Day 4 Praying Mantis Hybrid
"Don't go into the forest."
That's what the elders always said.
"If you do never stay for longer than you had to especially at night when the monsters were most active. They all live for only one purpose and that's to hunt humans and take out women. So never go alone. Never stay for too long. Trust nothing inside. And whatever you do, don't go at night."
There was disappearances of course to back up these claims. Last month a young girl went into the woods to fetch some medicinal herbs for her sick grandmother. When she didn't come back for a few hours her brother went to go find her but then he too didn't come back. When the sun went down their father decided he'd waited enough and rounded up a few townsmen to go look for his missing children. However they were no where to be found. The only traces of the siblings was a basket the girl had been carrying to get the herbs in found destroyed amongst some bushes.
Since then no one has dared set food in the nearby woods and the townspeople had reinforced the walls around their village, trained more guard dogs, and some have been taking turn patrolling the edge of the territory. You however were just passing through with a few other travelers and had stopped by to hopefully sell some of your homemade jewelry and rest for a few days before moving on to the next town. However the townspeople warned you and your companies about the dangers of the local woods.
"You're a young beautiful woman," a man told you while you were allowing his sister to look at some bracelets. "Are you really gonna be traveling all by yourself?"
"No. I'm not going to be by myself until we have to split up." You and your companions were traveling together until you split up because you were headed to two completely different cities. "Until then we're sticking together."
"Girls shouldn't be traveling like that. They should be at home tending to their families and getting married." He then smiled at you. "I'm currently looking for a wife. I have a good farm and I'm more than capable of looking after you. How's about settling down with me?"
You gave him a blank look . "...So would you like the one with the pink quartz or small diamonds?" You turned back to his sister completely ignoring him.
You managed to sell a pair of bracelets and one necklace that night and spent the rest of your two day stay there at the inn until you left with the two men you were traveling with despite the multiple warnings the townspeople had given to you three. But you knew what you were dealing with. You've encountered a few non-human beings before on your travels. Selling jewelry meant a lot of different customers from a wide variety of people. Dragonborn people and merfolk were some of your best customers! Dragons LOVED treasure or anything shiny for their wealth and merfolk adored jewelry to adorn themselves or their partners in. They were much nicer than a lot of humans you used to know. You've even met a few elves, orcs, and on one occasion a goblin at a festival who wanted to trade you a good luck charm made from unicorn hair for a pretty ring. You didn't know if it was real but you didn't mind trading it. After all some good luck never hurt nobody.
The days traveling weren't eventful at all. You spent four days riding in the back of a wagon with a smile swapping stories with the husbands until you both hit the fork in the road on the map. At which point you split up, bidding the couple good bye and a thank you for the ride, the three of you split ways with their wagon going down the right path and you started on foot. The forest was pretty beautiful this of year. Flowers were blooming and filled the air with a sweet aroma you breathed in and sighed out. You continued to walk and walk until you stopped at a few particular flowers that looked beautiful so you stopped by to look at them..not noticing the yellowed eyes peering out of some trees. Widening at the sight of the beautiful woman sitting in the middle of the flowers.
Pretty..She was so..pretty.
And definitely not another Mantis who'd try to eat him.
He ducked down perfectly blending in with the Flora as he crept ever closer. Turning his head this way and that. His antenna perking up a bit hearing her laugh. Oh gods..even her voice was pretty. She looked so cute just sitting there gently caressing the flower petals and smiling at them. He wished a pretty girl would smile at him like that.
You picked a few up. Maybe you could encase some of the petals in glass and then cut it into pieces of it to fit in your jewelry! You could start a new trend! Excitedly you started examining the flowers trying to decide what flowers to bring with you when a shadow loomed over you. And you froze..When you slowly looked up, you body felt like it was dunked in ice.
Yellow eyes stared down at you. A pair of antenna twitched as your eyes met. And a mouth of fangs smiled at you. The form sticky thin and hunched over as it half loomed over you. A free abdomen and a pair of wings fluttered behind his back as it leered at you as you finally recognized what it was.
Oh dear gods.
It was a fae.
Fae were unpredictable creatures and were some of the most dangerous folk to encounter. Changelings. Sprites. Pixies. Fairies- They were tricksters by nature. Just mischievous if you were lucky and you'd only escape with something like your hair turning green for a week or your left shoe getting stolen. If you were unlucky especially if you made a deal with them-...
Well you heard too many horrific stories to be weary.
Some could even change their shape or look almost completely human however there was one thing that always made them recognizable. All fae shared at least some kind of animal trait, usually it was an insect of origin. Most tales usually recount butterfly or dragon fly like wings protruding from their backs and/or having antenna. However some were said to be so insect like they might've well have been a crossbreed of human and insect.
This creature was the latter. Looking like a praying mantis had suddenly morphed into partially being human.
The creature smiled at you in a strange way as if he never smiled before and was just trying it out for the first time. "Hello, Pretty flower." You flinched at the gravelly raspy voice. It sounded like he desperately needed a glass of water and a throat cold. "What's a mere mortal like you doing out here alone?"
Pretty! She was so, so pretty! And soft looking! Not like the beetles and flies that make fun of his appearance and ridicule him for being a predator. He didn't want to scare her off. His awkward smile looked like it was having the opposite affect however.
You were terrified! You've never met a fae in the wild before! Shit! What do you do?! If you ran it looked like he could definitely catch up with you with little effort but if you didn't do anything he might've taken it as disrespect and do something else to you. So nervously you swallowed the lump in your throat and tried not to freak out.
"Oh. Me? I'm just..p-p-passing through here and wanted to stop a- and see the beautiful flowers."
"Is that right? Maidens love getting flowers. Don't know why." He reached out to mindlessly pluck a wild daisy from the ground. "They're pretty but die and loose that beauty fast. Might as well just hang weeds above your door."
You frowned. "I-...I guess b-but it's usually the thought that counts behind a gift not the object itself."
"Then...here." you blinked freezing up as the creature put the daisy behind your ear. "Do you get the thought be- behind that, Pretty Flower?"
Oh good budda you were being hit on by a fae. And a very terrifying looking one at that.
You just sat there froze until your hand slowly reached out to touch the daisy as his smile widened hopefully at you. "Oh....I mean-..Thank you. I-I-Its a very pretty flower."
"And?"
"And a nice gesture. You're very kind " you tried not to go where you think this was going.
"I gave it to you as a courting gift." Crap. The smile froze on your face as he leaned closer ever leering at you with a large smile. "And since you seemed so keen on accepting it that makes you mine.~"
"WHAT?!" You made too stand up but two green hands grabbed your arms with surprising strength.
"You'll get used to it. I'm a 'preying' mantis after all."