MGE Mantis Girl chapter 1

>The truth was, I was actually rather depressed and put off upon meeting her the first time. I was off in the woods, in the wilderness near my new town when I saw her. A mantis, who humans rarely see, staring at me with disdainful, unemotional eyes. I gave a short hello, but she said nothing. There was a noise, a deer running past. When I looked back to where the Mantis was, she was gone. I guess she hated me that much?
>The second time I met her was more... intimidating. You see, I worked out far from town, and coming out every day, sometimes you see all kinds of animals. This time, I ran into a bear. Not a bear girl, just a regular, huge bear. I knew I was fucked, as I didn't have my bear spray. That's when the Mantis appeared, silent, only a flash of green in my peripheral vision. Before I had a chance to react, the bear was already running, and the Mantis, crouching in front of me (I could, uh, see how pert her ass actually was), stood and glanced at me. "Stay away from here. There are more bears, and their cubs. You'll die." She left then, leaving me alone.
>I learned from my boss that there was a known mantis out there, but she never, ever spoke to anyone. She simply traded for supplies sometimes. The troubled teens I worked with told stories occasionally, too. But only I had actually seen her out in the woods themselves.
>The third time I met her, it was when I was working nights. Alone in the cabin, guarding kids. You could scarcely say I met her at all. There was a noise. She didn't make noises unless she wanted to, I knew that already. And I looked out into the dark, beyond the back door, and at the tree line, for a brief moment, I saw movement. It could have been an animal, but... I saw her scythe-like claws. How long had she been watching? I saw the small rock near the door. Had she... thrown it? Did she want me to know she had been watching?

>The fourth time I saw her, I was working during the day shift, dealing with a break-in at one of the storage rooms. We had figured it was one of the kids, but the things stolen were strange. I realized that they reminded me less of what kids steal -snacks, soda and the like- and more like the trade goods the Mantis usually traded for, like eggs, meat, etc. So I went out into the forest that day with a bag of that kind of thing, and encountered... a small band of goblins, attracted by the smell of food! Well, they were attracted to more than just food, it looked like, by their lascivious comments and wicked giggles. But before I could be harmed, there was a noise, and they ran off. The Mantis was there, staring in their direction. Clearly they knew not to mess with her.
>"I'm guessing it wasn't you who stole from us, huh?" She didn't react at all, simply kept looking out in the direction of the goblins.
>"Here, then. As thanks for rescuing me, let me leave you this." I left the food I had brought as a lure. Clearly it had lured her too, but she made no motion towards it.
>"It's okay, really. Take it." I backed away, and only once I had walked a distance and turned back did I see her pick it up. I turned away again but when I glanced once more, she was gone.

>The fifth time was over a month later. Late August. It was hot, dreadfully so. At least they'd installed air conditioners. I had gone on day shift, and found myself in an unused cabin at night, sleeping in solitude. I was surprised when I heard it. A knock on the door. I grumbled, and got up. Still groggy, I went to the entrance. There were no locks or anything, of course, the person could have entered as they wished. But what I saw was a surprise. The basket I had left for her a month before. Inside were flowers. Strange. I heard a noise, and I had a feeling I knew what it was. There, in the distance. A shadow outside, barely visible. I had a feeling this mantis I kept meeting was thanking me.

>She came in a week later to trade. The sixth meeting. She had brought venison, raw but clean. Our chef was ecstatic, and wanted to use it. This was my first time being on day shift when she arrived, and they had me handle the transaction for some odd reason. Had she said something?
>I greeted her and inspected the meat. It was apparently the same amount as the last few times, and it was an easy process.
>"You really are skilled at this," I said to her. She didn't reply, just nodded slightly. "Here's your payment. We really do appreciate it." I handed her the money, and she seemed to turn red when her hand touched mine. Huh? She left without a word, but still... strange. I heard a coworker snicker. The hell was going on?

