Kinverse: Volume One

PATH OF THE EMERALD MAIDEN

A naive young monster's tale by Moros, aka KinverseWriter

Legal Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise herein mentioned. No copyright infringement is intended. All characters and events in this story are entirely fictional. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events, is purely coincidental. This work of fiction contains disturbing content.

Reader discretion is advised.

Description:

A young woman from a pre-neolithic society is accidentally whisked away to another world entirely during a raid on a research lab run by alien invaders. Stranded with no friends, badly injured, and no idea where home even is, she's forced to live off the land and learn how to survive in this strange and hostile world.

There's only one slight problem, though.

She's not trapped in this world with them. They're trapped in this world with her.

Categories:

Adventure, Coming-of-Age, Isekai, Erotica.

Disclaimers:

This story contains sexual elements and disturbing themes. The contents aren't purely intended to be pornographic, but some scenes objectively are. This is about a giant monster that eats people, so reader discretion is advised. This story contains vorarephilic themes.

This story will have a very slow and intermittent pace to begin with. True stakes don't really show up until halfway through, though the build-up is always there in the background. This is ultimately not a story of grand adventure and defeating one's enemies to rise to the top, it is the tale of a lost and naive young woman growing as a person and learning new things. It is a personal one concerning her, and thus this story will be told in present-tense first-person.

Chapter 19: Interlude 3: Overwhelming (vg)

---

I awake to someone shaking my shoulder as I lay sprawled on a hard but warm surface.

Raising my head and opening my eyes I find the trees of the jungle passing me by. Before I can totally shake off the grogginess of sleep a heavy weight lands on my back and I feel hot breath on my neck!

"Sister! Mother says we're almost there! Ohhh, I'm so excited!"

Rolling over I kick my energetic sibling off where she lands on someone else. The shove causes me to go sliding from Mother's back to land in the freshly trodden dirt. She notices and calls back to us, pheromones drifting in her wake.

"Energetic One, you will have much time to play later. Let her rest."

I get back to my feet and look ahead at Mother's form advancing away from me, her back coated in sisters. Some still sleep while others have been awoken by Boundless-Energy Unending-Hunter's jostling. One such sister is currently batting at her, just as upset as I at the rude awakening. Quickly sprinting forward I catch up to Mother's longer strides, passing through my swarm of sisters who've already had their turn on her back.

The jungle is awash with the scents of Kin ahead of us talking; the rest of the world still silent but for the stomping of clawed feet and trampled undergrowth shifting as we charge towards our goal. We're days past the border and aside from a few harried skirmishes with the tall intruders, their languid air-movers simply cannot keep up. They may be formidable, but just like the strongest of Kin, size may be strength but speed is its own form of strength.

As I approach Mother I leap up to grab at her tail and pull myself up and along it onto her back once more, carefully stepping around my still-dozing sisters. When I reach the one who had woken me, I raise my foreclaw and smack her across her snout.

"It was my turn to scout yesterday, sister," I admonish her. "How would you like it if I jumped on you after you were up all night and day near tall intruders?"

Smelling guilty and frowning slightly she glances away, one night eye still locked on me.

"I'm sorry, sister! I forgot! I'll find someone else to brawl with!"

Boundless is one of my strongest sisters; but to be honest, she is also my least favorite. Despite being from the same clutch she's stronger than me, faster than me, and seems to always have so much energy! She already has a name too, and I don't!

She's also really reckless. She doesn't think about her actions, she just does things regardless of the consequences. It also happens to make her one of the best brawlers of our age group and winner of the mateship duels she participated in a few years ago, earning her the strongest male. Her recklessness is simultaneously what earned her her strength and will also be her death.

In many ways, we are polar opposites and yet for some reason she likes being around me, preferring to play-brawl with me over anyone else.

Retaking my spot with my foreclaws hooked into a seam between Mother's dark plates, I once more sprawl against her warmth, shallowly panting from my sprint. It's a hot morning but thankfully the tall intruders haven't destroyed this part of the jungle yet, so the canopy protects us. There should be a stream ahead to cool off within--one too small to host much danger but large enough to refresh the swarm. The better our lead on the chasing tall intruder army the more time we will have to rest after our hard march, which is another reason why the younger Kin ride on their parents' backs.

