11 – The CoTiDu Trio

BeetleField, entrance to the city:

As the lone ant entered the city of BeetleField, a unique trio of bugs was passing by, just a few meters away from the ant…

“Boss! Boss, what do we do now?? How do we-”, a cockroach named Gregor asked in a panicked tone.

“SHUT UP, WILL YA!!”, the boss, a dung beetle named Edgar, yelled at Gregor angrily. He was mad that his flawless plan did not work… His plan to steal the precious Ozara blades from two ants who suddenly appeared in this city…

Not only did his plan cost him energy and exposed his CoTiDu Trio to his enemies, but his failed attack cost the third member of his Trio – a titan beetle named David – one of his top legs…

And that was a far bigger price to pay than Edgar anticipated…

“We gotta figure out what to do with David! We gotta treat his wounds!”, Edgar yelled in frustration, and Gregor silenced himself.

“How are you feeling, David?”, Edgar turned to the young titan beetle… David was crying... Seeing his comrade in pain – pain that he was responsible for – pain that could’ve very well been avoided if only he had had a better plan… it made Edgar’s heart ache…

“It… It h-hurts, boss…”, David said slowly in a painful tone…

However cruel or careless Edgar may seemed to be… deep inside, he cared a lot about his two friends… even if he yelled at them often – or ordered them to do dangerous or evil things – even after all of that… Edgar still considered his friends to be something more… something bigger…

A family.

That’s what the CoTiDu Trio was… a family…

And David knew this… he wasn’t mad at Edgar for losing his leg… he blamed himself… he blamed the two ants who just had to resist… but most of all he blamed the hercules beetle who bit it off…

“I’m… I’m sorry, David… If only I had had a better plan… a more solid way of stealing the blades… this could’ve been avoided… I… I won’t blame you if you want to leave… but, please… let me help you treat your wound first…”, Edgar told David.

“I… I don’t blame you, boss… It’s… not your f-fault… And I don’t… want to le-eave… We are… family…”, David was sad to see boss blame himself for what the ants and the hercules beetle did… but at the same time David was happy that the boss cared for him… worried for him…

Something David had never experienced before meeting Edgar and Gregor…

David was born two seasons ago, alongside a hundred brothers and sisters…

And the very first thing their mother did when they hatched was start killing them… one... by one…

David had heard a dozen of his brothers and sister scream, confused… not knowing what’s going on… what was the purpose of them being gifted a life in this place when, in the very first few minutes of it, their own mother was trying to take it away from them…

Of course, neither David nor his brothers nor sisters had these exact thoughts… it was more like an instinct…

‘This giant being that was killing them… wasn’t that the same exact being who brought us here?’

Minutes passed, and less and less of his brothers and sisters lived… a few tried to run away, but being in an unknown dark place only brought them so far… all of them ran into some kind of a barrier and could not escape… all of them had the same, cruel fate…

All except for David…

David, who somehow managed to run into a tiny opening… a tiny tunnel that led to the outside world…

The outside city… the city of BeetleField…

At this point the city of BeetleField had already become the shell of its former self… a city with no hope… a city full of bugs who had given up…

In fact that was the very reason why David’s mother committed such a cruel and terrible act…

It was because she had also, like so many others, lost all hope…

The biggest Castanean food supplier – Anthill – had closed its doors and shut down all exportation of goods four seasons prior, and now every Kingdom is paying the price for it… especially BeetleField, as it is the biggest Kingdom in all of Castanea!

After Anthill went into complete lockdown, it only took a season or so for the BeetleField food supply to almost run dry…

Combine that with the King himself declaring that the Castanean Kingdom is falling apart, and that it was only a matter of time before Ozara came to destroy everything – and the BeetleField fell into an Era of Chaos…

Every bug was for itself…

Fights, pillaging and murder became but an everyday occurrence. Most of the stronger bugs – ex-warriors – either formed their own little gangs or fought for themselves…

But that, too, did not last forever… soon the food was so hard to come by that even the mightiest of warriors ran of energy and… gave up…

Dozens and dozens of bugs could be seen on the streets - bugs who have given up on living – dying of hunger and sadness…

