< Humbug Tales: Keeper of the Swarm
Remnants of the Fallen
A strange discovery and chance encounter reveal the peculiar past of a humbug race.
Marking the dusk’s beginning, the desert sun cast its dying gasp of light on the leaves of an agave plant. In the shade beneath the succulent, a bright dot darted back and forth with frenetic energy. A yellow scorpion, seemingly mesmerized by the speck of light, followed it curiously.
“Eowils!” called a voice from within a curled, dead leaf at the plant’s base. “Quit teasing Raahi.”
Eowils stopped running and rested the bioluminescent glands of his humbug body, dulling the light to a soft glow. He replied in between gasps as he caught his breath. “We’re just playing, Mother!”
“Well, stop playing and find your sister. It will be time to eat soon.”
Eowils looked around. Knowing Asra, she must be out exploring all the sights, the sounds, and–most captivating of all–the smells of the Seeker family’s latest home. Since the recent rainfall, the surroundings of the agave leaf domicile had become especially pungent with the aromas of nearby life.
Eowils twitched his antennae and concentrated, honing in on the scent of his sister’s pheromones. Soon his mind’s eye formed a proper trail leading due east, away from the fading daylight. He climbed a muscular pincer to the saddle on Raahi’s back.
“Asra?” he called as Raahi dutifully carried him onward. He held one glowing hand up, casting light on the terrain ahead.
Soon he heard a familiar voice call back, “Eowils!” He turned his hand toward the source of the sound. Asra was standing, waving both arms and splaying her wings to get the young humbug’s attention. She appeared camouflaged amidst the desert by a dusting of sand, shedding particles from her shoulders as she moved. “Over here.”
“Why are you covered in dirt? Did you find another truffle?” asked Eowils.
“I found something more interesting. Come see!”
Eowils shook Raahi’s reins, briskly following his older sibling to the rim of a broad, freshly dug pit. The pit exposed a portion of an enormous object buried underground, off-white but stained with the orange tint of the desert soil.
Eowils hopped off of Raahi and stood with Asra at the rim. “What is it?” he asked in awe as he paced along the edge of the rim to see more of the strange structure. Its contours seemed complex yet purposeful, with a ridge marking a line of symmetry over the middle.
“I don’t know.” Asra leapt into the hole, releasing a small cloud of dust from her body as she landed on the object’s surface. “I tried knocking on it; I think it might be hollow inside. I don’t see an entrance, though.”
Eowils scurried excitedly around the perimeter of the structure. Was it natural, or some sort of humbug creation? And how much more was still buried? He turned and looked about. Not far from the pit, he saw more particles of dirt spraying upward from the ground.
He gestured to his sister, beckoning her with one hand while shushing her with the other. The children followed the sprays of dirt to their source: another hole nearby. “I didn’t dig this…” Asra whispered to her brother as she peered into the hole.
Within, they could see more of the same whitish structure. This side of the shape was longer and narrower, ending in a large cavity. Something was feverishly casting more dirt from beneath.
“Is it an antlion?” Eowils asked nervously.
“I don’t think so,” she said. “It’s a fast digger, whatever it is. It looks like…” Suddenly, a wave of dirt caught her in the face, causing her to yelp. The digging creature, startled by her sound, leapt upwards onto the structure. Eowils caught a glimpse before it disappeared into the cavity.
“It looked like a humbug!” Eowils cried as his sister rubbed the dirt from her eyes. He jumped toward the structure, buzzing his wings to help propel him to the cavity’s entrance. “Hello?” he called.
Eowils glowed softly to see the interior of the cavity. Inside was a messy latticework of thin walls. He released a calming pheromone to put the stranger at ease. “It’s okay, we’re humbugs too.”
Slowly, from within the latticework, a tiny being peeked its head out. It was a humbug all right, but different from any he had seen before. Unlike the yellow-skinned Seekers, its skin was an ethereal white, appearing almost transparent in the light. Though it squinted, he could also see its eyes were a striking shade of red.
As Asra arrived, emanating a second light source within the confined cavity, the nervous humbug eased his way out of the latticework and into full view of the children. It was a young boy a bit smaller than Eowils. The boy continued to squint as he stared silently at them.
Eowils grinned at him. “I’m Eowils, and this is Asra.”