It isn't long before I feel a light tap on my shoulder, one far gentler than before.

"Hey. Sister. I'm bored, can we talk?"

Ugh.

I blink my eyes open. She's quietly hooked in beside me, having followed Mother's wishes.

"Fine. What is it?"

She cocks her head.

"This is your first true battle, Sister. It is also the largest one the brood will have seen in years. I'm really excited, but I want to make sure you survive it. Stick with me and my friends, okay?"

My sisters have all seen battle before--especially Boundless. Mother is finally letting me come along this time and while my sister's excitement can be quite obnoxious, I will admit that on the inside I share her enthusiasm. I know that we are close to our goal; it was I last night who discovered in which direction our target lay.

I let out a huffing sigh, making my frustration known.

"Yes, Boundless. Okay. I will. But you'd better not steal my prey this time, okay?"

She bears her teeth in a smile and drapes one scythe over me in a hug of sorts.

"Great! And I would never steal one of the invaders from you, Sister! They're so fun they have to be shared, and there's more than enough for everyone!" she exuberantly exhales.

I simply stare at her. "You're right about one thing, for once. We just have to survive, Boundless. There are a lot of them."

My words of warning fall on deaf ears as she excitedly shifts.

"Don't worry, little sister! I'll keep you nice and safe! Maybe if you catch an extra you could offer it to a suitor? There's always widowers after the battles, sad as it is."

There are indeed. But action demands sacrifice.

I snort. "I told you, Boundless. I'm not ready yet. I want to grow slowly like Mother did. The males are too obsessed with mating for any of them to want to wait, so why bother?"

She looks aghast. "My mate was okay waiting! In fact, after the battle we're going to start our first clutch! You're missing out, little sister! And besides, it's a great time to do it what with all of the food that we'll have in the new hunting grounds."

I lay my head back down upon the smooth chitin and huff again.

Many days ago under Mother's command most of the brood gathered into a swarm. We had picked our lands clean until we were supped, gathered meat for the broodmothers to transport enroute, and coordinated where the nests would next be located. Overwhelming the border patrols was easy as we exploited a momentary gap in the air-movers' coverage caused by distraction skirmishes and now, we are within tall intruder-held lands.

With meals ready we made good progress in our lead, and without a Kin population to predate the local ecosystem in years prey has been plentiful along the way. Mother's hope is that with our victory here we can push the tall intruders back from these lands, lost early in the war half a decade ago. If we can win, her wisdom will have borne fruit as we reap our blood tax on the jungles and use the growth to regain momentum.

If it were not for her strength unifying the regions surrounding the incursion we would all have fallen long ago beneath their flames. With the invaders having occupied the lands of the Burnt Brood and spreading out from the charred wastelands, the Kin have done all we can to slow them down but we will seemingly never bleed them dry as they slowly grow stronger.

I feel yet another tap on my shoulder. I ignore it.

"Sister? Siiisterrr? Are you still awake?" she says.

The tapping continues. I ignore that too.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Tap tap tap tap tap-

BUCK!

I launch myself into her, shifting her greater bulk enough that she loses her grip. I open a night eye to see her brown form sliding off, hearing a thud soon after.

From behind us, an indignant yowl sounds out. The sound of scrabbling upon carapace follows soon after, and a demure Boundless murmurs to my nose.

"You're no fun these days, Sister. I'll let you sleep!"

Finally. Peace and quiet.

Sleep returns to me gradually over the sounds of another sister being tackled from Mother's back...

---

My next wake-up is far gentler. Rather than the shaking of an overexcited sister, Mother's urgent speech reaches my nose.

"We are here, daughters! Up, up! We are here, and it is time to prepare!"

Her back is soon a tumble of claws and chitin as we all scramble to the ground. Most of my shift's sisters had awoken already and were thus faster to disembark, but I lazily walk up to the back of Mother's neck first, flopping forward and giving her a hug. She curls her neck around to gaze at me before lowering her shoulder, causing me to slide from her smooth dark carapace to the ground.

Smiling, she resumes her full height before sitting back. My sisters notice and gather to listen. All around us are similar meetings taking place, and in our huddle she addresses us.

