[Choose Your Own Adventure!] The Deathlands

Warning: Do not read this story through from beginning to end!

If you've never read one before, a Choose Your Own Adventure is a story where you get to decide what happens. Traditionally, this would be something like, "To go into the cavern, turn to page 56." But in this case, please use ctrl+f or command+f to find the numbers that you choose. The objective of a Choose Your Own Adventure is usually to make the right choices the first read through and not die.

Note: I listened to this music while writing a lot of the story. It might add something for you while reading it.

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Saul held out his hand with the index finger up to signal that one of them was approaching. Rebecca pressed close against a willow tree trunk. I dropped to the ground and wriggled under some shrubs. In our stillness, we heard the familiar buzzing of its approach, followed by an oppressive shadow that sent my limbs quivering. I glanced at Rebecca as its dark form fell over us, but her eyes were shut as she soundlessly mouthed a prayer. It was probably similar to my own thoughts: Please, Merciful, keep drenn safe.

Then it had passed, and we all slowly began to move our strained bodies. "Gone?" Rebecca whispered.

Saul peered ahead, back. "Gone." I could hear the relief in his tone.

"Thank Merciful," she said. We grunted in agreement.

Saul resumed leading us through the woods. You could smell the river long before you heard it, and hear it long before you saw it. Despite the dangers involved in stepping into the open, I always felt a trickle of joy down my spine when my feet touched the cool water.

Rebecca and I each had found a suitable stick on the walk. Removing our packs, we tied a strand of web around our sticks behind an offshoot that would hold it on, and tied bone hooks to the web. Then we looked to Saul.

His fishing pole was different. He had made it at the village by drilling a hole into the end so that the web could be held more stably. He stood it momentarily in the mud to remove a small wooden container from his pack and pulled off the lid. It was filled with wriggling worms. We watched him remove a worm, pierce it with his hook, then cast into the river. "See?"

We nodded. He let us each take a worm for ourselves. Lines cast into the water, we all stood together in calm anticipation. I wiggled my toes that were just barely touching the wet.

There was no scent of danger, no scary shadows; and although the sun was bright, the breeze by the river felt cool on my skin. I smiled at Rebecca. She smiled back, wiggled her nose. "Ha ha." I grinned.

For once, Saul didn't seem so stern. He glanced at us with a slight smile on his face. "Nice feel?"

"Nice feel," we agreed.

I tried to peer into the water to see if I could spot any fish, but just at that moment, Saul's pole gave a tug. "Ah!" We watched him pull the line in with his fingers, until suddenly -- good Merciful! -- a big silver fish rose flopping out of the river. Saul threw it into his wetpack, a dried cow bladder tied at one end.

By the time we returned to the village, our wetpacks were bulging with fish. We had caught nine in all, which wasn't near as good as a cow or buck, but still very good spoils. My mother and some other women spitted them to roast over a fire.

We sat on trunk stools watching them with victorious feelings in our hearts, thinking of the day that had passed and the stories we would soon tell. I gazed at the flames licking the metallic body of one of the biggest fish -- my catch -- and tried to recall the feeling of the water, the wind, Rebecca's smile, Saul's approving glances.

"PWAH!" I jumped and nearly tumbled off the stool at the sudden shout. Whirling around, I saw Keliah flipping her braids and shining her teeth at me.

"Scared Areli!" she laughed.

"No scare," I grumbled, turning back. For a moment I felt that looking at the fire or at Keliah were the same, she was so lively and bright. Darker skin from hunting on the edges. The only female hunter in the village. Everyone hinted that we would marry, and I hoped so, too, although I didn't want to show it. I noticed Rebecca beside me drop her gaze to the ground.

Keliah took the stool on my other side. "Good catch," she praised. I suppressed my pleased smile.

"Big good catch," I affirmed, puffing out my chest.

She leaned close to me, causing me to lean away, but she only followed until she was bearing over me. "But - no - cow," she softly mocked, her pouting lips an inch from my face.

