Before the sun rose, Darter lay, slouched but not sleeping, up against the wall. Aster, who was sharpening a stick in case things got brutal, kept glancing over at them. "You going to say anything?" asked Aster.

Darter shuffled closer to the wall.

Aster poked them with the unsharpened part of the stick. "Got something to say? No? Maybe? Darter? Darter, what's our plan? You're going to attract the biggest bug on the whole island, right? Wasn't it clever of me to suggest we do bug catching?" Dropping their voice, Aster said, "They have no idea that you can basically summon bugs. This is going to be so-o-o easy, and then we'll have three new panta working with us. Can you imagine how much we'll get done?"

"Or we could lose the house," Darter said.

"No we won't," Aster said.

"Yes, we could! I can't-- I can't do it under pressure," Darter said, and they pressed their hands against their head. "And I'm so stressed right now."

Aster put a reassuring hand on their head.

"I don't even want new panta in the group," Darter murmured.

"Well, I did," Aster said. "Did you really think we were going to live just the two of us forever?"

Darter, who rarely wore anything less than a sunny smile, looked absolutely mutinous. "Yes."

Aster withdrew their hand. "I've always wanted to have an empire. I thought you knew that."

"Why, Aster?"

Aster's back itched. "I get lonely."

Darter's eyes widened. They stepped up into the window, crawling through, and out into the first rays of sunlight, which were so dim they could have been confused for those of far more distant stars. The air was thick with a heavier humming than days before, something older and more sinister, and the obelisk loomed closer than usual. It was the first day Aster fight they might truly be able to feel its magnetism, the way it pulled the whole world in, like a black hole, a reminder that everyone would someday succumb to metamorphosis and leave.

"Don't go," Aster said. Their scars were burning now, emitting a faint light. Darter made a break for it. Aster dashed after, clamoring through the window, and after a trip onto the hard ground they made it halfway down the island before getting stuck in a snarled bush. Aster felt their skin alight with pain, and they took a long, strained breath. "Darter," they called to the darkness.

Nothing answered. Aster had already lost sight of them. Their eyes swam not with water but with sudden images of an old story. They broke free, coming clear to the beaches, and saw no other footprints in the sand. The water lapped peacefully in and out, and dozens of other islands floated in the morning's murk, just graced by the pink tongue of the new day. Aster, who was beginning to bleed, circled, holding themselves in their own shaking arms, back to the top of the hill.

Darter was not there, but the other three panta were. They bloomed with the new day, flowers bouncing as a breeze rolled over the assembly and chilled Aster's new wounds. Aster leered at them all.

"You're late," the first panta said.

"We were just scoping out the land. Didn't you do that on the way up here?" Aster asked. "I want to make sure this is even."

"We?" asked the second panta.

"I'm doing this alone. Darter doesn't want to," Aster said. "They're off alone today. I know I can handle this alone, so no big."

"Looks like you're outnumbered," teased the second panta.

"Say that again once you've won," Aster warned. "Can I at least get your names?"

"I'm Santala," said the first panta, their flowers shuddering. Pointing to the second, they announced, "That's Erica, and that's Dillen." The third panta waved, straggly closed buds seeming to wave with them. "And you are?"

"Aster," Aster said. "And I'm off."

Santala tapped two fingers to their chin. "We'll be back when the sun peaks over this house," they said. "Say goodbye to your land if you want."

"I would, but I'm not gonna lose," called Aster before turning and racing into the woods. They could see the place where they'd trodden down foliage earlier, but not a bug was in sight. They were as loud in the air as they were utterly invisible. Aster crouched close to the dirt, running their fingers through a handful, but came up with nothing. They continued to pour over soil, crawling on their hands and knees and occasionally raking dirt around with the stick they'd sharpened for something more akin to a battle, and found themselves listless.

On the periphery of their vision, something moved, and Aster's hands cupped it before it could get away. It was one of the big-legged ones, a springer, designed to pounce off the ground by propelling itself straight upwards. All four of its larger legs pounded against Aster's hands, and Aster cackled. If they could just get a hand around the legs, the hunt was as good as over.

Aster grabbed the legs and the springer sprang. With a tremendous leap, it rent one of its legs free. The springer made a desperate dash on its remaining intact legs and proceeded to get itself lodged in between the palm of Aster's hand and the ground.

Aster lifted up a hand to find nothing but squashed insect beneath their hand, where once a living being had been. There was a quick strike of fear in their stomach, followed with a vague musing if killing the insect disqualified them. The broken body was no longer as appealing to the eye as the whole one had been, and it hadn't been much of a morsel to begin with. Aster had seen more beautiful bugs around Darter all the time, ephemeral things coasting by on wings clear as water held in the hands.

Aster nudged aside some dirt and buried the insect before standing again.

Their surroundings loomed heavy around them as the sun continued its restless ascent. Aster nudged themselves between trees, unsure of what it was they were even looking for. Anything good enough to keep was too fleet to catch, for sure, and that left them aimlessly kicking soil around and glancing over bushes for insects they would never be able to get in their hands. At one point, Aster saw a nettlemaker tending to its crop of flowers, but if there was anything worth not holding in their hands, it would be a nettlemaker. Aster liked their hands intact and not full of piercing holes, as they had received at a much younger age, twelve at the oldest.

