Into the anthill

I was lost, I had no idea where I was stranded, lost in the wilderness of "the anthill" a giant crater larger than any mountain that marked the entrance into the insectoid territory. the ash-like like mud seemed to permeate the entirety of the perimeter leading up to the steep slopes down the walls of the crater.

it took a whole day just to climb to the top of the crater wall. I would spend my next year living and recording information about the insectoids that was what I had decided. 

Honestly, I was terrified I wondered how many days it would be before a feral spider or giant Moth ate me out here. There was exceedingly little information about this place, but throughout the uncertainty and doubt, I knew one thing it was dangerous. 

reports of hostile creatures, malformed mutants, and sentient tribes of less than happy people had circulated back in the city where I had lived. although only bandits and criminals would dare set foot here anyways. 

But it wasn't like I had much of a choice, my studies were getting me nowhere, so I decided to take my chances going somewhere where nobody else dared to, deep into that giant crater housing those sentient, deformed, not to mention feral, humanoid mutants. 

it certainly wasn't my first choice but I had grown to hate the hustle and bustle of the city anyways. if this is what it took to get recognized then so be it. 

so here I was with a giant bag full of food and water, walking towards a path made by potentially hostile species trying to communicate when I didn't even know if they were as sentient as a group of ants, dogs, or humans.

The dusty locale was bumpy and with the uneven ground, it was difficult to see much. in the distance, dead trees litter the landscape grey and desolate, even the trees seemed to be made of ash. farther ahead was a paved road. fresh footprints stamped the ground on the muddy almost clay-like soil. 

evidently, they were intelligent enough to make roads between locations. I studied the road and its precise curve and structure.

"fascinating," I remarked to myself

the curve of the road was precise and despite the first glance of a muddy road simply made from wear and tear the mud was a separate material from the surrounding ash. 

Approaching the path it was clear whatever left the tracks was not human. my weight left heavy imprints in the soil as I walked to the tracks, but these footsteps were much lighter. it seemed the path was tread often, It looked like the insectoids had been patrolling this area, two pairs of footprints one pair sturdy, firm looking trail, the word consistent came to mind the other looked clumsy in comparison, lighter, more tightly packed, but less relaxed. 

I steadied my breathing as I was getting worried about being caught and my heartbeat had started going fast. I decided to slow my body's circulation of "momentum". 

in case anything got spotty, the best scenario was to avoid confrontation rather than fight it, I wasn't the best fighter, I studied to be a doctor after all, but for this purpose general manipulation was more than enough. 

I saw two paths that lay ahead. well, less of two paths than one path leading two ways.

I could take the path that the insectoids were heading toward or I could take the path heading opposite, I instantly imagined myself walking into a village that turned out to be inhabited by man-eating insectoids and being chased day and night until they caught me and ate me.

this for obvious reasons did not appeal to me. 

thinking for a moment I figured meeting these patrollers would probably be better than running into a whole village, after all, I didn't know much about the insectoids, especially whether or not their hostile. 

lowering my "momentum" I could sneak up to these guards unnoticed and try to maybe discern their hostility or level of sentience. I didn't even know if we spoke the same tongue although there had been a few rare documented cases of insectoids living in the same city as I did.

trailing towards whatever the tracks led to I went deeper and deeper into insectoid territory sparse dead trees slowly got denser along the path and gave way to a sparse forest of dark trees light peaking through the leaves. as I entered the wooded area I noticed something had been left on the floor but I couldn't recognize it the lowered circulation of "momentum" slowed my breathing, blurring my eyes, and between my filled bag and the way it made me walk it looked like I had a stick up my ass, but it made anything heat-seeking or "momentum" sensing much less likely to find me. I grabbed the object it was some kind of carapaced object it was cold hard slightly hairy but then I realized what it was... 