"Still good catch!" I roared, leaping to my feet. "Where Keliah's cow today?" I stomped away from the fire. She was so infuriating! So what if I wasn't good with a bow or spear? Fish were more reliable prey, anyway.

But it did get to me. What would others say of a couple where the woman did the hunting and the man did the fishing? Everyone teased me enough already. Maybe I should marry Rebecca instead. She never mocked me.

More drenn were gathered around the fire when I returned. Saul stood near the center, telling the villagers about our day as they ate. "Not everyone this good first day! Two fish Rebecca, two fish Areli. Areli catch big fish." He pointed to my fish, which was beginning to overcook. I realized they were saving it for me.

As I stepped forward to take it, Saul suddenly grew stiff and gave a gasp. I noticed Keliah, too, and some of the other men, lift their heads in alarm. No, I thought. It couldn't possibly be. They never attack at night.

"Kill fire," Saul hissed. He began kicking soil over the fire, scattering some of it onto the remaining fish. Others rushed to help. Someone went to get a bucket of water. Two other fires faded as drenn alerted one another in hushed tones. The camp fell into waiting darkness.

We could all hear it now: powerful, relentless buzzing that seemed to fill my very organs with its droning vibrations.

I looked to Saul with wide eyes. His hand was out, index finger raised. But then he raised the next finger. And the next. Three?! The other men were holding out identical counts. Two men made signals I didn't recognize. "Hide," Saul whispered. Everyone rushed into their huts or under foliage. Meanwhile, the men and Keliah retrieved their weapons, backed against trees, and looked up. Standing at the ready. Prepared to fight for their own. I burned with shame watching them.

They were almost right on top of us now. The smoke from the extinguished fires passed beyond the trees, into the air above. They had to sense it. How could they not?

"KRAAAAK!" A shriek like a dying animal or vicious bird echoed through the woods. Two identical calls answered. Then the leaves and branches were whirling with the gusts of their wings as they lowered themselves directly into the camp.

Face set and eyes flashing, Keliah released an arrow into one of their sides, but it simply clattered off. A wasp landed, and one of the men stabbed for it with his spear, but she turned and lunged for him, tearing his head from his body. Blood spurted into the air, his deformed body collapsed with a thud. I couldn't help myself. I screamed. I realized many drenn were screaming. Some running.

Keliah charged at a wasp with her spear poised, but I could see she was no match at all. None of us were.

"Keliah, stop!" I yelled suddenly. "Run!" Not hearing or ignoring me, she continued her charge. The wasp readily turned, jabbed her massive stinger into Keliah's leg. Keliah screamed, then wavered, fell. Dead?

Two other men charged the wasp with a cry of, "Merciful!" She quickly jabbed one in the leg just the same as Keliah, while one of her companions ripped the head off the other.

Do something. Must help. Must help!

---

11: Attack.
12: Stay put.

---

11
Drawing my bone knife, I ran for the nearest wasp. She began to turn to me, but not in time to stop me from slamming my blade into her side -- which only managed to crack her exoskeleton.

She whirled about and stabbed me in the gut like the others. Stunned, I collapsed.

When I awoke, I found myself jumbled inside some kind of cloth bag with another villager. Mark. He was still asleep. I realized that we were hanging in the air, and moving. Flying. The wasp must be taking us to their home.

Struggling against the sack proved useless. Eventually Mark awoke, and we spoke in a panic of what had occurred, but could find no way to escape. Mark kept repeating mournfully, "I failed."

Eventually the wasp carrying us stopped flying. It seemed to be crawling as we moved from light into dark, then back to light. We were tumbled onto a floor of something like soft wood. "Slaves," the wasp hissed, her hideous face mere feet away. Mark swung a fist for her head. She easily dodged it, then worried his injured leg with her mandibles. She threw him on the floor disdainfully. "No fight. No help. Wasp say. Drenn do. Yes?" She clicked her mandibles an inch from my neck.

Cowed, I nodded. "Yes."

You have been enslaved! Please try again.

