user; Unleashed Squid //
names; Danaus and Cat //
gender; Both females
Meanings: Danaus (duh-nay-us) plexippus is the scientific name for monarch butterflies. // Cat is short for caterpillar.
┏━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━┓
ʏᴇᴀʀ: 𝟸𝟶𝟺𝟿.
ᴀɢᴇ: 𝟷𝟷.
ᴛʜᴀᴛ’s ᴡʜᴀᴛ ᴛʜᴇ sᴄʜᴏᴏʟ sʏsᴛᴇᴍ ᴅᴏᴇs ɴᴏᴡᴀᴅᴀʏs.
𝟹𝟶𝟶/𝟹𝟶𝟶 ᴡᴏʀᴅs.
┗━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━┛
Danaus gazed across the room, her innocent eyes capturing the violent scene surrounding her. She observed every shove of large paws against smaller victims. Being a new student here, the youngest of the bunch, Danaus scanned the faces around her, spotting hunger in her peers’ eyes. Unfortunately, it appeared, she was the feast in their lustful expressions.
Danaus suddenly leapt from her desk in the nick of time. Two students bowled through, ripping at each others ears, and biting with trap-like jaws. She watched frozen until the two split, bloodied but overall fine. One of the viscets, a large male, eyed Danaus, and at once her chest sank like a stone. He possessed that same cruel predatory hunger.
Perhaps it was to prove himself, or perhaps it was a game, but the next thing she knew, Danaus was thrown across the classroom, held tightly in his grip. She would have screamed, but her voice caught in her throat, like she was choking on honey. The boy struck her, and though Danaus felt every rip of skin, she could not move.
Anger rose in her chest as the boy shoved her. She felt like a doll, so dehumanized. Danaus suddenly decided that she was no victim. With a large sweep of paw, she lashed out and ripped the boy off of her with a great strike to his snout.
He looked furious for a moment, and turned, observing the crowd which had paused to watch. Looking back at Danaus, he struck one final blow, kicking her with all of his strength, toppling her tiny body to the floor. Even though she had lost that fight, Danaus had made her mark to the rest of the corrupted viscetlings. She was willing to fight. A wolf in the world of beasts and sheep.
┏━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━┓
ʏᴇᴀʀ: 𝟸𝟶𝟻𝟻.
ᴀɢᴇ: 𝟷𝟽.
ᴛʜᴇ ʀᴇᴍᴏᴠᴀʟ ᴏғ ᴛᴏxɪᴄ ᴄᴀᴛᴀʀᴀᴄᴛs.
𝟷𝟶𝟶𝟶/𝟷𝟶𝟶𝟶 ᴡᴏʀᴅs.
┗━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━┛
When the heavy gong-like bells began to echo in the center of her village, Danaus thought it to be no more than another meeting from the III Oligarchy, perhaps the declaration of a new law or a command for the village to complete more tedious working hours. Yet as she lazily slung her legs from the ragged couch beneath her, and snuffed the thin candle which lit her tiny home, other noises began to race through her ears which told her otherwise.
“Get off of me” screamed a women nearby. The smashing of glass broke the silence next, followed a frenzy of aggressive shouts, a rumble with the magnitude of a small earthquake, and a roar which chilled Danarus to the bone. It wasn’t the kind of loud and thunderous roar that a hungered lion or tigress gave off, but was instead a terrible low grumbling frequency that raced through the ground, and was felt in her feet. A child began to cry.
Now cautious, Danaus crept to her boarded window, peeking out for as long as she dared. A large crowd had formed on the streets, walking like skeletons to the center of town. To her amazement, they were all caged, forced to follow like herds of sheep through town; a hastily placed barbwire fence on either side of the road loomed threateningly. Strange symbols were painted on the doorways of homes, and men with loaded guns perched atop roofs like tiny gods. Danaus saw no humanity in their eyes. Worse, worse than it all were the beasts which circled in the sky; she had never seen anything of the sort and at the sight, her knees trembled.