“Eowils,” repeated the boy in a gentle voice that was nearly a whisper. “Asra.”
“That’s right,” said Asra. “And what’s your name?” The boy looked confused until Asra pointed at him.
“Eowils, Asra…Trigg,” said the boy, pointing back at himself.
“Nice to meet you, Trigg!” said Eowils. “Do you live nearby?” But Trigg didn’t respond. Instead he slowly approached the children, squinting his eyes with more effort as he did. He tilted his head inquisitively and pointed at Asra’s glowing hands.
“What?” asked Asra. He lifted up his hands, inviting her to do the same. As she did, he reached out slowly to touch her glowing fingers. She watched him scrutinize her hand with his crimson eyes. He gave her a quizzical expression.
“Asra,” said Eowils. “I think he’s confused about the glow.”
“Really? I thought all humbugs could do that!” She brightened her hand and chuckled as Trigg stepped back in surprise.
“Well, it seems like you’re not much of a talker,” said Eowils. “But you’re quite the digger! You did all this with your bare hands?” He mimed a digging motion. Trigg nodded in understanding and beckoned them to follow him.
The children dimmed their lights as he led them out of the cavity, then to the edge of the visible structure. Here Trigg crouched and resumed his frantic digging, widening the excavation to expose even more buried material.
Asra and Eowils looked at each other, shrugged, and joined him.
Later the three children stood, exhausted but proud, along the ledge of a much larger pit revealing the structure in its entirety.
“Wow,” said Eowils, standing directly in front of the cavity. “From here it looks almost like a giant head statue of a humbug.”
“Or of something,” Asra corrected. From where she stood, the extreme elongation of the face was more apparent, as were the lack of antennae and unnerving gaps where its eyes should have been. There was still no accounting for the cavity in the front of the face, or for the separation of the jaw into bisected halves underneath the main structure.
Trigg seemed particularly interested in what was inside the jaws: rows of jagged teeth, colored similar to the structure itself, jutted from both upper and lower portions. Beneath the cavity were pairs of especially long and sharp fangs, each one taller than an adult humbug.
Trigg climbed back into the hole, balanced himself on one half of the jaw and began to pull at one of the fangs, but it refused to budge. “Hold on, Trigg,” said Eowils as he climbed down to offer his support, Asra soon following after.
The children grunted and pulled together with all their might. As the tooth began to wiggle loose in its socket, the three humbugs each toppled over into the dirt of the pit.
“I have an idea,” said Asra, gathering herself.
The boys waited patiently as she disappeared from the hole and returned with a length of coiled spider silk rope. Peeking over the edge was Raahi, the other end of the rope affixed to his harness.
Asra climbed down again and tied a loop around the midsection of the tooth, pushing off with both feet to cinch it tightly. She motioned a command to Raahi, whose arachnid legs dug into the dirt as he tugged the rope taut. Asra kept motioning while the boys did their best to knock it loose again.
Suddenly the children found themselves jolted from the earth as the tooth was uprooted and thrown from its place within the hole.
Aboveground now, Eowils stood to see the stunned scorpion lying on its back, overturned by the sudden upheaval. He traced the sight of the now-broken rope to see the fully exposed tooth. It was shaped like a crescent with a hairline fracture along its length.
Asra lifted up one side. “It’s actually not too heavy.”
“Mother and Father might be able to identify it,” suggested Eowils. Asra nodded.
Together, the Seeker children began dragging the tooth in the direction of their homestead. Shortly, an uncertain but excited Trigg joined their effort. It moved freely for a few more seconds before they found themselves stalled. “Did we hit a snag?” asked Eowils.
“I’ll check,” said Asra as she circled around the crescent. “Oh!” she called. Clinging to the other end was a stray yellow ant pulling in the opposite direction.
“A worker!” called Eowils with excitement. “She can help us carry it.” He approached the ant, ready to ingest and recreate its natural pheromonal musk. Abruptly the animal released its grip and snapped its mandibles threateningly at Eowils, causing him to flinch and cry out in surprise.
“Let me try,” said Asra. She closed her eyes and raised her hands, gesturing like a conductor commanding a symphony of smells in an effort to calm the beast. Instead of being pacified, the hostile worker leapt toward Asra, pushing her to the ground. “Hey!”
