Never

Chapter 38: Wild first time.

At the top of the holy fields, Orchid woke up after a restless sleep, having no other place to take shelter, she had stayed in the house of the seer, the shadows of the place had urged her to do this, even leaving her some food in the room, it was not the best or the tastiest but she accepted the offering gratefully.

How much Orchid regretted having said that they were monsters, they were the most charming beings she had ever met and there was no reason to fear them, as far as she remembered she had never known that any of them attacked someone for no reason. Perhaps Big was the only exception but he only wanted to protect his family and he was afraid. Of course, his was not the best reaction but she was not sure if she in his situation would have done better.

Now that she was awake and rested, she was reunited with her loneliness and her dramas. What to do now? She was still as lost as the day before.

Shuffling her chances, her only option was to leave Hallownest, go to the surface, and wander the vast and dangerous territories at the mercy of bats and rats. A chill ran down her spine at the thought of that, but she had to be brave and face her fears, she was about to undertake the greatest journey any mantis of her tribe had ever made. On the other hand, before even setting foot in Dirtmouth, she had to get there and that was already quite an achievement.

She did not have enough geo to pay for another trip in Stag, she would have to do the walking tour, but a mantis as tall and famous as she would be recognized immediately, she had already been the subject of many rumors and articles in the magazines. But perhaps all was not lost, an appropriate disguise could help her go unnoticed, maybe they even confused her with a grasshopper or something similar and in that room there was a lot of fabric that nobody was using.

She started to take down some curtains and decorations of the place, her former owner really loved that particular style, with all the fabric she had, she could easily make a complete wardrobe, but she only needed a dress so she took what was necessary to start working.

She was not a weaver, she did not know how to knit or sew, therefore what she was going to do would not look very good, but that did not matter, even if she had to dress as a beggar, she would do it in order to survive. She cut some strips of fabric with her claws to tie and adjust the cape she was making, another shorter strip would be used on the hood, the result would be quite rough, but her idea was to be covered.

After a while working she was almost ready with her new outfit, she only had to try it on herself, but her time was just over. She heard the sound of someone approaching, she immediately became alert and clutched her cloth in fear, wishing with all her being that it was one of the shadows of the cemetery, her breathing almost stopped as the footsteps approached, her mind blanked out and trembled expectantly about what was about to happen.

She screamed in terror as Hollow's head poked through the door and backed up until her back collided with the wall.

"Orchid, calm down," Hollow yelled at her.

"No... Don't hurt me.... I don't want to die" screamed the mantis, letting tears fall.

"I won't hurt you, calm down." The knight approached cautiously, but that was worse.

"Stay away!"

"Calm down, I really won't hurt you."

"No... You won't fool me!"

The desperate mantis grabbed her clothes and ran towards the exit hoping to dodge Hollow and escape, but the knight was more skillful, jumping on her and catching her around the waist. They both fell to the ground and the fight broke out. Orchid tried by all means to get rid of the knight and he sought to immobilize her to make her listen to him. The struggle was constant and the desperation tangible, each was using all of their strength and ingenuity to achieve their goal. If it weren't because Orchid was crying and terrified, Hollow might even have considered that funny, but the situation was different, this was not a game, it was something of life and death.