The ground was hard to emerge from. It was tough, his feet scrabbling across the dirt. It was time to emerge from the dirt, where he had remained for seventeen years. Growing, developing as a nymph. All cicadas did such a thing. They grew slowly, steadily, biding their time. His feet tossed dirt overhead in a near frenzy. It was time, some deep instinct said. Who was he to refute such a thing? Instinct made him live, and the simple mind of an insect could not refute nor rebuttal nor question. Especially not when instinct had refused to fail him before. So he dug upwards, as he knew many others were.

Cicadas emerged from the ground in the depths of the night, when the ground hit a certain temperature. His feet met fresh air, and then the wood of a root that he had the day before been feasting upon the sap of. He began to clamber upwards, his movements a little shaky. There was the bumbling of other cicadas as they rose up against the bark of the tree. There was one last molt that awaited the group of cicadas, those that had all been laid in a similar time span. It was a safety in numbers sort of deal- who knew how long they would be safe from predators with their sheer numbers?

He continued to clamber until he reached a spot that he deemed comfortable. There he would sit and await for his last skin to harden, and for his body to emerge in it’s final, adult form. That was the only goal upon his mind, it was the only goal that mattered to him. Simple minded bugs had few goals, and they all surrounded the idea that survival was all that mattered.

Hours went past, as it was a slow process. It was boring and tedious, even to an insect. He didn’t know what awaited on the other side of this last shedding. What would happen? Would everything be okay? Questions were not formable in his simple mind. It was only to do, there was no questioning. Instinct gave it’s demands, and the insect followed.

---

Dawn breaking over the trees revealed his progress, and his change. He had crashed on the floor as his size and form changed, writhing, altering. Loud buzzes of wings turned into painful and deep bellows. Jaws stretched, membrane snapping. The body of a noisy bug grew into the form of a formidable predator. Antennae sprouted from his head as his exoskeleton fell off in it’s entirety. The pain was tremendous- and pain was such a fickle thing to the simple minded insect. Wings grew and stretched from his sides, and a long tail sprouted in a sudden spurt from his abdomen.

Astiar collapsed when the transformation was complete. Heat steamed from the energy required for such a drastic transformation. An exoskeleton to an endoskeleton. Lacking a working maw to having both that and mandibles. A forked tongue flickered from his mouth on instinct. Exhaustion weighed down his heavy body, coal black as it rested on the jungle floor. His wings would still need to fully harden before he would be able to achieve flight.

Slowly, six limbs scrabbled against the ground. He rose into a sit- a sit that would have never been physically possible for an insect. His head hung below his shoulders, exhaustion making him pant. Clear wings stuck out from his back, fanning in the morning air. His red eyes blinked open, and an unconscious bellow rumbled forth from the tall dragon. Astiar remained sitting, recovering, red eyes watching the smoke come from his coal black form. The barest notion of confusion had risen to his consciousness. Something about this felt foreign and wrong, and he could not define why.

[align=center]
— aine | the pitt | fae druid —

A pair of red eyes slowly lifted to look at the one that had approached. They didn't narrow, but rather stared in an unblinking mannerism. They reflected the light through the trees, as well as his pristine scales. The smoke was less now that his body was cooling. There was less heat contacting cooler air, and the steam and smoke began to taper off.

There was no indication that a word that came from the vixen was comprehended. The four blue antennae that waved in a gentle breeze remained upright. Noise, it sounded like noise to him. It befuddled him as if he had some deep instinct that said he knew what this creature before him was saying. Yet his upper consciousness didn't. Strange and wrong, it went against what he knew deep within. His fear, the fight or flight response, was diminished when he noticed how much bigger he was. From being near the bottom of the food chain to now a massive predator was a startling change. It didn't rework his brain much, but the knowledge that he was bigger made him not flee.

Slowly his six legs moved. They were the coolest part of his body, and the steam had swiftly cleared from the limbs. It was his wings that had the steam still leaving them, they were still fluttering in the morning's light. An experimental noise parted his maw. Loud and emotionless, the noise, as his face then scrunched up. Astiar wasn't sure what the noise was meant for. It made little sense to him. His scales loudly clicked as his head turned to gaze at his wings, legs moving to hoist himself from the cool earth below. They were taking their sweet time to solidify. There was no answer to the other's inquiries, no expression on the dragon's face.