Those who did not give up or were too afraid of death were either rich and had good connections, thus ensuring that they had food even in the Era of Chaos; or they turned to cannibalism…

And the latter was what David’s mother turned to…

She was a weak female titan beetle who had not eaten in days when David and his brothers and sisters hatched…

And during the entire time David’s mother waited for the eggs to hatch, all she could think about is how she had two options:

Either she let the eggs hatch and died along with her 100 children, as for she knew that there was not a single chance that she could feed so many mouths, when she could not even feed herself…

Or she does the single most gruesome and terrible act a mother can commit… she murders her own children, ensuring that she has food for the next few seasons… but also losing her soul in the process…

And she chose to live…

David, who was the only one lucky enough to escape, found himself in yet another unfamiliar, cold place that was the fallen city of BeetleField…

He felt cold and scared… there were many big and scary bugs roaming around, so he did his best to find a hiding spot…

After hours and hours of searching, little David settled for staying inside a small house whose doors were unlocked…

David did not know that hiding there could’ve been a fatal mistake if the house had been occupied, but David’s luck kept following him, and the house he had chosen as his hiding spot was abandoned…

Little David hid there for a day or so, being more and more hungry, tired and scared each passing minute…

When suddenly somebody entered the house.

“This one’s unlocked, boss!”, a shrilling voice said.

“Quieter, Gregor!”, another, deeper voice could be heard from outside, “What if someone’s already inside?!”

“Y-You’re right… sorry, boss…”

“It’s okay, Gregory… let me go inside first…”

David could hear someone’s steps approaching, and so he started shaking… is this it? Is this the end? Will whoever finds him now do the same thing his mother did to his brothers and sisters?

A few minutes have passed…

“Looks like nobody is here, Gregory! You can come – WAIT!!”, the dung beetle suddenly shouted.

David could not hear anything anymore… Did they leave? He did not know…

After some time he decided it was safe to come out from the place he was hiding in.

As soon as he made a tiny noise, the dung beetle grabbed him and pushed hi against the wall.

“Ah!”, he lost his breath.

The dung beetle was looking at him for a few moments, then let go of Daivid.

“Ya found the hiding bastard?!”, Gregory shouted from outside.

“It’s just some kid… he’s a…”, Edgar’s eyes shined and widened as he realized the incredible species David was…

“a titan… a titan beetle…”, Edgar whispered to himself, then asked David: “Kid, where are your parents?”

David did not understand the words Edgar was saying, but he felt that Edgar meant him no harm… Still, David could not help himself but start crying, as he did not know how to do anything else…

“Shhh, shhh… it will be okay, kid…”, Edgar comforted David and took a closer look at him.

“You look like you haven’t eaten in a while… GREGORY!!”

“Y-Yes, boss?”, the cockroach rushed towards his boss.

“Give this little fella some food…”, Edgar demanded.

“But-”, Gregory hesitated.

“Now.”, Edgar was impatient.

“But w-what if his parents come by and-”

“Look at him! The poor thing hadn’t eaten in days probably! Look how shaken he is! He doesn’t even understand us! His parents are gone! His parents, brothers, sisters – whatever – they are all gone! Trust me… I’ve seen this more than enough times to be certain of it…”

Gregory unwillingly listened and fed David.

While he was doing so, Edgar spoke to the little titan: “So what should we call you… hmmm… I know! How about… David… Little Titan David who will grow to be the mightiest titan beetle Castanea has ever seen!!”

From that day onwards, David kept following Edgar, his saviour.

“I would never… leave… family…”, David said.

Edgar smiled. “Thank you, David… and know that I will do better from now… I will act better… and we will revenge you… and we will take those blades… and when we do… it will change our lives forever!! No more pillaging! No more nasty business! We’ll have enough Trao to be ensured for the rest of our lives!!

But before we do any of that, let’s get your wounds treated…”

Edgar turned towards Gregory asking him: “Do you think your old man could lend us any medicine? I’m sure that greedy bastard has plenty to spare!”

Gregory made a grimace and answered: “He has it for sure, but I doubt he would just give it away… He doesn’t even give free food to me, let alone anything else to just anybody!”

