Bin- no, Diptera. Her name was Diptera.… Tera padded her way through the empty streets of treatropolis, a piece of the sun firmly pressed between her paws, tiny little things that were useless when it came to doing anything, just like the rest of her cursed, broken body. It had taken her a while, but it was becoming more clear with every passing day. Treatropolis was her home ever since she stepped out of her dream, and she had spent every day since working. Whether cleaning trash from the streets at night, or taking care of pest problems during the day. Chasing a opossu'more out of some store-owners attic was never a problem, as those days were often spent happily talking while setting up bait, teaching them about the importance of these creatures before releasing them back into the forests, maybe even getting some sort of trea-... Reward for her hard work. Yes, those were the best jobs she could hope for, much better than trying to take care of a licormice infestation in some lord or lady's estate while they were screeching in her ear to kill the vermin, to be careful to not touch anything, to get out before she made the house any dirtier with her presence.
Tera was so focused on piecing together her old memories, that she failed to notice the sound of tiny hooves until a tiny nightmare rammed right into her. she pushed the tiny creature away from her in disgust and glared at it as it frantically waved it's legs in the air, trying to flip over. She could barely remember that these things were called stygians, but she knew full well that it was these creatures that caused the hole in the sun. That caused treatropolis to turn into the ruins that it now was. It destroyed everything she loved, but why did looking at the tiny, pathetic thing barking at at her make her feel.... guilty.. like she had seen it before..
She looked away from it, and noticed another, larger stygian looking at the two of them. A fight for the sun piece was the last thing she needed right now, so she gently grabbed a hold on the sun piece with her mouth and scampered away on all fours, casting one last look back at the small blue stygian, which was now being hugged by the large red one.
-----
There was a voice, indistinct and faint, but it was there. She had heard it before, and she needed to hear it again.
She chased after the voice, her body morphed into pure white light, the same light that had once given her form when she was just a little figment, the light of the sun that gave her, and every other treatling life. Tera reached out into the stream of clouds and color, further and further as her arms became longer, as her paws stretched back into hands, as her legs returned to normal in a feeling that wasn't too unfamiliar.
Tera stumbled to a stop, not yet used to her new/old body. She looked up at the sun, still only a crescent, pieces of it rising up and rejoining the rest above her. Tera grinned and blinked back tears, she was herself again, and there was work to do. She began to walk off, hoping to find a way to help the sun, when she heard a voice behind her, "Wait."
Tera froze in place. She would recognize that voice anywhere. The princess- no, the queen now. Tera turned around and stood up straight to her whole diminutive height and turned around, before bowing low to the ground. She was suddenly fully aware of her messy appearance. Tera was never quite as clean or fancy looking as other treatlings, with her baggy coveralls and hair tied into a sloppy braid, and never was that discrepancy more obvious than when she was around royalty.
She raised back up and looked a her queen, sparkling and resplendent, beyond perfect in every sense of the word, smiling down at her. "Wait, the restoration isn't yet complete." She tapped her staff, parting the prismatic clouds around them, revealing the ruined city below, shifting and rumbling.
Tera looked down, mouth agape as the roads began to crack open, light streaming forth from them. Candy plant life began to restore itself and blossom, the streets cracked and buckled before realigning into neat cobbled-candy paths, grey building ruins crumbled down before rising back up in beautiful rainbows of color. But the beauty of the moment was marred by the sight of those caught in the re-genesis of the city.
Stygians and treats alike were running amidst the changing landscape, but while the nightmares were able to escape, the treats, her people, were all...
"I know," The queen said, staring down at the rainbow gore as treats were torn apart by both raging nightmares and the buildings crashing down onto them "I really did try, but I could not save everyone. I could only choose those that spoke to me."
Of course, it was there fault for dying.
Tera wanted to scream, to cry out that it was her duty as royalty to protect her people, that she should have tried harder. Wasn't she the all powerful royal? Were those who where so lost that they couldn't cry for help still deserving of life? She wanted to ask, what of those who arrived with stygians? What of those who were saved from the crumbling city by the very nightmares that were the supposed enemy? now that she thought of it, the stygians had always been very respectful of the city and it's denizens... before the treats, including herself, in their foolish desire for revenge cursed them with the same ailment that they had suffered for centuries. How many of them might have died trying to save themselves in their addled state? While staring down, Tera had seen plenty of these so-called invaders bravely run back into the carnage to save as many as they could, putting themselves at risk more than her queen ever did.
Tera had a million and one questions and stories and what-ifs rattling around her head, but she kept face still and her mouth shut.
Her queen would never listen.
Royalty never does.
All Diptera could do was take the queens hand, and follow silently behind her.
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What's up my name's tera, I'm centuries old, and I never learned how to stand up to authority
ehhh, my writing's not that good, and I got kind rushed at the end, but whatever. Done's better than nothing, lol.
word count: 1,067
ehhh, my writing's not that good, and I got kind rushed at the end, but whatever. Done's better than nothing, lol.
word count: 1,067
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