12
I remained rooted in place. I noticed Saul holding his own for an instant against the mandibles of the third, his rock spearhead clattering against them and somewhat keeping her at bay; but then she leapt into the air, buzzing out of his reach. He threw his spear in a last-ditch effort. It soared for her eye, and yes! pierced the shimmering blackness there, sending her reeling and screeching in pain.

The victory lasted but an instant. The one who had taken down Keliah came to her companion's aid, slamming to the ground in front of the now-defenseless Saul. "You will pay for that, little drenn." Her voice was garbled and shrill.

Saul thumped his chest. "Come!" I didn't want to watch, but I did. Just standing there like a coward. Her stinger went far deeper into his belly then it had gone into the legs of the others, and when she pulled it out, there was a hole in him. He made a stoppered sound, gritted his teeth, and fell. He was still alive, but I knew he would die. She just wanted him to die more slowly than the others.

"Sisters, how many have you taken?"

"Three for us, sister," one replied. The other was still reeling, bashing into trees.

"That is all required. I will carry three, and you must carry two. Xepha is injured." Amidst the wailing of women and children, they gathered the unconscious victims in fine cloth sacks and carried them into the sky.

We were all stunned with horror. Finally shaking myself free from the hold of shock and fear, I ran to Saul and turned him over. "Saul. Saul! Can hear?"

"Yes," he breathed. He grasped at my hand. "Keliah next...leader. Keliah...Merciful blood."

I blinked in astonishment. "As prophecy?"

"Yes. Areli last man. Areli must save Keliah. Must save. Cross Deathlands...only way..." He seemed to slip into some mental place from which he could no longer be reached.

I shook him. "Saul! Areli no warrior! Areli weak." I sobbed. "Areli weak." But he was no longer listening.

Saul's wife came, now, and I moved away. I couldn't bring myself to tell her I was sorry. I found my mother, who was huddled with one of her friends, comforting her over her decapitated son. "Mother," I said. "Safe?"

She nodded tearfully, holding out an arm to me. "Safe. Areli safe?" I nodded in return and fell into her arms.

"Now what?" I asked her, pressed against her like a child. "No men."

"Other village?" she suggested. I thought about the other drenn villages. I didn't trust any of them. They might make our women slaves. But what other choice did we have?

"Saul said," I began breathily, struggling to speak the words. I sat back from her and tried to look strong. "Saul said Keliah Merciful blood."

My mother gaped, and even her crying friend stopped to stare at me. "As prophecy?" she whispered.

"As prophecy. Said Areli...must save. Save all drenn."

"Ask other village," she insisted again.

I considered. "Other village will not believe. Call Areli liar." I could tell by her expression that she knew this was probably true. Our village was barely a village. We lived on the edge of the forest. Compared to the other drenn, our village was as weak as I was compared to our men. We weren't even worth conquering.

I stood. "Tomorrow Areli go." She glanced at the tear-stained face of her friend, surely thinking of the woman's dead son.

"No, Areli!" She stood. "Find other way."

I thought about how I had simply watched the slaughter. Keliah captured. Saul dead. If I stayed here cowering with the women and children, I would live with that for the rest of my life. If we even managed to survive, I would be a coward forever, and Keliah would be lost to us.

"Merciful protect Areli," I replied, clenching my fists. "Areli go." I turned and went to help dig holes for the dead.

We all went to bed late that night, and occasionally the sound of someone weeping, or a child awakening from a nightmare, pierced our hearts. If I slept, it was only through sheer will due to knowing I would need my strength for the following day. Why had they captured five drenn? How long would they keep them alive? I shuddered to think what a wasp might do to a prisoner.

My eyes opened from restless sleep at dawn. Despite my meager rest, I felt alive with energy. I knew it must be a gift from Merciful. I quickly stocked my pack and went to say my farewells.

"Rebecca come," Rebecca said. "Can help." I shook my head. Even if the whole village went, the whole village would die. I would almost surely die. But I had to do as Saul asked. I had to at least make an attempt at rescuing Keliah.

My mother clung to me. "Please stay. No die!"

