Authors Note: This story is a plot chapter, it doesn't contain sex, some suggestive content, nudity... but mostly plot. There is an expanded scene if you follow the links to my patreon, but they it isn't necessary to subscribe to get the full story... (It contains some larva, and unbirthing scenes if that's your thing). The next chapter will be unabridged. Subscribers to my patreon will see chapter 6 a little early, perhaps by the end of today, or tomorrow 9/11 at time of posting. So take this as a little teaser for what is to come.

When the cicada's sing their springtime song,
lock your doors for it won't be long,
to strike fear in hearts of maiden's faire,
and drag them screaming back to-lair!
So if you hear the springtime song,
run and hide it won't be long.
Hark ye maiden's faire,
lest ye become the Diggabores mare!

- Folk Story


Dalla woke cramped, cold and sore and crawled out of bed. The full, red moon lingered over her window, like a black blemish in space. It was swollen and bright, and it sat below the horizon like a drop of blood. Cold sweat matted the hair on her chest and belly, and she shook off her sheet. Far away, she heard a lone church bell ring. It grew louder. As she strained to hear the distant tolling, she could make out the buzzing drone of cicadas at crescendo.

It was if they were calling to her, urging her to leave the safety of her hovel, to come out and play. The voices sang louder in her ears as she fought the urge to give in, but she knew better than to go outside at night.

She had heard the stories, the old folktales of creatures that skulk in the shadows, waiting to snatch up any hapless virgin girl foolish enough to stray from the path.. She wasn't a maiden of course, her whoreson of an uncle had seen to that many times over after her father's passing.

Dalla knew better than to heed their call. Everyone in the village knew of the legend of Diggabore, who lurked in the dark swamp, but on this night, something was different. There was an urgency in the chorus that sang to her,

She tried to ignore it, but it grew louder and more insistent until she could bear it no longer. With shaking hands, she lit a candle and made her way outside.

As soon as she stepped out of her door, she felt the cicadas' song surround her, intoxicating and seductive. She began to run towards the swamp, drawn by their siren call.

Soon, she was deep in the tangled undergrowth, moving swiftly through the shadows. The moonlight barely reached down into the thick canopy, but she felt its light on her skin, like a cool breath of air.

She could hear the cicadas singing all around her, their song echoing through the trees. She pushed deeper into the swamp, following their voices as they drew her farther in.

And then, she saw it: A massive creature with spider-like arms, dragging a village girl through the swamp. The girl was kicking and screaming, but it was futile. There was nothing she could do to escape its grasp.

Dalla froze, transfixed by the sight. She knew she should turn and run the other way, but she couldn't make her feet move. It was as if the cicadas had put her under a spell.

As the creature turned around, Dalla could see that its face was eyeless, with only two small holes where the eyes should have been. It’s unnerving visage was both frightening and yet also full of mystery. In that moment, Dalla knew she must follow it into its lair. As the creature released the little girl, Dalla approached. She could hear the cicadas singing as she neared the dark passage, their songs drowning out all sense of self and reason.

She could feel the eyes of the creature on her as she moved closer, but she did not flinch. And then she was inside, moving through the darkness, following the sound of the cicadas. She couldn't see anything in the cavern, yet somehow she found her way, she followed the sound of the creature, the smell... it had a sweetness to it, like honey suckle but with traces of earth... like mushrooms it made her head spin quieting the noise of the song and making her parched lips thirst.

As she went deeper, she could feel the warmth of the cavern rising up from beneath her feet. It lingered on her skin like a gentle caress, urging her to keep going. She knew that if she followed it, she would find answers to all of the questions that had been haunting her for so long.

She walked for what felt like hours, until she finally came to a stop in front of a large pool of water. In the center of the pool floated a small island with a mushroom in the middle. The fungus was blooming with glowing spore that glowed faintly in the darkness casting an eerie glow in the large cavern. And there, beneath it in insect of unfathomable size, she seemed to be trapped, wounded, dying... Dalla did not know how she knew, but she felt connected to her... Yes it was a her... a creature of beauty stripped of her dignity, it wanted to be free, it wanted to be her.

Dalla hesitated for only a moment as she glanced around the cavern, a hundred chattering forms scurried about watched her. She didn't know what was going to happen, but she knew that she had to do this. She had to save the creature, not just this creature but all of them...

She pulled the laces of her nightgown, as she strode forward into volcanic pool, letting it fall to the floor. The bubbling water never reaching higher than her ankles as she strode bravely into the abyss as something flit across the top of her, and she looked down, at a mass of larval forms quietly clearing a path before her as if to welcome her.

She approached the giant pulsating mushroom-insect amalgamation without fear, taking in the glory of the creature before her. Towering nearly 12 feet tall, the creature looked like a spider with exception to its torso which possessed a vaguely humanoid structure. Possessing a torso of twisted, but with arms, and head of an arachnid. It's thorax serving as a joint between its bulbous pulsing abdomen and it's human-esque front.

The creature breathed heavily in time with the fungus infecting her, as if they were connected, a lattice of slimy fibers coursing through her, and her flesh. The creature reached out to her it's large maw dripping with photoluminescent saliva.

Dalla didn't fear it, rather she felt a surge of excitement almost relief as a massive tongue unfurled from between its mandibles. slowly making its way towards her as she extended her hand, and finally touched the creatures.

Dalla almost collapsed as she found herself in the throes of an out of body experience.

She watched the creature below her, it's tongue coiling around her arm as her eyes rolled back into her head, and she collapsed to her knees.

But no sense of fear ever took root, only that of purpose, a thousand images flooded her mind. A threat to the hive, a serpentine creature devouring her young penetrating her infecting her with the taint of it's seed. Its own young consuming her from within. The sorrow of the loss of a thousand generations. Tears streamed down her face, she felt as the creatures broken heart, the anguish of her own body being devoured from within.

She saw herself beneath the great fungal monstrosity, you belly bloated with a new generation, as larval young nursed at her massive teats as they leaked with luminescence, pleasures untold as she birthed an army. No longer would she be a slave to humanity, but a queen in her own right, a harbinger of a new generation.

A single word echoed in her mind, Apotheosis... Dalla's mouth hung open, her cheeks hallow and eyes rolling upwards as she seized before the creature, it's long tongue snaking its way towards her until it found itself inside her.

Dalla's watched as the creature violated her body, jerking and twitching in a marriage of terrible pleasure, and exquisite pain. She could feel the creature pushing inside her, as it began to disgorge it's nectar within as a series of a gratuitous bulges traveled down the length of her tongue and surged inside her mouth.

Dalla's vision began to fade as her air-supply was cut off, and the twinge of doubt formed in the back of her mind, was this some trick. The question went unanswered as she felt her belly warm with gelatinous fluids until the blackness took her...

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This is the abridged version of Chapter 5, to see the unabridged half, It's very short maybe a page more, but future perspective stories will be exclusive to my patreons, Please subscribe if interested!

https://www.patreon.com/posts/cirris-kikkimore-71835098?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copy...