my shoulder joint where there was no exoskeleton. You dirty ^$%#!

I slapped him away with my other arm and backed off. He flew over the girl’s head and into the trees. She followed him into the forest, I heard them both running. They both must have decided to run rather than finish me off. That was fine with me, I didn’t want to fight with these pieces of metal stuck in me anyway.

Pulling out the dagger and throwing knife hurt like a %$#%^ but I didn’t bleed as much as I thought. Unfortunately using my shapeshifting abilities could only seal the wound, it didn’t heal either of them completely. My shoulder wasn’t too bad, I could move it almost as well as before, but my eye was shot.

It seems we need to take a different approach. I only killed the one guy cause I caught them off guard, and that won’t work twice. Two against one is too much for me right now. I wasn’t giving up, but I can’t win in a straight up fight. I had forgotten: I am a praying mantis, and they are ambush predators. I need to stop treating this as a fight and start treating this as a hunt. Alright, what would velociraptors do.

As I was thinking I looked down at the man who had been left behind. He had expired sometime earlier, from bleeding out or drowning in his blood... I’m not sure. Doesn’t matter, he’s food.

*crunch crunch*

I seem to have some food based regeneration power. After eating the kidnapper I could feel my shoulder loosening up and I could see dimly out of my wounded eye. I was feeling better. Time for a rematch.

Before I start though, I need to shake up my strategy. First, I shrink back down to waist height. One thing I learned in the fight was that when growing past this size I lose proportional strength. It is concealed by the gain in power from size and weight, but I’m also a bigger target. Bigger is usually better, but I think i’m going to go with efficiency this time round.

My second decision was to get rid of the spiky xenomorph look. It is scary as anything, but those two weren’t affected enough by it. I need to remember that this is a fantasy world, I’m not the only monster here. People weren’t necessarily going to roll over and die just because I looked like I belonged in a horror movie.

If my scary appearance doesn’t help then I should probably try camouflage. I shift my body into a branch-like color and texture. I took extra care to make myself look like a gnarled branch. I made sure that my claws were sufficiently pointy of course. I was ready. I am going to enjoy this way too much.

Hunting down the kidnappers as they ran was easy, They seem to have given up stealth and opted for speed instead. They were trying to run much faster, but the trees and brush made for slow going. The fact that they could still barrel through the underbrush at the speed they were going was evidence enough that they weren’t as weak as normal humans.

A forest at night is dark and filled with shadows. In some ways it is even worse than if it were pitch black; the shadows deceive the eyes that the dark has already impaired. A stray root or a shallow hole that could trip or sprain could easily be missed during the day, but at night they were effectively invisible.

Despite this these two were making good time and somehow not tripping and landing on their faces. I made sure to keep a fair distance. They were extra wary right now, having left behind a bug monster eating your buddy will do that to you. Even if it was nearly pitch black in the forest at night, I didn’t want to underestimate these two again.

I circled far ahead of them and picked a tree next to a game trail. They weren’t exclusively using the game trails, but when on was in line with their path towards the river they seemed to choose it to save effort. I climbed up till I was slightly higher than a normal man’s height. Pulling my legs and abdomen closely together, I managed to make myself look like a forked branch.

The woman was still carrying the kid and the man was pulling up the rear. I decided to take the man out first; he was injured and I didn’t want to worry about him while rescuing the kid. Dealing with them both at once is too difficult. You know what they say: when dealing with big problems, split them into smaller problems. Then eat the smaller problems. That second bit was my addition, but I think it works right now.

As they headed my way I could see their eyes shifting back and forth. The man was watching the rear half while the woman kept her eyes towards the front. They reached the path and began following it to avoid having to push through the shrubbery.

They past underneath me, and I struck.