Three Beast Kings
Escaping the Hive

Junya awoke to thewhole world shaking. The moment he regained consciousness he began tochoke, the air thick with smoke and soot, startlingly hot, burninghis throat. His whole body felt weird, stinging like pins and needlesall over. What had happened? Where was he? His skull was poundingwhere he had been cracked on the head, adding to his disorientation.He had been knocked out – Why? What had happened then?

Reality hit him hard.The corpse in the chair, the insect king.... oh dear lord... Theworld shook again, snapping him away from his horror. Where was he?In a building? It was almost pitch black, except for a familiarorange glow that it took his sore head a moment for place. Somethingwas on fire! No, everything was on fire! He knew immediately that hewas still in the hive, and that the gorillas had arrived to burn theplace down. But not with him in it!

He leapt to his feet,ignoring how weird he felt and what he sincerely hoped wasn't askinned body in the corner, and ran for the exit, not even noticingthat what he had been in was a house, its beams and wattle startingto steam and smoke as the heat caused it to combust from within. Thedirt of the tunnel was blisteringly hot, scorching his feet as he randesperately, trying not to choke on the acrid, smoke filled air.

Which way he ranthrough the dark and smoke, he couldn't say. For how far, how long,was impossible to know in the featureless mine. He just ran, lungsheaving and burning from the ash. He couldn't see through the smog,stumbling against the blistering dirt that was baking the tunnels tofine pottery. Where was the way out?! One of those holes he saw fromthe outside – he only needed one!

The whole mountainshuddered, tunnels collapsing, rocks falling to the ground. Junyawasn't sure if he screamed – he couldn't hear anything over thegroaning of the dirt all around him, the encroaching roar of theflames, the far off yelling of the soldiers. He stumbled, fell,regained his balance and just kept running.

The wall behind himexploded. He was thrown back by the force of it, landing painfully onhis side and knocking the wind right out of him. As he struggled toget his breath back, with the sound of a shrill, bestial screech itwas clear what made the wall explode.

The insect thatscratched out was enormous, bringing half the mountain down around itas it moved – it made that great cicada look like a cuddly grub incomparison, all round and friendly. This one looked like a giant stagbeetle, all horns and angles and jagged edges and those two giantspiky mandibles sticking out of the front of its head. Where the fuckhad this thing been hiding?! It couldn't even move in these tunnelswithout knocking them down!

And dear God, the noiseis made! Its joints cracked and clicked with every movement, itsbreath rushing out with a great hush akin to a raging waterfall. Itsentire body groaned like it was trying to pop out of its shell. Howdid a thing like this even exist?! It sounded like it was breakingapart where it stood!

Junya froze, relying onthe smoke to hide him. The beetle ignored him entirely, perhaps noteven able to see him so far below, rounding back to the hole it hadcreated in the wall, and creaked its great jaw apart. Through thehaze he heard the deep bellow of a gorilla, roaring right from itsgut. He didn't even want to think who it was, the thought to care noteven crossing his mind.

The stag dashed backthrough the hole, sending more dirt careening down. Junya didn't hangaround to watch, leaving the screams and roars to the smoke andrunning as fast as his legs could carry him in the oppositedirection, the adrenaline pulsing through his veins stopping him fromfeeling the agony of his bad leg or the blistering soles of his feet,black and red and bleeding, overcome with panic. Blinded by thesmoke, he stumbled through, reaching out his hands desperately forsome kind of anchor, something he could focus on.

The ground disappeared.Junya's stomach was seconds behind the rest of his body, leaping upinto his throat as he recalled the tunnels that went straight downinto the earth... It fell back into place as he hit the dry dirt,immediately falling, losing all balance and rolling forward, rollingdown, down the hill.

Down the hill! The airwas cold, frigid next to the baked earth. It was fresh! The smokedisappeared, up into the sky above. He was outside! Junya couldn'tdwell on how clean the sky was, how good the cold air felt on hislungs and against his skin, but was trying desperately to stop hisfree-fall on the loose rocks. He found no anchor, no deep rootedplants or steady boulders to catch him as he plummeted, the sharpstones tearing his flesh and embedding into his tortured feet.

He scratcheddesperately at the rocks and dirt as he felt his hands meet them,tried to straighten his legs to brace himself, slow himself down,steady himself. Something snapped. Pain spread through his wholebeing.

He stopped falling. Theground levelled. Junya was overcome with pain, whole body stilltingling, bloody and bruised from the fall. He wanted to just liehere, catch his haggard breath as his ribs ached desperately, but thecharred earth was still blisteringly hot. He'd burn to death if helaid here, cook like meat on a griddle.

He nearly screamed fromthe pain as he dragged himself up, reforming his broken limbs intosome kind of shape resembling a body. He knew he was injured, but itfelt like it was everywhere. He managed to struggle up, gasping atthe pain in his feet, and stand, leaning on his good leg. The momenthe put weight on his bad leg he buckled, falling back to the groundand screaming from the agony.

He looked back: his legwas broken, tearing through the skin. He whimpered, not able tobreathe as pain and shock coursed through him.

