Barton followed on hands and knees and watched from a fair distance as the beetle crawled through the well-trimmed grass. It was the biggest bug he had ever seen. It could probably eat one of the kittens Minnow had last month. This bug was huge. Its dark iridescent carapace glistened rainbow hues in the morning sun as it scuttled along. No one seemed to notice except him. It was nearing the whitewashed picket fence of the recess yard as the young boy glanced toward the Sister, as if to check if he was straying too far. A wink too short and he would have missed it as the enormous beetle struggled between two slats, stopping only to readjust its delicate wings under the hardened forewings. The Sister started to beckon Barton back just as her call was overwhelmed by a cacophony of splintering wood and the tumble of human flesh just across the street. 

            Two men, only moments ago loitering against the slat-board hostel, were knocked to the ground under an avalanche of stained lumber. A beetle the size of an ox, shining like an emerald in the sunlight, only interrupted by dissipating puffs of dust, steadily lumbered out onto the street through its newly crafted tunnel toward the schoolyard.

             “Barton!” the Sister shouted as she sprang from her seat, embroidery ring clacking against the lacquered timber decking. Behind dark curls, the boy’s eyes widened and he darted across the yard without even thinking, to catch the excitement. Upon seeing the monstrous insect intent on marching through the schoolyard, Barton froze, his eyes feeling like they took up his entire face, mouth going slack and perspiration beading on his soft skin. The shouts of the Sister sounded as they were issued through sewer pipes with his ears stuffed with cotton. His vision narrowed as everything in the periphery faded to a blur, except, in perfect clarity, this monster. The massive, shimmering vermin that is headed...right…for… 

            The child’s body went limp as Nydelle slipped her arms around his thin frame. Not expecting the resistance, the Sister’s slippers slid in the grass and she fell, legs sprawled in front of her, rear firmly on the dew-dropped lawn and her arms around this mesmerized child’s waist. The creature rose up as a spiny leg folded the wooden fence, creaking in the ground, down toward the child. She watched in slow motion shock as the angled tips of the fence fall within an inch of the dumbstruck child.  Shaking the fear from her mind, she pulled the boy to the ground and began to crawl away from the now-destroyed fence, while the shining, spiny beast marched across the schoolyard paying them no mind whatsoever.