"Heh… that's a weird name. You can call me Aniso- Oh dang! Your back. It's really bad here!" He noted, running a finger near the tender wound on Symon’s back. "You're bleeding really badly, hang on."

Aniso quickly started rummaging through his bag, finding more cloth and using a small shard of metal to cut it into strips. As he was doing this Symon looked down to a thick mustard colored liquid dripping down his thighs from the wound on his back. It was warm and had the same consistency of blood, but that couldn't be what it really was, could it?

Aniso was quick to use the newly cut cloth to wrap up Symons chest. "Man, I don't know what got you, but it got you good." He said. "You're lucky I was out here hunting. Are you from The Grotto? I've never seen you around before."

Symon looked at him with confusion at the question. 

"Er… how about any of the other Miinu settlements?"

The confusion persisted. Symon shook his head. 

"Dang… Wait- are you feral?" 

"I… don't understand… anything you're asking me." Symon eventually answered. 

"Aw duh Aniso, a feral wouldn't know what a feral is. Obviously." He lightly smacked his own forehead and huffed a small laugh. "Listen, I'll get you all cleaned up and I'll explain everything to you when I get you home."

"Home?" Symon questioned. It was quickly after asking that Aniso had finished wiping most of the blood and dirt off of him pulled his satchel over his shoulder.

" My home. I'll show you, hang on," He said with a smirk before lifting Symon into his arms, which startled the poor man, as no one had picked him up like this since he was a child. The other man was a lot stronger than he looked, lifting him effortlessly. The man expanded his large, vibrant wings outwards and they buzzed as they rapidly flapped. He took off into the sky and Symon clung on for dear life. The ground fell further away until the entire field he’d once been standing in came into full view. It didn't take Aniso long to reach the height of the average human, revealing the jungle of grass he was lost in to be nothing more than an unassuming patch of grass not too far from a hiking trail. It was deep in the woods, but he recognized them as being the very same that existed outside his home, just beyond his fenced in back garden. The grass was so dense that he could barely even see the miniscule trench had fallen into. How this young man spotted him down there at all was short of a miracle. Though it was true that odonates had some of the best eyesight in the insect kingdom, perhaps this man possessed a similar ability. 

"I'll have the ants come out here and get that spider. The girls will love roasting it." He said cheekily as he took off along the trail. 

The sudden movement gave Symon vertigo. He couldn't believe he was actually flying. The weightlessness and the rush of wind would have been more appreciated if he wasn't absolutely terrified. He wanted to say something, lines “I would have preferred you ask before grabbing me and whisking me several feet in the air.” but all that came out instead was something more like “Aaaaahhh-!!”

Ansio made a turn off the path, following a stream for some time before ducking through a thick wall of vines deep in the woods. Once through, Symon spotted an abandoned cottage, human sized. It was an A-frame style cabin, its roof covered in a layer of moss and tree debris, and it was beginning to show the early signs of deterioration around its wooden siding and dirty windows. The yard was overgrown with tall grass, flowers, and bushes long overdue for a trim. Lots of junk was left in the yard to be overtaken by nature; gardening tools, children's toys, an old bird bath, and other lawn decor lost to time. 

The overgrown stone path from the house led to a still thriving koi pond in the yard. A tree stood tall and proud next to it, its gnarled roots slipping into the water.

 Its trunk was decorated in scattered miniature houses nailed directly into the side of the tree. They looked hand crafted and painted bright, dazzling colors. Fairy Houses; they were called. He knew this much from hjs hobby of miniature crafting, where such projects were brought up in the many craft books he'd perused.  It was believed by some that if you left these tiny homes outside and provided offerings, the fae would invite themselves inside and protect the property. He had always thought that the tradition was based in myth, a bunch of spiritualist hogwash, but as he looked at himself and his savior, he had to question if he was in the presence of fairies at this moment, and had he somehow become one?

Aniso landed on the patio of one of these tiny houses and used his extra pair of hands to knock on the door without jostling Symon. Another of the bug folk answered. The man who stood in the door was a bright reddish-orange insect, with wings that resembled a long oversized coat that was frayed with dark edges and embossed with veins like leaves in fall. The draping sleeves on his arms brought to mind the silhouette of a leaf insect.  The gentleman adjusted the large spectacles on his face as he studied the two

"Aniso? How unexpected," The gentleman said before looking down at the stranger he was carrying.

"Sorry Dr. Leif, I kinda ran into a situation when I was out," Aniso explained. 

"Yes, I can see that," Dr. Leif noted. "If he is hurt, bring him in, quickly." He opened the door wider and headed into the house, Aniso following behind. Once inside, it became apparent that the inside of the fairy houses were incomplete; built like small dollhouses with no backsides to them. The walls ran flush with the tree's bark which then tapered into a natural archway that led into a hole inside the tree, giving the illusion of a much larger space. The tiny space was a single room home with a bed nook and living area off to the side, a cooking station in the and an area sectioned off by cloth partitions. The tables, chairs, cabinets, and more were all put together from objects the tiny residents could easily get their hands on; small pieces of twig and bark, leaves, bamboo, even recycled garbage and knick-knacks from the human world. 

