Wasps!: Chapter 1

Note: Left-aligned by myself, right-aligned by  CelineDGD .

Another day, another dead grub. This wasp situation was getting out of hand.

Drakyn had barely finished her morning cup of hot bean water when she heard the ominous buzzing outside her window. There was another of those striped menaces again, hovering over her precious livestock. By the time she grabbed her shotgun and burst out the door, it was already too late. Grub guts and acid everywhere, and the wasp was already flying off into the distance with one of her mealies in its clutches. The rest of the beetles had trampled a fence trying to get away from the carnage. Hunter and Scout were running around trying to round them up again. And as far as wasp attacks went, this was downright tame.

They’d told her this would happen. Land’s cheap on paper, they’d said, but these sands are all wasp territory; soon’s they catch scent of your beetles, nothing short of killing their queen’ll stop them.

So that’s what she’d do. Right after her second cup of caffeine, she hitched up the buggy and rode the 3 hours right down to Fjellrev, and paid that prissy clerk up at the city hall 2000 bobs to put up an ad on their bulletin board:

Help wanted: 

Brave hunters and/or adventurers to find 

a nest of wasps and kill their queen. 

Interested parties, meet at this address in 3 days.

Payment on success.

Now, all she had to do was wait.

*

Well, it’d been precisely 3 days and 3 nights since that ad went up, and at the crack of dawn Drakyn was out on the porch with a tray of fresh-baked cornbread in her mittened paws. Squinting her eyes against the morning dust storms, she thought she saw a few dark shadows a-comin’ over that ridge.

*

Ilyse opened his beak in a yawn, opening and closing his wings to help himself awake.

He slowly walked over to his rider who was still sleeping. It was night after all, but Ilyse was nocturnal. The Tyto raised a paw to push Sharona a bit to get him to wake up. The human blinked owlishly a few seconds later, sitting up.

“What’s up Ilyse?” He asked.

“Screech!” Was his answer.

“You wanna go out?”

Ilyse let out another ‘Scree’ of approval.

Sharona fetched attire that had been strewn on the floor when he had gotten in bed, and put them on. Ilyse followed him and he went to the door.

It was a peaceful night out in Sol, and definitely quiet, as not that many people got out at that time. Sure, a few Stryxes here and there walked and flew with their handlers, being nocturnal as well, but despite that it was nice. Not being surrounded by people or other Stryxes was just fine by them. 

They looked around as they enjoyed their walk. Maybe they could find something interesting. When he didn't find anything that caught his eyes, Sharona kicked a pebble in his way.

"Ow!" Said a voice. 

"SORRY!" He yelled sheepishly.

A screech to his right caught his attention. It was Ilyse, pointing at something excitedly. The human walked over to see what got his Dracostryx like this. A piece of paper had been tacked on a bulletin board nearby. He read the words. 

Sharona looked to Ilyse. "You wanna go?"

Ilyse nodded.

"Fine then. Let's go prepare our things and then set out. It should take us 3 days anyway to reach this person." 

And so the two of them returned to their home for what was likely to be a very interesting and intense hunt.

*

It wasn't long before Ilyse went out the door again and waited for his handler. Sharona chuckled as he saddled him. 

Now ready, the rider climbed on the Stryx's back and soon, they were off. It was nice to fly tonight, the winds were cool but gentle.

A comfortable silence envelopped both Stryx and rider for a good while.

*

On the third night of their voyage though, giant yellow blurs followed them.

"What the-"

Giant wasps buzzed around them. One of them tried to bump into Ilyse, but the Tyto was quick to maneuvre away, The next one though was quick as a flash and almost made them tumble.

"So this is what the ad meant about the wasps." Sharona realized. "Ilyse, time to hunt!"

"Skraaa!" 

Ilyse dodged all the strikes the wasps attempted, flying overhead and descending on a few of them. He clashed with claws and beak, relentless, grabbing them and tossing them away, scratching a lot of them, causing several injuries. Many fell to their deaths. 

The last one fought with valiance, but fortunately for them, Ilyse still made quick work of it. He held it in his beak, and they continued their journey.

Soon, they found the address that had been scribbled on ad, and slowly descended. Sharona jumped off of the saddle and stretched his legs, while Ilyse picked at his feathers after depositing the giant wasp on the porch.

Sharona saw someone standing there, a plate in their mittened hands. 

Ilyse looked up at the person as his handler spoke.

"Hi. We uh, saw your ad. Need help?"