As the ant pounced onto Asra, the protective Raahi grabbed and lifted it above the ground with his claw. “No, Raahi,” warned Eowils, noticing the scorpion’s hungry eyes. Eowils gestured for Raahi to release the ant a few paces from where the shocked Asra was rising to her feet.
As soon as the ant was released, it ran back to the tooth and stubbornly gripped it tightly again with its mandibles.
Asra groaned. She approached the ant a second time but found her path blocked by two more ants of the same golden color. As they approached her, their mandibles fully extended, Raahi used both claws to again remove the danger.
Asra gestured to release the two new ants in the same spot. She looked to find the spot covered in at least a dozen more ants, each facing the children with the same menacing posture.
Asra shook the dirt from her hands and projected a flash of light in the ants’ direction. The horde of ants seemed to extend as far as they could see.
“Uh-oh,” said Eowils. “It’s a feral swarm.”
The children looked up at Raahi, who was desperately lifting and dropping individual ants as they approached. Even as he did, more ants nipped at his legs and attempted to climb onto his back. As he was quickly overwhelmed by the swarm, the first three ants made it past him and rushed angrily toward the humbugs.
Eowils turned to run but his path was blocked by the crescent tooth. He closed his eyes and braced himself for the attack.
Suddenly Eowils heard a startled chirp and opened his eyes. The ants froze in confusion as their faces were blasted by an abrupt onslaught of dirt.
Beside him, Asra pointed to the source: that prodigious digger, Trigg. Trigg swiftly tore a new scar in the earth, sending a shower of particles toward the threat.
Though unable to match Trigg’s speed, the two Seekers began assisting his efforts by throwing fistfuls of dirt in the ants’ direction. Soon the growing fog of airborne particles inundated the air, capturing the scene in an orange fog. More chirps were emitted by panicked ants fleeing the forming vortex.
The children quit their digging and listened to the remaining ants scatter as the dirt storm settled. Raahi stood within the waning battleground, confused but unscathed.
“Asra! Eowils!” called a voice from behind them. They turned to see Father approaching, a look of concern on his face. “We’ve been calling you for ages. And who is with you?”
“His name is Trigg,” replied Asra. “And he just saved our butts!”
“Oh, my!” said Father, eyeing the child. “It sounds like you all have a story to tell. What brought you to the aid of my children, Trigg?”
From the darkness a new voice responded, “my brother does not speak the language of the titan-eaters.” The family turned their attention to another humbug, taller but with the same white skin and squinting red eyes.
“Ah, you have family with you as well,” said Father in his typical friendly tone. “Perhaps you’d both like to join ours for a meal? It’s the least we could offer for helping my children in their time of need.”
“No, thank you,” said the taller humbug curtly as he extended an arm over Trigg’s shoulder. “My brother and I do not share your…dietary customs, and we must return to our camp. Have a blessed night.” He looked at Father with a stern expression.
“Oh, all right then. Have a blessed night yourselves,” said Father as he climbed onto Raahi and turned to lead the children home. Eowils looked back at the dig site for a few moments before following.
Once they were gone, the taller humbug looked down at his companion and spoke in the sibilant tones of their native tongue. “Why would you sneak off like that? Do you know how worried I’ve been?”
“Sorry, Ambrose,” said Trigg. “I was following the scent of the agave. I smelled nectar nearby, but then I found-”
“The overworld is dangerous, Trigg–full of predators who will swallow you up or lay their eggs in your flesh.” Ambrose added in a fearful whisper, “here, your recklessness could even invite the wrath of the titans themselves!”
“But who were those strange humbugs? What did they say to you?”
“Those were carnivores: fearsome humbugs who feast on meat. Some say they even drink the hemolymph of their own larvae, like dracula ants. And they invited us back to their home to make a meal of us, too.” Trigg gasped at this. “I told you, you must listen to me and stay close until our work here is complete and we’re safely home.”
“I’m sorry,” Trigg said contritely.
Ambrose hugged him tightly. “It’s okay, brother. I don’t mean to scare you, but you must be more careful. We’re the only family we have left, after all.” He took Trigg’s hand and began leading his brother back to their camp.