I gently pried her off. "Love mother." I squeezed her hand. "Mother, help village. Strong!" I thumped my chest.

I saw something unfamiliar in her eyes and realized it was pride. "Strong," she nodded, and thumped her chest in return. We both smiled at that.

"Bye," I said. The whole village -- now numbering less than 20 -- gathered to say farewell. I raised my hand. "Bye. Women learn fight. Strong."

For the first time in my life, my fellow drenn were listening to me. I watched as every woman and child old enough to understand, some with tears in their eyes, some stoic and firm, thumped their chests like my mother. "Strong!"

I had never even laid eyes on the Deathlands. I knew that the river eventually snaked out across the dry wastes, the only bit of moisture for hundreds of miles once you got away from the mountains. An older woman told me that the wasp nest lay southeast, and I just had to follow the north-south river until I couldn't see the forest anymore. At that point, I would have to leave the river and head east. I sensed that even the five waterskins in my pack wouldn't be enough.

It was with a heavy heart that I walked the same path where I had been so excited just the day before. The weather was still fine, the water still refreshing and cool; but I felt sick with fear and grief. Wasps were far from the only predator out in the open. I had a spear with me, whatever good that might do me. I hadn't bothered with a bow. I was useless with one.

I stuck close to the slight vegetation that hugged the shore, constantly looking behind me to see if the forest was still in view. Every instinct screamed for me to retreat to the cover of the trees. Worse, as I kept walking, the foliage became more and more sparse, until finally there was a mere scattering of stunted shrubs. I could feel why: the heat was increasingly unbearable. I dipped into the river to cool myself.

As I climbed out, tossing back my wet hair, I noticed a figure in the distance. No, two. More. Countless. They were moving fast, kicking up clouds of sand.

I looked back toward the faint green blur that signified the forest and decided to make a run for the last russet trees that I had left behind some ten minutes ago. I gave it my all, pushing for that cover that might offer some semblance of safety. Every time I looked back, the group was closer. I began to make out four legs to each of them. When I was about halfway to the trees, I stopped in my tracks and made a breathless laugh, for I could see them more clearly now. Gazelle!

I waited for them to arrive. They splashed headlong into the water, hopping and then swimming across, some calling out happy cries like tiny birds. They drank as they swam, and more were constantly following behind them, a flash of black stripes, velvety brown hides, and tiny horns.

A sudden splash startled me, followed by shrieks from a gazelle, and through the others I spotted a huge red claw digging deep enough into its body to crack its ribs. A crawfish! I had heard about them, but never seen one before. The gazelle's eyes bulged and it shrieked piteously in its hopeless struggle to escape being dragged into the river depths.

I thought of the dip I'd taken just a moment ago with a shudder. In light of this new threat, the herd moved with increased pace, quickly passing across and thundering onto the opposite bank. I would have to be more careful.

Several hours later, the forest was lost to my view. I looked out over the desert. In a sense, it was beautiful. Golden hills and valleys constantly intertwining, shifting with the wind, pouring into themselves like waves. Plenty of daylight remained, and I knew time was of the essence. Keliah might already be dead. Yet...

Staying my fear, I took one final very quick dip into the edge of the river, drank as much as I could, and filled my waterskins near bursting. The first step away felt even worse than moving away from the forest. At least the river was cool, sparkling, life-giving. It was a fixed guide. Out there, not even the hills were real.

As far as I knew, no drenn had attempted to walk through the Deathlands in generations. Perhaps the old woman had known the location of the wasp nest through stories passed down, or maybe it had merely been deduced by villagers who watched the direction in which they always flew. I had no idea how many wasps there were or what to expect. Must go. I moved.

The firmer ground by the river very quickly gave way to soft, fine grains into which my feet sank. Soon my leather shoes were filled, so I took them off, instantly exposing the soles of my feet to the sun-fired sand. Already I wanted to take a sip from a waterskin. I thought of Keliah and Saul, tucked my shoes into my pack, and forced myself to carry on.