I dropped the severed limb noticing some muddy light yellow fluid was spilled near the ground 

I jumped back, I wasn't sure what to do I was worried about if the insectoids could smell their blood on me and would attack but more importantly I was wondering where this limb could have come from. I settled myself down to something that was easier as my lower heart rate and "momentum" helped me stay calm 

I looked around me and decided to inspect the limb. It was small, much smaller than a human limb but much larger than a normal insect limb it seemed to be some sort of mandible or chelicerae. It had been severed. it seemed that there was some sort of fight between insectoids probably the patrolling ones and a much larger one judging by the size of the mandible. As I closely inspected the limb. I noticed what seemed like a shadow pass behind me. 

looking around I saw that further in the distance it seemed that the two patrolling members came back. they had human faces there was no doubt. they were running towards me and I ran towards somewhere with more shade. 

both of them seemed to be female, one of the two had some multicolored wings like a dragonfly although missing or torn. both seemed impossibly thin but the winged one was clearly smaller their torso seemed to be missing much of its human portion, carapace mimicked a ribcage while dipping below the belly exposing their seeming malnourished belly region. their forearms seemed human in nature yet still very thin. the carapace crept in lines of wounds and scar tissue was visible where it fused with human flesh. they both had large insect abdomens attached to their rear although small when compared to their human scale.

the other was larger and heavier their body seemed much more human, their neck had carapace creeping up towards the chin, and their eyes had dark sclera. they had antennas similar to an ant, and their chest looked normal although thinner than a healthy human. carapace crept up their fingertips from the upper hand before disappearing and reappearing on the upper forearm their feet were normal human feet but like the other's arms had trails of carapace and scars tissue running throughout.

they were both armed with what seemed to me to be primitive weapons but as they drew closer I could sense the sharp "momentum" energy sharply flowing towards the tips of their spears drawing their hands upwards. the ant had a much stronger spear and the dragonfly had one that was more similar to a training wooden spear that existed back in the city. the spears seemed to almost lift them off the ground, not that they needed even less body weight. 

they were clearly tracking something since they were both unharmed and clearly lacking the size to be carrying the mandible that I found earlier. I wondered if the insectoids had wars and alliances based on race or region as many humans did. the two seemed to be separate races although I had no real reference other than basic knowledge of insects and the like. 

attempting to catch a better glimpse I shift my weight onto the tree I'm hiding behind, the branches above me crackled and I noticed branches whose weight shifted dramatically. I had no time to think as more branches shifted around me. the ant insectoid seemingly threw a spear at me. before I saw something terrifying

I caught a glimpse of a feral one, clearly not human like the other two its movements more like instinct than simple steps. It constantly shifted itself out of my line of sight and had a huge spider-like body for its lower half,  its lower eyes were assorted some human others not, with a giant spider's head, its left Chelicerae clearly the one from before, was broken off but seemed to have rapidly healed, clots of gelatinous red and cloudy grey sludge gathered in boils around the wound.

 Its upper half was two halves of the same human, a tanned and again thin female body was split into two from the head to the belly and merged again on the wrong axis, its human organs undulated within fleshy housing, what should have been securely contained inside the two halves were simply out, its arms were like twigs. There were two faces on the body, three if you counted the bottom half spider head as a face. A mouth on the top of the split head covered in hair opened up to see a gaping sinister mouth and looking at me was the two faces that had merged angularly, the eyes looked dead more like a fish than a man's. Its dark sclera only made the human eyes on the lower body more apparent, Their faces stretched to copy my expression of shock including the lower spider head its body seemingly sprouted out from.

Its rough dark-brown hair turned ethereal before returning to a solid state and weaved strands of pure white that wrapped around me, its upper halves had dangling arms that seemingly twitched in movement associated with the weaving thread. Looking back and forth I saw a smile on its face as it knew I was trapped, its lower thin insect hands with only three long fingers weaved complex patterns of all kinds like a maze of Web the "momentum" flowing throughout was incredibly complex.

The upper half lagged behind the lower half, its movements delayed and more deliberate as if it had two minds. As it wrapped my hands and feet it drew close and I saw its underside, its hairy lower half sprouted assorted humanoid arms and legs of varied length with two useless human limbs on its lower half and three other supporting human limbs along with five insectoid limbs, its underside merged a humanoid torso with a spiders body its creeping influence infesting both halves of the body.

Trapping me in an intricate web of fractals. sunlight bent reflecting prismatic light off its web. As the web surrounded me I could hear inhuman chittering laughter. 

As I closed my eyes I felt my bones being crushed by the Web. I felt my skin being cut into, the Web wrapped my body until I couldn't see anything, and then with a thud, I was dropped to the ground. I could hear faint yelling and words that sounded human in nature but couldn't tell inside the web.