After calming herself with careful breaths and gently stroking her tail, Cat, she decided to just stay put. Danaus was close enough from the center of town to hear what was going on in that dreadful place, and close enough now to the back entrance of her home to make an escape into the large and dense forest beyond. The people’s pleas slowly drifted away. Silence cut through the frenzy and her ears sharpened as a single voice rang out through the thin air.
“Ladies, gentleman, welcome! I am here to save you. From what, you may ask? And I would respond, from yourselves...”
There was a tapping at her door and Danaus shrank into the floor, heart pounding. In panic, she remembered the symbols placed on all of her neighbors homes, and now it struck her that they were markers for those attending the meeting. She cursed to herself; time was up. It was too late now to turn back from her choices.
“...called you here today to set in some new guidelines. Do not attempt to disobey or...”
The tapping grew louder. Danaus began to crawl across the ground to her back exit. She didn’t dare even to breath.
Gunshots suddenly pierced the air. The crowd all shrieked in unison, wailing and crying out in fear. The tapping paused briefly. Danaus’ heart felt like it was about to explode from fear, and the speech continued.
“...Unfortunately your old leader is dead. We are not like him. We believe in equality. And once we all reach equality, my soldiers and I will step down...”
Her hand reached up to grasp the doorknob, closer, closer.
“...Even if that takes us one hundred years...”
Her front door smashed open. Danaus lept to her feet, pulled the knob and sprinted.
Never before had she run with such speed or agility, leaping over logs and tearing through bushes like a great river over stones. The fear of being caught suddenly drained away all pain or exhaustion from her system, and all that mattered was evading her pursuer. Step after step she ran, until all traces of life had dissipated from the world. Only then did she see a tiny hut in the distance. It had old walls made of rotten wood and a chimney that looked as if it would have fallen apart last week. Danaus quietly entered the building, carrying a feeling that whatever it was, and whoever may stir inside of it, was not foe.
A voice shrieked out, “Who goes ‘ere?”
“D-Danaus,” she whispered.
“Danaus? You a civilian of at’ town across the forest?”
“Yeah, I just esc—” She realized that she would need to be careful with the phrasing of her words. “...left that town.”
A ragged elderly women appeared from the shadows. “Ah, is it still run by the II Oligarchy?”
“No it’s the third” said Danaus without thinking. “Oh wait...no. I don’t know, there was some sort of event today and there’s not even an Oligarchy anymore.”
The women nodded. Her expression was unreadable. “What do yah think about at’, then?”
“They fenced off the streets but I don’t think they can be that bad. The III Oligarchy was terrible and the new folks are different than them.”
The woman snorted. ‘Ey’ll be as different as my grey hairs. Damned school system.”
“But they promised to be different.”
To her surprise, the greasy viscet laughed at her. “Nothing will change, foolish girl. Tha’s what ey’ always say. Ey’ embed it into your brain so yer easily controlled, ey’ promise to be different but ey’ never, never will be.”
Danaus pondered this, her ears twitching as they did when she was lost in thought. Now, looking upon all of the government and its continuous cycle of dictators, each one claiming to be better but ending up the same, it seemed so silly now that she’d fallen for such obvious lies. The school system had corrupted her, cast her mind away into the flow of manipulation. However, a small feeling of pride began to peck her for breaking out of that ruthless cycle. Perhaps it was the only time in her entire life where she had grasped at such an emotion.
It occurred to Danaus that she had been a sheep all along, but the train of benighted compliance had ended.
┏━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━┓
ʏᴇᴀʀ: 𝟸𝟶𝟻𝟼.
ᴀɢᴇ: 𝟷𝟾.
sɪx.
𝟹𝟶𝟶/𝟹𝟶𝟶 ᴡᴏʀᴅs.
┗━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━┛
“Psst.” Danaus turned at the sound. Immediately a paw clasped over her mouth. She struggled, but the voice continued, “Shh. Follow silently.”
