#mantids are so silly i love them so much

[kirstielol]

australian rain forest mantis & ghost mantis

[kisuminight]

Questions

Post-series, slight book elements. Hunter isn’t that much of an idiot, but he’s not that brave, either. A list of questions compiled over the course of the series and some musings about Hunter’s past before the Inner World.

Third Person POV, Hunter-centric, stream of consciousness. Notes at the end.

~~~

Hunter had a lot of questions that he left unasked. Not his usual questions, about things in the Inner World that Grandfather’s journal hadn’t elaborated on (and a surprising amount of that concerned the Spider Riders, which was odd, considering the things Brade had said).

(Brade had mentioned a lot of things not in Grandfather’s journal, stories Hunter wished he could’ve asked Grandfather about. Could’ve asked why he’d never spoken of them, asked why Grandfather ever left the Inner World in the first place. There were so many things he didn’t understand.)

No, these questions were the ones that started as idle musings, before the thoughts pushed them into blossoming introspection. Maybe Igneous and Corona and Venus and Shadow always accused him of needing to think more, sometimes, but he did try.

Though his relationship with Shadow had gotten much better since the very beginning. These days most of the snark was because they had fun doing it; like sparring practive but with words and barbs that never meant to hurt.

That relationship was one of his questions, actually. Like why the manacle always felt like the sun dappling through leaves when Shadow was In, or the way he always knew where the Spider was like the scent of magnolia on the breeze. These days, Shadow was easier to read than Corona, despite that definitely being the opposite, that first day.

Maybe Igneous would know? Flame never talked, but they worked so well together all the same. And they were the oldest of the Spider Riders, though Lumen or Sparkle might know something too because of that whole history thing; King Arachna and Arachna Power and—

Where had he been going with that?

Right. Igneous was the oldest Spider Rider. Except for Brade, who was a ghost. And that was his second question, because what happened to all the older Spider Riders? Even Igneous had only just turned nineteen. Brade had been older than Grandfather—like, his great-grandfather’s age. So, what happened to—well, not Brade’s group, but yes Brade’s group because Grandfather had been a Spider Rider at the same time, but he would’ve been Hunter’s age (probably, Hunter wasn’t the best at math). So that meant Grandfather’s group, except Grandfather died (and didn’t even get to come back as a ghost; so unfair) which meant is should be his Mom’s group, or at least her age, and Queen Elma said she was expecting adults.

No, wait, the word he should be using is generations.

Agh! Not the point!

Okay, so if there were only eight Spider Riders per generation—no, Corona said eight total because otherwise Brade wouldn’t count—where were the ones who’d been Spider Riders before them?

Right, Mantid.

But then, how had the manacles survived, been found again? After all, his had just appeared and Shadow thought he’d stolen it (and that had been the most hurtful thing Hunter ever had said to him, despite some of the really vicious arguments with Shadow since then; he didn’t really know why, just that there’d been something small and wondering and then just pained, hurt enough to start keening like it’d never be happy again).

Had Grandfather brough his manacle with him when he’d left the Inner World? His Spider? What had happened to them? Was this Grandfather’s manacle, was there any way to tell? Each one seemed to have different colors, but did those colors change with the Rider? After all, Corona sometimes talked about being chosen.

Hunter wasn’t sure what to think of that. Lumen and Ebony he could see, with the Prince thing and all. Him, though? He meant, just, it was pretty great that he and Shadow could even use the Oracle Keys, but that was Aqune and Corona, too! Mostly them, even. Why had he even been picked from Earth?

That was the really big, important question. Not that he didn’t love the Inner World, had been obsessed with finding it ever since Mom threw Grandfather’s worlds in his face alongside grow up, stop dreaming, you’ll never have a future for yourself if you don’t give up on your silly fantasies!

He hadn’t been unhappy to leave, but she was his Mom and he missed her, for all that the thought of never seeing her again didn’t claw open a gaping abyss in his chest like it had when he’d heard about Grandfather.

So, had the Oracle brought him to the Inner World because he didn’t have much he’d miss? Because of Grandfather? And if so, why had She brought Grandfather to the Inner World? Or even Mantid?

Not that Mantid looked much like he came from Earth in the end. Well, maybe if he’d been youkai or something. But youkai were just fairytales!

That’s what Mom said about the Inner World, too.

“Hey. You’re being pretty quiet.” Hunter didn’t need to open his eyes to know that Shadow stretched out next to the bedside table, felt comfortable and content with maybe the slightest smudge of lingering worry from the thing with the Rainfire last week, but he did anyway.

In the weak, green evening lighting, Shadow more than lived up to his name. Dark and mirror-bright broth with a betraying sense of calm stillness. They fought for fun these days, and even at the worst neither one of them had ever truly tried to be hurtful. They would’ve wrecked themselves, shattered apart like an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object otherwise.

“Just thinking.” Shadow would understand. The certainty of it almost frightened Hunter.

“Don’t hurt yourself.” Don’t dwell on the things that will hurt you, the truths that must be acknowledged but stab at your soul all the same until all you bleed is misery. Or something like that anyway, though probably less poetically.

“Why would I, bug?” They’re just thoughts. And questions I’m not brave enough to ask.

One more: why Shadow? It was new and scary and wrong and right all at once, within minutes of meeting each other. Thank you, but why?

~~~

Notes:

A lot of these are my own questions. One of the big ones is why Mantid didn’t track down and destroy the manacles while searching for the Oracle Keys to get rid of future opposition (and given that it was a war, some of those Spider Riders must have died at his/his generals’ hands, which would put a manacle right in their grasp). This is where I got the whole manacles-are-blessings bit that shows up in Rainfire.

It’s interesting to note that if Hunter was supposed to be 13~ (in Japan) or 11~ (in US) years old, then he probably wouldn’t do very well coming back to Earth if he stayed in the Inner World for any length of time, because of advancing technology. They wouldn’t have had cell phones or laptops (or if they did they would’ve been very basic and much larger and clunkier), back then, and just over 10 years later we have smart phones and tablets and wi-fi when someone who lives that close to the woods probably only had dial-up internet, if at all. At least it would’ve made adjusting to the Inner World much easier.