Eowils stared pensively into the distance. “What’s the matter, Eowils?” called Mother from across the table. “Is something wrong with your nectar?”
He glanced at the half-finished droplet on his plate. “No, it’s good.” Politely, he sipped at it. “I was just thinking. What’s a ‘titan-eater’? I heard that humbug say it.”
Mother and Father looked at each other. “Oh, that’s quite a tale,” said Father. “And one that’s best told visually.” From beside him, Asra squealed with delight. She loved Father’s shadow puppet shows.
Soon the children sat patiently near the resting Raahi. Mother kneeled in front of them, projecting a bright light from her hands. Father manipulated his limbs and digits in an exquisite dance to cast large shadows onto the facade of the agave leaf.
“Today, we Seekers are spread throughout the land, only gathering to witness the grand Emergence.” Upon the agave leaf, the shape of a cicada larva scaled the bark of the Great Tree. “But once, ancestors of ours lived permanently in this very desert. They had a longer title, then: the ‘Seekers of the Fallen.’” Father cast the shadow of an ancestral humbug standing proudly in their homeland.
“Today the desert presents a humbug with many challenges: fearsome predators, unfriendly scavenger ants, and of course the unyielding heat of the Mighty Glowworm. But long ago, these lands were also home to godlike beings much stranger than Her: the beastly ‘titans.’” Father altered the shape of the shadow continuously as he spoke.
“Behemoth worms with long, venomous teeth…” The worm-creature coiled its long body into a threatening posture, rapidly vibrating the tip of its tail in warning.
“Fierce flyers with pincer faces and arms made up of thousands of wings…” The shape mimicked his words, its two arms flapping majestically while the stinger-like toes of its feet clasped and unclasped. It opened its hard pincer-like mouth to give a strange call, the sound provided by Mother. Nervously, Raahi backed up a few paces.
Eowils stood and petted his claw to calm him. “I’ve never seen Raahi afraid before!”
“All creatures know fear, child,” said Father. “The ant fears the spider, the spider fears the wasp, and even the wasp fears the mighty titans. But just as all creatures die, occasionally so do the titans themselves. And, when they do, they relinquish their remains to the earth.”
“The object!” exclaimed Asra excitedly. “That thing we found-”
“Came from a fallen titan,” finished Father, and he projected the shape of its fearsome, many-toothed face. Contorting his entire body with great effort, father added a torso with four legs and a tail. “Larger than we can imagine and covered in hair like a bumblebee.” The children gasped as the titan opened its mouth to howl at the night sky, until Father overextended himself and fell to the ground, causing them all to erupt in laughter.
Once they had calmed down, Father resumed the shadowplay. “When a titan fell, creatures would feed upon its meat until there were only remnants left: leathery skins covering strange pale structures. Then, our ancestors–the Seekers of the Fallen–would find those structures and use them as homes, living amongst colonies of skin beetles within the remains.”
“But, Father,” interrupted Eowils. “Did our ancestors…eat the meat of the titans?” His voice wavered with clear discomfort.
Father laughed. “Some believe that they did, others disagree. Such is the nature of legends.”
“No way,” said Asra. “We’re humbugs, not predators!”
“Are we not?” teased Father. “Just a few nights ago, I seem to recall the rainfall creating a spattering of puddles and a certain girl eagerly fishing each one for tadpole shrimp.” Asra blushed.
“But who were those humbugs we encountered today?” asked Eowils. “And why couldn’t they glow?”
“I believe they were another race of humbugs, known as the ‘Hidden.’ Like cicadas, the Hidden live underground nearly their entire lives, in secret tunnels deep below.” Now, Father projected the image of a humbug digging furiously at the dirt. “In their underground homes, they don’t rely on keen eyesight like we do. Instead, they have an enhanced sense of smell. From miles away, they can identify the rare bloom of the agave.”
Next, the shadow became the shape of the agave, a massive trunk-like growth erupting from its center as it bloomed. “It’s said that the Hidden only come to the surface once a generation, ready to collect the nectar of the plant as it blooms and dies. What a remarkable coincidence that their ascent should happen now, as our own journey to the Great Tree leads us here. It’s likely no Seeker has seen one of their kind in decades!”
Wow, thought Eowils. And it may be decades before they’re seen again. He stared back again toward the site of the titan’s grave.