Gregory was the son of old Gregor, the owner of Gregor’s bar…

But despite being his own blood, Gregor never treated his son like his own…

He always told him how, for everything in life, you have to work to earn it… especially to the necessities such as food or water…

This is why he was always forced to work to ‘earn’ his food… it was like this until one day Edgar, who was a frequent customer at the bar, noticed how Gregor treated Gregory, and so he decided to step in…

“Gregor… say… can I have a little talk with your son outside?”, Edgar asked the old, greedy cockroach.

“Pf… whatever… I don’t know what you would need that fool for, but sure… I don’t care…”, Gregor did not think much of it…

Gregory, however, was shocked that someone wanted to talk to him. Him?!?

What could he possibly have that would make someone want to talk to him?? Especially now that the BeetleField was falling apart…

Confused and curious, he followed the strange beetle outside of his father’s bar, and the beetle spoke: “Hello, Gregory… My name is Edgar. Edgar, the dung beetle… I saw how your old man treats you and… well it ain’t right! Nobody should treat someone like that… especially their own child! I mean forcing you to work all day just so you get some food and water?? That’s more like slavery to me than it is family!”

“Get to the point.”, Gregory rudely interrupted. While he did dislike his old man… he was still his father after all… and he felt like he had to protect him because of that…

“Right. Sorry. You see… I was wondering if you would like to… work for me?”, Edgar calmly asked the young cockroach.

Gregory was so surprised when he heard this that he could not respond for a full minute.

Finally he let out: “I-M-Me?! You’re asking me to work for you?? Y-You’re offering me a job?!”

“Hahah! Yes! You can put it like that… I’m offering you a job, since I can see how hard working you are. I could use someone like you… especially in dire times like this…”, Edgar smiled.

“I… wow!”, Gregory was stunned and his eyes shined, “W-What kind of job?”

“It’s… something you’re quite familiar with, actually…

All you have to do is the exact same thing you were doing until now… You just have to listen and do what I tell you to…”

The spark left his eyes when he heard this, so Gregory disappointingly said: “So you’re offering me to switch from being my father’s slave to being yours? Sorry, but I will have to decline your stupid and insulting offer, Mister Edgar…”

“Oh, no, but you misunderstood me! What I’m offering is a job, not slavery! A job means that you would not be working for food or water… but instead you would be working for the real deal… for Trao. And if you have enough Trao you can pretty much buy or do anything you can imagine!”, Edgar raised his top legs and looked at the sky.

“Y-You mean… You would pay me to listen to you?”

“Correct.”

Gregory thought about it for a bit, then asked: “How much exactly?”

Edgar smiled, as if he was anticipating this exact question, and answered: “It’s quite simple… the work you and I will be doing ain’t gonna be… what you would call ‘honest work’… but in these times you cannot survive otherwise…

We’ll be doing all kinds of stuff – some good… some bad…

But it will all lead to us earning Trao… Earning a living…

And as for the payment… well…

The more I earn… the more you earn…

Let’s say, for example, we steal 30 Trao from an abandoned house… I would give you a third of the earned goods – so 10 Trao would be yours… If we were to steal 90 Trao you would earn 30 of those and so on…

So… what do you say?”, Edgar’s grin widened and he offered a high-one to Gregory.

Gregory, who was astonished that he, out of all bugs in BeetleField, was offered a job – a bit of a dishonest job – but a job none the less, happily accepted the high-one and the job offer.

And so from that day he quit working for his father and instead started working for Edgar, who demanded far less than his father, and paid him quite a lot more than his father would ever even consider paying him.

Gregory grew to like working for Edgar more and more each day. Yes sometimes they would get in quite a big trouble for doing their ‘job’, but it was never anything they couldn’t handle.

But more than the Trao or the job itself, Gregory enjoyed being in Edgar’s company. Edgar, while sometimes yelling at him, was a hundred times better than his father… He was funny, intelligent and, as much as he was trying to hide it, caring.

And the job became even more fun when David, a titan beetle they found in an abandoned house, joined their Trio…

At first Gregory did not like David… he was jealous in a way, because Edgar seemed to who David much more attention than he did to him… but after David grew a little they started getting along…

And before they knew it – the three of them became a family…

Gregory getting a job