A tale worth your ear

The fire crackled softly in the small makeshift fire ring, the light from the flames dancing on the yellow rocks and earth around it. "So you want me to tell ya the big one? The story about why part my ear is missin?" Arawn the Megalotis asked, his eyes glittering with excitement. "Well I suppose yall have eared a story, its been a long hard day and I couldn't have made it through with out you."

The small group of travelers around the fire adjusts their positions, listening intently to the Vulpes' words.

"let me see, it happened quite long ago, when I first started wrangling them Macrotermes. I had a few fights with the buggers under my belt, but was still quite new to it all." Arawn passed for a moment, a soft chuckle escaping his muzzle as he reminisced. "You see back then I was working my tail off to make ends meet. There were many jobs that needed to be done, folks needing help and it seemed I was the only one capable of helping them. Didn't charge nearly enough for all the effort I was putting in either, barely ever had enough to get dinner from the market every night. Don't tell anyone else, but I was even starting to lose some of my fur from the stress of it all." 

Scratching the side of his face Arawn continued. "During this time, in the early morning, a mother with a kit at her side came up to me with tears in her eyes." Arwan clasped his hands together in a pleading motion. "She begged me to lend her a hand. You see there was a large Macrotermes next close to her home where the town's kids often played and she was worried that if nothing was done about it that the Macrotermes would do what they did best," Arawn leaned forward and snapped his fingers. "snatch up them small pups and drag them back to their dens to feed their queen."

Looking at the eyes of the travelers around the fire Arawn seemingly changes the subject, "You have heard about the Megalotis legend, the one involving the little Macrotermes buggers right?"

The travelers all shake their head causing Arawn's brow to raise, "Well if time permits I'll have to tell ya that one as well, although I don't think its as good as this one." Arwan clears his throat getting back to his original story, "Where was- oh right. This poor mother wanted me to take out this nest behind her house. " he leans forward once more, the anticipation building in his voice. "I had other jobs that day but I managed to squeeze her in that night. I got there just as the sun was starting to set thinking that the mound would be a small one and that she was just some protective mother doing what mothers do best and trying to protect her kids." Arawn let out a deep sigh as he shook his head. "But I couldn't have been more wrong."

Arawn stretched his arms wide as he continued, " This Macrotermes nest was HUGE, one of the largest I had ever seen up to that point. Nearly three times taller then me twice as wide." Arawn glanced upward as if looking at the mound even though only campfire smoke and stars were above him. A sense of awe in his voice he said, "I could see many of the bugs that called the mound home scurrying around my feet and the opening of their next, but I knew the ones you could see on the outside are only a small portion of the whole nest. There must have been millions of the piercer-wielding critters scurrying around under my feet. I knew if I wasn't careful, then this nest would be able to take even a grown Megalotis like me down."

Turning his attention back to the group around the fire, he lets out another sigh, the flames in front of him dancing around the sudden breath. "If I could go back in time, I would have turned in for the night and attacked the nest the next day with backup, but I had promised the poor mother that I would take care of the problem that day and bein' the young kit that I was, I wasn't about to go back on my word and wait even another day." Arawn mimes pushing up his sleeves. "So I pushed up my sleeves and got to work. With only light from the setting sun, I started to tear down the nest taking care of as many of the Macrotermes workers as I could." He shakes his finger towards the campfire. "At first, I was able to stay on top of it, I may have been young, but I wasn't a rooky. I knew how to take on the blanket of bugs that always poor out when you tell 'em its time to move." 

Pulling a serrated knife quickly out of his belt Arawn slashes it through the air. "I slashed down the ones on the right," he jumps to the left and crouches, standing up as he does so. "and then dodged the wave from the left." he spins about and slashes upward with his blade with a look of wild excitement on his face, "and danced about with the little critters, avoiding a majority of the wave. Sure a few of the little suckers managed to land some bites on me, but to them, I simply did what us Megalotis do best and bite them right back." Arawn states bearing his teeth, the light from the flames glittering off the wild smile.

Arawn's smile fades as he attempts to step forward, his back leg seemingly stuck, "but in the middle of this grand battle, I felt something grasp my leg." He looks back at his hind leg in horror, "no, it couldn't be, it was too early for it." Arawn clutched his blade tightly, still attempting to free his 'stuck' leg."As I looked down I saw the tip of two, sharp....large...silver....Pincers!" At the last word, he loudly snaps his jaw shut as if reenacting the bite on his leg. "Knowing I only had moments to act before I was pulled under I jammed my blade into the creature who had a hold of me." 

Thrusting his dagger into the ground by his leg with all his might Arawn continues. "As soon as it sliced into 'er the ground erupted at my feet nearly turning the dirt into liquid under my shoes." Arawn quickly rolls across the ground, staying crouched, his blade ready in his left hand and his clawed glove held up against his face is if shielding him from the attacker. "After regaining my footing I gazed up in awe as the large creature rose from the ground, her massive body was unlike anything id ever faced before. 

Remaining crouched Arwan takes small steps backward, gazing wide-eyed up at the stars. " She was nearly 15 feet long, her lumpy serpentine body wide enough to easily crush any animalian with its weight alone. This was these Macrotermes queen and I could tell by the glint in her beady little eye that she was out for blood. Before I could even take in what I was see'in she was lunging straight at me. I tried to duck out of the path of her shining pincers and managed to get my vital bits out of the way, but my large ears betrayed me and she managed to latch onto one of em." Arwan stands up and gestures to what remains of his left ear. " She then started to pull me back into her lair dragging me across the ground kicking and screaming, and I tell you what, I have never felt such a close connection to the Megalotis in the old tails as I did in that moment." 

Stepping back to the old log that he had been sitting on originally Arwan sat down and started to twirl his knife in his left hand. " As she dragged me down into the ground I knew I only had moments to save myself. My head nearly covered I dug my blade and claws into the dirt and pulled against her with all my might. I managed to escape her grasp, but not without losing part of my ear. The two of us fought for hours, her sending hoards of her workers after me whenever I got close to her. We fought well into the night, only the glow of a lantern I had brought allowing me to see the waves of foes and their leader. "

"But as the sun began to rise I stood upon my fallen foes, bloodied and worn out, but victorious. The queen had taken my ear and in exchange," Arawn raised his arm showing of the bright red glove on his right hand, a pair of sharp pincers sitting on its knuckles. "I took her pincers." The Vulpes closed his hand into a fist causing the pincers on the glove to close tightly with a loud tink as he smiled widely, the flames of the fire dancing in his eyes. " Took me weeks to recover, but I had survived. After that, well," Arawn leaned back on the stump he was sitting on, "I calmed down my workload to a more manageable amount and bring on help if it's needed. I may be the best Macrotermes wrangler round these parts, but fighting against that 15-foot queen taught me that if you aren't always on your toes then a queen won't think twice to take advantage of your relaxed state and pounce, better to ask for help than lose my other ear eh?"

Arawn scanned the group's expressions, a number of them looking uncertain of his story, " What?" Arawn asks, eyeing the group.

"for starters, a queen that is 15 feet, really?" One of the travelers scoffs, "they don't get that long."

" You don't think that a Macrotermes queen can get to 15 feet?" Arawn replies returning the scoffing remark. "well I assure you then can get even bigger then that." The Vulpes says indignantly stomping his foot on the ground before holding out his arms, "I've even heard that they can get to nearly 50 in some places." The Vulpes pauses for a moment before grinding even wider, "Well, at least that's what they say in Bonewatch."