Aster saw something much larger than a bug shift on the other side of a tree, and crept forwards. The movement ceased-- whatever it was, it was holding dead still. It was large, too, not Vaaldir size, but large enough to bowl them over.

Tentatively, they moved towards the clearing, then found themselves stuck behind a tree. They peered out to see Darter with their fingers extended. They were as alone as Aster was, the two of them both reaching out at a distance. Aster could feel the tightening sensation in their stomach only grow stronger. They took one step back, then another, and they thought they might have heard Darter turning around in the glade.

Aster bolted.

In the distance, they heard someone scream, and just as they thought the panic-driven run might be coming to an end, they found themselves vaulting around towards the source of the noise. They weren't entirely sure what was forcing them forwards, but whatever it was, it had hold of their feet, their heart, and their head. Aster brandished their stick high and burst out onto the scene.

Santala lay on the ground and a beautiful, iridescent insect was buzzing away into the air. The white-haired, scowling panta with the large, bulbous horn-esque growths from Aster and Darter's misadventure to the beach was scowling above them, bearing the same rusted pike. "Scout!" yelled Aster.

"You," yelled the scout.

"Me," Aster confirmed, swinging the stick around. Faster than Erica or Dillen could warn them off, Aster swung the stick around and against the rival panta's armor, where it cracked clean in two.

The stranger smirked. "You thought you could cut through my chestplate with a stick?"

Aster snarled. It dawned on them now that their opponent was covered in exactly one place, and that was where Aster had swung their only weapon. It would be prudent to stick the remaining half-a-stick directly in the scout's eyes, or else in their vulnerable, unguarded side.

"Aster, what are you doing?" groaned Santala from the ground. "Everyone, get out of there! It's an armed Koda scout!"

"Aster," the panta whispered, as if they had learned the location of a secret trove of treasure. They brought the pike up to Aster's neck. "Aster, is it?"

Aster snarled, "What's it to you?"

"I prefer to have my victim's names," bragged the panta.

Aster seized up with fear, then, by accident, they looked down and saw the stranger's shaking hands. They were young, young as Aster was, if not younger. They were all too young to be playing at anything like this, and that meant they were going to fight like thirteens, barely old enough to walk, instead of pretending to be adults. Aster slipped back and tackled the stranger, managing to wrest the pike out of their weak grip just as they kicked right under the breastplate. The stranger, made heavy by their metal plate, sprawled backwards, and Aster seized upon them and wrestled them down in the sand. They had enough muscle to at least make this tricky for Aster, but Aster, who had the advantage of already being on top, caught both arms with twice the ease it had taken her to catch a single bug.

"Give me your name," Aster whispered as the stranger continued to struggle, "and I'll let you go, because then we'll be even."

"Or?"

Aster said, "I'm not alone. Even if you got me off of you, I think someone else has your pike, and they don't look so friendly, do they?"

Santala brandished the pike.

The panta looked up at Aster with awe and fear, and their head jerked. "My name is Pascal."

"You won't come back here, will you, Pascal? This island is off the maps. You tell them there's nothing worth having here," Aster warned. "Bring anyone else back here and we'll have traps ready. We'll have a force. There are a thousand other islands on Big Silver. If you want to play for the tricky one, we'll be your face full of thorns. Tell you where not to put your nose, if you want to keep it."

Pascal's sharp eyes slid out towards the ocean. "You win," they said.

Aster let them up. Sand slid from their clothing, and Pascal gave themself a quick, undignified shake, sand pouring out of the breastplate. With another furtive glance back at Aster, they waded back into the sea.

Santala raised the pike. "And don't come back!"

Aster let out a quick call of celebration. The four of them shared a moment on the beach, Aster clutching the pike they felt they'd won, and Santala playfully attempted to jerk it back. Their faces were flushed giddy with success.
"Wait," Dillen warned. "Wait."

"What's the matter?" Aster said.

Dillen glanced straight up into the sun. "It's midday." Their face brightened. "And you don't have a bug!"

Aster's smile dropped. "What! You don't have one either, do you?"

Erica timidly raised an unimpressive but nonetheless existent bug.

"You're kidding," complained Aster.

"You're right," Santala said, cheerfully. "It's our island now."
"I don't think so," Darter said, emerging from the trees.

Aster, who was already reeling, practically tripped over their own feet at this point.

Darter held up a large, writhing worm. "We've got a bug, too. It's not the prettiest," Darter said. "In fact, it's the ugliest bug I know, and it makes a lot of unreasonable demands. It's a little bossy, a little mean..."

"You can talk to insects?" asked Dillen.

Aster snapped, "I get the joke. Let's just go see what Elytron has to say about all this."

Elytron so happened to have little to say, but they did immediately go for the worm, slurping it all up. Elytron tilted their head not long after. "Was this for the weaving?"

"No," Aster said proudly. "No, it was not."

Santala folded their hands. "I guess you win."

Aster tapped their foot against the floor. "Guess we do!" More solemnly, they added. "We could protect you. I want to protect you. I know I might not be the best bug, or the strongest bug, the smartest bug, or even a bug, really, but I want to do something good, and I want to do it with friends. Lots of friends."

"I guess it wouldn't be too bad to have a few more panta around," agreed Darter.

Aster smiled. "So, what do you say?"