Astiar lifted one of his legs. The limb was stretched, claws splaying: an experimental step forward was what progressed. His tail laid limp on the ground behind him, being one of the bigger sources of steam still rising from his scales spare his wings. Perhaps the best expression to be gleaned from his face was indeed that of exhaustion. His head was still lowered, and a sharp twitch went through his antennae. The dragon experimentally flapped his wings, emitting a horrific loud buzz as that all cicadas created. His wings still possessed the ability, despite his new dragonoid build. It accompanied another screeching noise that came from his parted maw, the noise that was of little answer to the question of the vixen that had approached.

— 'cause I'm only a crack in this castle of glass
Embry preferred to believe very little could surprise him.  After so many years, things grew commonplace to him that others may find unusual.  A cicada larger than himself failed to fall into the category of 'been there, seen that'.  By the stars.  The swift fox slowly padded towards Aine's other side, taking a protective stance along with Kydobi.

While the other to attempted to communicate, the vulpine simply regarded the massive insect with a curious gaze.  He thoroughly considered sending Keona a message through their bond but supposed this hardly counted as a matter of importance.  He simply found the matter fascinating.  And annoying.

He grit his teeth at the sound, intrigue heightening.  "I'm not so sure it understands us, lass," he muttered to Aine, ear flicking.  Which is unfortunate, really.  He understood many languages, but not any sort he imagined the insect may be attempting.

"Looks like a giant cicada -- I believe they come from the ground, then emerge after some years," spotting patterns and applying them to new surprises must be the true perk of a long-life, he supposed.  "If 'e's just a big one, 'e probably just emerged." But cicadas -- no, insects, don't sit like that.  "I do believe we're lookin' at a special case regardless, of course."
[align=right]hardly anything left for you to see — EMBRY

The attempts of trying to coax the draganoid insect into speaking resulted in a lapse of silence on the creature’s end. Senseless noise it was to him, making his antennae twitch as it was heard. His mouth pressed tightly shut, growing used to it’s foreign presence. Sharp teeth were prodded at by his forked tongue, before he again opened his maw to let out a sharp and shrill shriek. His tail slowly began moving, lifting from where it before had laid lifeless and steaming on the ground. Wings were still twitching and solidifying, fanning and sending steam curling through the air. His six feet each had three claws, which dig into the ground as he began to stand more upright. Energy was being provided by the adrenaline of another creature showing up. Foreign. Astiar’s instincts still pivoted on that of a bug’s, and it was that of one on the lowest end of the food chain.

The words didn’t settle in his mind, and his head turned when another person showed up. That was more of them than there were of him, his wings giving off another shrill buzz. His mouth rapidly opened and closed, the mandibles on the side clicking together in rapid succession. The feeling of a mouth rather than mandibles alone was equally as foreign to Astiar as was the rest of this strange gargantuan change. A deep rumble sounded from the insect looking dragon, shifting his weight between his six legs.

This one, the recent one, made more noise than the rest of them had. Louder than the first. His mandibles clicked together again, and a shaky step forward was taken. The steam was almost gone now, letting his pristine and new scales glint unhindered in the morning light. The red eyes squinted, before making a sharp chatter noise. It was wordless, and in truth he was only copying the tone conveyed of the most recent speaker. Experimenting with his capabilities, of a mouth and mind that could probably comprehend and produce speech: just not at the current time. The mind of the massive creature was set on obeying, and it was instinct that was his master. Yet it provided no need to flee, and it left Astiar without prompt for what he was supposed to do in such a strange and foreign situation. His head kept turning, looking between the three, and then back to his wings. Another sharp buzz sounded- really, he didn’t seem able to keep quiet. There was no understanding of what had happened to him to be found in his mind.

Another small step forward was taken; though really he would have to take six steps before the dragon even began to make any progress forward. A few of his feet forward and the others still resting behind him made his weight unsteady, and then he fell. Disgruntled hisses sounded when he collapsed on his belly, his wings madly buzzing to convey more of his protest. Falling made his head lay against the ground, more so to eye level than below. From his emotionless expression arose confusion, glinting in the vibrant red eyes that he possessed. The cicada didn’t seem to know how to get up with all this weight, and his middle set of legs stuck out from his sides and kicked at the dirt in a pitiful manner.


//mobile but hopefully still of decent quality!