The mountain exploded.Dirt and boulders showered down, slamming into the ground withmassive force, smoking from the heat or even on fire. They sky wentblack as the great stag emerged, legs scrambling desperately at thedirt to free itself from the hive. Junya let out a pathetic noise,having no words to describe his utter helplessness. The stag lookedeven bigger outside the confines of the mountain.

It tore free its frontend, throwing up its shell and breaking out its wings, the act ofspreading them slow and grand like creeping doom. One was immediatelylopped off, the stag screaming in agony as it fell away. Junya couldjust make out a black speck on its hide, a streak of sickly orangeblood fly from the wound, the flash of a weapon in the light. Thestag started to fall.

Fall down. Fall towardshim! Panic overruled the pain, and Junya leapt to his feet, slippingon the loose rocks as he sprinted away from the mountain. He didn'tstop, he didn't look around, the roar of the wind as the thing felldeafening everything for miles round.

Junya just made it tothe tree line when the gargantuan beetle hit the ground, theshock-wave sending him flying into the solid trunk of a centuries-oldhardwood. He felt his ribs break from the impact, blood springingfrom his unprepared mouth. He coughed desperately, falling to hisknees. The sturdy trunk held fast, supporting him as he wretched,coughing up more blood.

The body of the insectmoved, its creaking reverberating through the ruined mountain. Thefall hadn't killed it! It writhed, its joints clacking, one legbreaking clear off and falling to the ground with a terrible thud. Itgnashed its mandibles, spinning its head around as it tried to rollitself back onto its remaining legs.

It stopped. It noticedhim. Those soulless black eyes fixed on him, peering around itsludicrous jaws. They stared at each other, both too paralysed by painto move. It clicked its jaws, making a pitiful noise. Junya had nosympathy. Panic and pain had killed it all. Adrenalin pounded throughhim still, the beating of his heart drowning out all the sound. For amoment, the only movement was the breeze.

The moment ended. Thebeetle sprung up suddenly, using its shell to flip itself over. Junyabolted into the trees, not stopping to notice the troupe of gorillas,bloody and scorched, pounce on the beast, hacking at its limbs anddriving harpoons deep into its shell. He heard it scream, itsmandibles slicing through the tree tops as it struggled.

Junya didn't wait,didn't look around. The forest quickly grew thick, the canopyblocking out the light. Ancient trees stood immovable, trunksentwined with vines and bracken that tore at his flesh. He didn'tfeel the pain any more. He didn't notice the dangerous lack of air inhis suffering lungs, didn't hear his name being called in panic anddesperation over the clacks and wretched hissing of that heinouscreature.

The briers got thicker,creating an almost impassable wall of age-old vines and jagged edges.He struggled through them, not feeling them pull, not noticing thembreak off and tangle in his hair, tear at his tortured skin. Theyended abruptly, the sudden lack of resistance causing him to fall tothe ground. He coughed from the shock, blood falling to the ground,not able to stop himself convulsing.

Whole body shaking, heforced himself up to look around: he was in a clearing of some kind,forest of thorns kept in place by a battered wooden fence. The gap inthe canopy allowed the light to grace the the centre of the clearing,revealing a building almost entirely intact. Junya could have cried:it was a temple, small and simple and made of wood.

All thought leftJunya's mind, childish instinct taking over. He couldn't walk anymore. He practically crawled across the clearing, the dirt stingingthe wounds on his hands, broken leg dragging heavily. He still didn'thear his name being called, even as it got louder, the hacking andslashing of the thorns being cut away growing closer.

He crawled up thewooden stairs, broken fingers leaving bloody smears on the neglectedsliding doors as he pulled them apart, crawling inside and justcollapsing down on the floor. The dust was rife in the stale air, butit smelled like old parchment, incense and home. He couldn't breathe.He couldn't think. He hurt.

Outside, sabres andmachetes met the rotting wood of the fence, hacking larger the gapJunya had fallen through. Zuberi threw the vines aside in disgust,grimacing from the blood dripping into his eye from the deep cut onhis head. He held himself carefully, knowing his bones were broken,that he was probably bleeding internally.

He was still pantingfrom the fight, the effort of breaking through the forest taking thelast of his strength. He couldn't call out – he couldn't replace hisvoice, the taste and feel of blood dripping from his nose and downhis mouth taking it away. Looking around the clearing, he saw thedisturbed ground, where something injured had clearly drug itselfalong. He saw the open door of the temple, the fresh blood, theshadow of a body inside.

Behind him, anotherbody stumbled through the bracken, limping on its borken foot.

“Zuberi,”Mpendwa called, still breathless herself, holding her aching side“Any sign of her?”

The Gorilla King tookanother look around, taking everything in. He took a moment to think,then sighed deeply, shaking his head.

“Ionly smell wolf.” he said “Something was here, but not her.”

Mpendwa lookeddistraught, exhausted, but nodded.

“Okay.”was all she said, turning around to join the rest of the troop in thesearch.

Zuberi looked aroundagain, lingering on the barely visible body. With a wearied grunt, heturned his back on the temple, limping back into the forest.

Junya couldn't stopcrying. The adrenaline was ebbing, and he could finally feel thepain. He was broken, and bleeding, and heavy. So very heavy.Everything was so very dark. So dark. He was tired. He would justrest his eyes. Just rest for a while.

He fell away,everything going black.