I took a winding path that kept to low hills and avoided steep climbs or deep valleys. Too often I sought the relief of my waterskin and still only barely managed to resist pouring it over my body, which had dried from the river in an instant.

I felt a sense of relief when the sun started to sink beyond the horizon, and watching it, a furious thought of frustration struck me. "Should NIGHT walk!" I shouted aloud, irritating my dry throat. "Dumb Areli!" I beat my own head in anger. Not only had I needlessly suffered for hours, but by exhausting myself over the day, I had no choice but to sleep that night. If I didn't awaken before dawn, I would be stuck in the cycle that I had begun.

Some hours later, I drained my second waterskin and settled atop one of the endless dunes with my head resting on my pack. There were no sounds of fellow villagers, leaves, or forest creatures; only the vast, dry Deathlands hissing sand in the dark. But I was so tired that I quickly fell asleep.

I awoke to a grey sky of stars. Thank Merciful. When I stood, grains slid off my chest from where they had gathered while I slept. The sand almost seemed like a massive evil spirit. Shouldering my pack and retrieving my bow, I resumed picking my way through the dim shapes of the dunes.

I saw no other creatures save for a single camel in the distance as the sun rose into the sky. Sand and sweat mingled on my brow, and I reached for the third waterskin. As I did so, my feet slipped. I found myself sliding down the side of a conical depression in the sand. I caught myself midway, sinking my hand and spear into the side. Breathing heavily with the shock of the fall, I gathered myself and reached up with a leg and hand; but when I tried to dig them in, I only slid further. Sand crumbled down into the pit. Panicked, I crawled faster and found myself making headway -- only to lose my grip again.

I heard a sound beneath me and turned just in time to see a pair of barbed grey pinchers emerge from the center of the pit, swooping back and forth just several feet out of reach. "AAGH!" I found new focus with the emergence of this danger, and was able to methodically, swiftly climb up, finally cresting the top--

The creature began hurling sand at me, pelting me with heavy sheets that threw off my balance and made me tumble in once more. It was a race between us as I kept crawling and it kept pelting, but I felt myself sliding, falling further and further until I was a hair's breadth from the sinister grey pinchers. I stabbed at them with my spear; it grabbed ahold of the wood and snapped my weapon in half. I so barely had a grip with my other hand that I knew I couldn't even try to crawl without tumbling into the literal jaws of death.

"KRAAAAK!" A sense of greater dread sunk into my bones at the familiar cry. Barely daring to do so, I looked up and saw the wasp bearing down on me.

---

15: Stay put.
16: Drop into the creature's jaws.

---

15

I was almost tempted to release myself and die by the creature beneath me rather than the wasp above, but I could not force myself to move. The wasp hummed into the pit, grabbed me in her mandibles, and carried me into the sky.

Struggling and bashing at the fearsome mandibles clutching me proved entirely useless. It was like banging on rock. "Merciful kill wasp! Wasp let Areli go!"

The wasp did not respond. The dunes now rolled past beneath me at incredible speed, occasionally revealing a camel, whirling sand snake, or other solitary creature. She was taking me east. This Areli's want, I reminded myself. Lucky. The longer we flew, the more I realized how impossible my journey had been. The three waterskins would have run dry long before I arrived at the nest.

After the passage of hours, during much of which I'd eventually been forced by the incessant barrage of air to shut my eyes and even, as strange as it seemed, take sips from my waterskins, a blue line came into view on the horizon. As we drew closer I realized that this must be the ocean. A scattering of rocks near its shore led to a cluster of jagged cliffs, at the top of which clung a monstrous nest. I only had an instant to enjoy the sight of the broad and crashing sea, so arresting and horrific was the nest.

Taller and wider than the tallest trees in the forest, the papery grey construction was outfitted with countless holes through which more wasps than I could ever have imagined constantly flew. It was like a nightmare. And the wasp tightly clutching me was flying directly for that nest. Panic surged, and I began struggling once more, wildly beating and yelling, flailing in the air. She seemed completely unaffected. She landed at the edge of a hole, crawled into the dark tunnel. We were inside.

