Insect Legacy — Chapter 5 — Sly as a Fox (ft. fox)

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Chapter 5:

He stared disbelievingly at the fox-monster. It looked terrifying. For some reason, though, he wasn’t scared. And that scared him.

Is there something wrong with me? He wondered.

Maybe it’s a Contractor thing?

He believed with complete certainty that he was a Contractor. The ghost spider had been right. He’d somehow made a contract with the talking caterpillar, Beth. He’d punched a tree and made a crack in it without hurting himself. He hadn’t realised caterpillars were so strong.

“Let’s think. What do I know about caterpillars?” he asked out loud.

“Hmm?” came Beth’s response.

He sighed. “I don’t know anything about caterpillars.”

The fox-monster was back on its feet and growling at him. It cautiously paced about as Adam backed away from it. Then it charged at him again. It was fast.

Can I jump high? He wondered. He jumped as high as he could. He had no time to do anything else. He was definitely stronger than normal. He jumped just slightly higher than he normally could. The fox hit him with its head and sent him flying into a tree. The tree shook viciously and he fell to the floor. A few loose branches fell on top of him.

A strange growl that sounded suspiciously like a laugh came from the fox.

He got back to his feet. Somehow the blow hadn’t really hurt him. He felt a bit sore, but he checked himself and he didn’t think anything was broken.

“Caterpillars are sturdy huh?” he said.

“Yer damn right we are!” Beth replied enthusiastically. She was still safely hanging on to his shoulder.

“You think you can beat me, foolish human?” the fox said to him. It cautiously approached him.

I don’t know to be honest.

He glanced at Beth.

“Caterpillars can climb, right?”

Beth had been hanging off a leaf when he’d met her, and she’d managed to hang on to his shoulder despite him being knocked around.

“Duh” she responded.

He turned around and considered the tree. He dramatically placed his hands on the tree trunk and looked up. He’d never climbed a tree before. He put a foot to the tree and pushed himself up.

He could feel a strength in his fingertips that wasn’t there before. They were strong enough to clutch onto the tree even without any obvious handholds. He climbed as easy as if he was climbing a ladder. The fox snarled angrily at him.

Holy shit. It works.

“Fuck you, fox!” he shouted down at the creature. As he watched, the fox calmly walked back to the middle of the clearing and stared at him. It didn’t snarl or growl. It just watched.

Wait… Can’t I just escape like this?

The trees blocked him in, but if he could just climb to the top of the trees, he could go over them. He kept climbing, as high as he could go. It felt like the trees were weirdly arched, as if to tower over the clearing itself.

Wait… Are the trees moving?

Before he knew it, he was climbing along a long branch. The long branch sagged under his weight. He was upside down. He could see the fox below him. He looked around. The tree he had been climbing had grown in such a strange way that he was still in the clearing, hanging above the fox.

Then the fox suddenly charged at the tree and flung itself body first into it. The tree shook violently and Adam lost his grip, falling to the ground and landing harshly on his back. Oh shit. He was in the middle of the clearing. The fox was looking at him with a smile.

It ran at him and jumped with a mouth wide open again. He leaned all the way back without falling, almost parallel to the floor again, then pulled himself back up when the fox was safely past him. He couldn’t help but be proud of the new strength in his legs. However, something grabbed him around the neck.

The tail!?

The fox’s tail wrapped around his neck and held him up, dangling him helplessly before the fox.

The tail was strangling him. He held desperately onto it and tugged at it to loosen it around his neck. It was all he could do to keep breathing. But that wasn’t enough. Everything went dark. He realised the fox’s open mouth was already around him. He was assaulted by nasty-smelling hot breath. Is this the smell of human meat? It closed on him to bite him. He felt its teeth pressing into his clothes, about to pierce his flesh.

Then, suddenly, light came back as it pulled him back out of its mouth.

What’s going on?

He was flung unceremoniously across the floor.

“What’s going on?” he asked aloud, looking over to the fox. He was happy to be alive, but he was also confused.

The fox also appeared to be confused. It looked around in confusion, then settled its sights back on Adam.

“You stabbed me!” it screamed angrily.

Huh?

Adam then also looked around in confusion. There was definitely no one else around.

“No I didn’t!” he protested earnestly.

The fox looked around once more in confusion.

“Yes you did!”

Adam looked around once more.

“What’s going on?” he asked quietly. Then Beth the caterpillar exploded in laughter.

“It tried to bite you! The stupid beast! You know what happens when things try to bite me? My spines protect me and poison them!” she said.

Adam didn’t follow at all. Spines? He looked down at his hands and noticed something strange glinting in the light. He held his arm up to inspect it closer.

“Are these my arm hairs?” he wondered.

Something was sticking through his clothes. Thin and long hairs completely on end stabbing through his clothes like…. Spines?

“It’s my super defense mechanism!” Beth boasted proudly. “Something tries to bite me and my badass spines stab them and poison them!” she said.

Do I have poisonous caterpillar spines all over my body right now?

“Have we won?” he asked cautiously, glancing at Beth then turning to watch the fox, hoping it was about to just fall over and die.

“I doubt it” Beth said. “Something tries to bite me, they get hurt and then fly off. Haven’t ever killed anyone with it before.”

Ah fuck.

The fox growled angrily.

“Fine! I prefer my meat raw, but just this once I’ll cook it first!” it shouted.

It crouched down and its tail waved around wildly. Then, as Adam watched disbelievingly, there were suddenly two tails waving around. And then….

It has three tails?

He didn’t think he could be any more surprised. He was wrong. The three tails stretched out, and the tips seemed to catch fire. A deep, red fire. The fires grew bigger and bigger.

… Oh no…. Of course… It’s not just a big fox. It’s an Otherworld Beast.

All of a sudden the sky lit up brightly. For a second he thought it was the fox, but the fox looked up in surprise and panic. He followed its gaze upwards. A huge fiery figure was descending towards them.

Oh no.

Adam recognised that fiery figure.

Huge fiery wings unfurled themselves dramatically as the winged figure descended.

“Worry not, ordinary person! Today is your lucky day! Today you will have your life saved by me, the Beautiful Phoenix, the Graceful and Heroic Maxim!”