Danaus figured she had no choice, and obliged. In a secluded corner she finally saw her captor, a middle aged viscet who had the wrinkles of someone much older.
“Who are you?” She whispered.
“Six. You’re no soldier so let me ask you the same thing.”
“I’m—it’s none of your business. And why do you say that?”
“You don’t have they eyes of someone cruel,” he muttered... “Tell me, what do you think of the government?”
Danarus felt like she had been burned. All of the pent up anger boiled within her. “I’d like them dead.”
This seemed to suprise Six, but he continued. “I think you might like where I’m going then...if rebellion is in your nature.”
“Was that it? How..Why do you trust me?”
“I repeat. You don’t have the eyes of someone cruel...and you also remind me of my daughter.” Pain flickered in his icy gaze. “If you’re interested, follow me. If not, hurry off. The guards have gotten stricter with curfew violations recently.”
Danaus seemed to like the sound of a rebellion, and she quickly agreed to follow Six. Perhaps it was a little impulsive, maybe even crazy, but it felt right.
—
Her eyes grew large at the sight of the building; it was a church. “Why here?” She asked, scanning the dusty ruins.
“If they come in here and spot us, we’d be shot, no questions asked. Place’s been banned since day one.”
“And that’s good?”
“Kid, we’re trying to overthrow the government. Getting killed is far better than getting caught. So let me ask you one more time...are you in?”
Danaus’ eyes shone brightly. “Cross my heart and hope to die.”
┏━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━┓
ʏᴇᴀʀ: 𝟸𝟶𝟻𝟾.
ᴀɢᴇ: 𝟸𝟶.
ᴛʜᴇ ғɪɢʜᴛ ᴏғ ᴛʜᴇ sʜᴇᴇᴘ.
ᴀʀᴛ ᴘɪᴇᴄᴇ.
┗━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━┛
┏━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━┓
ʏᴇᴀʀ: 𝟸𝟶𝟼𝟼.
ᴀɢᴇ: 𝟸𝟾.
ᴘɪᴄᴋ ᴀ ᴘᴏɪsᴏɴ.
𝟹𝟶𝟶/𝟹𝟶𝟶 ᴡᴏʀᴅs.
┗━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━┛
Her apple cider gaze burned into him, and the man who ruled the world stared back unfazed. Cruelty so eternally emulated from his iron fist was now quenched in this moment with the rioting and the threats from outside the windows. Now the world knew of his violence. Now the world would forever shout in bloodied enmity and speak of democracy, cursing his name.
“Not so strong now,” said Danaus in a frosty tone. “One step outside and you’ll be torn to shreds.” Her voice was that of melted copper, and she felt pride surging through her at this victory. She viewed the rebellion as a person would view their own child; she had molded it, kindled it, and in an odd way, she loved it. Never again would the country falter in the eyes of dictatorship; never again would children suffer like she had.
The man said nothing.
The ending, so grand it would be. The wooden frame of the house and the lush carpets which lined the floor. All would soon be destroyed with Danaus’ lit flame. The calls from those outdoors would ring throughout history.
This seemed to catch his attention. “You’re insane,” he stated as if it were clearer than the moon in the plum sky. “You’ll burn too.”
Danarus shook her head. “You’d know what that’s like, wouldn’t you.” Her fists boiled with pent up anger. Her mind drifted back to Six, and she wondered if the flower placed atop his soft mound of dirt was still perfect. “Maybe one day we’ll meet again,” she muttered. “You and I, the crazy ones I suppose. We’ll end up alike some day. But for now, this is over.”
And with a soft, feathery movement, the match was released from her hands.
And the world caught on fire.
credits to missbelgy, ladymidnightsolace on DA for ‘prettying up,’
Art + Writing by me.
Note: If you plug “six” into a word counter it will show as 301 words because of my dash divider in the center of the story. Since the divider is text ( ——) and not an image, it is counted as word when it is not.
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