The tunnel soon opened into a larger, more shapeless tunnel, above which I could faintly make out further pods facing downward before the outside light ceased to penetrate. All around me came the sounds of the monsters bustling through their home, buzzing, building, conversing. Once, I heard a shriek that sounded like the gazelle at the river.

To my surprise, after the wasp had crawled deep inside of the nest, a faint light became apparent. She released me into a tiny cavern where some kind of artificial light shone over the body of Keliah.

"Keliah!" I cried. I ran to her and shook her. "Keliah safe? Keliah safe??"

Her eyes opened sleepily. "Areli?" She leapt to her feet.

"Silence," the wasp hissed. She moved closer to us.

"Back!" I warned, drawing my bone blade and moving for her.

"Areli, no!" Keliah's hand at my shoulder. "Good wasp."

My mind boggled. Good...wasp?!

"We lack the time to devote to your ignorance," the wasp said. But noting my distrustful expression, she tilted her head. "I will give you a quick explanation. Put your pathetic weapon away."

I didn't understand everything she had said, but I picked out some key words and, with Keliah nodding at me, sheathed the knife.

The wasp spoke in a low voice. "I am the fourth princess in line. I will likely never be queen. But it is different if I have the chosen one." Her glistening black eyes stared at my confusion. "Your so-called 'Merciful blood.'"

"Wasp know Merciful blood?"

"I know her by the mark." Keliah pulled aside her braids to show me a starlike birthmark on the back of her neck. I had never noticed it.

"We cannot allow her to fall into the queen's hands. The others taken from the village have been assigned work as slaves, but after seeing her mark, I managed to keep this one for myself. I needed another, and fortunately for us both, saw you fall into the ant lion pit as I flew toward your forest. I require your assistance. I need you to start a new colony. A new village. A cooperation between wasp and drenn."

I stared in confusion. The wasp made a crackling noise of annoyance, then said, "Need help. Areli and Keliah make new village together."

"Why wasp want?" I asked suspiciously.

"Wasp, drenn, together."

It was like a murderer asking to sleep in my bed. But again Keliah touched my arm. "No choice," she said.

"Mother? Home?"

Keliah shook her head sadly. "No go home."

I looked at the wasp. "If no?"

She clicked her mandibles. "You die."

It could be much worse. The wasps could have killed Keliah, killed us both. "Wasp save other villagers," I demanded.

"No." Seeing my anger, she added, "I cannot. The other wasps won't allow it."

I glanced at Keliah, dropped my head.

"You must stay here tonight," said the wasp. "Tomorrow there is a great hunt. I will snea--..." She paused to adjust her language. "Stay here. New village tomorrow."

With that, she turned and crawled out of the cavern, leaving us alone in the depths of the nest.

Keliah and I looked at one another. Aside from her bandaged leg, she seemed fine. She looked just the same as ever. "Glad Keliah safe," I said.

"Saul went Deathlands?"

I nodded.

"Saul great brave." There was no mockery in her tone. Her eyes were soft. I reached out slowly, caressed her cheek. She stepped close and kissed me.

The next day, we were awoken by the sounds of dozens or hundreds of wasps buzzing out of the nest. I wondered who or what this "great hunt" targeted, and what it was needed for. But the princess would not discuss it with us.

"Quick," she hissed. We climbed into the middle of the cloth she threw down, and our bodies were pressed close together as she gathered its corners in her mandibles to carry us back through the tunnels and away from the quiet nest.

Poking our heads out of the upper sides, we could see that the wasp was following the shoreline south. Every time that I thought surely she would stop, another hour passed. It was only in the light of the setting sun that she finally came to rest at the edge of a forest pouring off the side of a mountain, pressing against cliffs by the sea.

"I will begin a nest. You must build your hut. We start here." She flew into the forest, leaving us standing at its edge.

I had never begun a hut so late in the day. Keliah and I managed to build a makeshift shelter that would serve for the night. The wasp flew back and forth, chewing wood in her mouth and affixing it to the cliff. Just before dark fully fell, she stopped in front of us. "I must return for now. Did you procreate?"