"The plan is simple," she exhales out. "The scouts have discovered a tall intruders' place; our goal. It is guarded, but the bigger air-movers are too far behind to catch us and we shall strike, my children. Without their place, they will surely abandon this part of the jungle. This will be the largest battle any of you will have taken part in and I want as many of you to survive as possible so that you may grow stronger. There will be much prey come morning and you all will earn it! Make me proud, daughters!"

My sisters begin to jump around happily; some play-brawling--unable to contain their excitement--and Boundless makes a lunge for me but I dodge out of the way. Before she can try again a large clawed hand blocks her.

Mother looks down upon me and reaches said foreclaw out to rub my head. I close my eyes and lean into her large grasp, purring and brushing my back against her.

"Curious One, you have much potential," she wisely states. "You are my favorite child and your death would sadden me. Please, return to me safe." The emotions to her scentspeech are forlorn and yet bury a hint of hope. Hope for a better future for her family.

For me.

I can't help but smile in response. "I will, Mother. I will." Opening my eyes I meet her gaze and her own tooth-filled grin.

Boundless chimes in from my side. "Don't worry, Mother! I'll keep her safe!"

Pulling back, she leaves to converse with my aunts, uncles, older sisters, and those of the other broods united under her. We may have arrived nearby but there is still much work to do. The tall intruders' place must be scouted more thoroughly, the attack must be planned, and we must await the return of the skirmishers preventing reinforcements from reaching our target. For now, everyone else without a role to fulfill yet will be resting their weary muscles in advance of this campaign's final battle.

As I had already been a scout my siblings who had not yet done so on the way here will be sneaking around and relaying what they can see to Mother and her subordinates.

Since I'm rested and without anything to do I suppose I'll go join a hunting pack.

Tonight, war comes to the jungles once more.

---

With the setting sun to our backs as we charge, the field is alight with blasts of flame and echoes with the screams and roars of combat and death. Smaller air-movers pass overhead, firing into our waves.

A tide of bleeding and burnt chitin and claws has already washed over the trench ahead, defending invaders swept up. Some were torn apart, some were subdued and captured, and some sisters could not wait and began to feed amidst the chaos. For my far older siblings, it was a matter of seconds rather than the minutes it would take me; some even able to greedily sweep up multiple prey.

One lowers his scythe to his mouth, head twisting to tug off the corpse impaled on it and quickly munching on his blood-sullied prize before vaulting the trench's side and rejoining his siblings. The swarm advances inexorably onward heedless to the death raining upon it. Soon we would reach the tall intruders' place. Soon it would be MY turn. Soon I would PROVE MY STRENGTH AND TAKE. THE SWARM HUNGERS.

Reaching the trench myself, I leap across it over a victorious sibling. In the distance a greater burning-stick turns in my direction and before I can dodge it fires, a flaming bolt bursting from its tip and thankfully missing me by a meter as it passes overhead.

From behind a scream erupts and over the stomping of claws on pounded dirt I hear another Kin crumple, their larger size having drawn the fire. Despite the danger I feel exhilarated. I feel alive! This is where I wish to be, in the heart of battle alongside my brood! Supporting my family! This is what it means to be Kin! All of my instincts scream one thing at me, over and over:

I WAS MADE FOR THIS. THIS IS THE TRUE HUNT.

Armored movers retreat from our relentless and overwhelming advance, large burning-sticks firing rapidly from atop. We will, and already have lost many, but it will all be worth it in the end. The survivors will grow stronger. There shall be more food. The tall intruders will have been dealt a blow that it will take years to recover from and we shall reign supreme over the jungles once more!

We shall heal, we shall grow stronger from war, we shall return, and they will never stop us.

This is... the best I've ever felt. I can't imagine mating holding a candle to this. Every single one of my instincts demands blood. Is this how everyone else feels right now?

Because this is euphoric.

The scent of blood--both tall intruder and Kin--permeates the field, tinged with the fear pheromones of our victims and the many different scentspeeches of the swarm, both passive and active. Who they are, health, emotions and feelings, all is conveyed.

