Mar In Space

  The world was green and brown. 

  There was the busy sounds of spears and shouting. Mars squeezed his eyes shut again. And he felt hands on his shoulders, he tried to ignore it and pretend to be asleep.

  “MARSSS MARSSS MARSSS MARSSS. WAKE UP. You are going to make usss all missss the SSSHOW.”  The owner of the the voice shook him violently, still shouting about a show.

  “FLORAN DOESSSN’T WANT TO.” He flung his arms out, trying to smack at the voice, but his wrists were easily caught.

  “pfft. Floran isss fasster then you.” There was a giggle, “You’ve alwaysss been ssslow Marsss.”

  Finally opening his eyes again, he looked up at the excited source of the voice. A dark purple Floran with green foliage was grinning down at him. 

  “Hallo, Grapevine.”

  She beamed, knowing that if Mars was speaking, he was very awake. “’Bout time, you sssleepy head. NOW COME ON.” Grapevine lifted Mars up and planted him on his feet. “The Queen’sss ssshow isss going to sstart ssoon!”

  “Firssst, OW. Floran’sss feet hurt now.” he sat back down, “Floran doesssn’t want to go.”

  She sat down next to him, “Oh come on, Marsss. It’sss the QUEEN’SSs sshow. Why would you want to misss that?”

  He shrugged.

  A long argument follows, with lots of circular reasoning coming from Grapevine. Mars got dragged to the show. 

  The show Mars and Grapevine viewed was that of the Hunt. A large arena with a sturdy net over the top. The hunt was of a special thing. A breed of Ixodoom that Queen had been perfecting.

  It was larger then the version that had died out; and the shell’s regeneration wasn’t a thing anymore but why have that, when the blood that leaks out forms a stronger armor?

  The venom was less strong, but… it didn’t kill with that. Just weakened.

  It toyed with its prey, just like the rider.

  The grin on that pale Floran’s face was truly horrifying.

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  The show was pretty much what he had thought it would be. A show and tell for what Queen would have be the Hunt for this year. He got up to leave, but Grapevine had a hand on his shoulder. She kept him down, till everyone else had gone.

  “Marsss…” her tone was normal, so why did he feel like everything was going to change, “we ssshould essscape from here.”

  He blinked, no one ever escaped. And this was very unlike Grapevine. “What do you mean? Floran thought you were happy and ssstuff.”

  She shrugged and grinned at him, “Caussse, it’d be sssomething no one hasss ever done before!” she grabbed his shoulders, “It doesssn’t have to be together either, jussst, we can make plansss, but ssshould the opportunity ssshow up for one of usss to leave without the other, we ssshould.”

  This was really weird and concerning coming from Grapevine. “Are you ok?”

  “Jusst perfect, Marsss. But promissse Floran that essscaping isss sssomething we can do, together or apart.”

  “Floran… Promisssess.”

  “Good,” her smile grew, “It’ll be ssso exciting.” She got up and he followed her out. She was humming a tune. Not one he was familiar with so he had been about to ask about it, before there was a biting pain in his leg.

  The world blurred and turned into a panicked darkness.