"What?"

"Did you...make child?"

I glanced at Keliah, thinking of the previous night. "Maybe," she replied, giving a little smile.

"Then I have one final act to perform before I leave." She moved for Keliah.

---

17: Attack her.
18: Stay put.

---

15
Preferring this unknown creature to drenn's most feared enemy, I released my hold and fell into the searching jaws of the creature. It tore into my leg, snapping the bones, and dragged me down into the sand where it ground me apart, eating me alive.

You have died! Please try again.

17
Sensing something sinister, I drew my knife and leapt forward, stabbing the unsuspecting wasp in the eye, tearing apart its shimmering blackness. She screeched. "Traitor!" Keliah took my knife, ran under the wasp, and slammed it up into the creature's belly. The knife passed through her hard exoskeleton. The wasp tried to fly but, one-eyed and injured, she was slow to rise. Keliah gashed her wing, then put out the other eye. Hideous shrieks emanated from the crippled creature. Continuing with her small attacks, Keliah finally managed to kill the princess.

"Keliah." I looked at her wide-eyed. "Wow."

She stared down at the wasp corpse. "Safe," she concluded.

I looked at the beautiful sea, the forest, the makings of our ramshackle hut. I smiled at her. "Safe."

We dragged the wasp's corpse into the sea, then climbed into our hut and fell asleep to the gentle roar of the ocean waves.

Congratulations! You have managed to survive and save Keliah. Good luck with your new village!

18

The wasp suddenly curled her backside and jabbed it into Keliah's belly. She made a gulping, breathy sound. I drew my knife and tried to attack, but the wasp was ready for me and tore it away. She returned her mandibles to holding Keliah in place. I ran at her, tried to beat her, but of course it was useless. After another moment, she backed off. Keliah fell to her knees. "What...did..."

"Antidote," the wasp explained. "Keliah was badly poisoned. She's safe now."

"Keliah?" Her gaze was unfocused. She put a hand to her stomach, from which came a trickle of blood.

The wasp murmured over her in a strange language I did not know.

"Keep her safe," she instructed, and flew away.

The following day, Keliah had difficulty doing anything. She said that her stomach felt strange. I finished a hut myself. The wasp returned to continue her nest. She brought me a dead cow from the forest to cook, and showed me where to find fresh water. Keliah increasingly lay on her back, and her belly seemed swollen. I did not know what to do. She seemed in terrible pain. I continued my work, and all was the same the next day, until both the wasp and I were startled by a scream.

I ran to her. She was lying on her back, gasping fiercely, clutching her belly. "What wrong?" She did not respond.

"Yes," the wasp hissed, seeming to watch eagerly.

Keliah's screams became louder and more frequent. Then, her stomach ripped apart and a small translucent worm strained into the air. With...arms?! Suddenly I understood. This was why she had asked whether Keliah was pregnant, how she had altered her insides with the strange curse she had whispered. I attacked with a furious yell, but the wasp readily tore into my gut and tossed me aside.

Eventually Keliah fell silent, dead.

She had been the chosen one.

Just not ours.

---

Afterword
Thank you very much for reading my story. This is the fourth Choose Your Own Adventure I wrote for Steemit. Check my profile for the others, and follow me for more to come!
It was kind of a journey for me, and it's definitely the longest short story I've ever written (granted, I haven't written many). I'd like to give thanks to various sources of inspiration and information.

・This story was inspired, ridiculously enough, by the Princess Huhuran card in Hearthstone.

・I drew elements of the desert, as well as its name, from the Taklimakan Desert in China. "Taklimakan" means more or less "the place of no return," and it is nicknamed "the Sea of Death."

・When I wrote the inside of the wasp nest, one of my sources was this video of a dad and his sons cutting open a huge wasp nest. This video of a wasp nest built inside a window was most useful.

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Lastly, I liked the idea of giant wasp predators so much that I made an amateur painting of a moment from the first attack scene. ^.^;