From the first wave that I've yet to catch up to, a scent of hope and victory: "Keep going, food and glory is ours!"

From a larger and older foreign Kin that lay dead and smoldering on the ground, a garbled death rattle of pain and determination: "Continue, my family. Free our home."

From beside me, Boundless emerges as a brown form past my night eye and into view, a massive grin plastered on her face, with a scent of excitement and anticipation. "Let's go, sister! We're almost there!'

Indeed, moments later after a short sprint across rock we arrive at the final line of defense, everything else having swiftly fallen without emergency reinforcement Mother had wisely planned to delay. A large rectangular sharp-rock opening-wall bars our entrance to the structure, battered on by an aunt and uncle larger than it. From behind in the sky comes a lance of fire spearing through my elder peer, turning her insides to ash and enraging her mate as he screams his mourning back to the sky.

He sprints away from the door before turning back, gaining speed for one final ram! Boundless and I make way for him, another few siblings of my size on their own approach choosing to dodge out of the way as well. The barrier is already badly dented inward and as he smashes his shoulder into it, crunching sound audible over the chaos to all watching, he slumps to the ground with the door before ducking back behind his mate's corpse as burning-sticks fire out from within.

Glancing to us he pants hard while speaking. "Go, young ones. I will shield you from their flames. Kill our enemies. Avenge my mate. Take their strength." With his final words he crawls through the breach and we follow as his front is pelted with melting fire. He roars, and in the confined space the sound reverberates and stuns the defenders, giving us time to enter and charge their position.

The space we find ourselves within is wide and bright, sporting strange markings on the floor illuminated by harsh white lights from a ceiling supported by pillars of sharp-rock and stone. Tall intruders cower behind barricades, their tools dropped in favor of covering their large ears. Facing the door opposite the uncle is a massive burning-stick, larger than the one mounted outside that had shot past me!

All of us but our uncle scatter; rather than attempt to dodge, he deafeningly roars once more and charges the device. One arm is limp and shattered, but he raises the other, ready to reave his victims. Before he can reach it the device fires its own great lance of flame right into him, cooking his torso-plates. His charge continues for a few more stumbling steps before he collapses forward, raised foreclaw landing on a tall intruder too slow to back off and being speared through for it. All he smells of now is pain, death, and grief replaced with acceptance.

Just like that. Gone...

Behind us, Kin flood in. The room is filled with movers, some with burning-sticks and some without, few of them occupied. Tall intruders use them as cover to fire from but we just leap onto and over them. Boundless lives up to her name and is the first to arrive at the head of our pack, with I the last. By the time I round the mover the defenders are all dead, dying, or imminently envious of the former. I quickly look around only to find that the other nearby positions are also overrun, but I do spot another opening-wall. I want to charge forward, I want to earn my prey, but my caution stalls me in indecision. For a moment, I am still amidst the slaughter and after thinking hard, I make my decision.

Running for the sealed opening-wall I lunge at it. While it is made of reinforced sharp-rock it is nowhere near the size or strength of the one guarding our entrance, and it smashes inward, dent in the middle, hinges ripped free from the stone walls. Everything is tinted red and an artificial howling screech reverberates through the halls. The walls are smooth stone and sharp-rock, the floor smooth stone as well.

Ahead of me is a long corridor with many closed opening-walls on each side. Giving myself to my instincts I charge forward following the strongest scent of tall intruder fear. The halls and rooms contain many containers but few prey; what ones I spot are too far and flee too fast behind defensive emplacements set up in the halls. Had I remained with the others we could break them, but alone as I am I would only die, and not for cause like the uncle before me.

Through the fog of my bloodlust I must remember my promises to Mother and myself.

I would survive.

I would become stronger.

And I will win.

Desperately I begin to bust down opening-walls recklessly in search of prey but I find nothing. As I charge down one final sealed aperture my momentum inadvertently continues and I find myself falling! Down and down I tumble, head-over-hindclaws, banging all the way on every step. Eventually I land in a clump, stunned.

Yeouch. Less Boundless, more unnamed Curious One. I rein in my instincts and bloodlust.

Looking around I find myself in yet another room with strange things, but unlike the previous ones filled with square and rectangular containers, this one is crisscrossed with tubes running along the halls to my left and right out of the room. What is this place?