For example, a fire pit sat firmly in the center of the home, with a sewing thimble hanging from it like a pot. The fire was no more than a hot ember, yet kept the delicious smelling contents of the pot boiling all the same.

Dr. Leif gestured to the area behind the partitions where there was a cot surrounded by cabinets filled with all sorts of colorful glass bottles of herbs and elixirs. The cot was set next to a window, from where Symon could see out into the yard when he sat down. Dr. Leif grabbed a cane from off the wall and limped his way over to the cot.

The doctor was quick to start examining Symon all over, studying his body. Symon could hear the doctor hiss empathetically when he saw his back. “Ah yes, that’s a pretty nasty looking wound. How did you get that?”

“I… I don’t remember.” He replied honestly. “I didn’t…  even know I was injured, to be honest.”

Dr. Leif pulled out a small hand mirror, which was made from a shard of a much larger mirror, with a frame made from tied twine. He held it at an angle where Symon could crane his neck around and get a better look at his back. When he did, he saw a large hole in his back, like something massive had exploded from his spine and leaving mustard colored viscera in its wake.

“My god.. how did…” His voice shuddered.

“Don’t you worry ‘bout a thing sir, I’ll get you stitched and cleaned up quickly.” The doctor chimed. 

“S-stitch?” He muttered as he cast his gaze towards the doctor digging through a basket of supplies and pulling needles out. Suddenly he was dreading what was about to happen, and it must have been obvious in his face and the tenseness of his body.

The doctor gave a sympathetic smile and pulled down one of the jars. “Don’t worry, it won’t be so bad, I promise.” The jar he opened smelled strongly of peppermint and he used his fingers to pull out a thick salve which he then rubbed on his skin surrounding the wound. The salve immediately started cooling and numbing his skin, to the point Symon only noticed a small pinch when the doctor started suturing the wound. “So what is your name?” He asked, likely as a means of distracting him. 

“He said his name is Symon,” Aniso answered. “Which is such a strange name for a cicada kin, isn’t it?”

“Cicada?!” Symon balked. 

“You didn’t know?” The doctor replied. “These colorful bands, these wings? They are clearly those of the Tacua Speciosa cicada. A very rare and beautiful kin to have.” 

“I don’t understand! What does that mean? Kin..?” Symon questioned.

“I think he’s a feral, he doesn’t seem to know much about what’s going on,” Ansio explained. “Kin is just what we call the insects we resemble. I’m a damselfly kin, and Dr. Leif is a leaf insect kin. And you are a cicada kin!” 

“So… you’re bugs?” 

“No…” He said with a laugh. “We’re Miinu. And so are you!”

“No I’m not.” Symon denied. “I’m a human!

There was a pause as the two bugs exchanged confused glances.

“Boy, you must have hit your head pretty hard, mister. Because you don’t look like no human I ever saw.” Aniso remarked with an amused  grin on his face.

“I don’t look like one right now, but I was human!” He insisted. “Something happened to me last night! I’m not supposed to be like this!”

“I’m sorry sir but, that’s impossible. Humans don’t just turn into Miinu.” Dr Leif told him. “Are you sure you didn’t just have a bad hallucination? There’s some potent mushrooms out there.”

“I’m telling the truth! I’m a human man. My name is Symon Cantillo. I’m a traveling antiques salesman out of the city of Minau, and-and I have parents and a young sister who are probably very concerned about where I am right now. I don’t even know where or what I am right now and I have no memory of anything before going to work and-” As Symon was rambling, Dr. Leif pressed an assuring hand on his shoulder.

“Please relax Symon. I’m sure you’re very confused and scared right now, but none of what you’re saying makes any sense,” He said.

“You must believe me! I need to get out of here, I need to get home and find my parents. I- Augh-!” Symon tried to stand in his panic, but the pain in his back sent him back down.

“Woah, woah, hey. Calm down, it’s okay. We’ll figure everything out soon, but you’re not going anywhere in this state. Please just hold still for a moment.” Dr. Leif finished up what he was doing and began bandaging up Symon properly.

“You feel a bit warm, you might’ve gotten an infection while you were out there. Why don’t you stay here and rest, maybe that will clear your head.” The doctor concluded as he gently laid Symon out on the cot.

“But…” Symon started to argue, but realized it wasn’t worth it and agreed to just relax for a minute. It was oddly comfortable, and after his morning had been, his body felt like it was made of lead. Only now, as the adrenaline wore off, he noticed all the small aches and pains all over his body as though he had been hit by a trolley. He wanted so badly to remember what happened between falling asleep a normal human man in his own bed, and waking up an injured little insect in the middle of the forest.

He could hear that Dr. Leif had started speaking to Aniso in a hushed tone. If he’d been less tired, Symon might have cared enough to listen in more closely. Rather, he stared outside at the swaying leaves of the tree and drifted asleep.