Within a carefully dug crevice beneath a yucca tree log, Trigg slept fitfully, tossing and turning as monstrous visions haunted his dreams. In a particularly vivid scene, a colossus followed him across the desert, always overhead no matter how fast he ran from it.
Looking up, he realized the creature was the same titan whose remnants he had so carelessly disturbed. He cried out, begging its forgiveness, but when the titan’s head bowed down to reach him, he saw that it was infested with yellow Seeker humbugs. They clung to its furry skin like ticks, growing fat from the hemolymph-like red liquid in its veins.
Trigg awakened from his nightmare in an agitated state and saw his brother sleeping soundly nearby. He approached Ambrose and watched his dormant form for a few moments before silently leaving the crevice and venturing into the night.
Finding himself again in the treacherous overworld, Trigg darted from beneath rocks and pieces of detritus, one after another, careful to stay hidden from any watchful eyes in the heavens above. Following familiar scents, he soon found himself back at the dig site.
He worked quickly, scooping dirt back into the pit to cover the titan’s resting place. He kept a steady pace well into the night, only pausing occasionally if he thought he sensed an unfamiliar sound or scent, and quickly resuming his work when he was sure any danger had passed.
When his efforts were finally completed, Trigg stood and looked upon the results of his labor. The pit was nearly filled, and the structures were no longer visible, but he had an eerie feeling that he was forgetting something. He surveyed the immediate area until he noticed the shape of a crescent nearby. Of course, he thought, and ran toward the tooth.
He grabbed one end of the tooth and pulled vigorously, but progress was slow as the tooth moved across the sand in a series of short, jerky movements. He ran to the other end and tried pushing, but working alone with his waning strength, the sluggish pace seemed unavoidable.
Suddenly he stopped altogether, sensing a vibration and strange odor in the air. He looked up in horror to see a furry limb about to step on him and rolled swiftly out of its path.
Ambrose was right! he thought. My insolence has provoked the titans, and now their wrath has brought them here for vengeance! He ran from the tooth toward a nearby rock, but the colossus outpaced and quickly cornered him. He looked back up at it and gasped.
It was not a titan, but it was titanic; giant and covered in dark hairs, the tarantula looked down upon him and twitched its sharp mandibles eagerly. Realizing he could not outrun the creature, Trigg fell to his knees and thought of poor Ambrose harvesting the agave by himself.
Unexpectedly, the tarantula let out an irritated hiss and lifted its frontmost legs defensively. Its eyes were now aimed not at Trigg but at something on the rock’s face. Matching the spider’s gaze, Trigg turned to see the shape of a hawk wasp–tall, pitch-black, and buzzing its wings in an aggressive stance.
The spider swiftly turned away from the threat and rubbed its hindmost legs along the top of its rear with a rapid scraping motion. The motion released a sprinkling of barbed urticating hairs in the wasp’s direction, but to no visible effect. With a final hiss, the arachnid fled the scene, leaving a kneeling Trigg to face the hostile wasp alone.
But, with growing astonishment, he watched the dark shape of the wasp shift into that of a giant humbug woman. Confused, he saw the shape shrink smaller and smaller until it was the size of a girl.
“Trigg!” yelled Eowils excitedly. “I thought we might find you back here.” He dimmed his bioluminescent glow, causing Asra’s shadowplay to disappear altogether.
Meanwhile Asra ran across the ground in front of the rock, gathering the shed urticating hairs. “These will make great fishing hooks,” she explained to her brother, winking and gesturing to Trigg as she added, “but don’t tell him that.”
Eowils approached the nervous Trigg and helped him to his feet. As he overcame his shock, Trigg pointed to the tooth, then to what remained of the pit, and mimed the digging motion. Eowils nodded in understanding and followed Trigg to the tooth.
The three children lifted the hefty tooth and carried it to the hole. With a final combined effort, they shoved the tooth and watched it fall. Trigg darted around the boundaries of the hole, covering the tooth with orange dirt. He looked upon the newly covered burial site with satisfaction and nodded gratefully toward the Seekers. They nodded back and stood in silence for a few moments until Trigg turned away and began the return journey to the crevice.
Eowils and Asra watched him disappear from view, their skin emitting a mellow glow as crickets chirped softly in the distance.