>Before I saw her again, two weeks passed. But they were unusually eventful week. Three incidents occurred that would hint at what happened then.
>the first incident, several days after I saw her last, the rancher who owned the houlstar farm in the valley came in and grumbled to me about cougars harassing them. Which kind didn’t matter, both sorts of cougars were a problem. I asked, nervous, if the mantis girl was causing an issue as well. He blinked at me until he realized something, then just laughed. No, she wasn’t an issue. In fact she had spoken lately to his daughter.
>I admitted I was surprised. She had always ever just stared at me, never said a word.
>He just shook his head and changed the subject. I frowned but continued on, more sure than ever she hated me. Why get so red with annoyance when I handed her the money last time?

>A week later, the goblins raided our facility. This same migrating tribe knew by now this was a boys camp, and hit in several locations, raiding the hanging laundry and the food storage.
>While another person got the fireworks ready to scare them off (imported from the mist continent; small fireworks without fancy colors were surprisingly cheap, even several hundred miles from the great port city!), I charged in on the ones sniffing the boys’ dirty clothes with a blunt sword. Wasn’t going to hurt them, just run them off. That is, until one tackled me from behind!
>”Wait, is that- oh no, it’s him. It’s him!” “The mantis’s target?! Yipes!” “Yuppers! Mana would slice us to bits if we took him, we should probably run!” Soon, the goblins had all abandoned the raid. We didn’t even need to fire off the little rockets.
>I was pretty freaked out by this... her target?! She hated me that much?! I was done for...

>The next night, one of my coworkers found me at work barricading the cabin I was sleeping in. He stared at me in confusion.
>”What on earth are you doing? There isn’t anything that dangerous here, nothing that would attack anyway.”
>”No, you don’t get it!” I replied, “the mantis... she hates me! And the goblins were afraid of her. They said I was her target. I’m not gonna let her hurt me!”
>”...are you an idiot?”
“Hey! Less talking, more helping me barricade this place!”
“Fine... don’t think it’ll help you, though.”
>Needless to say, I was getting very worried. What had I done to anger her so much?! Had I trespassed too often in her territory?!

>The events of the last few weeks had made me ever more paranoid. From the start she bothered me. She creeped me out a bit, and her staring, emotionless eyes had drilled into my soul. But it was my seventh meeting with her that sealed my terror.
>I was alone and safe at night, but that morning I had to go run an errand. My boss just smiled when I protested that I really didn’t feel safe going. But in the end, how could I argue? I left with the wagon on a trip up further along the isolated mountain road, to fetch the honey that the small bee colony up on the mountain sold. The honeybees were friendly, and I got a few catcalls, but the one I met with was surprisingly professional. She adjusted her glasses and her eyes brightened upon realizing who I was. Did everyone truly know?
>Upon asking that, she grinned. “Of course. Mana has spoken a great deal about you when she visited last week. Is something wrong?”
>I explained my worry, and she nodded solemnly. “Of course, I understand... here, for you.” She handed me a quite small jar of honey. “This is a different kind, made from... unique ingredients. If you throw it at her or get it on her, I am sure she will be too distracted to ‘attack’ you... at least for a little while.” Little did I know what cruel prank she pulled on me.
>On the way back, the horse stopped, spooked. And there she was, slipping into view from behind a tree.
>”Oh... is something the matter?” I asked. She shook her head, but didn’t leave the road. I thought about using the honey, but she wasn’t in the right position, I couldn’t escape.
>”I heard from other people. Your name is Mana, right? Well, whatever I did, I’m sorry. I get that you don’t like me, so-“ I stopped immediately when her eyes widened. She shook her head violently before speaking.
>”No! I... don’t dislike you. At all. In fact I... like you a great deal. I...” she turned red and ran off there and then. She may have covered her face as she flittered into the distance.
>I turned cold. I realized the truth now, and knew for once just how in danger I was. She, a mantis girl, had a crush on me. I knew then, that I was going to die. After all, like scholars said, when a female mantis is done with her mate... they ate their heads. Surely, a mantis girl would be the same?!

