They were outnumbered and outmatched.
Fern, Moss, Twig, Bloom, and Thorn were all being held captive by the mantises, while Leaf had had his nail and shield knocked out of his hands and was now laying facedown in the dirt, unconscious, with a large mantis stepping on his back. The remaining mantises sneered in their faces and threatened them with their weapons.
Moss’s breathing quickened and their heart pounded as reality sunk in. They were going to die. They were going to die. They were going to die.
They were all going to die, unless Moss did something.
Moss barely even hesitated.
The mantis holding them captive looked down, and his eyes widened. He released his hold on Moss and took a few steps back.
“What the- Guys! A little help?” The other mantises turned in their direction and stared, dumbfounded, at the scene unfolding before them. One of the fuzzy little weaklings was changing into something else entirely. The longer the mantises watched, the more unnerved they became. It soon became clear this wasn't a mosskin. No, it was something else entirely. Something with viciously sharp claws and long black spindly limbs. The Mantis froze in terror at the thing that had been less than half his size a few moments ago, but was now anything but. The… thing reared up and let out a roar unlike anything any of the mantises had heard before. It didn't sound like anything that would come from a bug. It sounded like multiple monstrous shrieks overlapping but not quite syncing, a discordant harmony that sent chills down each bug's non-existent spine. The fear it struck within his heart reminded him of when he was ambushed by two stalking devout, except this time there was no backup on its way. The beast dropped back down and looked the mantis directly in the face. His life flashed before his eyes as he was impaled on the beast's claw. As his vision and consciousness faded, his last thought was that he should have stayed home today.
Gods above, Moss had forgotten how cramped their tiny Mosskin body was. They stretched up and out, releasing a mighty roar and savoring the feel of the air on their chitin. But soon enough Moss dropped back down and was face to face with the mantis who had been holding them captive. He looked terrified, Moss noticed. Good. A long black claw burst out of his back, then pulled back out, hemolymph gushing from the wound. He crumpled to the ground.
One of the mantises reached out towards the fallen one, who was apparently named Shawn, but didn’t go to him. The rest of the mantises seemed to have gotten over their initial shock at seeing Moss in nosk form and leapt into battle, and even the ones who had been holding Moss’s friends released their captives in favor of fighting the great beast.
The battle wasn’t very long, but to Moss it felt as if it lasted forever. All the mantises converged on them, and it was all Moss could do to not be overwhelmed by the surge. At least if all the mantises were attacking them that meant none were attacking their friends. Out of the corner of their eye they thought they saw Twig and Bloom pulling Leaf’s unconscious body to safety, behind some bushes. But while they were distracted a Mantis landed their first blow, tearing a gash down Moss’s side. Moss shrieked in pain, retaliating with chomping the offending mantis and tossing its lifeless body away. This didn't deter the other mantises however, in fact it just seemed to encourage them, and soon Moss was covered with wounds, but was still standing their ground. After a while the ground was littered with mantis corpses, and the last couple mantises seemed to have had second thoughts and were slowly backing away. Moss dashed forward in a blur and struck them down.
Moss could barely stand, adrenaline replaced with exhaustion. They scrutinized the surrounding area to make sure there were no more living mantises. They were all dead. Sighing in relief they started to turn around when they felt something strike them from underneath. Moss looked down and saw a mantis barely clinging on to life, her claw embedded deep in Moss’s gut.They struck down the mantis and yanked her claw out of their gut, realizing too late that that was the wrong thing to do as a mixture of hemolymph and liquid soul started gushing from the wound. Suddenly feeling dizzy, they collapsed, eyes fluttering shut.
They could hear someone nearing them, and what must've been a conversation, but their mind was too foggy to discern the words. However, their mind wasn’t foggy enough for them to miss the fear-filled shriek that cut through the air. The shriek was followed by a rushed conversation in agitated tones. The last thing they heard before finally losing consciousness was a small, quiet voice asking “Moss?”
Leaf looked down in horror. There was a nosk in Greenpath. A nosk who had just taken down 14 mantises and likely would’ve come for them too if not for the barely conscious mantis stabbing it from beneath. Thank Unn for that. But that wasn’t the part that terrified him. The terrifying part was that this nosk, this beast, had disguised itself as one of his friends and had remained undetected for Unn knows how long. They could all have been attacked at any time and no one would have been able to save them from the monster’s fury. It was terrifying enough that he hadn’t even felt embarrassed for shrieking like a grub when he saw it. He knelt down, looking the unconscious nosk in the face. If he ignored the rest of the nosk and just focused on the head he could almost imagine that Moss was just taking a nap with their arms and legs tucked in. But Moss wasn’t here. What was here was this stupid Nosk, wearing Moss’s face like a mask. Was Moss still alive, somewhere? Or had the nosk killed them and stolen their shell? He chose to believe Moss was out there somewhere, and hoped they were alive. Leaf just stood there for a minute, lost in thought. He was snapped out of his reverie by a small voice.
“Moss?” Fern whispered, crouching down by the nosk, before noticing the gash in its side. She let out a small gasp and immediately started putting pressure on the wound to stop the bleeding.
“Fern, what are you doing?”
“Saving them. Trying to, I mean.” Fern answered without turning away from her work.
Leaf stared. “You know that’s not really Moss, right?” (no response) “It’s a nosk! It’ll tear you to bits if it wakes up.”
Fern just replied with a stubborn “so?” not even looking up.
“I’m not going to waste my time by helping you save this monster. I’m going to go look for Moss. It must have taken their place recently for it to have gone unnoticed until now.”
“I’ll go with you,” Bloom offered, crossing over. “I don’t want to have to look at this creature’s shoddy rendition of Moss for any longer than I have to. It’s starting to freak me out,” they added with a shiver.
“Then it’s settled,” Twig declared. “Fern, Thorn, and I will try to save the nosk (for questioning), and you two will look for Moss.” Everyone nodded.
