Cedar Sanderson is doing N'inktober, so I'm going to follow along and do what I've been trained to do by the Raconteur Press Postcard books: come up with a story to match her visual prompts. I can't guarantee that I'll have a complete story for every image, but I'm going to at least try to come up with a scene, a start, or an idea!
Trust Dragonfly Swarm
“There’s a distinct problem with having a 300 year old insane forest avatar as a mentor,” Amy panted. She shrugged out of her backpack and flopped over to lie in the mountain meadow. A host of dragonflies darted across the meadow, zipping around between bees and butterflies that drifted from flower to flower in the late afternoon sun.
“And that would be?” Sophie asked as she lowered herself to sit next to her friend. The sasquatch didn’t sit so much as collapse, her long limbs folding up in ways that only the most limber humans could.
“Having a 300 year old insane forest avatar as a mentor.”
“Point.”
“How long have we been out here looking for the Keshi? Three days now?”
Sophie ran her hand across her straw-colored facial hair. She generally kept her face shaved so she could pass as a human. After a few days in the wilderness without a razor, her “face floof” was already a good inch or so long.
“Feels about four. I quit shaving when we left Greenville, though. Call it three and a half.”
Amy yelped and slapped her arm. When she pulled her hand away, there was a smear of blood on her palm.
“Three days too long, then. These skeeters are everywhere! I’m getting eaten alive. How do they not bother you?”
Sophie grinned. Not her human smile, but a full-on ‘squatch grin, lips pulled back to expose a mouth full of long, broad teeth. “One of the benefits of a built-in fur coat.” Her smile faded. “Back to the subject. Who are you looking for again?”
“I don’t know!” Amy raised her hands in frustration, then let them flop back down into the grass. “All I have is the name. I’ve told you what Gnarl is like when he comes up with one of these stupid tests. ‘Find the Keshi in the hundred mile wilderness. Return with their secret.’ Then he smirks like a stupid cat.”
Sophie looked around. “So - why here?”
“Google and a population density map. I figure the Keshi are some kind of Neph bioengineering project, like, um…”
“Like me, you mean.” Sophie shrugged. “You don’t have to tiptoe around it, Amy. That was more than five thousand years ago. And the Neph tinkered with everything. We’re all their Children, one way or another.”
“Yeah. I guess.” Amy sat up and hugged her knees. “If they’re like most of the Children, they probably don’t want much to do with baseline humans. Right here is about as far from anyone as you can get in these mountains. So I’m playing the odds. If there’s anything weird up here, it’ll be somewhere around here.”
“Makes sense, I guess. Definitely a pretty place to look for ‘em.”
“Thanks for coming, Soph. I’m getting better in the woods, but it’s nice to have an expert along.”
“Expert? Hon, I’m flattered, but this is nothing like the Louisiana bayou! If you hadn’t packed for me, I’d have no idea what I’m doing.”
“Quit being modest. Anyways! Executive decision. We’ve got flat ground, and I’m tired. What do you think about making camp here?”
“That stream we followed up is somewhere nearby. So this seems as good a place as any.”
“Decision made, then. Let’s get to it.”
They got set up quickly. “Camp” was really just a couple of bedrolls around a fire. Sophie didn’t really even need that much. After dinner the sasquatch curled up next to the fire and started snoring almost immediately. Amy zipped up her jacked against the chill of the evening, pulled on her knitted cap, and laid back. She fell asleep there, staring at the stars.
Her dreams were full of mountains, meadows, and the drone of insects. Somewhere in her dreams, the mountain started shaking and calling her name. She managed to mentally stumble back into wakefulness to find Sophie crouched next to her, shaking her gently and whispering her name urgently.
“Amy! Wake up!”
“Bleah!” She pushed Sophie’s hand away. The sun was still below the horizon, but there was enough light that she could make out her friend’s face. “I’m awake. What’s the matter?”
“There’s someone watching us.”