Deciding to go left, I begin exploring at a significantly more sedate pace as the distant sounds of battle echo through the halls above and down the stairs to me. As above the lights are red, but here they are soft and would be difficult to do anything other than navigate by if not for my night eyes and my main ones adjusting to the conditions. As I wander the twisting and turning halls I find myself alone and isolated from the slaughter raging above, the only reminder being the occasional earth-shattering shake and barely audible din.

Eventually I find another room like the one I entered from, one with a set of stairs leading back up. Turning into them I rise once more to ground level. Rather than simply smash in the opening-wall like I had been doing previously, I reach up and tug at its handle, tugging down on it and inadvertently releasing whatever keeps it sealed. Pulling it open, I find myself in a very different part of the structure, though still trapped in the seemingly endless alien labyrinth.

The same red light and shrieking alarm pierces my eyes and ears respectively, the white walls turned red. The floor consists of many white rectangular stones polished to a shine. Bands of red-tainted colors travel along the walls for some reason, interrupting their otherwise uniform tint of white.

Once more I'm in another of the endless halls of this place. To my left across the hall is an opening-wall of significance, with see-through something embedded in its upper half allowing sight within. Curious and hungering, I walk over to it.

Within is a strange device being worked on by a LONE TALL INTRUDER, if on the shorter side. Just like that my instincts come screaming back to me, but I do my best to suppress them. Its back is turned to me, he's all mine and I can sneak closer. This opening-wall lacks the same protrusion as the previous one, simply having a bar across it. Experimentally, I push it open, and a harsh buzzing sound echoes out in the empty hall.

My prey is bent over a panel covered in knobs, sticks, and colorful lights. To its side is a curious circular device large enough to fit even Mother. The tall intruder doesn't look up, but does begin to vocalize.

"[Good, you're done. I'm almost ready, but I need those coordinate calibrations before we can escape...]"

Entering slowly and quietly, my claws betray me as they clack on the cold floor of the far-quieter room, the aperture having closed behind me on its own and sealing away the alarm. Looking up, the tall intruder jerks and something on the machine comes to life, lights flashing, a strange hum beginning to sound out.

"[Shit! Stay back, stay back you beast!]"

Backing away from me slowly, he sends a glance at the machine, one that I cannot read. His pace picks up, and as I resume closing the distance he suddenly turns and flees!

Not if I have anything to say about it!

Now I'm sprinting and he has no chance of getting away through the strange circle to the opening-walls on the other side of the room! The weird sound steadily increases in pitch, and just as I pounce and jam my scythes into his shoulders, a bright light flashes out, engulfing everything, and all I know is pain.

Pain.

Hunger.

...

Darkness.

---

A/N:

Flashback time, to where it all begins! I originally planned for these scenes to be a prologue, but they just work so much better as an interlude here, both for the quality of the chapter and the story as a whole.

One big reason? You get to see the Kin as they are. You get to see the contrast between the protagonist you've just spent tens of thousands of words with and how she was before her weeks on Earth. You also actually finally get to learn her name: 'the Curious One.' It's not her 'real' name obviously, since you can't put what the Kin would naturally know each other as into words, and she hasn't earned a name yet. This is just her mother's nickname for her, but it's so far the only one the protagonist yet has.

Kin are simple in their names. As stated, this is her nickname, not her earned name. Nicknames are usually very simple, with earned names being a little more complicated but ultimately still simple descriptors. For example, Mother's earned name is Magmaseeker, a fact that has zero bearing on this story and its worldbuilding, as she's a character in the planned prequel. Boundless-Energy Unending-Hunter has a rather lengthy earned name, simply being referred to as Boundless.

This chapter also serves as exposition for how the Kin communicate, something lightly touched on in the past but never really thoroughly explained. Everything about the Kin serves towards acting in a wave of flesh, claws, and chitin, and this is just one more piece of that. It allows them to instantly and immediately convey information no matter what's going on, though not well over distances.

How exactly Kin scentspeech works will be elaborated on in a few chapters.

Finally: I couldn't resist the bait-and-switch tie-in to the previous chapter's ending at the beginning of this one.