>How was I going to get out of this situation? A mantis girl interested in me... it was a death sentence, surely. The Order had always spoken of how dangerous wild monster girls could be, and they had to be right about this, right? Sure, the honeybees were friendly and productive members of society, the nearby holstaur farm was nothing but a cornerstone of the region, and the dwarf mine had great prices, but the goblins were out wreaking havoc, there was said to be an alaraune-infested area out in the deep forest, and terrifying grizzlies were said to be there too, not to mention wicked fairies who could kidnap the unwary. Maybe monster girls could be good and helpful, maybe they weren't all evil... but a mantis? There was no way. As cute as she was, and as much as it had hurt that first time I met her that she hadn't said so much as a word, she had always bothered me. Always.

>When I saw her again, it was in late September, after the heat had finally died. I was with my coworker, and saw her as she approached with another shipment of meat and other forest products.
>"There, see? She's upset," I said, pointing out how she looked at everything. "She's probably looking for me specifically."
>He and I were hiding in a tree, and I whispered to him as we both used small maritime-style telescopes to see her from a distance.
>"And there, she's distracted finally. She seems pretty happy about the sale. I guess she got a good price?"
>"Anon..."
>"Oh, look! She's getting angry. What's that lady saying to her? She's clearly not happy with it."
>"Dude, you know..."
>"And there. She's got her money, and she's walking away, sure, but she's clearly regretting it. Maybe she is upset she can't get her prey? Ha!"
>"...I'm sorry, but I have to tell you, this is weird."
>"Why, did you notice something I didn't?"
>"That's the thing. She's had the exact same expression this entire time. She isn't expressing anything like you're saying."
>Huh?

>It was only a few days later that she attacked my fortified cabin. Of course, none of my attempts had worked at all in the end. I cursed how I didn't have the cash to buy metal doors and defenses from the dwarves. They had just laughed and gave an absurd price. Why would they gouge me at such a time?
>The door went flying from the power of her scythes. And when she stepped in, one couldn't even see her movements, like a shadow in the forest, as she dodged the spike trap and heavy falling rock trap in turn.
>I attacked with a sword, because I sure as hell wasn't going to get eaten by some mantis monster! She blocked easily with her scythes, capable of facing metal without injury, or even cutting through the metal in time. She soon knocked it out of my hand, and I knew she had me.
>"...Anon... we need to talk," she said in her quiet, unemotional voice.
>No way! I had one last chance... so I took the special honey I had been given, and threw the little bottle at her! She sliced it with her scythe arm but that just made the honey splatter her! She suddenly fell to her knees in response, gasping for air.
>Ha! I had done it! I had distracted her! Now I ran, and as soon as I reached the door-

>She had me, pushing me down, pulling me onto my back. She kissed me with an intensity I had never seen from her, her tongue forcing itself on my own, her lips locked with mine, holding me down with so much passion I couldn't even think, the smell of honey was making me dizzy... she finally broke the kiss and stared at me, I could see the hunger in her eyes.
>"...you... you you you you... Alraune nectar... I don't understand, nothing you do makes sense, I just can't figure you out. You act so kind to me and then you hide, you act nervous and then you challenge me. I don't understand you. I don't! You look like you hate me, you stared at me with no emotion the first time we met, but even so, you make my heart flutter whenever I see you, you make me stare at you, even though I've never thought anything of humans before. You aren't as strong or as fast, I even had to chase a bear from you, you'd lose to the goblins easily, but every time I see you I know I want to see you again. I grow more excited by the day, and you weren't even there last time, so I had to come and see if you were alright, or if the other humans had hurt you. I just want to be by you, why did you attack me? I don't understand..."
>Her voice was monotone but strained. She was confused in a rush by the nectar, which was burning a fire in her veins that made the silent girl into a complete chatterbox. Was this what she had been thinking all this time? I didn't know... I couldn't think... all I could do was stare at her, until... I remembered. Why I was running. Why I was fighting.
>"I... I get that! I understand you're into me, alright?!"
>"Then why do you keep fighting this way?! You act like you want me here, but then you fight me, why?"
>"Because I don't want to get eaten by you! You're a mantis, they eat their mates!"
>She stares, shocked, for a long moment, until-
>"...b...BAKAAAA!"

(voice sample for her yell)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WviwYLZubSw