Chapter Text
A Long time has passed since the sealing of the Hollow knight, Almost 40 Years. for humans thats, a while, sure, but not long enough for history to be lost. but bugs live shorter lives, and dont have medicine or antibiotics to help them live longer lives, so at maximum, a bug could live maybe 55 years, which, the Elderbug, one of the few remaining citizens of Dirtmouth, is 42, he was mearly a boy, only 3 when the Hollownest had fell to ruin. despite such a seemingly young age, he was old enough to reliably hunker down in his home. it wasnt untill he was, 5, maybe 6, that it was safe to exit Dirtmouth, many knights had come through killing infected bugs in this time, and during this time, the Hollow knight had been sealed withing the temple of the black egg for about a year, and the Radiance was sealed with him.
He was standing in his usual spot of calm today, recently a nameless knight had came from the King's Pass, smashing through the door that had sealed hollownest away from many. The Knight was a spry young fellow, the Elderbug thought, he was curious because the Knight looked like a vessel, which couldnt be possible, if there was a vessel still alive, it was either the hollow knight, who he had vaguely remembered was *alot* taller, or it was another, but too his, rather poor, memory, all but the Hollow Knight should have been dead. This was of No matter to Elderbug, because that simply meaned another child of the Pale kind was with us again, he had on 2 or 3, he cant remember, occassions, met another child of the pale king, Hornet, but she was stiff, and rude most of the time, but he gave her no anger, she was technically his senior and she had done nothing but fight since childhood, so Elderbug simply treated her as a child who still had to learn how to be social
this morning, Iselda had Came back to her shop in Dirtmouth, it was good to see the young lady again, it had been 7 years since her and Cornifer had been in there own homes, which was barely a few days after they had gotten married, they were only 14 at the time, he personally had known both of there parents. Iselda talked about the young knight who had bought a map from cornifer down in the forgotten crossroads. Elderbug was happy about this, there was finally life coming back to the small town which had once only had himself.
This Morning, something strange happened, the Young knight had brought back some.... pale creature? not completely pearlescent white like the king of Old Hollownest, and the being was part squishy, it has some form of... fuzz growing out of there head that was a slightly darker blue than Lifeblood, it wore a very complex outfit that not even the Weavers of Deepnest could have made, but it did have a masked face similar to that of the Weavers. Zote who was mearly passing by said "maybe there skeleton was on the inside?" no that couldnt have been right, that was ludicrous, a skeleton, on the inside? preposterous. But with closer looks from Iselda, she did have dark, odd wings, Zote was sure hed seen an illustration of a beast with wings like her, but he came a blank.
The knight couldnt speak, and it had no mouth or eyes to show much emotion, but even then it was clearly distressed, pacing around what Iselda had figured out was a girl, young at that... after a while, the knight calmed down, they had rested her on a bench, laying a raggest deepnest weaver cloth that Sly had in his store over the girl, it wasnt enough to fully cover her, but hopefully it would protect her from the cold somewhat.
The Girl had woken up. "where am i... Carla? Natsu?" she jolted up from her laying possition, the nightmare she was having quickly fading from her mind as she looked around... this place was... dark, she couldnt see very far, even with the... firefly lanterns? hanging above her, making a feint blue light. this place seemed interesting, but she had no idea where this was, above was a sky of dirt, they were in some kind of cave, a very large one at that. where could she be? Wendy thought, everyone seemed to be a bug, her face was covered in a mask that she just wasnt able to take off, and she felt something writhing under her skin.
"do not worry, you are safe where you are, i am the Elderbug, the oldest in this village named Dirtmouth..." he had said smiling somewhat... but Wendy.... Didnt understand a PEEP of what the Elderbug had just said, and she JUST realised he was a giant talking bug, tho she herself was a little taller than him.
Wendy had ducked behind the bench, rather she very acrobatically twirled around it, slightly scared of the bug infront of her who spoke what was clearly a civilized language, but she couldnt understand it at all. and then a memory hit her, it was all coming back, what had happened mere seconds ago to her.
i also emplore you to please read the whole story, or atleast a few chapters and comment whether you think im doing well as a writer or not, this is my second fic