Amy started to sit up, thought better of it, and rolled over onto her stomach instead. “What? Where?”
“Over on the other side of the meadow. An older guy in a t-shirt. He’s just sitting there on a rock, staring at us.”
“Fantastic. A hundred miles from everything, and we get a stalker.” She rubbed the sleep from her eyes. “What do you think we should do?”
“Well,” said a male voice from a few yards away, “You could start by getting the hell off my mountain.”
Sophie popped up in a way that only a sasquatch could. Seven feet of lanky muscle erupted from the tall grass between Amy and the voice. Amy rolled over and scrambled to her knees.
“Who are you?” Sophie growled.
About twenty feet away from them stood an older man with long salt and pepper hair, a thick white beard, and a face the color of dead grass. He was wearing faded jeans and an old, ripped t-shirt that might once have been white, but was now a uniform gray.
He seemed completely unfazed by the Sophie’s sudden appearance. “The man telling you to get the hell off my mountain.” He looked her up and down. “Swamp girl, ain’t cha? What the hell are you doing up here, girl?”
Amy stood and held up her hand up. “She’s with me. We’re looking for some people that live up this way. The Keshi. Do you know where we can find them?”
“The Keshi?” The man snickered, then laughed out loud. “Oh, little girl! You have no idea what you’re doing here, do you?”
Amy’s face flushed. “Listen. I’m looking for the Keshi. Either tell me where I can find them, or quit bothering us and leave us alone.”
The man stopped mid-laugh, eyes bulging. “Leave you alone? Leave you alone?” He jabbed a finger at Amy. “You are the ones who came up on my mountain and bothered me! Now for the last time – GET LOST!”
He thrust out his chin indignantly, then turned and stalked away through the field, muttering indistinctly. Sophie and Amy watched as he went, until he reached a slope on the other side of the meadow and disappeared from sight.
Sophie shook her head.. “What in the patron’s name of Frick was that?”
Amy yawned. “I have no idea.”
“So. What do we do? Leave?”
Amy shook her head. “Like hell. I’ve still got a job to do. We’re going to follow him and find out what he knows. Come on.”
Following the man’s trail was easy enough. It was more or less a straight line away from them, over toward the mountain stream they’d found. When they reached the edge of the meadow and looked down the slope, they could see the man sitting with his back to them at the edge of the stream.
“Hey!” Amy raised her voice as she started down the slope. “You! I have some questions!”
Her voice echoed across the tiny vale. There was a ripple in the grass around the stream, and a sudden buzzing. A swarm of glittering wings caught the first morning light as a swarm of dragonflies erupted into the air. They swirled around the man, then spin up into a rising vortex that suddenly broke off and flowed towards her and Sophie.
The two of them ducked needlessly as the swarm lifted a bit and tore through the air above them. After a second, the swarm was past. They stood up slowly, heads craned to watch the dragonflies as they dispersed into the meadow.
Amy turned back to the stream. Despite the sudden insect swarm, the man hadn’t budged. Amy took a deep breath and continued down toward him.
“Look. I just have some questions, OK?” She moved around to face him and stopped suddenly, mouth open. Sophie hurried down the slope to stand with her friend and gasped.
The man sitting by the edge of the stream was definitely the one they had spoken to only minutes before. In the fresh light or morning, though, it was apparent that the figure was made up, not of flesh and blood, but intertwined bits of old grass and wildflowers.
“He’s a scarecrow? How…?” Sophie whispered.
As she spoke, the scarecrow shifted, tipping over slowly. It came apart, losing form as it slumped to the ground. When it finally settled, there was nothing left but the shirt, the jeans, and a pile of hay.
Amy nudged the remains of the scarecrow with her toe. “I don’t know what it was. I can tell you one thing for sure, though.”
“What’s that?”
Amy grimaced. “We are definitely in the right place. Come on. Let’s go find the Keshi, wherever they’re hiding.”